A small Australian business making stories that matter.
Paper Lake started with a simple frustration: personalised children’s books that aren’t actually personal.
You buy a “personalised” book, and it’s a pre-written story with your child’s name dropped in a few times. The illustrations look nothing like them. The story is identical to every other child who ordered the same book.
Children deserve better than a mail merge.
Paper Lake writes every word from scratch. Every illustration is created from your child’s actual photo. The story is based on who they are, their interests, their personality, their world. No templates. No pre-written stories.
Every book is the only copy in the world. That’s the point.
Written from scratch
Every word is original. The story is built around your child, not copied from a template with their name swapped in.
Illustrated from their photo
One photo is all we need. Your child appears on every page, in the art style you choose. It actually looks like them.
Premium quality
170gsm silk paper. FSC-certified. Premium hardcover binding. A book this special should feel special in their hands.
Four art styles. One photo.
Same child, same features. Just illustrated into the world you pick.
Pixar
Watercolour
Disney
Ghibli
From photo to storybook hero.
Their photo
In their book (Pixar style)
We’re a small team based in Sydney. We use the best illustration technology available to create artwork that looks stunning. Not the blurry, awkward images you might have seen elsewhere.
We print on premium materials because a book this special should feel special too. 170gsm silk paper, FSC-certified, with premium hardcover binding.
Every book goes through a quality review before printing. And if anything isn’t right, we remake it at no cost.
About the founder
Hi, I’m Chris.
I’ve always lived between art and software. Drew a lot as a kid, ended up working in software as an adult, never quite stopped drawing on the side. Paper Lake is the project where the two finally meet.
It started because I wanted to give the kids in my family something that wouldn’t be in the toy bin by Easter. The personalised books on the shelf weren’t actually personal. They were templates with a name dropped in. That gap was worth fixing.
Every book that ships from Paper Lake gets a quality review before it goes to print. If it isn’t right, we remake it for free. That isn’t policy talk. It’s me, looking at the cover the day it’s printed.
One photo. One story. A book only they could have.
Questions? Reach out at hey@paperlake.com.au
Preview Their Book