Save the children YCN 2015

NICOLE RAWSON Save The Children YCN 2014/15 The University Of Huddersfield

WELCOME This booklet was designed to help guide you thorough my final design in response to the Save the Children brief created by YCN for the 2015 Student Awards.

Included in this document is each important stage of my project’s development from beginning to completion, as well as any other key information that might help explain why certain design decisions were made along the way.

Nicole Rawson

CHOSEN BRIEF “Humanity owes the child the best it has to give” - Eglantyne jebb

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“Your brief is to deliver a creative resource that will inspire and motivate our target audience of dads to read to their children for just 10 minutes every day... The creative can take any form (for example print or Online advertising, a video, info-graphic, an experiential movement etc), but it must leave audiences with an understanding of just how much of a difference 10 minutes a day reading with a child can make.”

We begin by looking at the brief I chose, examining its key aims and important facts. What appealed to me about this brief was that it had a real world application that could help improve the lives of thousands of children across the UK by nurturing there reading abilities. It is an excellent cause, and out of all of the briefs I had looked at and explored it was this one that I felt I could do the most justice. It was essential that dads were targeted by the campaign and that the emphasis should be placed on the fact that ‘10 minutes a day could change your child’s life’, whilst also making sure that this didn’t seem too laborious. What I produced should inspire change and thus make a difference.

RESEARCH Thorough research is essential in the opening stages of any brief, as it has a heavily influence on the eventual design solution. Initial considerations included existing media produced by Save the Children along with reading campaigns run by other charities, most notably the Book Trust. This research took on many forms from Internet searches and speaking to my target market, to carrying out extensive collation of data in order to build a comprehensive understanding of the current situation, and the scale of the problem that Save the Children are trying to address. Once completed I then compiled this information into a very basic infographic that would act as a quick reference guide throughout my development of the project.

INFOGRAPHIC The research carried out generally came to the same conclusions; children as a whole are showing a decline in reading ability, and even in those who do read the amount of time they spend at it is not enough. What my collated research found was that compared to 2005 where half the subject demographic would read in their spare time, now only three in ten regularly read outside of school.

Alone this is not much of a problem as children do read in school, however when you look at the difference between KS2 and KS4 there is even a decline in reading through education.

As a collective, 17% of all children asked by the Literacy Trust said they would be embarrassed if a friend saw them reading. Another figure saw that children simply don’t find reading fun with over 50% saying they prefer doing other activities such as watching TV or playing computer games. The problem therefor in regards to me answering this brief was not just aiming my design solution at dads, but if possible to address the children who would be the eventual benefactors of my solution. The statistic which I found most interesting was that although 50% of children polled said they didn’t enjoy reading, 50% said they would read more if computers or e-books where involved in some way.

KEY POINTS Based on the research I carried out, I established the following key points to be used as part of my response to the brief:

MY IDEA

• Children are more likely to read if reading is found to be fun

The research you see here is only a small portion of a much greater range which was carried out, however with only this small amount of information you can clearly see a link between reading and digital technologies forming. My idea therefore was to create a mobile app that could both act as a resource for fathers and there children as well as a promotional campaign to increase awareness and funding for the charity. The principal idea behind the app would be a virtual bookshelf, on which a selection of stories for children aged 5 to 11 could be purchased and arranged. This would provide them with the resources both they and their dads needed to be able to spend that vital 10 minutes a day reading together. In order to address the brief fully I also developed an animated infographic to run alongside the app, contained within the ‘about’ section. The purpose of this animation would be to raise awareness of the facts and figures behind the ‘read on get on’ campaign, particularly aiming the content at dads.

• Over 50% of children said they would read more if they could involve a mobile phone or tablet device • Access to reading material is a huge factor as to why children don’t read as much as they should • The average person spends over 8 hours a day on a media devices with smart phones being the second biggest time consumer behind TVs • Younger people have been found to grasp a greater understanding of technological devices, with six-year-olds having the same level of knowledge as the average 45-yearold.

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DEVELOPMENT Development of my app began by designing a logo to reflect both a pro-reading initiative and Save the Children. The aim of this was to create a competent design which, at a glance, could easily be associated with both the campaign and the charity. When Apple redesigned all of their apps for the iOS7 update, they provided developers with a set of rules and guidelines to create the perfect app icon. Included in these guidelines were six rules which as follows: • Focus on a unique shape: To create a truly successful icon the actual graphics should be a simple as possible - include colours and gradients, however the fundamental design should be contained within a simple shape. My icon follows this principal by staying within the confines of the iOS template, using a rounded square as its boundary. This allows the app to be recognisable at a distance or small scale, such as on a phone screen. It is important to remember that app icons are not a static size; they are large in the app store, smaller on the home screen and minute up in the notification center.

• Carefully select colours: For the save the children app, this rule wasn’t really applicable as the company already has a set style running through their entire company, set in place by their branding guidelines. The app icon therefore stays true to these guidelines, using an inverted version of the save the children motif as its focal point.

• Avoid using a photo: The design on the app icon was specially developed to represent both the campaign and Save the Children. Its layout features an adapted version of the company’s historic logo. What this adaptation does is sees the ever familiar character who usually has his arms in the air, instead holding a book in front of him. As you can see from the initial sketches, many designs were considered for the actual motif on the icon with some concentrating on the idea of fathers or the 10 minute principal. Over all, the design I found most appealing was the one incorporated elements of the original, iconic Save the Children logo.

• Avoid a lot of text: As app icons rely heavily on imagery I felt that there was no need to include text on the final design. As the design for my app icon was so iconic to Save the Children • Accurately portray materials: Like with any good piece of design the app icon should reflect what it is the app represents. To add to the iconic save the children character reading a book I also added a hint to reading materials in the bottom right hand corner of the app which features a page turn • Be creative: I have tried to do this as much as possible with the apps design considering all the guidelines and my own creative initiative the end result is a icon that truly reflects my aims and ideas perfectly.

COLOUR The Colour pallet for the app design and accompanying video was to created to ensure maximum benefit to its target audience. In Depth studies have shown that adults and particularly children learn better if particular colours are used. This is because colour can help to develop a child’s strong sense of affirmation which becomes more and more important as kids grow older. For the save the children a app a colour scheme of blue and red was chosen. The importance of this being that the red can easily associated with save the children, it is used across everything the charity produced and any associated media meaning its inclusion in the app design was essential. To accompany the red a bright shade of blue was also chosen for a variety of reasons. Not only has blue been shown to help improve learning but the addition of blue with the red helps give the app a more contemporary fresh feel in conjunction with the apps styling

STYLING The app styling was created to be modern and yet child friendly at the same. The main principles that the app follows is the guidelines set out by Google’s material design.

1. The fundamentals of light, surface, and movement are key to conveying how objects move, interact, and exist in space and in relation to each other. Realistic lighting shows seams, divides space, and indicates moving parts.

2. The foundational elements of print-based design—typography, grids, space, scale, color, and use of imagery—guide visual treatments. These elements do far more than please the eye. They create hierarchy, meaning, and focus. Deliberate color choices, edge-to-edge imagery, large-scale typography, and intentional white space create a bold and graphic interface that immerse the user in the experience.

3. Motion respects and reinforces the user as the prime mover. Primary user actions are inflection points that initiate motion, transforming the whole design. All action takes place in a single environment. Objects are presented to the user without breaking the continuity of experience even as they transform and reorganize.

By following these three principles the app is setting a standard of what it good contemporary design. The whole immerse feel is modern and clean with simple easy to follow instructions to guide you through every aspect of its functionality. The overall effect should be that this app is not over cluttered and is perfect for its intended purpose of being a learning tool for dads and their children.

BOOKS Although dads are the main target audience for the animation that accompanies the app. The actual app itself was designed to be used by children, therefore it was important to produce a solution which allowed them to engage with the books at a more gripping level than simply reading a short story.

By the inclusion of such personalisation, the option to place your child’s name into the story literally thrusts them into the events and scenarios being unfolded to them by their fathers, thus involving them more in the spectacle and event of reading with their dad. This sort of personalisation has been around for years, traditionally available via specialist publishers in printed form, however application through a digital medium not only allows Save the Children to reach a potentially greater market, but it will allow these specialist publications to be available at a much more affordable cost.

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BOOK COVERS To make my app both unique and contemporary I designed a series of unique minimalist covers for some very famous stories and children’s characters.

From top to bottom, the covers are as follows; Peppa Pig, Mr Bump, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Cat in the Hat, The Gruffalo, Elmer, Fireman Sam, Little Miss Sunshine, Clifford, Ben and Holly‘s Little Kingdom, and finally Kipper.

What these icons do is represent the key characteristics of the stories and characters to make them easily recognisable, but in a way not seen before for this genre. As this was a new concept I needed to ensure that the icons were still recognisable I tested the responses of both fathers and children. The majority of people were able to guess all of the characters correctly with no help whatsoever.

ANIMATION The final stage of developing my response to the brief was to prepare a conceptual animation as a representation of what a realisation of my solution would look like.

I first created a series of still images in Adobe Photoshop to get an idea of the layouts, spacing and aesthetics for each element of the app. These range from the basic lock screen to the complicated sliding menus and options, which fly about the screen in co-ordinance with Google’s ‘Material Design’ concept.

These stills were then imported into After Effects, where I applied a combination of complex key framing and masks to produce the final animated concept video. Through these techniques I was able to accurately replicate the intended feel of the app, merging clean, contemporary principals with universally understandable iconography and layouts. This would mean that not only dads could operate and use the app, but also their children could get involved in the interactive experience I developed. You can find my app animation contained in the folder submitted with this document or alternatively you can find it under the following link: https://vimeo.com/122636598

REFLECTION From start to finish I have enjoyed every stage of the process and believe that I have developed a final piece which fully meets the aims of the brief. “Your brief is to deliver a creative resource that will inspire and motivate our target audience of dads to read to their children” What I have created is not just a advert for pro reading but also a campaign which has the potential to be a successful resource for many families across the UK to benefit from. I believe the app does inspire the target audience to read to their children as it makes reading to a child a more fun, easy experience for both parties. For families with little money, being able to have access to a resource such as this could change their children’s lives. The app no longer allows for the excuse of not having the resources or that children don’t find it fun, instead it delivers a product perfect for its target audience. In a world where technology is ever increasing alongside the desire from children for products such as e-books, it would be safe to say that my design is not only perfect for the now with its contemporary design and unique approach, but it is future-proof beyond that. The app could be expanded on at any time, or redeveloped to include additional features and software to further enhance the experience for both fathers and their children.