Multilingual Creative Translation for National Geographic Kids
Content written for children fails in a way adult content never does: pitch the register wrong and you lose the reader, however accurate the words.
National Geographic Kids brings the natural world to children through magazines, books, apps, games and events, with a serious scientific organisation behind it. For a co-production with LEGO City, it needed a translation partner who could write for children, not merely translate for them. The magazine chose Brightlines because we have translated child-focused content for years, including work for other child-centric brands.
The Challenge
Writing for a young audience is a discipline of its own. Translating it adds another. The Jungle Explorer's Handbook, a thirty-two page guide produced with LEGO City, had to launch on time with the magazine in twelve languages. The editors knew a literal translation would kill it. The original won awards for its fast, cheerful, slightly addictive tone, and that tone had to survive in every language, or the handbook would read as a worthy educational text no child would pick up. Accuracy was assumed. The register was the real test.
Our Approach and What We Deliver
Our creative translators who specialise in children's content took on the handbook, so the humour and pace carried across rather than flattening into instruction. Every educational message stayed intact, dressed in language a child would want to read. Our multilingual desktop publishers then typeset all twelve versions. Two of the languages, Russian and Chinese, bring their own typesetting rules and font compatibility problems, and we made sure the finished handbooks used fonts that supported those characters and looked as good as the original.
Our work for National Geographic Kids covered:
- Creative translation of children's content into twelve languages
- Multilingual typesetting and desktop publishing, including Russian and Chinese
- Localisation that kept the original's tone and educational value
The Outcome
The handbook launched with the magazine, on deadline, in all twelve languages, and children across the world can now learn about the world around them through it. The client's own verdict was that the translated files looked amazing, and that a complicated project had been kept firmly on track.
Our work for National Geographic Kids produced:
- A thirty-two page handbook delivered in twelve languages, on schedule
- Print-ready multilingual artwork, Russian and Chinese included
- A finished product the client praised on both translation and design
How We Can Help
Writing for children takes a particular skill, and translating it takes another. Our translators write for young readers, so the tone and reading level come out right, and we typeset the pages to match. If you publish for children, we can help. Get a price for your project.
