Color your mind with SM stationery
MANILA, Philippines – Adult coloring books are the hottest trend in publishing. “Nine of the 20 books on Amazon’s current bestseller list contain a few words and belong to a genre that didn’t exist two years ago, “ says Susannah Cahalan in an article in The New York Post. “More than 2,000 have hit the stands since 2013, and the genre’s two biggest bestsellers Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest have sold a combined 13.5 million copies in 50 countries.
The trend began in 2011 when a small UK publishing house, Lawrence King Publishing approached Scottish freelance illustrator Johanna Basford. An editor there had stumbled across her work online and thought that her intricate drawings would make the perfect coloring book.
The result was The Secret Garden, a complex hand-drawn coloring book initially marketed for older children. But then something funny happened. Adults started buying them.
Today the adult coloring book trend has come to Manila, and they are now available at SM Stationery.
But why are adult coloring books so phenomenally popular? It is said that coloring has calming virtues — it is creative, stress-relieving, and art as therapy. Some believe it is a reaction to a stressful world and is very much like undemanding hobbies like knitting, or working on a puzzle.
And then there is what is called the Peter Pan syndrome, the desire to reach out to one’s inner child. More than that, this longing to return to the past that represents a desire to experience the tactile sensation that we are missing in our largely digital world.
Whether you prefer elaborate Mandalas, paisley-patterned wildlife or whimsical gardens with hidden treasures, channel your creativity in these coloring books for adults are available at the SM Stationery section of SM Stores.
