The text unfolds as the protagonists tour the wonders of Willy Wonka’s factory. To activate this journey, we created artifacts from key moments. These include a blueprint charting the pipes that sucked up Augustus Gloop, a crumpled candy wrapper, the door hanger for the Nut Room, a Hair Toffee pull-tab card, sheet music with an original composition, and of course, a golden ticket.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: A Very Special Edition
For generations, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has delighted children and adults alike with its wit and whimsy. We wanted to bring its multilayered story alive in a way that would engage all the senses for today’s audiences. This very special immersive edition features nine original pieces of ephemera tucked throughout the pages as well as handwritten notes and drawings in the margins. Our goal was to create a package that would invite you to follow in Wonka’s footsteps and let your imagination run amok.
Souvenirs of Your Journey
Someone’s Been Doodling
Wait a second, someone must have had this copy before you: There are notes and doodles sprinkled in the margins—rendered in an audacious purple ink. You soon realize these were left behind by none other than Willy Wonka himself. They offer glimpses into the way his marvelous mind works—his process, his ideas, his creations, his genius.
A Dimensional Package
When devising the exterior, we wanted to evoke that sense of anticipation one has when opening a box of chocolates. Covering the slipcase is a pattern of candy icons printed and debossed in a way that seems three-dimensional. Then you pull the hardcover out from underneath to reveal a stunning mise-en-abyme cover illustration that draws you further in.
Synesthetic Design
Wonka’s elevator “can go sideways and longways and slantways.” When figuring out how to lay out this iconic text on the page, we opted to step outside the grid at selected spots to emphasize action, humor, or just the slantways mind of Wonka. A few examples: a sentence follows a circuitous path, the passage in the tunnel drops out of a dark background, and the ornaments in Violet’s chapter turn violet.
Intricate Illustrations
Past editions have featured the work of some of the greatest children’s-book illustrators of our time, most notably Quentin Blake. So it was a tall order to tackle illustrating the story anew. We brought on someone who had never done a children’s book before but who had a sensibility as daring and irreverent as Dahl’s. Working mostly by hand in a style that relies often on hatching, layering, and dreamy color washes, Armando Veve made images in which the action often plays out in both the foreground and background.
