A Retirement Gift That Isn't a Plaque
Forty years of work, written as an original illustrated story with them as the hero. Upload one photo and see a free cover before you decide.
The retirement gift problem is well known and rarely solved. A plaque records a fact. A watch is a joke about time that stopped being funny decades ago. A card signed by the whole department is genuinely nice and is in a drawer by March. None of them say the thing the occasion is actually about, which is that a person spent an enormous portion of their life doing something, and it mattered.
A Delilah & Mia book takes that seriously and then makes it fun. Upload one clear photo and the AI illustrates from it, so the hero of the story is recognizably them across every page. Then you describe the career: the route, the ward, the classroom, the shop floor, the site, the thing that went catastrophically wrong in 2009 that everyone still talks about. Twelve illustrated pages get written around it.
Colleagues can be in it. Up to five characters can appear, each with their own photo, so the two people they shared an office with for fifteen years can be illustrated into the story rather than just signing the card. For a team gift this is usually the version that works: everyone contributes the details, one person assembles it, and the result is specific in a way a group card cannot be.
It is a picture book, and the mismatch between the format and the subject is the point. A serious career drawn as an adventure is affectionate rather than mocking, and it hands somebody the one thing a retirement rarely provides: a record of what they did that is enjoyable to look at. Printed as a hardcover it sits on a shelf. It does not go in the drawer with the card.
Free. No card. Your photo stays private.
Your photo stays private
Painted from your photo
Made by a family
Printed to last
Why a Story Beats a Plaque
Retirement gifts fail because they commemorate the ending rather than the work. A plaque names the years. A story names what actually happened in them: the impossible shift, the colleague who never once made coffee, the job nobody else could do. Those are the details a person carries out of a career, and nothing on the standard gift list has anywhere to put them.
It costs nothing to see whether it will work. Upload a photo, sign in with Google so the book is saved to you, and a free illustrated cover appears in about a minute, no card needed. Then describe the story, and the first two pages are illustrated free. Three free redraws come with the preview, shared across the cover and those pages.
- The career as an adventureYou describe the work and the story is written around it, so the book is about what they actually did.
- Colleagues can appearUp to five characters, each with their own photo, so the team is illustrated into the story rather than just signing a card.
- Good as a group giftEveryone contributes details, one person builds it, and the result is far more specific than a card with thirty signatures.
- See it free firstAn illustrated cover in about a minute, with a Google sign-in and no card, so you can show it to the team before committing.
How a book gets made
The first two steps are free. Nothing to install, no card to enter.
Describe the Career
The route, the ward, the classroom, the shop floor, and the day everyone still talks about.
Upload a Photo
One clear photo of the retiree. Colleagues can be added too, each illustrated from their own picture.
Choose Your Format
Digital by email in minutes, or a printed hardcover that survives being passed around the office.
Story Ideas That Work Well
You write the premise yourself. Three that suit a career being sent off properly.
The Legend of the Worst Day
Every long career has one shift, one outage, one inspection, one storm. Illustrated as an epic, the disaster everyone survived becomes the centerpiece rather than a footnote.
The Whole Run, Start to Finish
First day to last day, with the moves, the promotions, and the places along the way. A story shaped like a journey, which is what a career mostly is.
What Happens Next
The boat, the garden, the workshop, the list of countries. A story set after the last day, which is the part a plaque never acknowledges at all.
Pick how you want it
Every book starts with the same free cover. Print orders include the digital book.
Digital book
The full 12-page book as a download. Read it on any screen tonight.
Choose digitalSoftcover and digital
A printed softcover, shipped to your door, plus the digital book.
Choose softcoverHardcover and digital
A rigid library-quality hardcover, shipped, plus the digital book.
Choose hardcoverPrinted books arrive in about two weeks and can carry up to six personal pages. The digital book is ready the moment it finishes.
If You're Organizing This for a Team
- 1
Crowdsource the details, not the writing
Ask everyone for one specific memory, then have a single person write the story description. Details from thirty people make a book rich. Prose from thirty people makes a book unreadable.
- 2
Get a photo from HR or a spouse
Asking the retiree for a photo ruins the surprise. A badge photo is usually too small and harshly lit, so a recent, well-lit, front-facing picture from a colleague or their partner is a better reference.
- 3
Work backward from the party date
Printed books need 5 to 7 business days to produce before shipping. For a leaving do with a fixed date, order at least two weeks out. The digital version is ready to download within minutes as a backup.
Common questions
Can the book be about an adult's career?
Yes. Adults are a supported hero type, and you describe the story yourself, so a career is a perfectly workable premise. Choose the oldest reading level so the writing suits an adult audience.
Can colleagues be illustrated into the story?
Yes. Up to five characters can appear in total, and each can have their own photo, so co-workers are drawn as themselves rather than as generic figures.
Is this appropriate for a workplace gift?
It works well as a group gift because the specificity comes from the team. It is warm and light rather than formal, so it suits a send-off with some affection in it more than a strictly corporate presentation.
How long does it take to make?
The story and illustrations are generated in minutes, and the digital book is ready to download as soon as you unlock it. Printed books take 5 to 7 business days to produce, plus shipping time, so allow about two weeks before the party.
What if a page comes out wrong?
Three free redraws come with the preview, shared across the cover and the two free pages. Unlocking the full story adds at least 15 more redraw credits, spendable on any page or the cover.
What does it cost?
The digital book is $14.99. The softcover bundle is $39.00 and the hardcover bundle is $49.99, both including the digital copy. For a team gift the hardcover is the one that survives being passed around the office.
From our family to yours
We are a family business in Las Vegas, named after our daughters, Delilah and Mia. This started as a children's product, and the retirement books were a genuine surprise to us. What we have learned from them is that a long career is a story nobody ever writes down. People remember the incidents perfectly and have never seen a single one of them illustrated. Turning forty years of work into twelve pages somebody wants to look at seems, on reflection, like a reasonable thing for a storybook company to do.
Sean Delilah and Mia's dad
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