I’ve always been fascinated with the Space Race, particularly the Russian and Soviet side, as it’s not as well known as the American missions. There’s an air of secrecy around the Soviet space program, and the story of the space dogs is equal parts fascinating and tragic.

I created this short book about the brave dogs that were launched into space during the 1950s and 1960s. I was inspired by Soviet-era matchboxes for the look of the book with the limited colour palette and halftones, as I wanted to recreate a printed look. The blue and pink overlaid in a cool way and allowed different values to create more depth.

I wanted to make everything in this book as factual as possible, including the Russian translations.