Barbara Oliveira

More recently, I was commissioned to create illustrations for two educational books for the Mackenzie Education System, in partnership with the publisher Zastras Educação.
The first book focuses on reading skills through puzzle activities designed to teach children aged 0–2 about different types of animals; it also incorporates “listen and learn” English language activities. The second book focuses on learning about the human body, featuring illustrations, educational activities, and stickers to complete tasks that demonstrate physical actions, while also utilizing the English language. All files—including illustrations, front covers, and back covers in JPEG, PSD, and PDF formats—were delivered within a one-month timeframe for each book.

My first job as an illustrator was a tactile box toy titled “Find and Fit: Learning to Write.” With this toy, children can exercise their sense of touch, visual perception, and motor coordination by fitting the pieces together while simultaneously practicing their writing skills. In this way, the toy follows the Montessori method of self-correction. I illustrated the 16 bases and the illustrations for the tactile box, and, being my first job, it was a very big challenge at the time, as I had to juggle it with various university subjects, but it was a very rewarding project.

I also completed a second project, in which I illustrated a 3D toy titled “Tree House Montessori Forest Animals,” which aims to explore children’s creativity. This project was a bit more challenging, as I illustrated 16 characters, the roulette wheel, and the entire tree and base scenery, illustrating each piece individually since it’s a stacking toy. In this project, I was able to explore my creativity further, even while following the company’s brief, seeking to bring different characters, personalities, and colors to encourage children’s creativity.

I completed four projects for the publisher, each consisting of 10 illustrations for one book: “The Girl Who Guarded Nature”, “Amália the Tic-Tac Whale”, and “Bongo, A Special Little Elephant”, all available on the company’s website.