In the spring of 2025, our first interactive children's e-books related to environmental protection will be available in the App Store. The project is part-financed by the EU.
Interactive e-books have a touch of magic. An app can enliven narration with animation. Interactive elements invite the viewer to physically participate in the story. For example, tickling a small seal on the screen can make it squirm and giggle.
Illustrator Maria Vilja, animator Anna Lahti, and digital artist Katriina Ilmaranta participated in the project. The team wanted to make complex technology more approachable, which was possible thanks to new digital design tools. It is fortunate that the software has developed in a direction where coding does not necessarily play the main part in the process.
As the technology related to digital productions becomes more flexible, artists can focus on what is essential: art and creation. Thus, no-code approaches and global distribution platforms are great opportunities for small production companies or individual artists.
Our pilot included parts of two separate book series. Now, the goal is to publish the first e-book from both of them in 2025. The themes of both book series are friendship, humor, and environmental issues.
In our e-books, we discuss complex environmental issues with gentleness and humor and in a way that a child can understand, even if the question is about a topic where it is sometimes difficult to give good answers.
Sissy Seal (Hellä Hylje) is a story about the seal duo Sissy (Hellä) and Nicholas (Niilo). Sissy is old beyond her years, while Nicholas, on the other hand, is childish and always in trouble. Together, they ponder the issues and phenomena of the Baltic Sea with their unique "seal logic."
The Tuisku series, on the other hand, begins with the red-haired girl Olivia finding a polar bear hiding in the ice cream tub at the supermarket. After the snow had melted in the north, it became too hot for the bear, so it drifted south, ending up in the first cold place it found.
Overall, the project marked a giant leap for our company and brought artistic and technological know-how capital. With the EU funding, we could initiate the development of a product intended for the international market.
We will initially publish in Finnish, Swedish, and English. The technology and implementation method we have chosen enables wide distribution. In addition to EU funding, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and Finnish Nature Conservation Foundation have supported the project.
