Project Report

Presentation Boards

Final Pages

REVISITING MY INITIAL INTENTIONS FOR 505

What I said at the start
Have I achieved it?

One thing to take forward from 504:
Take forward the importance of research. I devoted a lot of time to research in 504 and it enriched my work. Grounded in facts, learning about and investigating themes made me passionate and gave me more ideas.
I have definitely researched and learned loads about L.M.Montgomery! I am passionate about her and the whole idea of the scrapbook was born from seeing her personal journals and scrapbooks.
One way I want to push out of my comfort zone in 505:
Ben said that in 504 I proved that I can do both - draw and make things... so since it's drawing that I have been running away from (the very thing I can to this course to do), I want to push my drawing in this module. DRAW EVERY DAY, draw and make pictures.
I haven't drawn every day but I think I have done more drawing and made some fun illustrations, especially in my character design in the sketchbook.
Also want to conduct myself professionally and make my own decisions. Having such a broad brief to begin with always daunts me (AND THIS IS THE BROADEST BRIEF YET!) and I am terrified of making the wrong choice but I am going to be an adult this module and make all of the decisions myself. Be bold and confident. Jump into the abyss.
I JUMPED. I MADE DECISIONS. I SURVIVED.
One thing I want to accomplish by May:
I want to have proposed, planned and produced at least 6 illustrations for a children's book. Have something professional and self-initiated to put in my portfolio. To have explored a theme/topic that I am passionate about. To have told a story.
I did it! I told L.M.Montgomery's story and explored her world. I made 6 pages that I am so happy with and that I would like to put into my portfolio.

Aims
Storytelling
I want to produce a book - this is something I've always enjoyed and have been avoiding since starting this course because I have been scared of the competition/standard of my peers.
Even with my obsession with puppets/3D it's about telling stories for children.
I intend to visualise a world and characters within it - Teresa said that we won't have time to write our own stories, but that finding stories in the public domain is easy and will save time.
Be charming
Be inventive
I produced a book.
I made charming responses (I hope).
I was inventive in my approach.

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution concerns how my work would travel to the consumer.
The consumers are people who buy the products, with my intended audience being children aged 7-11 years and fans of L.M.Montgomery.
Where would you find these products with my illustrations applied?
How can I reach these people?

Similarly to 504, in which I studied the work of Edgar Allan Poe and made a publication about his house, I aimed my product at fans of the author and proposed that this could be pitched as a product to the Poe Museum Gift Shop in Baltimore.
Lucy Maud Montgomery has a huge fanbase with enthusiasts who travel far and wide to see where she lived and worked. Targeting these fans as consumers, I could propose to distribute my products via specialist Montgomery gift shops, where these fans would go expecting to find such products.

Since Montgomery's work and life revolved around Prince Edward Island, I think this is definitely a place to start with distribution. The tourism on the island would be the ideal way of finding custom.
My work would fit in in this context too.

http://www.annestore.ca/xcart/home.php

Anne of Green Gables store - dolls, post cards, books, costumes,

http://www.balasmuseum.com/gift-shop.php

Bala Museum
'Bala’s Museum’s gift shop matches almost anything you will find in Prince Edward Island. It is definitely the best Anne of Green Gables gift shop on the mainland.
Our gift shop’s range of items will appeal to your favorite granddaughter -- or to yourself as an LMM collector. You will find a selection of LMM books, ranging from rare classic editions to inexpensive paperbacks for cottage reading.'

I don't quite understand what they mean when they say 'your favourite granddaughter', grans aren't supposed to have favourites! Anyway, this quote demonstrates the relationship between my two audiences, the intended audience (granddaughter) and the actual audience (an LMM collector). The work is intended for children, but will actually be bought by gatekeepers (parents/grandparents) or collectors who also appreciate it.

http://www.lmmontgomerybirthplace.ca/

Lucy Maud Montgomery's Birthplace
The house in which LMMontgomery was born is open for visitors, similarly to Edgar Allan Poe's house in Baltimore and the Bronte Sisters' House in Haworth (where Bronte H and I visited last year as research for 504).

'This little museum is the birthplace of L.M. Montgomery. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. The collections include most notably a large collection of Maud's scrapbooks and letters and a replica of her wedding gown. (They had to remove the original from the display because of light damage.) The musuem also features a nice collection of gifts and books available for purchase. They generally have book signings as well from local historians and authors. As with most of the little museums, the cost is quite minimal.'
-Trip Advisor review from Salem, Massachusetts

DESIGN BOARDS

I've been looking for examples of design boards that illustrators have sent to publishers but can't find ANY! All I can find are last year's students' ones. Are they actually used to pitch books to clients in the 'real world'? I'm so curious to see how 'real' illustrators do this! I will keep trying to track one down.

What I did find are these boards FROM the publishers themselves used to promote/advertise upcoming book releases.

I know we were told to keep it simple but we are illustrators! We speak visually! A boring presentation board means a boring idea to me! I reckon the boards need AT LEAST SOMETHING to tie themselves to the proposed product - whether that's matching type, colours, or a small character/motif that appears on the board somewhere.

The coloured background on the example above from Nosy Crow works so well to draw the viewer into the pages of Neon Leon and gives the book a background rather than sitting flat against hard white, bringing it closer to the viewer.

This is CHILDREN'S PUBLISHING so should the design boards pitch to children as well as publishers/clients? Should the boards maintain the tone of the book?

I think they should. The design boards would be harmonious with the product if they did so, making a consistent project. 

This background SURELY should be distracting! There is so much going on on this board but since there is no type other than that on the books themselves, and the backdrop is faded/lower in opacity, it's actually not as crazy as it could be.

Again, the backdrop on this one suits the tone of the books - furthering the message that these books are about adventure, nature and exploration.

Not having ANY TYPE at all lets the products speak for themselves. Leaving out the text makes the boards less cluttered and also takes away any underlying agenda - no one is telling the viewer to buy these books, or where to find them, or that they need to read them. The presentation boards here do just that, present the books and the books alone.

Mockups

Making mock-ups! It's surprisingly easy and it's so rewarding to see products that look so real with my illustrations on. Now I know how to do this I'll probably use it for other modules like COP and PPP. Happy with the book, looks so clean and professional! Although I made my own physical dust jacket for the book, the photos wouldn't look as crisp and perfect as these do.

I forgot to add the cloth bind that I liked so much in so many other children's books (see older posts somewhere way back) but I think this book is too thick to have a cloth bind like that anyway. It doesn't need anything else going on with it.

 

Trying to make stationery and writing paper - I love it! I really want to get some of this printed to write onto. I should make matching envelopes too. I haven't seen anything like this in the PEI shops before but it would still fit in.

Because I've just taken smaller motifs and foliage from the scrapbook pages, I don't think that this says 'Emily of New Moon' or 'Lucy Maud Montgomery' as obviously as the other products do. 

Difficult to find mockups of letter paper/stationery! Everything I have found has been really corporate and that's not what I wanted. Eventually found something very plain but ideally wanted something as a writing set with notecards, stickers and a wallet.

Postcards! Again, struggled to find mock-ups of post cards. The photos of the 3D Emily fit perfectly onto this format because they're landscape already. I could add text that says 'GREETINGS FROM PEI' to be sold on the island as souvenirs.

The Emily doll mocked up... not perfect. It's wonky and the perspective is wrong but I had a go and it's exciting to see my little doll in her own special box. I wonder if I can mock this up onto a shelf? Make several of them sitting on a shelf? Does this ruin the one of a kind, unique nature of my product?

Book Pages

My pages are ready to go! I responded to all of the feedback given in the mega crit and made relevant amendments, including: cream paper background (yes, it works so much better and matches the book!), extra items (button, tape, strung tag).

I'm so happy with them and think I've found a way to make illustration suit ME: 3D AND drawing to make an immersive, intriguing, exciting and unusual image.

BOOK COVER DESIGN

Gotchya! Sorted. Decided to go with the drawn Emily because she's cuter and more appealing to a child audience (I think)... the 3D Emily is a surprise inside? Drawn Emily fits better onto a book cover. Happy with the type and the little stars - whimsical and pretty BUT NOT TWEE or OUTDATED. Texture makes it look classic but NOT OLD OR MANKY!

505 MEGA CRIT

This is the final mega crit of Level 5! Feeling quite sentimental, I'm shocked that a whole year has gone by already and I really wish that I had longer to explore Lucy Maud's life. I've become quite attached to her (as I do) and I just hope that I have made a fair homage to her. If I ever get the chance to go to Prince Edward Island I definitely will revisit this project.

I had all six pages of my book + a book cover ready for today's session and wanted some feedback on how they answered the brief, how they suited the context of children's publishing, how they suited the audience (7-11 years) and what tone the images captured.

Not completely happy with my book cover because I hadn't spent much time on it and I don't know much about graphic design/typography, but I knew I would have the afternoon to fix this afterwards. I did have another version with illustrated Emily rather than doll Emily and maybe should have put both out for people to choose which they preferred. At least I had something out there to show and talk about. 

I also put out a copy of my original proposal but wrote down some notes on it about how my intentions have changed direction slightly (moving away from her suspected suicide/mental illness, but interpreting her stories as a reflection of her personal life on the island, looking at her scrap books and journals).

My table - I quickly made a wrap of the book cover to place over an existing copy of Emily of New Moon and I'm so impressed with how that looks! Professional and REAL, not just a digital mock-up. 

I had one example of a design board printed to give an idea of how I will make them. Using the same template that I made for my 503 submission because that one was very simple and smart but adding little bits of illustrated foliage and colours to match my book's scheme. I want to make these design boards a little bit more attractive and suitable for the context of children's publishing (CAN I FIND SOME EXAMPLES?). Something I could use to pitch this book to a publisher.

Look back at the very first task we did (what do you want to achieve by May?) and see whether I've achieved what I set out to. 

AROUND THE ROOM:

Not everyone in today. Disappointing - I don't see why you wouldn't attend a crit. I used to run away from them on foundation when I started panicking, but there is no way that you can get feedback or learn from how others approach briefs if you don't attend these sessions. Especially when this is the last chance for 505, the last mega crit of the year too. Mega crits used to be so daunting to me but they are so rewarding and useful. They're essential for improving and developing work.

Projects I liked:

Ruby printed her designs onto fabric and even made a backpack! Really impressive and beautiful. This kind of application wouldn't be relevant to my project but it does make me feel inadequate in what I've made.

Kyle's VR and AR applications . He spent a lot of time exploring that and it looks incredible, really paid off.

EVERY CRIT I have to remind myself that everyone has done their own project and that it's difficult to compare what we've done and that I shouldn't put myself down when I think other people's work is 'better' than mine but anxiety takes over and I just feel terrible when I see great work like that. Walking around the room, I felt less and less confident about my work with every project I saw. 

Group Tutorial:

Neneh, Kyle, Marnie, Polly

Polly transferred to Illustration from Graphic Design so she was the perfect person to ask about my book cover. She said she thought that was the one I bought it as, not one I'd made. Likes the type and the colour but try with the drawn Emily and see which works best.

"It's just a collage of everything I've made on this module. It's not refined illustrations."

That's exactly what it should be! A scrapbook isn't perfect or refined...

Peers suggested I make a few changes to improve the pages but they really like the project and can see how my research has informed it.

PRODUCT IDEAS

Looking for relevant and exciting ideas for products to apply my illustrations to!

I think I will take some of the smaller illustrated motifs (like the cats, the foliage, etc) from the pages to apply rather than the whole scrapbook pages.

Stationery, cards, notes, paper, books... A range of Emily-inspired writing sets to encourage readers to write and tell stories just like Montgomery.

Cards, envelopes, prints, photo albums, scrap books, notebooks, sketchbooks...

Make them child friendly and relevant to the audience - these writing sets are all quite fancy and sophisticated! Make it fun. Stickers?

Be More Nick

HOW DOES NICK SHARRATT MAKE HIS BEAUTIFUL, PLAYFUL BOOK COVERS?

Hand drawn, sans serif type.

Accents, swirls and gems.

Character focal, frame around.

Titles in ribbon-like swirls.

MAIN FOCUS IS CHARACTER. BIG, SMILING PORTRAIT.

AUTHOR'S NAME RIGHT AT THE TOP (huge, because it's Jacqueline Wilson!)

TITLE ABOVE.