A crew of eight crosses the line between Hello Kitty's cuteness and the sojourns of Star Trek. Together, they travel the ocean searching for fun and adventure. These talented eight -- including a valiant polar bear, daredevil kitten, and big-hearted penguin -- eagerly meeting the excitement they find outside of their undersea base, the Octopod.

They are the Octonauts, and they live in a vibrantly coloured and illustrated world created by the illustration and design team MEOMI, bringing vivid colours to imaginative stories.

MEOMI is ...

... Vicki Wong (Vancouver) and Michael Murphy (LA). They have been featured illustration and design books, while their characters have found homes all over the world on clothing, merchandise, toys, and magazines. Meomi has been a creative force for Fisher-Price/Mattel, Electronic Arts, Google, Time Out Magazine, Bang-on Clothing, and CBC4Kids.

The Octonauts & the Only Lonely Monster

The Octonauts first adventure was published last autumn, and features the befriending a lonely sea monster who is out looking for others of its kind. Along the way, all nine characters learn the importance and value of friendship and individuality. Exploring the world is almost synonymous with exploring colour. Turning every page is nearly a new contrast each time. Roaming from their soft pastel-coloured home leads to the whites and blues of the cold waters in the north and carries on to the muted, high-contrast earth tones of a jungle scene. Even naysayers would have a hard time finding colours not used in this book. On top of that, the characters in the book are extremely loveable. With their gently-coloured designs and their exciteable curiosity, there's no doubt that children won't be the only ones falling in love with them, and hoping for more adventures to come.

MEOMI's website for the Octonauts features both peeks into the current book, and their main site carries a collection of merchandise from badges to tins and t-shirts to postcards with plenty of cuteness to go around. From hot pinks to soft greens, their store is proof enough for what Meomi is capable of accomplishing in colour, but why stop there?

With a polar bear, a monkey, a dog, a penguin, an octopus, a kitten, a sea otter, a bunny, and a turnip, there are eight excuses for adventure, and oh, the colours that come with it.

Colour Inspiration from The Octonauts