PROJECT REPORT
• At the beginning of this module I was having trouble deciding on whether to choose Character and Narra9ve or Children’s book illustra9on, I believe I made the right choice with character as this allowed me not only to design the concept for a possible book but let me explore the possibili9es of what I can do with one simple character design in terms of products. • My ini9al work began with the theme of nature and animals, a subject maCer I feel most comfortable with and that I could explore in depth. I wanted to create a body of work that used both use digital media and photography together. I began to go to different loca9ons to make a decision on what I wanted to capture and gradually a character emerged, with places for it to exist. I was also influenced by a number of characters I’ve grown up or simply seen enough of to see why there popular. These include the simple designs of character such as Miffy, hello kiCy and the Mr men.
• Influence also came from animas and Japanese folklore such as the forest sprites. Overall I wanted to draw a character onto photographs that would look like it was really there, a narra9ve then began to emerge with me beginning to consider producing a children’s book along with a range of proposed products to go along with it. I wanted my work to both be educa9onal and fun. I was ini9ally going to produce one book but aIer a peer group session it was beCer decided that I create a range of story just crea9ng the covers and designing a minimum of five pages, this relaxed the work load however I’ve struggled to conclude with a full body of work. I was also to draw a storyboard for one of the books however the did not get completed due to me growing ill in the last weeks. • What I really did enjoy about this project was crea9ng all the mock designs, it really did challenge my Photoshop skills and reminded me of my years in A level graphic design coming up with smart ranges of products. I plan to carry this on the future modules as I find it fun today and it gives me as well an idea of what my products/illustra9ons would look like in the real world.
• Though I’m s9ll struggling to cope with 9me management I feel I may do beCer in the year to come, I will hopefully be gaining more student support in terms of typing for my blog , I feel this is the centre of my problem and with hopefully having weekly support I should be able to keep on top of it. I feel with me just able to talk through my ideas with someone I’ll be able to produce a stronger body of work, with a strong begging and end. • If I was to return to this project again I make sure to do more development of a narra9ve, as a whole I’m fairly happy with the design of my character but I haven’t produced enough work into the world it lives in what it does, I failed to complete the storyboards I proposed and thus what I created can’t be seen by anyone else
• The final outcome of my book of covers was fairly successful, although certainly rushed for print. I did manage to design five separate book covers, as well as five possible page designs for one of them. I do wish I had more 9me to consider what other types of paper I could of printed on but at the end of the day I was happy to have it made. I feel the final character designs have come out well and would appeal to my young audience of readers. Again it was very unfortunate that I was not able to explore further what I could do with my character with storyboards, I wanted to consider pop-‐ up more. I am rather happy with the range of proposed products, as I was able to explore a large range of possible things my character could be used on. I feel I also managed to keep the product range relevant