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How Real Life Inspired A Sequel To A Popular Augmented Reality Children’s Book

By Kyle Beckett
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Project Brief

The success of Apollo the Spacedog, an augmented reality children’s book from the Sylvamo Corporation and Accent® Opaque as part of an all-ages literacy program, sparked the notion of a sequel to the first adventure, but the challenge was unlocking where the story should go. Sylvamo — formerly International Paper — wanted to again harness the potential of augmented reality in print to create a more interactive narrative that nurtures an imagination, but where the next chapter could take Andi and Apollo in a way that truly delighted readers wasn’t entirely clear.

A real-life — and somewhat fortuitous — occurrence of a wild moose finding its way into one of Sylvamo’s paper mills proved to be just the flash of inspiration for a compelling addition to the Andi and Apollo saga. 

Solution

In Apollo and the Mill Moose, Andi and Apollo set off on a camping trip when they hear a radio dispatch that a moose named Milton has been safely relocated from an area paper mill to its home in the forest. Upon arriving at their campsite, Andi’s signature imagination takes flight via an encounter with Milton, and the three characters traverse the forest in search of the best spot to view the planets and stars through a telescope come nightfall.  

Inspired by the true events of a moose actually infiltrating Sylvamo’s Ticonderoga Mill in Upstate New York, the book featured the distinctive, playful work of returning illustrator Kyle Beckett, alongside AR integrations that helped the story unfold in a more immersive way. 

Printed on the Canon ColorStream 6000 series web-fed inkjet press ( pages) and the Canon imagePRESS C10010VP cutsheet color press (cover), the outstanding print quality helped produce crisp, clear AR markers throughout the book. 

The pages, printed on Accent Opaque 80 lb. Text Super Smooth with ImageLok® Technology, allowed the color quality of Beckett’s illustrations to take center stage — and the same is true for the cover of Apollo and the Mill Moose, which was printed on Accent Opaque 100 lb. Cover Super Smooth. 

What’s more, Sylvamo’s dedication to fostering sustainably harvested forests and paper manufacturing processes helped put themes of forest conservation and environmental responsibility at the core of Apollo and the Mill Moose to help educate readers on the importance of preserving the beauty of the natural world. 

 

Have you used augmented reality in print? Or, have you designed a project for inkjet that takes interactivity to a whole new level? We want to showcase it. Send us your best work and we’ll feature it in a future Dots & Pixels Project Spotlight.