The Making of The A–Z of Cool Cars
From Doom-Scrolling to Publishing a Children's Book.
How a passing thought became an illustrated children's alphabet book, and a reminder of why I love creative work.
Have you ever seen something someone's made and thought, "How on earth are they selling that? I could do better!"
That happened to me while doom-scrolling one evening.
An ad popped up for a children's alphabet book. I looked at it, judged it rather harshly, decided I could do better…
And kept scrolling.
About five minutes later, it dawned on me. I was quick to criticise someone else's work, but where was my version?
Who was I to judge?
There was really only one way to find out.
I put my phone down, got up and started writing and sketching.
26 letters. 26 cool cars. How hard could it be?
Quite hard, actually.
Turning an idea into an illustrated children's book
The concept was simple: create an alphabet book for children aged 3–6 that combined early reading skills with interesting cars.
Rather than another generic A–Z book, I wanted something with personality. Something that introduced young readers to letters, words and sounds through cars that were genuinely interesting to look at.
From classic sports cars and rally legends to everyday automotive icons, each letter would introduce a different vehicle.
But the book needed to be more than a collection of car illustrations.
It had to work as an early learning resource, with simple sentences, familiar words and phonics activities designed to help young children recognise letters and begin reading.
And it had to be fun.
For the kids, obviously. But perhaps a little for the dads, too.
Writing, illustrating and designing The A–Z of Cool Cars
Once I'd written the first few pages, I started thinking about how the book should look.
I didn't want perfectly polished digital illustrations. I wanted something that felt handmade, playful and full of character.
The illustrations evolved into a mix of loose, hand-drawn car sketches, photography, painted textures, and paper collage.
Each page became its own little design project.
I sketched, photographed, cut, pasted, illustrated, experimented with typography, and tried to find the right balance between the cars, the letters, and the words.
And then there was the rewriting.
Writing simple sentences for children learning to read is surprisingly difficult. Every word needs to earn its place, and the language needs to be accessible without becoming boring.
I rewrote sentences, redrew illustrations, adjusted layouts and reconsidered more than a few decisions along the way.
What started as a quick idea had become a complete children's book design and illustration project.
From graphic design to self-publishing
Finishing the artwork was only part of the job.
I also needed to turn everything into a book people could actually buy.
That meant handling the practical side of independent publishing: page layouts, cover design, print specifications, digital formats, file preparation, and distribution.
I created a digital edition for Apple Books, a printed edition, and a separate colouring book version.
Each format brought its own challenges.
A children's book that looks great on a printed page also needs to work on an iPad. The typography needs to remain readable, the illustrations need to display correctly, and the whole experience needs to feel considered.
It was a useful reminder that good design doesn't finish when something looks right on screen. It needs to work wherever people encounter it.
Creating an AI avatar to promote the book
Once the book was finished, I had another question.
How do I promote it without standing in front of a camera?
The answer was to create an AI avatar and put him in a cool garage with a Porsche 924, a few of my car posters on the walls, and an iPad displaying the book.
Then I brought him to life with AI video tools, gave him a voice, and turned the whole thing into a short promotional video for The A–Z of Cool Cars.
It was another chance to experiment with photography, art direction, imagery, animation, and video production.
And like the book itself, it reminded me that access to clever tools is one thing. Knowing what you want to create with them is another.
The result is a little advertisement that combines my love of cars, design and storytelling, without me having to appear on camera.
Making a children's book reminded me of creative work.
I've spent more than 30 years working across graphic design, publishing, photography and digital content.
But there's something particularly satisfying about taking an idea from absolutely nothing to a finished product.
The process isn't always tidy. You make mistakes, change direction, throw things away and occasionally wonder why you started.
But that's also what makes it interesting.
For me, The A–Z of Cool Cars brought together many of the things I enjoy most: writing, illustration, typography, photography, storytelling and design.
It also reminded me why I like working on projects that involve more than one creative discipline.
A good idea rarely stays neatly inside one category.
