JVDesignStudio JVDesignStudio
📖 ✏️ 💡 🗺️ ⭐
✦ JVDesignStudio · In Development

What's Coming Next

A live look at the stories in development from early ideas and first drafts to finishing touches. Follow along and see how books are made from the inside.

6Projects Tracked
2In Active Writing
1Almost Ready
∞Ideas in the Jar
✦ Projects in Development

Stories taking shape 📝

Each card shows where a book currently sits in the process from a spark of an idea to a finished manuscript ready for the world.

🦎
✅ Finishing Up
Echo and the Mountain of Choices
Picture Book · Ages 5–8
An axolotl named Echo climbs a mountain of choices, learning that resilience means trying a new way when the first path fails. Full manuscript complete now in illustration/design phase.
Manuscript100%
Illustration40%
Resilience Axolotl Adventure View Page →
🌱
✍️ Writing
Untitled The Seed That Waited
Picture Book · Ages 4–7
A tiny seed buried in winter learns patience as the seasons change around it. A gentle story about waiting, trust, and the courage to grow when the time is right.
Manuscript55%
Illustration0%
Patience Nature Seasons
🦊
✍️ Writing
The Fox Who Forgot How to Play
Picture Book · Ages 5–8
A very busy, very serious fox slowly remembers what it means to be silly. A warm story about rest, play, and letting yourself just be a bit ridiculous sometimes.
Manuscript30%
Illustration0%
Play Rest Fox
🌙
💭 Early Idea
Where Do Worries Go at Night?
Picture Book · Ages 4–7
A bedtime book that gently explores nighttime anxiety following a small worry as it dissolves into something soft and manageable by morning light.
Manuscript10%
Illustration0%
Bedtime Anxiety Emotions
🦀
💭 Early Idea
The Crab Who Couldn't Let Go
Picture Book · Ages 5–9
A stubborn little crab holds on to an old shell long after he's outgrown it. A funny and tender story about change, letting go, and finding out the new thing fits even better.
Manuscript5%
Illustration0%
Change Letting Go Ocean
❓
💭 Secret Project
Something New is Brewing…
TBD · Watch This Space
There's a story idea that's been rattling around for a while too early to share details but too exciting to leave off the list. Follow on Instagram for the first hints when the time is right.
Manuscript???
Mystery Coming Soon
✦ Dev Log

Behind the scenes 🗒️

A running log of what's happening in the studio drafts, decisions, discoveries, and the honest messiness of making books.

🎉 Milestone March 2026
Echo's Fruit Catch! browser game live 🦎
A free browser game for ages 3–8 featuring Echo the axolotl is now live. Catch falling fruit, dodge rocks, tilt your phone to move. Built in canvas with full sound design and tilt controls. The game over screen adapts its message to your score, which young children seem to love.
🦎 Echo's Fruit Catch!
🎉 Milestone March 2026
VoidRush rebuilt and launched as a proper web game 🚀
VoidRush was completely rebuilt from the ground up — three lanes, a fuel survival mechanic, neon cyberpunk aesthetic, and a void creature made of bezier-curve tentacles and blinking magenta eyes that hunts you harder the lower your fuel gets. Full sound design, screen shake, score pops, and a proper site wrapper to match the rest of the studio.
🚀 VoidRush
🎉 Milestone February 2026
Echo manuscript complete!
All 32 pages of Echo and the Mountain of Choices are written, refined, and ready. The repeating refrains landed exactly right "Try a small try, then try once more" feels like it belongs to the book now, not like it was added in. Now into illustration planning.
🦎 Echo and the Mountain of Choices
✍️ Writing January 2026
Started The Seed That Waited
About halfway through the first draft. The voice is very different from Echo quieter, slower, more patient. Which makes sense given what it's about. Still figuring out how to make winter feel cosy rather than sad.
🌱 The Seed That Waited
✍️ Writing December 2025
The Fox Who Forgot How to Play first scenes
This one started as a joke in my notes and now it's a real thing. The fox is incredibly fun to write very serious, very busy, mildly offended by everything. The challenge is making sure the humour lands without undermining the emotional core.
🦊 The Fox Who Forgot How to Play
🎨 Design November 2025
Echo colour palette locked in
Settled on misty mountain blues and soft lavender for Echo's world, with warm gold reserved for the triumphant peak sequence. Echo herself stays pink-gilled throughout her colour doesn't change, but the world around her does as she climbs higher.
🦎 Echo and the Mountain of Choices
💡 Idea October 2025
New concept: Where Do Worries Go at Night?
This idea came from a conversation about why bedtime is so hard for anxious kids. The core image is a worry that follows a child to bed but when it reaches the pillow, it just… softens. Still very early. Might be something, might be nothing. Keeping it warm.
🌙 Where Do Worries Go at Night?
🎉 Milestone September 2025
Echo: first full draft finished
32 pages, two characters, one mountain. The refrains took the most work finding lines that could repeat without feeling repetitive, and that children could actually remember and carry with them. Very happy with how they landed.
🦎 Echo and the Mountain of Choices

Don't miss what's coming next

Every new launch, dev log update, and behind-the-scenes moment goes to Instagram first. Come follow along and be part of how these books come to life.