OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1 - Penguin - Development

When it came to communicating the Emil children's book I took elements from the brief and created basic vectors. Although this particular style seemed a bit too simple and effortless, it was still able to link back to the thief getting away with the money. What I think is successful about this design is that all 3 colours go well together, also, the money being spread across the book informs the tracking which the young detectives follow. I personally can't do illustrative figures so my only option was a stickman and this is where it lacks visually, considering it's a children's book it is still a bit too immature for a 7-11 target audience. I still would like to take the drifting money forward if possible. 

In comparison to the other designs I wanted to explore more into the use of typography to see a difference in layout. By Placing little illustrations that relate back to the blurb, which helped fill the white space and to create simplistic style. When I approach my own personal work I always tend to make use of white space. A more minimal approach to the use of colour and overall layout, I think this design has potential in being an engaging outcome.

Moving onto the interactive concept, I sketched down an idea that would easily appeal to children, this puzzle was then further developed digitally onto illustrator. This creating an investigation before reading as well as testing the brain before the child starts. I wanted to round up the name of the book as well as the blurb but to communicates through only one illustration.

'Be a detective and find your way through the puzzle'






Selecting colour into the puzzle elements (Notes & Bowler hat) to communicate the mission of the story 'finding the thief & money'. I then began to get the layout for the outskirts of the illustration such as text placement. Emil for example being in capitals as he is the focal point to the story & victim. As shown above, I decided to go with the colour yellow as it was quite a common colour when exploring children books. It creating a much friendlier vibe that also related back to the psychology of colour. When it came to choosing the colour of the title I wanted to test an extra spot colour to allow a balance throughout the spread, that being green. 



The development above didn't quite match my standards. I want the illustration to play more of an important role in this concept, so I wanted to draw the attention away from the title. Children age 7-11 tend to appreciate illustrations more than typography so by changing the colour & layout I felt it brought more of a focus to the puzzle.