Jeunanne Alkins: Bringing Her Stories to Life

Jeunanne Alkins, a former creative director for Maco magazine, has carved out a unique niche in children's literature and intellectual property development. After leaving magazine publishing, she launched Everything Slight Pepper, a design studio focused on branding and packaging. Alkins's approach has always centered on storytelling to inform her design work.

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You’re competing with shorter attention spans, overstimulation from screen time and bigger-budget imported characters that they already know.

However, she admits that writing for children presents distinct challenges. "You're competing with shorter attention spans, overstimulation from screen time and bigger-budget imported characters that they already know," Alkins told Her Magazine. To overcome this, her books often incorporate a "live experience" component, with interactive exhibitions, digital games, animation, and workshops planned alongside the story concepts.

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I have been building globally scalable children’s IP, so when I conceptualise, it is a story world that lives across several media.

Alkins's pivot towards edutainment was influenced by her work with clients like Machel Montano, for whom she designed branding for his 3ZERO campaigns and his children's book, "Boy Boy and the Drum." She also collaborated with the UWI Seismic Research Centre, translating complex science communication into outreach campaigns about natural disasters for schools and communities.

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With each idea, I have already mapped out the interactive exhibition, digital games, animation and workshops for the hands-on experience before we even dive into the nitty-gritty of any story.

These experiences inspired her first children's project, "HATCH!," which focuses on leatherback turtles. Alkins was surprised by the lack of awareness among Trinidadians about these creatures, despite Trinidad and Tobago being a major nesting region. She initially began by illustrating the north coast, aiming for a muted beach palette not often seen in books. Her intention was to storyboard and annotate the concept for others to write and illustrate, but she ended up writing and illustrating the entire book herself, from the hatchling's perspective, using dynamic fonts to convey action and guide reading.

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With both of these clients I saw how I could use my design and communication skills to craft messaging that would resonate with young audiences.