My son Oliver is very particular about the color of the nightlight before he goes to sleep. He wants it to be green at all times because shades of green make him feel calm and safe. If the nightlight isn’t plugged in, it changes color to red indicating low charge. Oliver is afraid of red. Red makes him think of monsters gathering around the bed.

He doesn’t like white either because white makes the room feel restlessly light. Same as yellow that reminds him of a sunrise that feels just as unnatural at bedtime hour. Blue makes the room feel cold and purple is a color that is just not pink enough. That’s why Oliver sticks to green. Green just makes the most sense.

When my friend Yasmine and I decided to open Coloropolis shop, I didn’t think much of Oliver’s nightlight preferences. I was very excited to finally make it to the point of my life where stars aligned to explore the world of coloring book design. Something I thought about doing numerous times during my career, but never really had the space.

The first time I thought about it was over a decade ago when Johanna Basford’s work started taking bookstores by storm as well as hearts of many adults who love complex coloring. I had so much fun with “Secret Garden” that I thought, one day, I’d make something special of my own. For adults, for kids, for in between. In bold lines. In colorful lines. Or maybe both.

Then work came in waves that crushed on me continuously, removing the space to think about these things. Until I decided to transition to illustration and developed my style that’s all about bold dudes supported by bold strokes. Clean strokes. Colorful ones.

Quite a few people asked me if I thought about making coloring books when they first saw my work. The question that always made me genuinely happy but I still didn’t have space to answer.

I started thinking that coloring things might be my fate after all when I joined Padlet. There, I developed an illustration style inspired by coloring book aesthetics. Not too different from what I was doing before in terms of structure, but more enjoyable for adults and kids alike. At that point, I knew I could design fun coloring activities, but work and parenthood combined were demanding enough to not have the time.

Until I made the time. I wrote earlier about how I started this year by leaving my full-time role at Padlet to apply my illustration skills in child development and education areas. When I made that decision I didn’t immediately think of coloring books. It was my friend Yasmine who reminded me of it when she proposed to open an online shop together where we could design and sell digital products.

I loved the idea because I have always wanted to have a little something of my own outside commission work and full-time jobs. I loved the idea of working with Yasmine even more because she is the friend who inspires me to grow and completes me in all the beautiful ways.

But what I loved most of all is how this adventure aligns with my desire to contribute to creative development of children, adults and everyone in between. How we can create something playful and inspiring and quality at the same time. How we can build a community around it. And how we can possibly make someone’s day brighter by showing how limitless coloring really is.

Be it for kids like Oliver who sense color moods instinctively and can get wildly creative with crayons. Or be it for adults who want to relax and express themselves without having to make something from scratch. As an illustrator, I do understand how terrifying and exhausting a blank page can feel.

Coloropolis is a young shop: we opened less than a month ago. There’s a lot of groundwork still in progress as we’re setting up the processes and learning along the way. But I’m very excited about this journey. Everything that we’ve been doing so far feels good. I might not yet see exactly how the future of Coloropolis will look like, but I also don’t need to know because what I do know is that I am looking in the right direction.

Doing something beautiful and consistently every day. Building our coloring page library stroke by stroke. Having fun with Oliver along the way as he feels included and excited about this journey with us. Receiving feedback when other kids and adults get to color our products. Coloring the pages ourselves and recording the process.

I love it all.