Miguel Calero - ToC's illustrator
The word illustration comes directly from Latin illustrationem (nominative illustratio) “vivid representation” (in writing), literally “an enlightening,” from past participle stem of illustrare ”light up, make light, illuminate;” figuratively “make clear, disclose, explain; adorn, render distinguished”.
The Enlightment is also the name of one of the most important intellectual movements in Europe, the same that in the eighteenth century led to radical social changes and accelerated the historical progress of several revolutions that are associated to terms such as “democracy”, “public education” or “separation of powers.”
Miguel Calero is an innovative illustrator currently living in Collado -Villalba (Madrid). But this title didn’t come easy. Calero started his professional career working at an administrative position, but soon realized that this wasn’t his passion. Having spent numerous hours drawing, imagining and shaping ideas on paper, he finally realized this pastime could lead to a new career. And he was right!
Currently Calero has been successfully working in the illustration industry for over 20 years, creating images from ideas, stories and concepts.
The main novelty in his career came just two years ago. “Almost by chance”, he explains us, he was contacted by Touch of Classic, a company quite innovative, which “tried to sell” him a clear idea: to develop the first interactive version of Don Quixote.
Miguel accepted and the success of that first collaboration can not be denied: “Apple App of the week”, #1 in over 15 countries and grants from the Government of Spain plus thousands of paid downloads. The latter, quite a feat when you consider that there are currently over 1 million applications, many of them free, on the net.
Touch of Classic founder, Nicolas Randall, well explains the reasons for entrusting Calero with the feat: “We wanted to entrust the illustrations to a true professional. Our goal is to offer high quality apps for kids with illustrations, texts, music and narrations. We have made a great effort to adapt the classics to the children by integrating puzzles and games in order to get and keep their attention.” Calero has been able to transform our vision into a reality. So far he has illustrated 4 literary classics and 4 operas for Touch of Classic. Though these works appeal to everyone, Calero himself awknowledges, “the response of children is what really matters. It seems that the tablets have been designed for them.”
The creative process of illustrating a book and that of illustrating an app is similar but not exactly the same. Below, watch Calero’s interview where he explains how he works, his favorite Apps and even tells us how he was when he was a child:
