2017 was a huge year for me in terms of creativity and innovation in the products I got out the door. All of these are different super high quality personalised picture books of the kind we make at Wonderbly. I did a little Twitter thread on what went out the door and thought I'd preserve it here too.
P.S - I also wrote an extensive four part series on a major project that didn't ship this year called VoiceBook. Read that here.
Thought I'd do a little 2017 'what shipped' thread. This year was hugely rewarding for me creatively and I got to work with some brilliant, inspiring people to launch a set of products @WonderblyHQ that I think are the best things I've ever put out there. Here's what we did: 1/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
In January 2017 we shipped Fantastic Firsts, a super cute way to celebrate the special moments in a child's first year. This was @heartzeena's project and was the tail end of a strategy around extending the Lost My Name world through non-book products https://t.co/qJmxaXxZuZ 2/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
Then, in March 2017 we shipped Kingdom of You, a stunningly complex book built around a child's favourite things. This was very much @marijatiurina's book and her incredible, detailed illustrations made this product soar: https://t.co/IA6ztAmFb0 3/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
Later in March we shipped Lost My Name into its 12th Language - Japanese - https://t.co/wQi44y4gI7 4/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
In May 2017 we shipped a book with a complex production history, The Birthday Thief. Several artists and writers have all worked on this project, but the simplicity of the story still shines though - growing up well is about how you spend *every* day https://t.co/7jK5tho2By 5/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
In June we added more countries and languages to The Journey Home - French, including Quebec region and German. This was hugely complex because of the book's tricky geographic content. Also, did you know, there's no clear word for 'home' in French! https://t.co/RnOUYOyS8u 6/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
In July we launched a personal favourite, A Letter for the Littlest Bear. This is very much @JGAttenborough's book. It's a delightfully simple story with lots of behind the scenes complexity - new UI, new renderer, new physical design spec (a flap!). https://t.co/YR2W4jlBHD 7/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
At the end of August we shipped our biggest release of the year, My Golden Ticket, our first ever collaboration, and with an incredible partner - @roald_dahl. This book is packed full of everything we've learned about personalised story telling so far https://t.co/6f0pA0w5ny 8/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
We then found time to squeeze in two more international releases in September, French and German versions of The Birthday Thief https://t.co/X9fdNm1hZG 9/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
Finally, we topped off the year with our first ever seasonal release, The Christmas Snowflake, and our most traditional illustration style to date. We included a beautiful novelty element, a tree decoration, just to add more Q4 peak complexity! https://t.co/I5ODG7ocbz 10/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017
It was also an incredible year of learning and development for me personally. We did a lot of things for the first time within the portfolio and made huge progress in terms of our NPD discipline and culture of shipping. Can't wait to show you what's launching in 2018! 🚢 11/11
— Nick Marsh (@choosenick) December 29, 2017