ABD AKAN ALPHABET BOOK
Designing a cultural learning experience and story-led interaction for early readers.
TODAY, I BECAME AN AUTHOR.
On this momentous day of my creative journey, I am thrilled to announce the release of my new book, "Kofi and Ama ABD Akan Twi Alphabet." This creation marks the beginning of a series that aims to go beyond just one language or product. It is a project that has been close to my heart, as I firmly believe in the significance of preserving one's culture.
Kofi & Ama is a bilingual children's book designed to introduce young readers to the Ghanaian language Twi through storytelling. The objective was simple: make cultural learning accessible, joyful, and intuitive for early readers — particularly children in the diaspora. This project combined storytelling, visual design, and educational structure into a cohesive learning experience.
“Language is a gateway to one’s language”
The Adventure Begin
Kofi and Ama are two curious kids on their first exciting adventure around Africa and beyond, Exploring language, culture and more while having fun along the way.
The Context
As a Ghanaian creative working in digital product design, I wanted to create a tangible educational resource that preserved cultural language, made learning engaging, and provided a visual-first learning structure.
Many early-language learning materials are purely instructional. This needed to feel narrative-led, reducing intimidation around language acquisition.
The Core Problem
Language education for children often feels academic rather than playful. It lacks depth in visual storytelling, doesn't reflect the nuances of diasporic culture, and separates learning from emotional engagement.
The opportunity was to design learning as a story.
Note: No AI was used in the making of these illustrations.
WHAT’S IN EACH BOOK.
A word for each letter is excellent for any child's first word or entry-level.
Unique illustrations bursting with life to go with each word.
Easy to use English phonics to pronounce word
01 Story-Led Learning
Rather than presenting vocabulary as isolated words, Twi phrases were embedded naturally within the story context.
Created meaning through narrative context
Enabled emotional memory reinforcement
Reduced cognitive friction for young readers
03 Layout & Educational Structure
Each page balanced story progression, Twi language integration, visual reinforcement, and a clean hierarchy. Typography and spacing were intentionally simple to reduce visual overload, aiming for intuitive navigation for both child and parent.
02 Character & Visual Identity
I developed Kofi & Ama as relatable characters to represent cultural authenticity, encourage emotional connection, and create a recurring narrative identity. Visual clarity was prioritised to support early-reader comprehension.
04 Production & Execution
Beyond storytelling and design, I managed file preparation for publishing, print-ready formatting, distribution setup, and quality control. This required attention to technical publishing constraints as well as creative execution.
AMAZON #1 BESTSELLER
I managed to make Amazon's No.1 Bestsellers list within the first week of sales, in the category of ‘Children’s Books on Customs, Traditions and Anthropology. Yay!
WEB DESIGN
Landing page to promote and generate sales for the book. This was part of the sale funnel strategy
SOCIAL MEDIA ASSETS
Fun and Educative social media posts that can be found @ekapxl on instgram
Why This Matters
At its core, design is about Clarity. Structure. Narrative. Emotion. Understanding users — even when those users are children.
This project reflects my ability to translate complex cultural ideas into accessible, intuitive experiences. Great systems are not just functional — they are human.
Core Competencies Demonstrated
Story-driven design thinking
Cross-disciplinary execution
Cultural literacy integration
Experience design beyond screens
End-to-end ownership