OUGD603 Competition Brief: YCN 2015 'Save The Children' Brief

As part of the module, it was integral that I did a substantial competition brief which I would be able to produce work for and submit to go against others.

I started by looking at both the D&AD and YCN briefs for 2015. I took part in both competitions last year so I already have had the experience of doing each one. Last year I found that I had much more fun doing the YCN brief unlike a confusing and badly-written D&AD brief even though the work I produced for D&AD was more professional.

The best place to start was to look at all the briefs on offer and whittle it down. Looking at the D&AD briefs for this year, I wasn't interested or inspired by any of them, however, there looked to be quite a few different YCN ones that I could look into.

Annotated YCN Brief

The brief is to deliver a 'creative resource' that will inspire and motivate out target audience of dads to read to their children for just 10 minutes a day as part of their 'Read on. Get On.' campaign. The tone of voice is fun, personable, enthusiastic and engaging with an aim of providing the child to the father with regular consistent time with an adult.

It took a lot of thought in regards to what brief I would work on but I felt that it would be a good idea to work on the Save the Children brief. The reason for this is that I am an avid fan of reading and was always read to when I was a child so I can identify with the message that the campaign is putting across.

When reading the brief for Save the Children, it asked to deliver a 'creative resource'. When I think of a resource, I imagine a product or something that is tangible that can teach someone something.

Brand Guidelines for the Campaign

However, despite this, when looking at the mandatory campaign guidelines for the campaign, they didn't at all fit with the target audience of dads or make any sense in regards to the written brief that has been provided. The guidelines pander to a young audience not just in typeface choices but in colour and logo identity. It was like the brief was juxtaposed to itself! I decided that I would use a few of the elements wanted within the brand structure, like the typeface and Save the Children logo, but I would not be sticking to anything else. This would not fulfil what the brief was asking and therefore I just couldn't comprehend how to approach the brief.

Taking this thought process, I decided that I wanted to produce something that the father would be able to do with the child so they understand and see the benefit first hand of reading for 10 minutes a day. This way, I would be reaching the target audience of the father through a desired visual language that is more appropriate to a child.

I decided to look into the research conducted by Save the Children and branch off into my own relevant research towards the brief (See YCN Research Blog Post).

With these aspects still fresh in my mind, I came up with an idea.

Idea Generation

The idea I came up with was to make a story that was based on the situation that the target audience was in, thus, when reading the story they would be involved in the situation themselves and realise the need for reading as they could see the improvement in their child for themselves.

I decided that I needed to make this idea more streamlined so I decided to make the target audience towards young fathers, with children of aged 3-5 so that the book could be tailored to their reading development. This way, they would be able to get into the habit by including reading into their routine whilst feeding into the school learning as they would be starting to learn how to read at that point. Also, I decided to tailor this even more by focusing on fathers with sons as boys statistically read less than girls so this would be seen as a father/son bonding exercise as well as the sons would be able to see their fathers read with them and would be a good role model to follow.

I knew that this was a brilliant idea, however, I knew that doing this would be going against the brand guidelines given and would be approaching the brief completely in the way that the brief didn't want me to. I had a tutorial with Amber to talk about it because I knew this idea would completely fulfil the needs of the target audience but I was unsure that this would be regarded. Amber heard my case about the brand guidelines and my idea and she told me to go for it. I believe that it is the right thing to do in this case.

Planning of Storyline

The first thing I started working on was the storyline of the book as this would be integral to the overall way that the story answers the brief. I began by planning out what each page would have on it by writing down the story so this would act as a consecutive sequence that would make sense. I knew that a lot of children story books are quite repetitive in regards to content so I wanted to keep this in mind as I wanted the story to keep reiterating the fact of reading for 10 minutes and the connection between the father and sons relationship.

I brainstormed abilities that a lot of animals have to learn as they grow up, such as flying or swimming, and then thought of corresponding animals that are all different, such as birds and fish. Eventually, I came to thinking of a robin, turtle and lion as these are animals which are all different yet can be recognised easily by their visual identity.

I decided that, to be able to dictate the content of the story, I needed to be able to base it off something so I decided to start by writing the storyline for the book. It was important for me to include as many aspects as I could in regards to the father son relationship and the reference to the campaigns ten minutes of reading a day target.

Text Spacing

With this, I started off by typing out all of the content for the books storyline in a way that would be relevant for younger readers. I changed the spacing of the lines so that they were enough space to have a child have their finger underneath the words so that they can follow along as they read.

Mini Stories Planning

Amongst this, I planned out the mini stories that would happen within the story itself, planning the type of animals I would want to include and how the stories would play out. For each mini story that the father and son would read together over the nights, I knew that I wanted them to have varying animals that would all be in different settings with different things to learn. This would then reinforce the fact of fathers and sons learning something together.

Storyboard Plan

From the mini storyboard, I made a full story storyboard that has all elements of the book in it so there is a clear visual for me to work from in regards to the direction of the story.

Characters:

The first thing I wanted to do was establish the visual of the father and son characters as these would be the main characters of the story. It was important for me that the characters would be able to establish a bond and a connection with the audience from the start so I wanted them to be quite friendly and approachable.

Character Sketches

I began by doing some sketches of what the characters could look like so that I had some visual aids in regards to the direction of the book. I'm not very good at drawing so I just wanted to make sure that there was some clear distinctions between the adult and the baby animals as well as the father and son.

Then I put these sketches into a digital setting by producing them in Illustrator, by re-creating them using shapes.

Initial Character Development

I initially sketched the characters and developed them in that way until I came up with a visual that I felt would be fitting. I wanted to establish an obvious gap in age between the father and son so I wanted the father to have a beard and glasses as well as thinning hair, unlike the son, who has a wide smile and spiky hair. After sketching a couple I liked, I decided to produce a digital version of the characters. However, in complete honesty, I wasn't totally convinced on the digital character visuals that I had produced so far as they came across as very unconvincing. 

It was, at this point, that I had a crit where I was able to get some feedback on what I had developed so far in regards to the theory of the idea and the concept I had come up with, the storyline and the character visual that I had produced so far (See PPP Blog).

From the feedback that I was given, I began to work on developing the characters further so that they are much less cold and realistic.

Initial Changes

I started by getting rid of the beard on the father and making the glasses less thick so that he is much softer wheres I made the hair on the boy more natural. However, I still didn't feel as though this was enough of a change.

Boy Experimentation

I changed the hair of the boy to make it much more messy and natural so that this way, this would give a more relatable character. Also, I changed the colour of the pyjamas which suited the complexion of the boy and thinned his eyebrows so that they were more thoughtful and fitting on his face.

Dad Experimentation

For the father, I knew that I needed to develop him to be more approachable so I decided to try and make his smile bigger, changing the shape around his mouth and making the hair rounded and simplified so that it is much more realistic.

Comparison between the originals and the development

When comparing the character development, I am much happier in the way that the characters have developed as they come across as much more friendlier. This should allow for the audience to have much more of a connection to the story.

Full Body of the Characters

I went onto producing the whole body profile of the characters so that I would be able to have them stood up within the book.

I moved onto the animal characters next.

Characters in Illustrator

Again, I used shapes to give the animals a well rounded and more proportioned form then in the sketches but there is still a clear distinction between the age differences of the animals through the visual imagery.

In reflection of the characters, I feel like they are approachable and friendly, whilst the father and son are relatable to a normal, everyday family which allows for a connection between the audience and the book.

Settings:

I felt that I would move onto developing the setting next as, this way, I would be able to work with them quickly later on when producing the content for the book.

I started off with the father and son main characters as I knew that this would be the main setting that would be used throughout the book.

Initial Development

The most important thing in the room would be the bed so I decided that this would be the first thing that I would work on and then work around it. I found that the bed looked very plain on its own so I decided to include a bed side cabinet which would look like a matching piece of furniture alongside the bed by having them in the same coloured wood. Due to the fact that the father and son would be reading, I felt like a bed side lamp would be rather fitting to the content of the book so I added that detail in. I realised that the bed was more like a double bed which would make it a really large bed for a young child to have so I changed the bed so it was much more narrow like a single bed.

Additional Details

I went onto adding some more little details like a teddy bear and a ball because, even though I wanted the settings to be rather simple, I knew that most children's rooms would have some sort of toys and messiness. Alongside this, I developed a bookcase as well so that it would link in with the storyline of the book.

Boy Bedroom Interior

From this, I needed to have a room to put the details in. With it being a boys room, I decided to have the room and floor different shades of blue so it would be quite traditional. I was undecided as to whether to have the top of the room in full colour and have white text or have a faded to white top and have text above it. This was easily decided as I found the faded idea to be quite tacky and unclear. As well as that, I produced a rug for the toys on the floor to sit on to give the room more of a homely vibe.

From the main characters, I needed to produce 3 settings for each of the different animal characters.
I wanted them to be simple and uncomplicated as I want the characters and the message to have the attention of the audience.

I started off with the robin characters.

Initial Bird Setting Development

I liked the idea of having the birds sitting on a tree branch with the baby robin sat in a bird's nest yet this was originally a very plain page. I went onto adding a range of different leaves to give the impression of a tree canopy, like the birds are sheltering underneath a tree or are in a forest.

Bird Nest Development

I felt that the shape that I had produced for the nest was way too simple and, if anything, didn't allow the image to come across and translate well. I decided to develop the nest shape so that it was much more realistic of a birds nest. I found that by layering a range of different 'sticks' in regards to colour, this created a messy depth to the shape and thereby gave more of a bird's nest visual.

Bird Setting Detailing

From this, I started to add bits of detail onto the scene to built it up a bit, including additional branches for the tree alongside some more leaves. This way, the scene would represent a more realistic tree.

I went onto developing the lion's setting.

Initial Setting for Lions

Again, initially I started with something very simple to show the sahara desert yet straight away I wanted to start developing the scene to get so more detailing into it, therefore, I started to include some trees to give more of a sense of space and dimension.

Lion Setting Detailing

Following on from this, I began to add some more subtle detailing to the scene, with long grass to help create a sense of texture and depth and a mountain rock to help give more of a sense of scale. These little details helped to make the setting more convincing and fulfilling without putting lots and lots of elements to fill the page up.

I went onto producing the setting for the turtles.

Initial Turtle Setting

To start with, I wanted to create some sort of simple way to show movement in the water whilst having enough of a shoreline for the turtle character to stand on. I realised that the colour scheme I was using was giving off the wrong impression and the image was looking clumsy so I knew that I needed to start again.

Detailing to Turtle setting

Instead of thinking of the setting as a murky swamp, I started to think of the setting like a seaside shore which instantly made me change the angle of the visual background I was going for. I made for a much more pale, subtle image with some texture in the form of pebbles which would help build up the setting. I added a few wavy lines to the sea for movement without going overboard as I want the character to have the audience's attention when they are in the water.

Settings with Characters

I am really happy with the way that these settings have come out for the book because they are all different and the characters really suit within the areas that they fit in. I like how the backgrounds do not take away from the characters and instead, really enhance the connection between the characters and make it very clear as to what they are.

Story Narrative:

Due to the fact that I spent a lot of time working on the settings and the characters, I knew that this would allow me to work the narrative of the story much quicker because that way I had already got the visuals and, instead, I would be working with putting the story together.

Book Order Content Plan

Using the storyline that I had written earlier, I put the settings in the order that they would be in in the book so that I knew whereabouts everything would fit into so I was planning ahead.

Mock Up Book Covers

Using the settings that I have already designed, I made some mock up book covers to use as a prop to the scene. This way, the audience can be reading along with the main character.

Book Choosing Scene

I applied the books to the bedroom scene and included the boy character with his back to the audience so as to look like he has just picked the book out of his bookshelf. I wanted it to look like the boy has picked the book along with the audience and I feel like I achieved this by the way he is positioned.

Expanding from Single to Double Spread

From this, I added the original setting that I had made to the other side of the space to make the double page spread. This way I was able to line up all of the important details. I was really happy with the way that both the pages worked well together and that you could tell that it was from the same scene.

Expanding the Setting to Double

For the final scenes, I had to expand the bedroom setting so that it worked over a double spread. I found that I ended up designing and adding a door as well as some building block toys. I thought that the building block toys would be a good idea because they would be revealed at the end of the book and they would have a message relating to the development in the relationship between the father and son through the time invested in reading as well as the fact that the child's spelling has improved from reading too.

Bedroom Setting Scenes

From the original setting, I was able to quick produce the different pages for the different bedroom setting scenes with just making individual detailing when it was needed, such as an open book and having Tommy sitting up in bed.

White vs Blue Background

In the brand guideline, it asks for a white background for work to be presented on whist I have done a  full colour bleed illustration. I decided just to see what it would be like to have the work on a white background to see if this would work for the book yet, when I tried it from one double spread to a full book, it just looked ridiculous and unnatural, especially for an illustrated book.

From this experiment, I decided to stick with having a full colour background and moved onto the animal pages. For each of the double spreads of the animal pages, I took the original setting that I had produced and expanded it.

Robin Double Spread Pages

For the double spread for the robins, I needed to show height of the flying so, taking the original setting of being in a tree, I had the robins flying over a forest of trees.

Turtle Double Spread Pages

For the double spread for the turtles, I needed to show the expanse of the sea when swimming so, taking the original setting of being on a beach shore, I had the turtles swimming in the sea to land.

Lion Double Spread Pages

For the double spread for the lions, I needed to show the expanse of the sahara so, taking the original setting of being in a desert, I had the sahara expanded over two pages with different perspectives of trees and mountains.

Inner Page

Following these additional pages, I added an inner page with the title and author name in the middle with a small piece of information about the connection between the campaign and the book. This would be like a normal insert page in an illustration children's book.

From what I had produced so far, I put it all together so that I would be able to see what the publication looked like as a whole entity.

The actual book worked very succinctly together with the illustrations working well to make for a comprehensive book. Some of the book is quite similar in parts but, in a way, that adds to the approachability for the younger audience as it gives them a familiarity with the places in the book.

Despite this, there were some elements about the book that needed to change and be improved.

Development of Flying Birds

To start with, the birds in the storybook didn't look like they were flying. I can understand that this may be a minor problem but this doesn't give the storyline any realism so I decided to change this. I changed the shape of the birds wings, added some shadow and changing the placement of the birds. Again, a small change but helped make a big difference.

Perspective to Bedroom Setting

Another thing that needed to change was the perspective of the bedroom setting that I added to. The door was way too far forward and too big for the angle of the bedroom. Again, a small detail but one that has made a big difference in the presentation of the story. I made the door smaller and pushed it further back into the room to give a better impression of perspective.

Narrowing the Paragraph Length

The final thing I needed to do was more important and it was the change in size and paragraph length to the storyline. The length of the paragraphs were very long and were starting to effect the imagery in regards to the way that it was presented. I decided that it would be better if I made the space of the paragraphs narrower so that there would less on the image. I applied this to every single page so that it was consistent throughout the book.

Having applied the changes that I had, I put all the pages together again to produce the storybook in its full entirety.

The amendments of the book have made a big difference to the way that the storybook reads as it allows for the story to flow better.

Final Book Cover

Taking the bedroom setting that I had designed for the double spreads, I made this into the front and back cover for the storybook. I thought that this would be the best thing to have as it highlights the time that the father and son spend together.

Bookmarks:

I felt that it would be a really nice idea to have a series of bookmarks to have alongside the book itself so that there would be one bookmark they could use for the book and a few others to be used in more books so as to encourage their use through more reading.

I decided that it would be really nice to have the story characters as the bookmarks because they would be a reminder to the father and son audience to keep reading together and they would visually show in other stories where they had managed to get up to together. When I was talking about this inclusion during a crit, I was given the idea of having the bookmarks so that they fold over the top of the page so that the characters are sitting at the top of the pages. I thought that this was a really sweet concept so I decided to run with this.

Bookmark Development

Originally, I started by putting the character in the middle of the image and made a scene at the bottom of the bookmark which reflects the scene that they are in within the book, giving the character context on the bookmark. Despite this, I found that by doing just one side it would leave the other side blank which would make the bookmark look like it hadn't been finished off. From this, I flipped the design over so that it worked for both sides of the bookmark.

Crafting of Publication

I decided that I would do the book in a perfect bind because this would reflect the traditional bind of children's books. I have only ever done a perfect bind once before last year and it didn't go well at all so I wanted to use this as an excuse to try it again and get better at it. I was quite happy with the way that the bind came out as it was much neater and considered than the first time I had done it

Crafting of Bookmarks

The bookmarks themselves were surprisingly difficult to produce as they needed to be crafted very well and the small scale of the bookmarks made this quite difficult. Even more so because it is based on folding the bookmarks in half so the space for them to be folded is very thin and needs to be carefully handled. I think the physical nature of the bookmarks worked very well yet the crafting didn't work well in some places more than others, e.g. the turtle and robin worked well yet the lions not so much.

Book and Bookmarks

I am quite happy with the way that the book and the bookmarks have turned out as they work really well together as a set.

I photographed the book and put the images into photoshop so that they would be clear and professionally presented.

Edited Photographs

I wanted to make sure that I could clearly demonstrate the content and the purpose of my book within my photographs. It was a little difficult to show this in a way because, if I'm being factual, all I have to show in the photographs is a book and some bookmarks, so it was difficult to make sure that I didn't repeat myself constantly in the images. Saying that, I think I managed to get a good range of photographs that displays the purpose and content of the book.

At this point, I had a crit where I showed the book and bookmarks that I had produced for the brief (See PPP Blog).

From the feedback that I was given in the crit, alongside the physical book, it was suggested that I produce an iPad version of the book. This was a great suggestion as this had been something that had come up with the research that I read about at the start of the project but something that I hadn't got round to doing. I felt that this would add an extra dimension and consideration to my overall project.

Photoshop iPad Mock Up

Using a photoshop mock up, I was able to put a page of my book into an iPad screen to show what it would look like when in use. I added an arrow at the bottom of the page so that the user would be able to tap onto the arrow to interactively turn the page. The small yet simple line arrow would be useful without taking away or distracting from the illustration itself.

E-Reader Mock Ups

I applied this to a few consecutive pages so that you would be able to see what the app would look like when used. I felt that this demonstrated the use of the book and how it would work in a digital setting.

Initial Layouts

Initially, I liked the idea of having the design boards with the photographs at full scale so that they completely took up the whole page and to have the text over the top. Whilst this really suited some of the images which had more close up images with background on it, images which didn't have a close up shot didn't suit this layout as it took away from the content of the image.

White Border

Following on from this, I decided to include a border of white around the images to break up the layout a little bit. This made it much easier to see the written content of the boards yet the images just were not sitting right, especially with the iPad element ones. However, like it was suggested within my Crit, I decided to add a few pages on the actual storyline of the book by putting in the spreads as a storyboard so that the actual content of the book is in full view.

Design Board Layout

Eventually, I managed to choose a layout for my design boards that is spacious and keeps the integrity of the work. I felt like the design boards that I produced covered all aspects of the concept that I had produced, especially seen as I included the double spreads for the book and the digital iPad version of the story.

Also, I put some of the chosen final images for the boards and put them into photoshop to include the logo for Save the Children to the product. This way, it gives it more of a connection to the charity and adds more of a context to the product.

Submission

A digital PDF copy of the book itself and a PDF copy of the design boards showcasing the work and the context behind it. These had to be sent in a condensed .zip file for transfer.

Alongside the boards, I decided to send a PDF of the book within the .zip file as I knew that I would not be sending the physical book and I wanted YCN to see the book and the design work in its entirety. I'm much happier in regards to the boards presentation and the contents of the boards as they are much more condensed and precise in information.

From the production of my design boards, I went onto submitting my work to YCN in time of the deadline.

Competition Submission and Verification

From this, I confirmed the submission so that it processed and was submitted. I got a confirmation email to verify this.

I decided to re-photograph the book so that it reflected the personality of the book better.

New Photographs

I photographed the book on a coloured background so as to give the book more direction towards the child audience whilst being reflective of the full colour illustrations involved with the book.

With the inclusion of the new photographs I had made, I made some submission boards for the module submission to demonstrate the journey of the brand and how I came to this conclusion.

I feel that the boards that I have produced shows a very condensed yet clear development of how the project progressed.

I felt like this brief has been a success for me as I have managed to accomplish one of the things that I wanted to do this year which was to make a book. Even though this is a different approach to making a book, I feel like I have managed to tackle a fear that I had and therefore, it as been a worthwhile brief for me to do and something that I can add to my portfolio due to the lack of editorial design within it. If I was to change it, the layout of the book would be made even clearer and condensed with white space yet I have to remember that the full page is reflective of the purpose and audience of the product. If I had the chance, I would perhaps have developed a brand campaign to go alongside the book, with a new brand identity and promotional material.