Just Published | »Du hast das Wort, Schätzchen!« – Iris Luckhaus

I’m happy to announce that Rita Mielke’s book »Du hast das Wort, Schätzchen!« (»You have the word, darling!«) with 100 stories around the German language, which I recently illustrated for Duden Verlag, is finally available in bookstores!! Also, my specimens have arrived, and they look – and smell! – absolutely awesome!

Duden Verlag is famous for their dictionary of the German language, the »Duden«, as the predominant resource for German orthography, but also publishes other books with language-related topics. For Rita Mielke’s »Du hast das Wort, Schätzchen!«, which tells 100 exciting – and often surprising! – stories around the German language in a smart, warm and humorous way, I worked in a new, bichrome and simplified style, to resemble book illustrations of the Sixties.

First of all, I developed a fresh Sixties style for illustrations, graphics and design, plus the character of the “little lady”, who leads through the book. Based on this, I illustrated 12 of the 100 stories, a small vignette for the titling, 6 simple elements for the different chapters of the book and also its cover (graphics/bubble: Groothuis).

I am very happy how beautifully Selina Bauer (layout) and Sigrid Hecker (typeset) have realised this whole book!

»This lovingly illustrated book presents 100 exciting questions on the subject of language – and provides informative, surprising and sometimes quirky answers. The spectrum ranges from etymology, speech, language phenomena and language rules to the evolution of language. You get to know who invented the question tag, what “Tabu” and “Kanake” have in common or why the British don’t use a “Beamer”. Let yourself get charmed by the German language!«