‘Colorful Chicago’ brings the parks to you
Colorful Chicago – Explore & Color® All Rights Reserved
“COLORFUL CHICAGO” - the newest edition of the Colorful Cities coloring book series - launches this weekend, bringing us a little closer to some of the favorite local spots we’ve been missing. Colorful Chicago will feature eleven public parks, as well as classic sites like the Chicago Cultural Center, The Art Institute, the DuSable Museum, “Cloud Gate,” and more.
A portion of proceeds from every Colorful Cities book supports its respective parks foundation - and in Chicago, that’s us! We asked Laura Lahm, “Chief Explorer” at Colorful Cities, to share the story behind the project and what makes this Chicago edition special.
Colorful Chicago is available May 30th at colorfulcities.com, Amazon, or check your local shops and bookstores for current purchasing options. Plus, download printable coloring sheets before the release right here! Check out Oz Park & Chicago Skyline.
“We feel strongly that parks build community, and strong communities build fabulous cities.”
HOW IT STARTED
Colorful Cities researches, creates and publishes travel guides and coloring books for vibrant cities around the world. A navigable city map, location descriptions and whimsical illustrations fill each book, all 100% created and printed in the USA.
“I had the idea for the Colorful Cities books while I was traveling a lot in my past career in the high-tech industry,” says Laura. “Fortunately, I have friends in international locales that I would visit between business. When I would explain the uniqueness of my city, Seattle, it just did not clearly come across to people. So I decided to create a book that was part travel guide with map and location descriptions, and part coloring book of places in the city that weren’t your typical tourist spots but the distinctive locations that truly make a city unique.”
Colorful Seattle started the series, followed by Portland, Tokyo, Havana, and now Chicago, with more cities in the works. Colorful Cities is a bronze winner of the 2016 Independent Publishers Book Award in the travel and guidebook category.
CHOOSING CHICAGO
“We’ve spent quite a bit of time in Chicago over the years,” says Laura, “but when we rolled up our sleeves to start truly exploring for the book, we found sound amazing gems - The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in Humboldt Park (the only museum of its kind in the US), the Winter Garden on the top floor of the Harold Washington Library, the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, all 18-miles of the Lakefront Trail and its public art crossing multiple neighborhoods… just to name a few - and these are all free!
“Chicago has culturally rich multi-ethnic communities filled with authentic food, over 8,000+ acres of green space, incredible public art, accessible public transportation, and a free zoo… We had to explore, and thus became Colorful Chicago.”
PARKS FOUNDATION PARTNERSHIPS
With each new Colorful City comes a local parks partnership - a portion of profits from every book supports its city’s respective parks foundation. “We feel strongly that parks build community, and strong communities build fabulous cities,” says Laura.
“The parks are diverse, they bring nature forward, hold concerts and theaters, encourage movement and exercise, and anyone and everyone can use them. Chicago has hundreds of public parks offering swimming pools, bocce courts, evening basketball leagues, summer kids’ programs, boat docks, driving ranges, and acres of green grass to have picnics with friends. All this and everything else that parks offer makes Chicago a fabulous city.”
COLORFUL CITIES • colorfulcities.com • @colorfulcities
