The initial idea was to create a mostly-typographic artwork geared towards adults, but something funny happened along the way …
After the project began, we have noticed how young children had reacted quite positively to it, despite it being designed first for adults.
We carefully watched them and took note of what parts and features they liked most, and over the past 5 years we have carefully edited it, adjusting the design accordingly in a way that would appeal to both adults and children. Starting first with our own kids.
It was at home that a stunning insight was discovered.
From about the age of 18 months, each of our kids who had gotten used to seeing the latest draft in our home, was able to point to some important events, especially those that were in bigger type or imagery.
I noticed that they were gradually building a visual map of the entire Seerah from a very young age.
We also noticed their love of stories about children, so we made sure to add several touching incidents of the Prophet’s (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallim) interactions with kids as these beautiful stories give us great insight to how he was able to touch the hearts of the youth around him and forever change them into people of love and high ambition.
But what about older kids?
Besides being appealing to toddlers we also tested the artwork with older children who can read fluently and, alhamdulillah, we have found that they tend to become immediately captivated by it, often times browsing through the contents completely engrossed for half an hour or more, infatuated by the interplay of various fonts and images, recalling and mapping connections of lessons they had heard previously.
The hope now is that this will be an artwork that your child can grow with, from their birth until they leave your home so that when they are ready to enter the world as adults, they would have had years with this artwork providing them a visual framework on how to live their life as the Prophet (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallim) would love for them to. …