A pressing matter

When Ravenswood couple Rob Coleman and Allison Manley had their son, Reeve, they went all green—bedding, diapers, carpeting, organic food, the works. In short, they did everything to ensure that their son’s carbon footprint was the size of…well, his actual footprint.

It wasn’t until Reeve began chewing on his collection of picture books that the couple started to worry about their less than environmental ways. Due to years in the design business, they knew that the toxic foils, laminates, inks, glues and paper in books weren’t the kind of thing they wanted their son sucking on. Like any baby, “all the books Reeve ‘read’ would go straight to his mouth,” Manley says. Searching for a safer alternative, they were shocked to find there weren’t any.

“Not only were we saddened to see that all of the books for babies were made in China, we only found two books that claimed to be nontoxic. When we looked on their website to find out more information, there was none. And frankly, putting the green stuff aside, there is really bad photography in kids’ books. From a design standpoint, we were offended and said, ‘Screw the whole green thing, let’s just design a really cute book.’ So, the desire to have both a well-designed book and a green book got us started.”

Teaming up with photographer and longtime friend Steve Gross, they founded Squishy Press in 2010. Then, the earth-savvy books literally took shape—using Rogue Element, the couple’s homegrown sustainability-focused design firm founded in 2003, combined with photos of Chicago kids taken by professional wedding photographer Gross, and all-local materials.

“Everything was conceived by the three of us,” Manley explains. “My husband and I did all the design and art direction, with nontoxic, post-consumer waste recyclable paper and soy-based inks—no laminates, foils or harmful glues—and Steve did all the photography. Shooting children is like shooting wildlife, you know—you never know what you’re going to get. Steve had a great deal of patience, and definitely gave us a lot of great design ideas.”

Between friends of Rob and Allison’s and Steve’s recently married clients, they had plenty of local kids to shoot for their current books: Silly Faces and Opposites ($12). The simple, clean look provides a slick background for some seriously adorable faces—not to mention bendable, durable and ecofriendly food for thought.

The Squishy Press team isn’t stopping at two books, though. It has four more on the drawing board: Animals, Colors, 123’s and ABC’s. They’ll follow the same simple design aesthetic as the first two books, and they’ll also be the same size so that once all six are available they’ll be a box set. And even further down the road, Squishy Press is looking to expand to green blocks, paper dolls and coloring books (all safe for little chompers).

But why “squishy”? Manley laughs and explains, “We had already picked out Reeve’s name when he was in my belly, but I wasn’t sharing it with people. So we just referred to him as Mr. Squishy because he was moving around in there and being squished. We just called him that until he was born, and then we told everyone what his name was. And weirdly, Steve [Gross]’s brother was also nicknamed Squishy. The coincidence was too much to ignore.”

Find Squishy Press books online at squishypress.com or at the following Chicago locations: The Red Balloon (2060 N Damen Ave, 773-489-9800) Nat & Helen’s (3125 N Broadway, 773-525-4030) Hazel (1902 & 1926 W Montrose Ave, 773-769-2227) Little Green Baby (4654 N Rockwell St, 773-505-2066) 57th Street Books (1301 E 57th St, 773-684-1300)