Colin Thompson & Children's Destination Mural

Thompson is an award-winning Australian author and illustrator of over 50 children's books, and the illustrator of the giant mural in the Children's Destination in Borders' concept store in Ann Arbor, Mich. Borders selected Thompson for his ability to draw intricate and vibrantly colored pictures that delight adults and children alike. His books are published internationally by Random House, Hachette Livre and other publishers with a limited selection available in North America.

Borders' Mural

• Thompson specifically created for Borders the 7'x 90' mural that surrounds the new Children's Destination in Borders' Ann Arbor, Mich. concept store. The mural is visible from all areas in the store and one of the first visuals customers see as they walk in the door. Other concept stores will also feature Thompson's mural.
• Thompson created the mural by taking particular and often favorite drawings from his previous books and mixing in specific new elements exclusively for Borders. One such new element includes two Borders' store fronts nestled between the nooks and crannies of the bookshelves featured in the mural.
• There is no particular order to the images in the mural. Thompson's artwork is designed to tell a different story to each person who views it, and each person finds different meaning in his work.
• The central focus of Borders' mural is a giant castle—a whimsical place where winged and two-legged books take journeys of discovery. This is symbolic of the power of books to take readers out to the rest of the world without ever leaving home, according to Thompson. The castle picture is based on images from Thompson's 2006 book, "Castles."
• To the right of the castle is a picture of what can be described as a library-esque laboratory based on Thompson's 1995 book, "How to Live Forever." The images depict the curious things books might do if a library came to life at night when no one was watching.
• To the left of the castle is a boy reading on a mound with the sea and a huge underground cave system before him. The boy is one of Thompson's favorite drawings from his book, "Looking for Atlantis," originally published in 1993.
• Hundreds of other details, such as small creatures and animals, and stories within stories, surprise and delight customers. Thompson adds an extra personal touch to all his illustrations by including his own dog, Max, a Whippet, sitting perched in a yellow-lighted window. Borders' mural is no exception.
• The mural is three-dimensional with specific elements of the mural physically built out from the wall giving the illusion of depth to customers.

Background Information about Thompson

• Originally from England, Thompson lives with his wife in Bellingen, Australia, which is seven hours north of Sydney. He has three adult children and five grandchildren.
• He began writing and illustrating children's books in 1990. Previously, he had worked as a silk-screen printer, a graphic designer, a stage manager, and a filmmaker for the BBC. Thompson also spent 20 years working with ceramics.
• Until 2002, all Thompson's illustrations in his picture books were done on a very hard-surfaced line board called CS10 manufactured by Frisk. This allowed him to lift color off and work over something again and again without the surface breaking up.
• For fine line work in his drawings, Thompson used Rotring Technical Pens and mostly used inks that he mixed himself. For colors, he mainly used the Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens which have a range of 144 different colors. For washes and large areas of color, such as skies, he used liquid watercolors.
• Thompson has stopped drawing on paper and instead draws on an Apple Mac using a Wacom graphics tablet and Photoshop CS3. This is the technique he used to create Borders' mural.
• By using a computer, Thompson is able to correct mistakes easily, take more risks with colors and drawings, and re-work specific elements of the drawing without affecting the rest of the picture.
• He is color-blind, but all of his illustrations contain vibrant color.
• More information on Thompson can be found on his Web site, http://www.colinthompson.com/