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SwimaSaurus is a children’s swimming school where learning to swim becomes part of a playful story world.
After creating the brand identity and mascot system, I continued developing the SwimaSaurus universe through a series of illustrated children’s books. Each story follows Dot, Flo, and their friends on Bluestone Island, helping young children explore water confidence, swimming skills, and safety through gentle adventures.
The goal was to create books that feel warm, friendly, and magical, while still supporting the school’s educational programme. Instead of teaching swimming skills in a strict or technical way, the stories introduce them through characters, emotions, repetition, and play.
deliverables/
client/
children’s book illustration
character illustration
book cover design
print-ready artwork
visual storytelling
SwimaSaurus
The book series was designed around the idea that learning to swim can feel like entering a little world.
We built the stories around Bluestone Island, a magical map-based world where each book takes place in a new location. This structure makes the learning journey feel more interactive and exciting, as children follow Dot and Flo from one place to another, discovering new swimming skills along the way.
Each book introduces a new swimming skill or water-safety idea through a simple adventure. Dot, the pink axolotl, becomes the child’s emotional guide: curious, sometimes unsure, but always ready to try again with the help of her friends.
This allowed the educational content to feel softer and more memorable for young children. Instead of presenting swimming as a set of instructions, the books turn each skill into a small moment of discovery.
Flo is the SwimaSaurus and the guide of the series. She is warm, playful, and reassuring, helping children feel safe as they discover the water.
Through Flo, each swimming skill becomes less like a strict lesson and more like a game, a song, or a small adventure.
Dot is a little pink axolotl and the main learner in the story. She can be shy, unsure, and sometimes nervous, but she is also curious, kind, and willing to try again.
Her journey helps children recognise their own fears, small steps, and moments of confidence as they learn to swim.
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Stella Starfish introduces the star float. Calm, gentle, and a little magical, she shows Dot how floating can help children feel safe and relaxed in the water.
Her lesson turns an important water-safety skill into something soft, memorable, and easy to understand.
The Giggly Groats are three playful tree creatures who are full of energy on land, but become calm and still in the water.
They help Dot discover the pencil float, showing children that swimming skills can be learned through laughter, rhythm, and play.
The result is a warm and cohesive illustrated book series that extends the SwimaSaurus brand beyond the swimming pool.
The books help children connect with swimming through story, characters, and emotion. They support the school’s teaching approach while giving families something playful and memorable to take home.
For me, this project shows how illustration can become more than decoration. It can help build confidence, explain new skills, and turn learning into a world children want to return to.
