DESIGNED TO STAND OUT
Readers absolutely judge books by their covers... and their interior layouts, and their online presentation. In a crowded marketplace, your book deserves to look like it belongs on the front display of a bookstore.
Welcome to the Kit & Quill gallery. Below, you’ll find a curated selection of our favorite projects, from children's book illustrations to custom-typeset interiors. Every single piece of work here was built completely from scratch, combining rich creative storytelling with rigorous, retail-ready technical standards.
Take a look around and imagine what your story could look like next!
Missy Moo the Highland Coo
How We Helped: Picture Book Illustration, Book Design, Marketing, and Sales.
This project highlights Kelsey Marshalsey’s work as the author, illustrator, cover designer, and interior formatter for Missy Moo the Highland Coo, a picture book following an authentic, fluffy Highland cow. To overcome the challenge of rendering a distinct, highly expressive character despite the long hair characteristic of Highland cows, we paired bold, clean shapes with rich, digitally painted fur textures and framed the layout using custom, nature-inspired surface pattern design motifs. The project achieved major indie success—selling over 5,000 copies within 18 months and earning a Silver Moonbeam Children's Book Award—which ultimately spun off into an expanding brand featuring follow-up titles like Missy Moo and Friends (Colouring Book) and the CCBC Starred Choice board book, Peek-a-Boo Missy Moo!.
A Killing Cold
How We Helped: Book Design & Layout
We worked with author Alice Fitzpatrick on her cover design and interior formatting for A Killing Cold, an adult mystery thriller by an established author transitioning from traditional publishing to self-publishing. To maintain the high-quality look that existing readers expected from the series' previous instalments, we analyzed prior traditionally published releases to replicate typography, font metrics, and page layouts, while building a custom interior template optimized for modern Print-on-Demand (POD) mechanical tolerances. The resulting design ensured margins and gutters perfectly aligned for self-publishing printers, empowering the author to successfully launch her own independent publishing company with a professional final product that rivals big-five publishing standards.
Nonna & Nonno
How We Helped: Illustration, Book Design, Marketing Graphics
We worked with author Frank Moyo on his picture books Nonna and Nonno to bring his songs to life in page-turning, visual form, providing illustration, custom typography, book design, interior formatting, and marketing graphics across both titles. The key creative challenge was seamlessly integrating dual-language text—English and Italian—onto the same spread in a way that remained clear, engaging, and visually uncluttered for young readers. To solve this, we designed a custom, fully usable typeface specifically for the project to establish a distinct typographic hierarchy, successfully balancing both languages while capturing the heart of his music and helping drive significant media attention through Frank’s promotional efforts.
Butterflies Strong and Free
How We Helped: Project Management, Illustration (Freelancer), Book Design, Logistics, Marketing
We worked with author Bethany Friend on her children’s book Butterflies Strong and Free, managing the project end-to-end through full book design, interior formatting, marketing graphics, and publishing logistics, while also sourcing and directing freelance illustrator Megan Lewis. The key focus was ensuring a seamless, cohesive creative pipeline, balancing complex project management with artistic direction to translate the book's inspiring message into a beautifully polished final product. By overseeing every stage—from initial concept to printing and distribution—we delivered a visually captivating picture book ready for market, allowing the author to bring her vision to life with complete structural and design consistency.
