Editor: It's amazing! I think it has a different level of originality - a picture book made just for you.
Kozlov: And in general, most picture books with a family theme have a mum and dad. But with BÜKI, you can also choose to have a 'single dad', 'single mum', 'dad & dad' or 'mum & mum' family structure. So, for example, children growing up in a family with a single mother might have felt that the traditional picture book was a bit different from their own home ......, but BÜKI allows you to customise it to that extent.
Editor: So you can reflect family structures that are not the majority in society? Where did the idea come from?
Kozlov: When I was talking about picture books with a friend who actually grew up in a family with a single mother, she once said to me, "Picture books with this kind of family theme usually have both a father and a mother. Those words stuck with me for a long time. From there, I thought that the value of the picture books we make, which are printed one at a time, and which cannot be achieved by the thousands or tens of thousands of picture books printed at once in bookshops, is the ability to be close to such minor feelings. The idea behind the idea was that making picture books for each individual, which had previously been made for the majority, was not only to customise them, but also to be close to those who are not part of the mainstream.
A development team connected across borders creates a completely new picture book production system.
Editor: Can you tell us how BÜKI was developed?
Kozlov: We started selling the product at the end of December 2020. There was about a year of planning and development before that. When I was a child, every time I read a picture book, I would get into the story and become the main character, slaying dragons, climbing up big beanstalks, and I really liked to fantasise about such things. But as I grew up, the real me could not use such superpowers, nor did my parents have aristocratic parents, nor could I talk to animals. The memory of thinking that people who can be the heroes of such picture books are special beings and I can't be because I am an ordinary person...... has remained somewhere in my mind for a long time.
It was only after I gave birth to my son in 2018 that I remembered that memory vividly. Looking at my son, he still has no boundary between fantasy and reality at all and probably thinks he can do anything. He probably thinks he can even fly. I didn't want such a son to think that the real me can't fly, that I'm not that special ......, and the memory of my old self came back to me. At that time, I thought it would be wonderful if I could make a picture book in which I could be the main character. I told my husband about the idea, and his friends, including his childhood friend who lives abroad, who had also suggested we do something together, got on board. From there, it took about a year, and the first book was launched at the end of 2020.
