Award winning author and illustrator Marc Martin has lent his talents to inspiring this year's young readers and illustrators by designing the poster for the 2017 Premiers' Reading Challenge.
Melbourne-based Martin is the author and illustrator of award-winning books including,
A Forest, The Curious Explorers Illustrated Guide to Exotic Animals A-Z, Max, A River and
LOTS, his work is a world of dense colour, rich textures and the odd scribble.
'When I was designing the poster, I really wanted to show people that reading can take you on a journey. The idea of a river, flowing through the jungle is a really nice metaphor for that, because as we travel along through books we see all sorts of things,' said Marc.
'I chose a jungle theme for the poster because I'm really inspired by nature and I love being able to hide a lot of different elements for everyone to find.
'It's my way of saying the world isn't a scary place, it's an exciting place to explore and books are an entry point to this discovery.'
Formerly a graphic designer, Marc uses the skills developed from those years in an office in his picture books, trying to be as creative as possible. This year's poster hopes to inspire a generation of readers to imagine places all over the world and themselves too as authors, illustrators and creatives.
'Books are a great way to discover the world. You can get lost in a book and they can take you to another place.'
'They encourage imagination, they make you laugh and they can make you cry. My most recent is called
LOTS, and it's about lots of things and lots of places around the world. It's a book about everything and everywhere.
'I like the idea of being able to take people on a journey and show people the world… it's just my way of encouraging curiosity, adventure and inquisitiveness.'
'Growing up I really liked all the classic picture books. Things like Maurice Sendak with
Where the Wild Things Are, and Australian author-illustrator Graeme Base. I really loved
Animalia and
TheEleventhHour.'
Every primary and P-12 school in Victoria was sent Marc's poster, alongside a letter for the Premier, announcing the commencement of this year's reading challenge.
For more information about this year's challenge, see:
Premiers' Reading Challenge