Semester Two : Week Eight / Industry Brief — Review & Reflect

Brief

» To create an illustrated story that will offer reassurance and comfort 

for those struggling to connect and find a place in the world

[Responding to Museum of Emotion brief]

» Outcome

. Picture book (32pp)

. Animation

. Poster 

º How successful was the outcome in relation to the brief?

‘This is Dot’ is a picturebook that takes the reader on a journey from a state of anxiety to a feeling of calm: a transition from negative to positive emotion.

It uses colour to reinforce the story.

The related poster is ‘silent’, inspired by the ‘silent brief’ of the Museum of Emotion.

The animation is similarly ‘silent’.

 

º What aspects of your work were successful and why is this?

The simple graphic style is clear and clean. It recalls classic picture books such as The Mr Men and Barbapapa, but with a fresh contemporary feel and sophisticated colour combinations inspired by accessible and autism-friendly design guidelines.

Font selected is sans serif and large size for legibility in ‘read-together’ settings, and dyslexia-friendly.

The poster and animated GIF stand-alone as cute elements in their own right, or can be used to promote the PictureBook.

º What aspects of your work were you not happy with and why is this?

The grey tone of the recycled paper dulls some of the colours and reduces the contrast so that Dot doesn’t stand out strongly against blank pages, and the pebble is lost. This can be addressed by testing print on white paper and increasing saturation and yellow tones in Dot’s colouring; and introducing a darker grey for the pebble.

Some of the detail of Dot’s ‘spikiness’ is lost in print.

Contrast in the world’s hands could be increased in the poster so that that ‘hug’ reads out more clearly.

I’d like to develop the animation more so that the ‘hug’ is gentler, less abrupt.

º What did you find challenging or difficult and why?

Working across multiple layers became complicated as the images built up in complexity. In future, it would be good to ‘flatplan’ the layers and break the illustration process down into groups of similar layouts. Also to create left hand and right hand pages in separate documents.

It was challenging to retain the colour palette of recommended tones and hues for autism-friendly reading whilst ensuring that the images would print clearly and read out on screen.

Mastering the skills required to draw the world was a challenge I resolved by erasing ‘by hand’. I have not managed to use masking and other techniques that would help my work be more time efficient and give a cleaner finish, although overall I’m pleased with the result. 

º How did your planning work out? How might you improve your current methods of planning and management of time?

I created a really simple bullet-pointed breakdown of the steps I wanted to take each day, and ticked them off as I went. I reviewed my progress at the beginning and end of each working day. I completed the work ahead of schedule. I used digital sketchbook (in Keynote) to record my progress but also to make creative decisions as I went along, in tandem with the wip report. I made some pragmatic adjustments to my ambitions, cutting some extraneous steps from the process, in order to deliver on time, without compromising on meeting the brief. I’ll definitely use this approach again in the future.

º What knowledge and skills have you learned?

I’ve further developed my understanding of colour and accessible design.

I’ve learned how to work with layers in Procreate, and how to create an animated GIF.

º What knowledge and skills might you use again, how?

I’m continuing to develop my visual style and language. Next step is to learn how to work with layers more effectively, and how to use masking and develop my own brushes in Procreate so that I can work faster and bring in more of my found and created textures to my illustration. I also want to trial using the animation feature in Procreate to create a fully animated read-along text ― although it may be better to work wholly in CapCut if I want to include Audio.