ABOUT US

THE STUDIO

What is Grand Dude Studios?

Grand Dude Studios was founded to help children effectively manage social and emotional issues that they may face. Perhaps a young child needs a relaxing story that will prompt positive dreams. Maybe a preschool child needs to master knowledge and skills that Kindergarten teachers want a child to know before they start school. A grade school student might have to deal with a bully. In middle school a child might struggle with overwhelming feelings. During high school someone might have to deal with mean girls.

When Darin Phillips, the founder of Grand Dude Studios, graduated from college, his first career was as a social worker for at-risk youth. He spent a great deal of time pouring over papers to identify valid and reliable research that provided evidence that techniques could be learned and used to help his clients and their families. Later, as a corporate trainer, Darin learned methods for helping people at different ages master new knowledge and skills. Merging these two careers resulted in powerful results for coaching clients and proteges. And now, Darin’s dog is a behavioral model that shows children how to effectively manage common issues.

Rabbit the Dog learns something, applies it, has to make adjustments, and then shows how a technique can be successfully used. Because Rabbit is not a human, children are able to relate to her regardless of the child’s race, sex, etc. It is critical that the reader relates to and cares about the main character to maximize the willingness to learn.

Grand Dude Studios also publishes games that don’t really teach anything. Sometimes things just need to be fun.

Why are you called Grand Dude Studios?

Darin Phillips became a grandfather in 2019. The nickname that his first grandchild used was "Grand Dude". Thus, all his future grandchildren will end up calling him the same name. He likes it because it is casual and fun. He also grew up saying "dude" a lot. He’s certain that it was entirely too much.

RABBIT'S PEOPLE PACK

Grand Dude Studios has three full-time illustrators and an ad-hoc designer. Each illustrator works on a complete series so that the books in a single series all have the same look and feel. However, their art style adjusts to the age of the audience as they work on different series. For example, Patrice draws a puppy version of Rabbit as she illustrates the preschool prep series. However, when she works on the grade school books, she illustrates Rabbit as a child instead of an infant.

Grand Dude Studios also has other important members of the pack that work behind the scenes to make each story successful. Francisca designed the first eight books. Coleen is the magician behind our technology. Beya focuses on our community and Rabbit’s adoring fans.