Our readers know I am a sucker for a good, green story and I have a great one to share with you today. I know Allison as owner of Rogue Element, one of Chicago’s top green design companies. She is also a fellow member of Green America Business Network and the Chicago Sustainable Business Alliance.

This interview, however, is focused on her new company called Squishy Press and the unique product line she and her husband Rob, just introduced at the Green America Green Festival held in Chicago last weekend.

DS: Allison, please tell our readers about Squishy Press and how you and Rob came up with this great idea.

AM: For years we’d been thinking that we should come up with some sort of retail product to sell that Rogue Element would design. Many designers make greeting cards, wrapping paper, gift tags, and the like to try something new and stretch their creative chops. But we could never think of anything to make that really combined our love of design and sustainability. We even had a section of our website up for a long time that kept saying “products coming soon” that we eventually took down!

Then in 2008 we had our son. As babies tend to do, he put everything in his mouth. We were able to find safe diapers, organic clothing, even nontoxic carpet . . . but not books. And what parent doesn’t want their child to have books? As he chewed on them, we were dismayed at how he would ingest the foils and laminates. We were talking one day in our kitchen about how we knew that the printing industry didn’t always use the safest materials. Then Rob looked at me and said, “We’re designers. We should design our own books!” And Squishy Press was born.

Design-wise, we knew we wanted to improve upon some of the picture books we’d seen, since many of them have terrible photography and illustrations. So we contacted our talented photographer friend Steven Gross to see if he wanted to work with us. We then engaged a printer that could deliver the greenest product possible. We even spoke with the ink and paper manufacturers directly about their processes and products so we could make informed choices.

DS: Tell us what you discovered about where and how baby books are made and how yours are different.

AM: It’s hard to truly discover how most baby books are made, since they are all printed overseas. We actually couldn’t find one printed in the USA. Some claimed to be nontoxic, but when we tried to find out how or why, there was no information available to back up those claims. Many print on recycled paper, and that’s a start, but the positives of that choice get negated if the coatings, inks, and glues are unsafe. Additionally, the shipping of books over great distances hardly helps the carbon footprint.

In February 2009 all toys sold in the United States were required to meet the safety requirements of ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). But children’s books are exempt. We sent our books to an independent laboratory to perform substrate and surface tests for lead and the seven other heavy metals covered under ASTM F963 Standards for Toy Safety. The lab told us that we weren’t required to have tests done, but we asked them to run the tests anyway so we knew where we fell in line with the standards. We are pleased to say that we fell well below the government standards for safety!

DS: One of the first things I noticed is that your books have no text and show photos only. How did you decide to take that approach?

AM: Babies love to look at pictures of other babies. So we thought that by using great photography and our illustration skills to fill in the backgrounds, we could provide pictures of babies done in a different way. As a bonus, it also allows us to get away with not writing any copy.

DS: You’ve launched with two titles. Tell us about those and when we can expect to see additional titles added to the product line.

AM:The first title, Silly Faces, is literally just a book of young kids making silly faces. It’s really fun, and kids love to mimic what they see and try to come up with their own expressions. The backgrounds are illustrated with colorful shapes and patterns.

The second title is Opposites, where we demonstrate the concept of opposites, like hot and cold, wet and dry, etc. Here we used the background illustrations to help reinforce the word that was being demonstrated. For example, the “wet” kid is soaking wet with goggles and a snorkel, and her background has waves and fish. We added the words in the background, so the word “wet” appears as waves. For a more universal appeal, the words appear in three languages — English, French and Spanish.

We hope to make a third book in the fall that’s based on animals, and then three more in 2011. Then we’ll also sell all six as a box set at a discount as well as selling individually. Eventually we hope to expand into other printed items, like paper dolls and memory card games.

DS: Your Rogue Element company is obviously a B2B service design business so Squishy Press is your first experience with a B2C “retail” product. How do they differ and what have you learned so far?

AM: Boy, do they differ! It’s a whole new learning curve for us. We’ve had to learn a lot about retail and wholesale pricing, fulfillment and shipping, marketing to a new audience, even working with bar codes and ISBN numbers. We’re such a new company that we’re still learning as we go. But so far so good.

DS: Allison, I know you are a big believer in what we call “eco consistency” and communicating a consistent green message is critical, up to and including your packaging. Tell us why that is so important to you.

AM: Why go halfway? In addition to having a green product, we are trying to be as operationally green as possible. From our web hosting, to our merchant provider, to shipping . . . we’re making green choices each step of the way. Even our trade show booth is recyclable! We want to practice what we preach, and thus are very transparent about our processes and claims on our website. We want to encourage more people out there to make safer books and other printed items so that children have more options. We shouldn’t be the only green children’s book publisher out there. We hope to encourage others to follow our lead.

DS: We are thrilled to be playing a small support role in the launching of this great, new product. My two toddler grandchildren love the books and yes, they have already chewed on them so it is nice to know they are not ingesting anything that is dangerous or bad for them.

I encourage our readers to visit the Squishy Press website at www.squishypress.com and buy a book or two for the little ones they know.

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