The challenge

The Restaurant Group (TRG) is an umbrella company for a number of national restaurant chains, including Frankie & Benny’s, Garfunkel’s, Chiquito, Wagamama and others.

Themed puzzle books are produced to hand out to kids eating at their restaurants. Each book contains puzzles, games and activities for both younger and older kids.

The challenge was to invent fun, engaging and educational puzzles and games around the central theme of each book, then illustrate and layout the pages. The key characters of Leon the Lion, Georgia the Giraffe, Manilla the Monkey and Sydney the Snake would feature throughout. 

The solution

Research around each theme would be the starting point for the books. Traditional activities such as ‘colour-in’, ‘word-search’ and ‘spot the difference’ would often be included. However, these needed to be adapted to suit the theme.

Other activities such as making toys, preparing fun recipes, growing things etc, encouraged kids to take the book home. Informative ‘pop-up’ facts would also be included to add extra educational interest.

For this project, a ‘Treasure Island’ board game was also required which I conceived, designed and produced artwork for.