Prototype

London Trip Research task

London Trip (Task 04)

London Book fair was very good and interesting experience, it just confirmed how competitive the publishing industry is and how different innovative ideas are key when it comes to books in general, not just the children's market.

I began looking at all the different stalls and how different publishers stands were "different" in the fact they were using different techniques in order to appeal to their key market. here are the three ideas i found to be most Innovative:

 Make Believe Ideas

Make believe ideas is a company that aims to appeal to young girls age 3-12. it uses educational resources and encorporates fairies and i found this to be very innovative and unusual. every girl dreams to be a fairy and by using this technique would mean the reader will be more likley to pay attention and remember certain things.

they also sell a wide range of cook books, and at the book fair they had a fairy walk around and give people cupcakes or you could decorate your own, i personally think this is an amazing idea as it is more likley to be remembered, the cupcakes were sweet and nice and it made me want to purchase the book and personally cook them myself, i felt this was a good marketing technique and small details such as that will make them very innovative and be remembered. all there books are extremely colourful and feature the same character and style of fairy and i thought they had a really nice finish.
other ideas include think bubbles, dot art to encourage children to express creativity and imagination which are key when it comes to growing up!

ideas such as "activity purse" books with handles to carry and made easy for on the go learning and i generally found the brand very quirky and appealing.

Digital Leaf

Digital leaf is an inspirational childrens book app that can be accessed on apple and android products such as ipad and iphone, it is interactive apps for children so the story comes to life and perhaps will make the child more involved and allow them to absorb the information quicker.

I think it is important this day and age to be innovative when it comes to technology devices and from a sustainable point of view it is good as it saves paper therefore is very green friendly and encourages children to be technology aware for the future. on the negative side they may be limiting there target audience although the apple market is growing and lots of people have smart phones today. "what will i be" was the main book they were focusing on at the london book fair, which is a interactive app story and states "children may be small but they have some big questions running around their heads, This story follows one such child and his/her father as they spend the day together discussing what job the child may grown up to do.

The app gives you the option to make the child a boy or a girl so all kids can get to feel this story is about them. A positive, life-affirming story What Will I Be? celebrates the father-child relationship and dares children to dream big" i thought was interesting as it is very similar to the story i want to proceed for the main brief.

Giles Visit

Client meeting with Giles Morris

in order to get a better background for the brief we had a meeting with our client Giles Morris. I found it most interesting retracking back to my childhood to be in a better frame of mind for the brief and to fully understand what Naturesbase did and how the book would reflect this in order to make my book both something that would be appealing for a parent to buy and for the kid to want to read over and over again.

we began by making a mind map, outlining things we remembered from our childhood I personally remembered memories of playing with friends and family and going certain places and doing certain things and majority of the class focused on things such as hobbies, interests and being outside without a care in the world. I found this to be great news as that is what I want to focus my story on as I felt this is what made Naturesbase so special. 

this is my mind map, featuring certain things such as playing with pillows, using my imagination, visiting wales, playing on the beach and other things that when somebody says childhood I reflect on

after we had done some written reflection we went outside and made art using natural materials. i found it amazing how many different colours we could gather simply by rubbing certain textures against paper and then we made mud faces. it just reminded me how good it was to be outside and how important nature is in order to grow up and appreciate life generally.

 this is me and Jess making a story book using sticks and leaves to create a 3d story using natural materials.

 this is our mud pie monster

these are the nature rubbings from materials such as grass, charcoal and stones

Main Brief: Rough Concepts

Front Cover, Back Cover & Spine

After research I had many ideas for my rough concept.... initial idea was to call the book "when i'm older" a typical saying said by most kids during their childhood, I want this book to reflect on that but most importantly to teach them to enjoy now by being outside and appreciating the small things. i thought the story would reflect on an ambitious bear who always gets up to adventures. with a caption of "kids these days grow up so quickly join kid the bear on his quest to be a kid and enjoy every minute"

- this is just an inital idea though....

-->

I want my front cover to feature the character on the front with some bold childish writing for the title and squiggly childish writing for the body text. I want my book to reflect on life lessons… to be about a child being ambitious and wanting to do lots of things when there bigger, but in reality talk about now. Being a child and enjoying it by being outside and appreciating the smaller, non materialistic things in life.

 

Double page spread (1)

would say things like "when I'm older I want to sail the seven seas" with a response such as "but for now i want to jump in a puddle." and asking the child questions like can they see things, this could also be used interactively where the child could touch certain objects in answer to the questions so the child can get involved and it becomes more than just a story.

(2)

Main Brief: Existing Designs

I felt it was important to look at books that were already out there for the same type of audience and topic of "nature" and learning to do things.

there was a wide range, all colourful with extra elements and exciting characters, here are a few that I liked the art styles and designs of, whether it be the overall design, typeface or characters.

Main Brief: Initial thoughts/ideas

 

mind map showing my ideas.

 

early sketch displaying page ideas

The main pointers I gathered from natures base that I took that I wanted to put towards my main brief was to include:

Main Factors taken from Naturesbase:

* LEADERSHIP

* IMAGINATION

*EXPLORATION

*INSPIRATION

* TEAM WORK

Main points that Naturesbase encourages:

* to Express Creativity

* to not be afraid to have an idea/express opinion

* to encourage reusing objects/recycling

* lessons on looking after the world

* exploration and travel

* work in teams/well with others

* being nice to people

Books that inspired me:

Mr Peabodys apples

is one of the books by Madonna. I think the illustration is simply brilliant and like all of Madonnas book it is one that teaches a lesson of morals.

the main point I took from Naturesbase is the fact it teaches kids to be kids, quite often in todays world kids are growing up too fast and often spoilt by material objects

the main points I would like my reader to take is

* to enjoy childhood

* to appreciate small things in life

* to not want to grow up/rush to be an adult

* to explore there surrondings

* to look around and learn from things from a young age

it was then that i came up with a peter pan type figure, but an animal. something along the lines of a bear called "kid"

--> imagination

--> inspire

--> creativity

I think being a big kid is something inside almost everyone and I want my book design to reflect on this.

I began looking at cartoon images of Bears and thought about doing a hand rendered design mixed with collage for my "rough spreads" / books that had bears in them... kind of like a peter pan bear. or a group of bears who were like the lost boys.

Target market
i want to aim for the 5 year old age range, understanding that the importance of creative play in nature for childs development when they are young. and parents will have to read to them.
i'm going to do my double page spreads on A4 size and considering kindle/ interactive formats aswell.

Childrens Learning Techiques Notes

there are many different ways in which children can learn

* Practical

*Auditory

* Visual

*Rhythm

All of which are a process of Understanding.

All children are brutally honest and can come across as quite blunt, feedback from children can be very critical without being intended, this can be challenging to many people.

Babies

* Blank canvas - they sleep alot

* Basic requirements - food, sleep

* Slowing gain skills and techniques, develop persona 

* non nutritive sucking, gain intention 5-12 weeks, with a dummy next to screen/device

* Habulatation - baby/young child, repetitive imagery/loose attention

* visual expectation - such as pavlors dog, music, heat and electricity.

designs such as black and white - Zebra - very basic, for example

children can make connection between senses and music, like hearing music and blowing on a child = reaction, basic interaction.

children can develop communication before speech - baby signs.

pick it up so quickly from a young age.

Taste - using sense to understand things - chewing books for example, sparks interest.

seeing things on tv, communication through visual/hearing.

social convention - comes with age, stimulates learning - senses experience.

By school age most children have developed their prefered method or combination of both.

AUDITORY - hearing, being told/explained

VISUAL - pictures to take in 'concepts' phrases that reflect on this (maps, colours etc)

KINESTHETIC - physical - touch/movement, figiting and doodling.

there are two different types of learning dependences that are :

* genetics and environment

it is also possible to be a combination of both

* visually minded

* mathematical