YCN Brief Pan Macmillan Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’s 150th Anniversary Year Ruth M Willis U1353888
Mind Map
Notes on illustrations The Characters Notes on the book
Final outcome
Mood Boards
I designed three mood boards: one for Alice and Wonderland’s book by Lewis Carroll, illustration inspiration and the final one on MacMillian. Though they were all done on Pinterest, I have collaborated them into an easier visual medium for the sake of this PDF.
Alice in Wonderland
TheAlice in Wonderland mood board highlights the main parts and key recognisable features of the story itself. This included a few characters, but also highlighted how many interpretations there are of the famous children’s book. Main themes revolving around this board included certain quotes and characters. Symbols that are often associated with the book include
anything ‘tea party’ related. There is an element of freedom through insanity that is pickedupon through several quotations and emblems. The story line in particular inspires it’s reader to join in the madness and to try to consider the impossible as possible.Imaginationis a key to innovation, and so this book aims to push this at the young reader’s age.
Illustration Inspiration
Illustrations associated withAliceinWonderland tend to be very dark or traditional. On exploring this further I was inspired to keep a traditional feel to the look, but producing the final piece in a new way. I found that black matte with black gloss over the top was the closest style I liked and so started looking into monochrome toned images and surreal images.
Surreal is a word that certainly describes the nature of AliceinWonderland, so thinking outside of the box would be crucial to nailing the brief. Ghostly, haunting images highlight almost a sense of fear in the trip that comes with the fall down the rabbit hole and I feel that this would be a way to go. However, what about an image to entice.
Just finding an image is one thing, but to be enticed by the actual artwork is another. People are enticed at finding Wally but then they note the artwork surrounding the hunt for him.
MacMillian
MacMillan is an amazing charity that helps so many people in so many way, by so many means. From initial research, it was clear to see that this charity’s colour was green.
when people think of MacMillan, they think of coffee mornings and tea parties.
In conclusion, though it is good to think outside of the box, it must be noted With this in mind, that this book holds what if I broke away significance and should from this and just not be made a used colours to mockery of. match. Also, it was evident that the book in question was very close to the charity’s heart as
Initial Ideas
After much deliberation and going over the points highlighted in both my mood boards and mind map, three initial ideas came up:
1. A more traditional outlook that involves the same processes as the original illustrations 2. Gloss of matte so that the image is hard to find. 3. Create a more adult ‘50 shades’ style for the adults who will be reading the book, who have grown up with it and still enjoy it.
After a more detailed analysis, I decided to combine all three ideas. In all innovations, comes inspiration and therefore, I shouldkeep an element of tradition in the illustrations I produce. It will just be the way I produce them and their style that will be creative and outside the box.
Sketches
These are the initial sketches I did for this project. I focused on Cheshire, Hatter and the Hare as I wanted to steer clear of following the stereotyped illustrations of Alice that, no doubt, everyone would do. I was most proud of the Hare and Hatter, though further developments could aide in the all of the sketches as a whole.
Development and Experiments
After a lot of development on the sketches, I decided that the bottom right was the best solution. Not only did it reflect on the dark themes of the book, but was also very difficult to see, and therefore would look good on matte, if printed in gloss. I tried to keep the traditional feel on the experiments on the Hare, but decided it was a little too traditional.
Hatter, though keeping with the green theme, did not appeal to me as an artist, yet the distorted at the bottom of the middle column inspired me to look into it further. Though that came to a dead end, I am happy that my I found a style I wished to progress forward.
Cover Illustration
I opted to use the Hare as a cover picture because all other prints of this book seem to have Alice. Thinking outside of the box I opted to use the Hare, as he is the reason Alice falls down the rabbit hole. The fact he is enticing you to follow or to go with him, is ideal for the cover. Regardless of the expression, people will judge a book by it’s cover.
Cover Layout
I did not feel the need to incorporate the title or author like most book covers as I wanted it to speak for itself. It also added extra intrigue and aide in a reader falling down the rabbit hole of a captivating read. The requirements of the brief state that the logo must be included somewhere, so I made it like a sticker.
P l ac em ent considerations were difficult as I didn’t want to lose anything that the illustration behind brought. The logo in the hand of the hare, whilst making the most sense, lost the feel I wanted to aim for aesthetically.
Final Cover
In the end I decided on this layout. I used the logo as a sticker. Whilst still being a main focus of the cover, you can still see the illustration behind.
Additional Illustration
I decided that hatter was the better out of the remaining illustrations, and although I await on thearrivalof the book to see which page of text it would best fit with, I believe this is the ideal drawing to captivate my idea as best as possible. I centred it like they wouldinabook. I kept layout traditional due to already breaking the boundaries on aestheticsenoughwith the style I rendered.
Evaluation
This brief was very fast paced, and if I had more time and the brief was more open to other illustrations, I would have loved to experiment further and submit more. I believe that the adult theme coincides with today’s culture and if given the brief again, I don’t believe I would change it much. If, however the brief didn’t leave loopholes, I would aim at doing something with illustrations that
were child friendly, though I would not change the style of gloss on matte. I would like to progress this further for my own benefit and will be intrigued as to where it will go.