Isobel Williams
DISCOVER
Areas Under Investigation ) The learning process of children ) Different Learning styles ) Dyslexia and problems within learning ) Target Audience (around 8 years old) ) Pinpointing the specific difficulties I wish to aid. ) How can the learning process be helped further? ) How illustration and visualization can help, e.g use of images to retain information. ) Influential illustrators and how I can aply the influences to my own work. ) Experimentation with my style ) How my idea can move with technology, e.g exploring ipad apps, moving image, interactive technology.
? SIX THINKING MEN
WHO Who do i want my project to be aimed at Who can contribute to my project? Who can I gain inspiration from? Who has done similar things? Who might be interested in my finished outcome? Who can I test my ideas on? WHAT What skills do I wish to use? What changes can I make to aid efficacity on this final project? What might help me get started? What do I want to gain? What do I want to avoid? What do I need to improve and practice? What format will my outcome take? What are my motivations? WHY? Why have i chosen this subject? Why will it benefit me?
WHEN When is the deadline? When would this project help me in the future? When do I need to start the outcome? HOW How can I ensure I approach this project effectively? How can I make the most of the short time? How can I make this my best work yet? How can I make sure I have researched effectively and to the right amount? WHERE? Where can I gain inspiration? Where can I go for primary research? Where can I access samples of my target audience?
Summery of Mind Maps Aims: + I want to push my illustration skills forward and move away from the style I have become comfortable with. + Work intensively and have a good level of productivity through out the whole project. + Gain a strong understanding in a subject that will aid the area I wish to work in in the future. + Use illustration as a effective tool to motivate children to be educated. Why might a child be unmotivated? + Children could be lacking in motivation for a number of reasons; + Difficulty/weakness/lacking in natural ability. + Poor teaching methods or unimaginative learning material. - Illustration could aid these difficulties Motivate to Educate: + Use illustration as a tool to coax motivation from children who struggle in education. + Use illustration skills to aid memory problems and simplify common literacy, spelling problems.
Rational + As a dyslexic myself I have experienced a lot of problems with spelling, and still do. I struggled to retain information such as spelling rules and also had problems spelling words that do not follow the expected letter patterns. + As my interests lie in design for children I want to see my experiences with spelling as the problem, and solve it with my design skills. + Dyslexic people can learn to spell, they just need carefully considered techniques in order to excel to the best of there ability. This is a key aim for my project, to design a method for dyslexic people to learn that will motivate them to believe that they have the same potential as there peers.
Illustration Functions and How it Can Aid Learning Illustrations can; + Attract attention + Aid retention + Enhance understanding + Create context. Illustration can aid text in three ways, it can decorate the text with a goal of making the text for interesting for the reader. It can help the reader visualise a place or time, or object, or thirdly it can help to explain a concept, e.g a diagram. Retention According to research, students better remember information when it’s represented and learned both visually and verbally. Comprehension Students better comprehend new ideas when they are connected to prior knowledge. Organization Students can use diagrams to display large amounts of information in ways that are easy to understand and help reveal relationships and patterns. Illustration is a very important part of a children’s book. It is through the images that the children learn and understand the world around him or her. Images help the children to understand and identify the things they come across in daily life. Stories are a great medium to educate the children. A children’s book will require lots of images so that the child can grasp the story well. Sometimes the number of illustration used in the story book will be more than the text. .
Affects of dyslexia Problems with the following: * Learning to speak * Organizing written and spoken language * Learning letters and their sounds * Memorizing number facts * Spelling * Reading * Learning a foreign language * Correctly doing math operations * Deciphering left from right
A Quick Over View of Dyslexia Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that affects around 10% of the population (British Dyslec). It affects the mind in many different ways; some sufferers still enjoy reading and writing, for example, whereas others find it an impossible chore. Because of this, dyslexia can often leave sufferers in situations where they have to think on their feet and create a way around a difficult task. It has been proven that Dyslexic people can visualise from multiple perspectives, making them stronger in fields such as Architecture, design and construction. Dyslexic children when in education can often struggle when working with words and having to remember tasks. Educating dyslexic children effectively may require thinking outside the box in order for them to successfully engage with learning. Visual methods through all subjects of learning where possible can make things a lot more manageable for dyslexic students.
“I can’t think clearly without seeing a picture. If I cant mentally visualise a picture from the words that are being communicated to me, I will rarely understand those words properly.” Dyslexia sufferer Olver West
Source: Isobel’s ITC.
Learning to spell. Olivia O’Sullivan and Anne Thomas of the Centre for Language in Primary Education under took a three year study on children’s spelling development, 1995 - 1998. Three London primary schools took part in the project, the aim of which was to examine how children learn to spell, and how teachers can work most effectively to support their progress in spelling. The project studied the teaching and learning of spelling from Reception to Year 6. In addition a special study looked at the progress of a small number of case study children in Years 4,5 and 6 who read competently but had difficulties with spelling. The project found that Many different kinds of knowledge influenced development in spelling, even at the early stages: children needed to integrate different kinds of knowledge – phonetic, visual, structural and semantic in order to develop effectively as spellers. Children took different routes into the spelling system and developed as spellers indifferent ways. The research also established that children approached spelling in different ways at the early stages – some preferring a visual approach and others an auditory route. Both of these findings have implications for teaching and for the role of the teacher
“ Children need to integrate different kinds of knowledge – phonetic, visual, structural and semantic in order to develop effectively as spellers.”
WOMAN WITH A PLAN
Week 1: Research further: Dyslexic teaching methods Effective learning methods Memory tricks Similar examples with illustration Week 2: Finalise the subject matter for the outcome and research it further Speak to the target audience about the proposed idea Experiment with illustration techniques Week 3 Mold the outcome idea according to the feedback from target audience Apply any new illustration techniques that were appropriate to sample illustrations. Finalise as much as possible the content of the publication. HALF WAY POINT at this stage I will make sure all the research and experimental work has been properly recorded and designed ready for the accompanying PDF. Week 4 Plan illustrations for book and gather any further content, research, feedback necessary. Begin drawing Week 5 Intensify the illustrations and design of the book. aim to get content sorted by end of week 5 Week 6 Printing and polishing up outcome. Finish accompanying PDF.
DELVE
“Dyslexia is a Learning Difference, not a Learning Disability” Dyslexia Victoria Online
How does dyslexia affect learning? (a closer look) Dyslexic learners’ weaknesses lie in areas such as phonological or visual processing of sounds and/or letters and numbers, sequential aspects of language and number, time and direction and short-term memory. This means that many learners with dyslexia have the following characteristics that may impact on their learning, though not all dyslexic learners will have all these characteristics: + Difficulties in organising work and other aspects of their lives. + A poor sense of the passage of time, mixing up dates and times and missing appointments. Directional confusions, getting lost easily and having problems using maps or finding the way to a new place. + Difficulty in carrying out instructions, copying from the board and remembering what has just been read or said, taking messages, remembering phone numbers and dialling numbers accurately. + Poor motor control, resulting in difficulties in controlling a pen (leading to untidy handwriting with many crossings out and making it difficult to get ideas down on paper). + Difficulties in recognising, or confusion between, letters or familiar words when reading or remembering the visual image of words, signs, or symbols. + Difficulties in reading text caused by visual distortions such as blurring or moving letters.
Positive Aspects of Dyslexia; These may aid an adapted learning process + Perception: the ability to alter and create perceptions; + Highly aware of the environment; + Highly curious; + Great intuition and insightful; + Thinking and perceiving multi- dimensionally (using all the senses); + A lively imagination; + Can experience thought as reality; + Creativity; + Easy adoption of change; + Holistic, see the big picture, don’t get lost in details, get to the important aspects; + See patterns, connections, and similarities very easy; + Concentration; + Can be very driven, ambitious and persistent; + Superior reasoning; + Capable of seeing things differently than others; + Love for complexity; + Simultaneous multiple thought processing; + Not following the crowd; + The ability of visual, spatial and lateral thinking.
The characteristics listed on the left indicate that visual learning is a good method for a dyslexic learner. Using images that can capture there imagination and stimulate there creativity could support there short term memory by making an impact.
How Can Dyslexic People Learn? General principles to follow;
+ Be explicit – dyslexic learners are often very literal. + Explain the reason for suggesting any approach and encourage learners to evaluate whether or not it works for
them – they may not yet know how they learn best.
+ Create an environment where making mistakes is seen as part of the learning process. + Teach (choose activities, prepare materials, set tasks) to the level of difficulty the learner has, but interact with the learner at their level of intelligence.
+ Tell learners in advance what the structure of any learning session will be. + Explain the conventions; dyslexic learners need to know when a requirement is simply a convention, such as the layout
of an essay or a newspaper article, or spelling patterns that do not seem logical.
+ Use approaches that encourage self-directed and independent learning so that learners feel in control of their learning. + Make sure you are using a range of multisensory methods. + Learn different ways to present information and make it accessible. + Avoid the use of text-dense material where possible; space helps understanding for all learners.
Include graphics such as pictures, diagrams and cartoons in handouts to provide reference points and visual clues.
+ Be aware that some fonts are more difficult to read than others. This varies from learner to learner, but Arial, Comic Sans and Tahoma are generally the clearest.
+Enlarge text where appropriate – never reduce the size of print. I intent to refer to this list closely when creating my outcome to ensure that the suitability for the dyslexic user is as strong as possible
“ I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read�. -Famious Dyslexic Tom Cruise, Actor
Visual learners understand and process information through observation. Using pictures, charts, concept maps and demonstrations. Auditory Learners: are best able to retain information by listening to lectures and benefit from discussion, reading aloud and forming study groups etc. Kinaesthetic Learners learn best through touching and moving around – a more hands on approach. Among three learning styles visual learning is proved to be a faster, better, and entertaining method. Research in both educational theory and cognitive psychology states that visual learning is among the very best methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn. Visual learning is a teaching and learning style in which ideas, concepts, data and other information are associated with images and techniques.
By representing information spatially and with images/pictures, students are able to focus on meaning, reorganize and group similar ideas easily, make better use of their visual memory.
Visual learners prefer using images, pictures, colours, and maps to organize information and communicate with others. They find it easy to visualize objects, plans and outcomes in there mind’s eye. They also have a good spatial sense, which gives a good sense of direction. They can easily find there way around using maps and rarely get lost. A whiteboard is a good tool for a visual learner. They love drawing, scribbling and doodling, especially with colours. Flash cards are also an affective method for learning. Dyslexia sufferers are typically visual learners.
Flashcards remain one of the best tools for memorizing information. The most common way to create flashcards is to use index cards. Students can simply write the question on one side and the answer on the opposite side and test themselves repeatedly. However, there are several ways to modify this process to enhance the learning experience. Colour coding flash cards can also be especially helpful for visual and tactile learners.
Hello! My names Isobel Williams, and I am a final year graphic design student studying in london. As part of my final project I have chosen to research and design an outcome around the idea of visual learning. I am dyslexic and it went undetected until I went to university, as this is something I have personal experience in, I am keen to use my design skills to create an outcome to help children like I once was, to learn to spell and retain information. At this early stage I am planning on visualising spelling strategies with illustration to eventually produce a book aimed at dyslexic children. With this being my last student project before i graduate, I am really keen to create something visually amazing (aiming high!!) but also that serves a purpose. I found your website really interesting and I’m really keen to know more about your multi sensory learning strategies, would it be possible for you to send me over any information? or maybe I could speak to one of your teachers? I would be very grateful for any insights you could give me!! many thanks and best wishes Isobel
Email sent out to a number of dyslexic schools and centres.
As a result of my email (see previous page) I went to visit Fairley House School for Dyslexic children. All children attending Fairley House School have a specific learning difficulty (dyslexia/dyspraxia). They work in much smaller class sizes and use an integrated multi- sensory programme that helps children to achieve their full potential. They have 6 speech and language therapists, 4 occupational therapists and 4 highly specialised Literacy and Maths teachers. From what I witnessed whilst at the school there approach to learning is much more hands on than a nonspecialist school. When teaching tangible examples of words or sounds are used which enables the children to interact with the learning. This helps to hold there attention.
Spirit level – We use a sprit level to ensure something is straight or balanced. Our body needs to be balanced to learn – we talk about our Brain Engine. If it is too high or too low learning cannot take place. Pupils are asked to gauge where they think their brain engine is and to look at the desired level for learning, adjusting themselves accordingly. Spanner – We have 4 spanners in our toolbox, each representing a memory strategy: I spoke Jenny Lim, an occupational therapist at Fairly House, who told me about the ‘Tool Box’ of strategies they Rehearsal – saying the information over and over in your head (this is the least robust strategy but valuable in ceruse. It is suggested that these strategies are used when tain situations). the child is having difficulties of a dyslexic nature. Visualisation – making a picture and seeing the inforThe set square mation in your head - (in the shape of an ‘L’) represents the 5 L’s we need to have Association – connecting the information to something before good learning can happen: else e.g. remembering a number because it is a family Listen member’s birthday etc or by making up a story to recall Look information. Lips closed Chunking – grouping items or numbers together e.g. if Limbs still (2 feet flat on the floor, hands and arms still) you have 4 numbers to recall, group them by 2’s so that 4 Learn to think what is happening 8 9 3 becomes 48, 93 etc.
Pliers – We have 3 sets of pliers to represent learning styles. We encourage all pupils to identify how best they learn. We point out that although they may predominantly learn using a certain style. It is very important to be aware of all the styles and to pick and choose strategies according to the task. Screwdriver – We have 4 screwdrivers to represent the areas we need to consciously think about to store new words and retrieve words effectively. Phonology – think about the sounds in the words e.g. what sound does it start with, end with, what sound is in the middle, what does it rhyme with, how many syllables are in the word etc. Semantic – what does the word mean, what features does it have e.g. the word cat. It is an animal, has 4 legs, fur, whiskers, likes to eat fish etc. Category – what group does it belong to? Grammar – how does the word work within our language? Is it a verb, noun, adjective etc. How do we use the word within a sentence?
Auditory learner – learns through listening. It may be useful to listen to information on a tape recorder e.g. tapes of books, history information and dates etc, create sayings, reading aloud so that you also hear it. Visual learner – learns through looking at and reading, e.g. books, mindmaps, highlighters Tactile learner – learns through physical contact, doing something to remember the activity e.g. squeezing oranges to remember the ‘squ’ spelling pattern. At Fairley House we teach using all 3 of these styles so that teaching is multi-sensory. It is important for your child however to recognise what works best for them in a particular learning situation.
Taking inspiration from other examples of educational design The images on the left are taken from an online learning platform and an educational app. Both these examples allow the child to interact with the games/challenges. I see this a potentially a rewarding method for the child. The colours seem to be bright and the content is visual and animated. I want to find a happy medium between designing in a style that suits my target audience and is child friendly, but also I want it to be a design that I am pleased with. I want it to stand out in my portfolio as something different, but also remain consistent to a degree with some of my other work.
This book was aimed at the oxford reading tree stage 1, this is for quite young children but I was keen to see how simple tasks and activities could be designed simply and clearly. I was also interested in investigating the choice of colour pallet in design for children.
Hands on learning from Muji This puzzle enables children (or adults) to sort the colours and then build each number. Each mini puzzle has the same amount of pieces as the number it represents. This is a great way for a visual or hands on learner to work with information in a way that can stay with the child. Experiencing a number or colour or image is a good memory technique.
The examples in the above slides offer examples of designs that children can interact with, e.g filling in gaps and answers, using magnets to spell, stickers and the use of characters. All these are things I wish to take on board and consider when I come to design my outcome. I did find there are a lot of illustrated lively books available, but mainly for younger children, books aimed at 10 plus seem to become a lot dryer.
Christopher Monro DeLorenzo Picture alphabet keyboard stickers. The idea behind the keyboard stickers, is to progress forward learning with technology. With kids learning more and more with computers this idea takes that concept and illustrates the letters on the key board. Christopher DeLorenzo adapted an old method of learning to a new medium.
Letterland is a unique, phonics-based approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling to 3-8 year olds. Its information-rich Letterland characters transform plain black letter shapes into child-friendly pictogram characters, who live in an imaginary place called Letterland. By translating the full range of dry phonic facts into engaging stories, children are motivated to listen, to think and to learn. These stories explain letter shapes and sounds and quickly develop into word building, reading and writing. Each Letterland character is a predictable personality living in a realistic environment filled with alliterative objects. By integrating phonics with life experience, they provide children with a systematic and motivating framework for learning all 44 sounds and their spellings and for developing full literacy
“Letterland characters transform plain black letter shapes into child-friendly pictogram characters�
Technology and kids More than half (52%) of all children under the age of eight have access to mobile devices at home including Smartphones, iPads, iPods and other tablets. The rate at which kids are adopting technology is also perhaps surprising: 40 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds are using everything from TV to mobile devices and apps. According to the study, 11 percent of all kids up to 8-years-old regularly use a cellphone, iPod, iPad or similar device and spend an average of 43 minutes doing so. Parents seem to be supporting the digital babysitters, as more than a quarter (29%) of all parents have downloaded mobile apps for their kids to use.
Above features screen grabs from children’s educational applications. I think ipads applications and the like offer children more control and power than they may have over a pen and paper at a young age. But this is not a road I feel my illustration style is particulary relivent to, just yet.
Other ways for multi-sensory learning Although the rate that technology and its availability is increasing I still consider tangible designs and interactive educational methods are relevant. Ipad and smart phone apps are not yet universally accessible for children as it can be expensive. The future of education will probably rely heavily on technology but currently I feel books and physical publications are still a relevant road to go down. Activity books, pen and paper and other tangible excersises can be a just as proactive platform. There are many ways that make multy sensory learning possible with out technology, writing letters in sand or rice or in the air can be useful. If enough time is available you can get really creative and make cookies or cut bread into letter forms. These activitys can leave an impact with the child which in turn can aid short term memory problems. Children with dyslexia often have incredible talents with coming up with creative solutions and being able to visualize things. Focus on their strength and encourage these talents through play, art, music, drawing, sports, or theater.
DARTs Directed Activities for Reading Texts - Exercises to help learners engage with particular aspects of text. May involve highlighting, cutting and pasting, and moving text around. DARTs are activities which get students to interact with texts. Their aim is to improve students’ reading comprehension and to make them critical readers. They can be done by individual students or in groups. Types of activities: Text completion (Fill in missing words, phrases or sentences.) Sequencing (Arrange jumbled segments of text in a logical or time sequence.) Grouping (Group segments of text according to categories.) Table completion (Fill in the cells of a table that has row and column headings, or provide row and column headings where cells have already been filled in.) Diagram completion (Complete an unfinished diagram or label a finished diagram.) Prediction activities (Write the next step or stage of a text, or end the text.) When students interact with texts, their reading comprehension improves. They also become more aware of how texts are constructed. Interacting with text can help clarify and reiterate the meaning. I want to create a publication that offers this possibility.
Getting to know my target audience. I want to leave the age aim for my book open to some degree, as with it being to some extent educational, children learn different things at different rates and ages. Especially as my project is aimed at children who have particular difficulty in this chosen area. However, as a ball park figure I intend to aim my book for around the age of a 7 year old.
“ Seven-year-olds enjoy having the opportunity to share their knowledge with others. They display a longer attention span and the ability to tolerate less-detailed directions and last-minute changes. Seven-year-olds are curious and frequently ask adults and peers questions to satisfy their need to know. They utilize increasingly complex and creative strategies to solve problems at home and at school.� PBS Parents
Books aimed at Seven Year Olds (my target audience)
The examples on this and a previous page are taken from books with a target audience of 6-7. Although I don’t want to restrict myself by my target audience I found it useful to analyse the different styles aimed at children of that age. Some of the illustrations are quite detailed where as others have a simplicity to them. There is a strong use of colour. I also found it interesting to analyse the use and amount of text.
DEFINE
? SIX THINKING WOMEN
WHAT
What Is the goal of my outcome? What will children gain from it? What will children learn? What type of learner is it aimed at? What age is it aimed at? What form will my outcome take? What can I compare my project to?
WHO
Who are the steakholders? Who might be interested in my outcome?
HOW
How relevant would a book be compared to the expanding technology market? How can I ensure I use my research to efficiently drive my outcome? How will my outcome be better than anything i’ve done before? How can I ensure I fulfil my aims?
WHY
Why will my proposed outcome suit my target audience? Why do I want to make a tangible outcome? Why is that appropriate? Why don’t I want to create something digital?
WHERE
Where can I generate interest in my project? Where could it lead in the future?
WHEN
When might my outcome get used? When will I be able to tell I have fulfilled my aims?
Mnemonics are fun tools or memory aids you can use to remember word sequence. Figures, events, face and facts, can be mastered and recalled by using memory aids, popularly known as mnemonics. + Helps children with dyslexia + Improves memory + Enhances your imagination + Retrieves important information + Sensory stimulation + An entertaining learning technique
Mnemonics is something I think would be a good focus for my book. Its a really useful memory tool for spelling and I think it could lead to some really strong illustrations.
Target Audience Most children learn to read at six years old and become competent readers by around age eight. However, many children are actually capable of learning to read much earlier. A few children are ready to start combining letters and identifying words as early as three years old. More usually, a child will start developing these abilities from four to six years old. All dyslexic 9-12 year old’s have problems with spelling, originally this was going to be my aimed target audience. But I now feel that applying a solution to potential spelling difficulties earlier than that could aid these children more effectively. My target audience will be 6/7/8. I feel this will work more effectively with my illustration style. I want to create an illustrated publication to help children retain certain elements of learning that are hard to remember for those with dyslexia, e.g spelling certain words that cause difficulty. From further research I hope to uncover more elements that have cause particular problems.
?
Where can I find samples of my target audience to test my work on? Where will my target audience be able to get hold of my outcome? How will I know my project will suit my target audience? How strict is the age range? What can people outside my target audience gain from it? What will make my target audience interested in my project? What will my target audience expect from my outcome? When can my target audience access my outcome? When would my outcome be unhelpful to my target audience? Why do I feel this is a suitable audience? Why will my audience be welcoming to my idea? Who can I test my project on? Who wont be interested?
Proto-type Drawings
As already mentioned, I want to use this term as an opportunity to experiment with my illustration style and push my self to ensure that my skills are at there best for after graduation. + I will work on my technical skills; e.g illustrator + I will gain practice in an area that I want to work with in the future. + It will be beneficial to have in my portfolio
POTENTIAL CONTENT FOR BOOKLET I am to gather various spelling strategies and methods, included mnemonics (see below) These methods can aid children to remember correct spellings. I will illustrate the content as visualised learning is an affective method for dyslexic learners. QUEEN To remind children that a Q is followed by the letter U - the Queen always carries an Umbrella. GEOGRAPHY Gary Eats Old Grey Rats And Paints House Yellow RHYTHM Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move STATIONERY / STATIONARY STATIONERY meaning paper and Envelopes STATIONARY meaning “not moving” DEAR Ducks Eat Apples Rotten BELIEVE/BELIEF There is a lie in the middle of believe and belief BEAUTIFUL Big Elephants Are Under Trees In Forests Until Light The examples above have been taken from a online resauce, when I come to working more on the content of my publication I aim to create my own mnemonics.
DEVELOP
I spent some time looking deeper into illustrators that I can pull inspiration from. Since I want to develop and evolve my own style, I found it useful to absorb examples of established illustrators work.
YOKO FURUSHO is a Japanese artist/illustrator based in New York. She was born in Tokyo and moved to New York to study illustration at the School of Visual Arts. After her graduation, she started her career as a professional illustrator/artist. She likes to draw details, textures and patterns with ink and acrylics, and often uses fashion as her inspiration
Lauren Child is the illustrator behind Charlie and Lola which is massively successful. Lauren and written and illustrated a serious of books and Charlie and Lola are also a hit T.V program. Lauren use’s mixed media to create her illustrations, she mixes her drawings with found patterns and fabrics. This creates a bold innovative style which is very recognizable. I find Lauren Child’s work very inspiring. It influences me to experiment with media and patterns. I intend to act on this influence during this project and develop my style with the use of other medias.
“I save everything: envelopes because of the patterns they have inside; fabric from my childhood and from jumble sales”.
Lauren Child cont..
Keri Smith is an author and illustrator. She has created a number of publications that encourage creativity and interaction from the reader. She has a strong distinguishable style which appears un-threatening and childlike. I feel she is a good illustrator to pull inspiration from on this project as the publications push the idea of interacting with creativity. This is something that may benefit my target audience
Marion Deuchars is a London-based illustrator. She’s worked with some big clients, across a range of commissions including publishing, editorial, packaging, advertising, web design, brand development and even interior design. She studied at Royal College of art. The ‘Book let’s make some great art’ various experiments involving color and technique, while helping readers understand what it means to think, see, and create like an artist. Ages 9–12.
Nick Sharratt has illustrated around 200 books, over 40 of them have been for author Jacqueline Wilson. He went to St Martins where he studied graphic design. He loves to use vibrant colours and bold patterns in his pictures, but, he says, “the most important element of my work is the humour.�
Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and has illustrated over 300 books, and most famously he is known for illustrating Rhold Dalh books. He is renown for his humorous and high quality illustrations. His first drawings were published in Punch while he was 16 and still at school. Click the link below to view how Quentin creates his illustrations.
Click Here
Axel Scheffler After graduating with a first class degree, Axel moved to London where he began illustrating for a variety of English and German advertising companies, magazines and newspapers. He took his portfolio to a number of publishers and Faber commissioned him to illustrate The Piemakers by Helen Cresswell and The Bottle Rabbit by Bernard McCabe. In 1989, Walker asked Axel to illustrate a text by Jon Blake, You’re a Hero, Daley B. After graduating with a first class degree, Axel moved to London where he began illustrating for a variety of English and German advertising companies, magazines and newspapers. He took his portfolio to a number of publishers and Faber commissioned him to illustrate The Piemakers by Helen Cresswell and The Bottle Rabbit by Bernard McCabe. In 1989, Walker asked Axel to illustrate a text by Jon Blake, You’re a Hero, Daley B.
David Shrigley is one of my favourite illustrators, I like the simplicity of his drawings and sarcastic captions. He is well known for his humour and has produced lots of images for books and postcards. He has a massive following and as well as illustration he also creates work in Sculpture, Photography, Painting, Animation and Music.
Influential publications Hyper-activity-typography is one of my favourite books. The design is child friendly but also a design relevant to anyone with an interest in typography. The colours used are similar to colours I am drawn to use. This book is a big inspiration.
Sparkle and Spin Sparkle and fade is a beautifully simply illustrated book about words. It has large colourful illustrations and small amounts of rhyming text. Rhymes are a great way to get children motivated to read
Bruno Munari’s ABC Bruno Munari’s ABC book is another simply but effectively illustrated children book. It takes children through the alphabet offering large colourful illustrations to a company each letter. Looking at books such as the ones I have pictured has encouraged me to break down my style into using simple shapes and bolder colours. Less certainly is more with regards to these books. I aim to create something that gives me room to create larger illustrations than I normally would. I also aim to be bolder with my use of colour.
Playfulness when designing for children is a relevant and key ingredient. I aim to create pages in my book between the mnemonics that can let the user play and interact with the concept of learning to spell.
Even though I don;t want my outcome to be purely aimed at girls I still found this book a useful point of reference. Puzzles, games and questions are a good method for getting children to interact with the book. When it comes to learning as a dyslexic, interaction is one of the proven ways that children can absorb knowledge effectively. By interacting with my book I hope that it will aid the spelling methods to stick with the child and make more of an impact.
I want there to be more to my project than creating a book. I plan to consider the following; Size of book: Would a larger book, over sized for classroom use add more possibilities for my format? Flash cards: As I want my book to help children gain knowledge and spelling techniques, would a flash cards that they could be tested with be useful? Following that; a reward system, e.g stickers? A pop up book could be visually enticing, but do I have the skills to create it to a high enough standard? (no)
Format Inspiration I saw work from Cachetejack when I visited Pick Me Up this year and really liked it. The images of the book on this page gave me inspiration that can be applied to my idea of a children’s book. I aim to have the key word that causes the spelling difficulty on one side and the illustration visualising it on the facing page. This book has done something similar. I like the blocks of colours used and I think that could be a good technique for enticing children.
Beyond a Book Although I am planning to make a book I wanted to explore other ways that children can access and absorb educational images. Walls stickers for classrooms or homes can be an effective medium for communicating things. If I was to push my project forward after hand in, I feel that developing a range of classroom stickers could be a successful format.
Identifying words that are hard to spell: Intend to create a series of mnemonics for words which commonly cause difficulty. These may include words with silent letters in, words that are exceptions to spelling rules, e.g ‘Weird’ does not comply with ‘I before e accept after C’ I intend to source what I can from online platforms and create mnemonics for words that don’t currently have them. When finding words I was also able to use my own difficulty with misspelling to help.
http://www.spellingsociety.org/
I Spent some time trying to use materials that I don’t normally use, e.g paint, scissors, using a already typeface as a guide. I didn’t feel particularly happy with what I tried. My aim was to push my self out of my comfort zone, but from this I realised that there is such a thing as being TOO far out the comfort zone, so much so I felt a bit useless and frustrated. From that I decided to pull more from illustrators I find inspirational. I like the idea of collaging and mixing media to create a new dynamic. I decided to illustrate some patterns that could be used as material for collageing.
I took my proto-type drawing (see above) and used that as a illustration to experiment with. I cut out some of the elements of the picture using my patterns and also some found media. I Then started to experiment further, critiquing my work as I went.
A lot of trial and error has gone into this illustration. I spent about 2 days trying out different things and techniques but I’m not happy with any of my results. It came to the point where I began to feel like I was wasting time stuck on this illustration. So I felt it would be more time effective to leave this image for now and move onto the type as I was more confident about the direction of that.
Typo Development I began working with hand drawn type, but wanted to move away from my usual style. From there I experimented with cutting out letters from found material. I felt like there was something positive in that but my found materials didn’t look consistent. I decided to create a patterned typeface. In a previous project I created a pattern for each letter of the alphabet and decided to used that as a reference for my new design.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
u
v
w
x
y
z
Inically I cut letters out of my patterns and that was going to be my method. Wh. en I scanned the images, did not do the pattern justice. I felt cutting them out digitally would be a more affective method.
Hand-drawn
Helvetica
When considering the typeface I analysed my research on design suitability for dyslexic users and found that a suitable typeface for dyslexics is veranda. This was a compromise of what I believe to look suitable but also what is appropriate for dyslexic readers.
The feedback I received in my tutorials indicated that my spreads on the page before are not all that appropriate for my target audience. The patterns caused a bit of a sensory overload. I decided to keep the patterns to the first key letter and then create an illustration on the facing page. The design on the right is the design that I am happy with. I will use that format for the spelling word. I also changed the colours on a few of the patterns as feedback from tutors made me see that some of the colours I had been using were looking a little to washed out. I altered my pattern for the letter A also as I felt it needed to be brighter.
Finding the right words From the delve stage of my research I identified characteristics that hard to spell words carry, e.g silent letters, not exceptions to spelling rules. At this stage I wanted to Identify the words that would feature in my books so that from there I could devise an acrostic poem to aid the memory. I focused on words that don’t sound like they are spelt. See below for example of the common misspellings. Frend
Friend
Wierd
Weird
Sed
Said
Dout
Doubt
Becus
Because
Nife
Knife
I worked my way through the alphabet thinking and researching as I went to find words I believed to be hard to spell. See the next page for the full list.
+ Ache - Ache can be a hard word to sound out. + Because - This can feel like a lot of letters to remember, I use Big Elephants Can’t Always Use Small Exits to this day. + Castle - Can’t hear the T + Island - Can’t hear the ‘s’ + Doubt - Silent T + Edge - Hard to sound out + Hour - Hard to hear the H + Said - A lot of children spell it ‘sed’ + Knife - Silent K + Once - Could be a ‘w’ also the ‘c’ could be mistaken for a ‘s’. + Ghost - Silent ‘h’ + Weird - Does not follow the ‘i before e’ rule. + Would - Could sound like another spelling, e.g wud, wood, woud. + Physical - Silent ‘ph’ + Friend - Commonly misspelt as frend. From this stage I began to create acrostic poems for each of the words.
I intend to create a double spread of instructions/tasks or games to accompany each word and illustration. This should aid the usability of the book and help the child to engage with the illustration and memory technique. The range of activities will include; + Drawing tasks + Maze’s + Spot the difference + Facts + Questions.
I kept to the same layout for each word as i wanted the design to be consistent. That should enable a less distracting platform for learning and help the child get into the rhythem of the book
Flash Cards Although these cards are aimed at slightly younger children I still found it useful to have something tangible to take inspiration from. Flash cards can aid children’s revision but also help to involve parents and peer interaction.
30 Postcards by Junza Teroda This series of 30 illustrated postcards is packaged so nicely. They have a lovely finish and the illustrations all follow a consistent style. I would like my flash cards to eventually take shape like these postcards. I would like my flashcards to be able to stand alone away from the book and still be and useful learning strategy.
DELIVER
Illustrating The Activities
The Bloopers I created a number of illustrations that I did not feel happy enough with to put into my final book. Had this of been a longer project I would have been able to develop them further until I was satisfied. However in the short time frame I was unable to do that.
Some Quick Snapshots of My Final Outcome.
I printed my outcome on A4 double sided matt paper. I wanted the book to be large enough for reasonably big text, with out it looking swamped by the type. I spiral bound it to ensure that the reader can lay each page flat to do the activities, and the poem can be hidden to test memory.
Flash Cards
User Testing The difficulty I had with my project was that I found it hard to access any examples of my target audience. However I was able to upload my outcome onto issuu.com and from there my friend was able to show his 2 nieces. Below is a film of what they thought of my book. I can see further user testing if possible would be really useful.
Points From User Testing + The illustrations seemed to go down well, I think funnier images could be something to work on. + With out someone to explain to the child about the book there might be a problem with them grasping the concept. + Further activities would go down well, and maybe I need to address the level of difficulty with the current activities.
I sent a digital version to a teacher that speicalising in teaching dyslexic children of my target audience. Below are comments written by her. I have taken on board the comments, I am not keen to use comic sans but I too agree that there is room for development and further experimentation with colour.
In Conclusion... Over the last six weeks I have aimed to absorb as much knowledge on my subject matter as possible. I am aware that in order to create an appropriate and usable outcome it needs to be fuelled by understanding and awareness. I would like to think my outcome has been carefully considered and is appropriate to my aims. I don’t consider myself to be a naturally academic person and as a result I do feel that my work would have improved if I was. My key aims at the start of the project where to; motivate children to be educated, evolve my illustration skills, move my work towards the design for children market, and keep a good work ethic throughout the project. I undertook a slightly different illustration style on this project and managed to create images unlike my previous work. I feel my outcome is relevant to the audience I aimed it at, I tried to keep the target audience in mind and referred back to my research on dyslexia to ensure my design was appropriate. I kept the illustrations large, colourful and simple with the idea of making them easier for children to retain in there minds. In turn I hope that this will work well with the spelling technique. Through out my whole time as a student I have struggled with time management. I was determined that I would use this project to prove to myself I can organise my time and work efficiently. I consider that to be an aim that I have for filled and intend to reward myself with a 10 hour sleep before the hand in. I have enjoyed working on this project and navigating it towards my long term interests and goals. I feel my outcome needs further development before I feel 100% happy with it but under the time constrictions and with the problems I faced I am over all pleased with my work. I intend to develop it further in time for the end of year show. I am grateful for the feedback and support I received through out this project and actually through out my whole time at uni. I will be sad to leave LCC - but more happy than sad. THE END xxxxxxxx
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