Gdes2014 Sample Work - TNA Maps Project

Students from the yr 2 Children's Book Design module were asked by The National Archives' (TNA) Education team in this latest 'live' brief collaboration to develop concept artwork for a new eActivity book.

The theme for the project was 'maps' - looking at TNA's amazing antique and rare maps collection. The project comes under the existing 'Time Travel Club' - a set of on site learning workshops for children and families.

[ Click on any image to see an enlarged view ].

Kelley Akers

Claudia de Santos

Megan Holloway

Olivia Kellet

Katrina Lee

Brendan Parsons

Alex Serbanica

Zosia Swarbrick

Fasiha Syeda

GDES2014 EXAMPLES OF LOVELY ROUGH WORK - TNA PROJECT

Here's some lovely examples of rough concepts being developed for the National Archives' "Time Traveller's Club" family map activity eBook.. We'll be fine-tuning these ideas further for next week's 'prototypes' session when we'll see final ideas starting to take shape on screen for all with luck.

(Click image to enlarge)

Kelley Akers

GDES2014 PREVIOUS STUDENT WORK ANALYSIS

GDES2014 PREVIOUS STUDENT WORK ANALYSIS

Here's three sets of effective visual solutions to recent student briefs on this module.. It's really useful at this stage in your process to look these over and to examine and analyse them to see what factors 'work' and potentially what factors (from your perspective) could still be improved upon.

Understanding why these pieces were effective could then help you build in some of these key factors in your own final work too..

TASK 
(To run in parrallel with my 1-1 tutorials - but must be finished by end of the session please)..

1. Look each set of student solutions through and choose ONE example from each brief to analyse further.

2. Save the image(s) you choose to analyse to your desktop by (PC) right-clicking them -or- (Mac keyboard) control-clicking them from this blog post.

3. Create a new post on your learning journal blog titled 'Past Student Work Analysis'.

4. Bring each of the 3x examples of student work chosen into this post and then answer the following questions about each of them underneath each image..

Questions (Please write a minimum of a sentence answer for each, simply writing 'I don't know' or leaving the question blank isn't acceptable here - we need your considered thoughts down here please..). 

A. Having read the short project summary of the brief that relates to your picture choice, how successfully (or otherwise) do you feel this solution fits the brief? Please explain your answer. 

B. What colourschemes have been used in this solution, why do you think this is? Please explain your answer. 

C. What visual 'art style' or treatment has been used here (i.e. diagramatic, pictograms, loose illustrations and/or maybe photographic, vector/flat colour or template mockups maybe)? Do you feel these are appropriate (?) - please explain your answer. 

D. What type styles have been used here? Do you feel these are appropriate (?) - please explain your answer. 

E. Each solution chosen will have a form of corporate ID across the various elements normally. These may be 'given' ID's or colourschemes/refs as part of the brief (or) ones developed as part of the brief by the students. Do you feel these are appropriate (?) - please explain your answer. 

F. Elements on the page or design board.. Some solutions are better as simple but effective solutions, looking at your chosen item do you feel it's 'complexity' of visual elements is appropriate, too complicated or maybe too simplistic? Please explain your answer. 

G. Does your chosen element or design board use a mockup or photoshop template to help show it in different scenarios in the real world? These can often help best present visuals and (depending on source used) can either be freely aquired or for a small fee. If 'yes' then please explain how these are used and how effective you feel them to be, if 'no' then do you think using these might improve the overall presentation of the final student work? 

H. Improvements. Looking at the work and having a summary of the brief, do you feel that your chosen element or board could be further improved still? If 'yes' then please suggest how this might be. If 'no' then please explain why you think they've supplied the optimum solution(s). 

Final Overall Q: (Answer this after you've worked through all 3x examples) 

I. Looking at these examples of final student outputs on each brief, do you feel that analysing these further has given you further ideas about final presentation of your own work on this project. Please explain your answer whether yes or no.

Live Project No. 1: The National Archives: 'What is History'?

Set by live client The National Archives in London. The aim was to get students to explore, understand and then best create example covers and associated activity spreads linked to key individuals (spys, ancient maps and notorious criminals etc) over history.

Students had a minimum of a cover, reverse cover and linked activity pages, they could also 'add' pages as required if they felt their activity spreads needed additional resource pages to make them best work..

Audience: Key stage 2/3 school chidren in the UK who will have visited and spent a day at the archives.

(Click individual images to enlarge).

Ross

Kelly

Joe 01

Joe 02

Live Project No. 2: The National Archives: 'Significant People in British History'

Set by live client The National Archives in London. The aim was to get students to explore, understand and then best create example covers and associated activity spreads linked to prominent individuals (Captain Cook, Queen Elizabeth 1st and William Shakespear etc) over history.

Students had a minimum of a cover, reverse cover to design for and linked activity pages, they could also 'add' pages as required if they felt their activity spreads needed additional resource pages to make them best work..

Audience: Key stage 1 school chidren in the UK who will have visited and spent a day at the archives.

(Click individual images to enlarge).

Mike 01

Mike 02

Kirby 01

Kirby 02

Sophy 01

Sophy 02

Laura 01

Laura 02

Live Project No. 3: University of Worcester "Children's Bushcraft Activity Book"

Set by the University linked to their new 'Lakeside Campus' and new activities planned for the site. The aim was to get students to explore, understand and then best create example covers and associated activity spreads linked to simple children's bushcraft (like 'Forest Schools') actitivies on site there.

Students had a minimum of a cover, reverse cover to design for and linked activity pages, they could also 'add' pages as required if they felt their activity spreads needed additional resource pages to make them best work..

Audience: Key stage 2 school children in the Worcester area who visit the UW Lakeside Campus for ushcraft activities.

(Click individual images to enlarge).

Charlotte

Katie

Anna

GDES2014 VISIT TO THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES FOR THE 'TIME TRAVELLERS' MAP WORKSHOP

Huge thanks again to the excellent staff at the National Archives' Education team - especially Rachel and Rowena who gave up a good portion of their day to run our Children's Book Design students through sample map workshops this week.

Students had a fantastic day and the feeling in the session was very much that the 'ask' of the brief was much clearer now they'd seen the various maps, had chance to talk to TNA staff about them and been given more information per map too.

Ideas for the brief flowed in discussions as well as possible options and additions to it too. The 'buzz' was palpable and the animated chat carried on for a good hour or so on the coach on the way out of London.

Student feedback kindly supplied to me from the rtn bus trip. In answer to "What did you think of today's trip"?

'Loved seeing the original stuff'

'Cleared up the brief'

'Very helpful and engaging'

'Very interesting and informative'

'Very helpful and interesting'

'Very helpful, lots of ideas and interesting!'

'Very helpful, things are now much clearer'

'Fascinating, really cleared things up'

'AWESOME'

'Helpful extra info - hamdouts in particular'

'It was very informative and I now have a clear idea of what I'm doing'

Here's a few pictures of our day on site:

GDES2014 A SELECTION OF FINAL 2ND YEAR WORK FOR CLIENT VIEW

Here's a selection of final second year student outputs for this module in Semester 2. Our brief was set by staff at the Hive Library and learning centre in Worcester City Centre. The nature of the brief was to have students develop 'working prototype' activity and learning pages for a new Key Stage 2 level A4 guide for school visitors to the Hive. The ultimate aim would be to collate the preferred page content together in a final eActivity learning resource that the Hive will then offer-out to regional and local school visitors.

[ Click on any image to enlarge it ]

Iqra Akhtar

Here's Iqra's description of her work:

-- What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

I was mostly inspired by the activities that are found on the back of children's cereal boxes because of how colourful and graphic they are.

-- Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

My pages are colourful and eye-catching. I also tried to incorporate different types of activities for different types of learners.

-- What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


My personal favourite the the book review page because of how clean cut it is and the combination of writing and art tasks. I feel like that page is something children can develop on in their own time.

Ethan Brown

Here's Ethan's description of his work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

The work of Roald Dahl & Dr. Seuss has inspired my final designs because its bright colours and bold characters had such an impact on me as a kid I wanted to adapt the style for my own work

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

I have done some user testing for my activities and designs and I got positive feedback from KS2 children  

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?

I personally like the design of the front cover because it is so bold and I think the bee character complements the page and starts the narrative

Iona Darroch

Wording to be added soon.

Jess Jones

Here's Jess' description of her work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

Lauren Child’s talk at The London Book Fair was one of my biggest influences, as she inspired me to experiment with combining hand rendered drawings/textures with digital media. BBC Bitesize was very useful when understanding the vocabulary and visual language appropriate for key stage two.

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

I feel the activities are effective for the brief as they involve being physical. The children are given the ability to independently explore the library, in order to find certain books/locations. They are learning whilst having fun. The students have to use the information provided by the librarians in the initial introduction in order to help them. By finding the books/locations, this shows that the students have listened and understood the introduction.

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


I think my Map activity is the most effective. To a child I think the concept of a ‘treasure hunt’ is exciting and involves a lot of movement rather than sitting at a desk. It is satisfying for the students to tick the boxes to say they have completed the challenges, they have a sense of achievement. 

Sophie Ling

Here's Sophie's description of her work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

I did extensive research looking into all different styles and educational books for Key Stage 2 age groups. Colours from the Hive brief pack are what I based my colour scheme on and I looked into children’s activity books and reading books for special awareness for the page layouts.  

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

they’re full of fun, interesting activities. The colours are exciting and add to the tone of the booklet. The designs are interesting enough to make you want to read them and the did you know; top tips and fun fact boxes add further educational information. The activities are appropriate to what the client wanted and they are activities that they feel will help reinforce what the students learn that day about the hive. 

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


The type I’ve chosen to use. It’s fun, playful and not intimidating to read. The hand writing style gives a more relaxed approach which I hope would make the child feel more comfortable reading if they’re more apprehensive about instructions and a lot of text. The library scavenger hunt is a good example of an interesting activity. It will get the children exploring the hive, learning how to find the books and the design is interesting with the different types of text which correspond to the genre of the book. 

Noa Rakic

Here's Noa's description of her work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

My final design was inspired by children's picture books. Looking at some of the books I have at home, I always notice artists playing around with different media. Whether it is watercolour, vector art or even sculpting their character. My first thought was to do digital characters with vector art. But as I didn't have success in achieving the desired goal I started to experiment with other techniques. I am really glad I did as the style I went fore is much more suited for the given age group. I used ink and watercolours. The media are similar, but ink moves differently on paper, creating some smudges and different line thickness that makes it more noticeable. Watercolour allowed me to add a bit of dimension to the characters by adding shading.

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

Unfortunately, I did not finish all my designs and activities, but I aimed to provide children a balanced book supporting most of the information with visuals. So children not only learn, but also have fun learning through games and remember better trough visuals. I intended to include a game where children had to align themselves into alphabetical order by their last name. Not only would this game be fun, but it would also provide children to practise and learn their letters, as well as to get to know their classmates a little more. One of the games I included was a little search game, where the individual has to find the books that one of the characters presented. With this game the children will get to explore the hive, as well as practise their usage of the Dewey Decimal System and using their motor skills.

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


I find that the first page (not the cover) is one of the most interesting ones, as here you get to see and meet Dewy for the first time. He cheerfully greets you and invites you to see his home. He is a repetitive character targeting the book and is always trying to be helpful and cheerful, teaching kids about the library and its wonders along the way. The flowers that surrounded him, make him seem even more friendlier. On that page we can also see a little bee. She is Dewys helper and shows the kids fun tasks or important information dewy forgets. All the characters speak to the reader in first person, making it feel more interactive.

Casey Rann

Here's Casey's description of her work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

BBC Bitesize helped inspire my ideas – my symbol designs for the treasure hunt in was inspired by their icons for their KS2 subjects. I was also inspired by my visit to The Hive and discovering more about how it works and what interaction they have with young students.

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

The bright colours used would catch their attention and I hope my overall designs will keep them interested in the tasks I have created. I have implemented icon design as often as possible as most young students read through visual images rather than written words, so I have used these icons to help explain visually what it is the activity wants them to do. I have also designed my own typeface to add a more natural feel to the text and to allow the students to relate to a more handwritten styled font.

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?

I think my front cover is my most well-designed page as the text I have created is a large and bold size to catch the student’s attention, and the bright colours will also engage the students. However, my treasure hunt page is also very eye catching and is the most interesting task for the student to do.

Lauren Shomion

Here's Lauren's description of her work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

The key research references that inspired my final designs were BBC Bitesize and a children activity book that I collected at The Design Museum. These were important because it gave me an idea for what content and art style is appropriate for Key Stage 2 Children. This included font size, illustrations, and the overall layout as well. 

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

I consider my page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children because it includes simple playful illustrations with a consistent theme throughout all pages that will keep the children interested. Also, I created interactive activities that includes a mix of searching for books, drawing, writing, as well as a cut-out activity.

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


I consider my most effective/interesting activity/page to be the "Book Creation" page because the children are able to design their own book cover and really get creative. I also included questions at the bottom of this activity where the children will be able to test their knowledge with fiction and non-fiction as well as giving a summary with what their book would be about. I feel this activity brings a fun side to the library/books that may encourage kids to read more. 

Will Sheppard

Here's Will's description of his work:

• What key research references inspired your final designs and why are these important?

(Thomas, 2018)
Thomas, J. (2018). These 50 Awesome Book Covers Will Inspire You – And Teach You How to Design Your Own – Learn. [online] Learn. Available at: https://www.canva.com/learn/book-cover-design-50-amazing-covers-you-will-want-to-pick-up/ [Accessed 11 May 2018].
This allowed me to see lots of different methods of composition and how I could change the placement of things drastically and use clashing colours to cause a big effect.

• Why do you consider your page designs and activities for the Hive brief effective for Key Stage 2 Children?

I believe my activities are effective for key stage 2 children thanks to my research into text books and children’s literature. This allowed me to get a good understanding of the vocabulary and depth of their current reading and writing skills to produce activities hard enough to challenge them without belittling or giving them a task, they can’t accomplish.

• What do you consider your most effective/interesting page/activity and why?


I believe its my word search due to its new design using hexagons rather than regular squares which gives the child a different experience, although they are too young to remember hopefully a different and unique design as such may stay with them for longer rather than one they’ve seen 100s of times.