Final Book Design

Art style - rough, sketchy, hand rendered. Like a scrap book, personalized. Sustainable reflected in seasonal pages theme, brown paper textures and hand rendered paint textures - back to basics rather than modern computer generated imagery. Reflects natural world.
Fonts with hand-rendered look mainly used to add to the messy scrap book theme, but for smaller text used
Spiral bound makes it more durable, can have double page open or just one page. made of recycled materials, but laminated to make it longer lasting in a potentially wet/messy environment (kitchen). Able to wipe clean the pages.
Added features - lift-able  flaps to reveal ingredients list. Same on every page, child learns this pattern of how to obtain the ingredients. Similar layout on each page, yet different background imagery to reflect the seasons of the main ingredients (apples in Autumn). Not neatly structured - children enjoy hectic, messy things, yet arrows and numbers keep it chronological and easy to follow. Limited text, children prefer lots of imagery in books.
Used photographs rather than illustrations to show process. Too much illustration would be for younger audience, 8+ year old's can identify photographs with what they see in real life/ more of an educational reference book. Photos are cut out shapes of the tools/food/process, eliminating the backgrounds of the photos which would take up unnecessary space. Placed on clouds/splat shapes to reflect natural/messy theme.

E-books

More and more children are becoming used to accessing information on smart phones and tablets, even reading books on them. It is important to consider this when designing a book as offering a digital version as well means it's more accessible to more people. Many childrens stories can be told on tablets using sound and animations, as well as interaction from the child such as tapping and swiping fingers on the screen.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGCFxJLqbQ  - classic story 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' told through a video, with sounds and animation.

http://nosycrow.com/blog/how-we-made-jack-and-the-beanstalk  - Nosy Crow Jack and the Beanstalk video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h1EYwDg8lU#t=23  - Using a tablet to look at e-books.




How my book may look on iPhone -

Could tap the frying pan to hear a frying sound, click different pictures to reveal a new fact, flick ingredients list to lift flap, swipe to turn page (makes noise) turn horizontally to view two pages at once.

Final Idea Development & Process

Title Page Designs

Cooking Photographs

Here are a selection of photos I took during the process of making the 2 recipes. Easy Cheesy Eggy Bread, and I chose to make Apple Crumble as well as it is cheap and easy to make, relatively healthy and appealing to children as a timeless classic.

               

Seasonal Eating

Some information on seasonal foods to inspire my page spreads and recipes.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/seasonal-calendar/20041
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/seasonal-food

http://eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/calendar/

Idea Development

After thinking more about the sustainability side of the brief, I started to come up with some page design ideas. The pages would feature information on where the ingredients come from, but the visuals would dictate what season the food grows in (within UK). For example a recipe that used (UK grown) strawberries would have a summer theme and a recipe using broad beans would have an Autumn theme. This can also be applied to things like holidays, like Christmas themed recipes would have a matching theme.
I also started looking into brown paper texture for my backgrounds, as it gives a green/sustainable vibe as well as the personal scrap-book idea I looked at earlier. Varied Hand-render style text also adds to this.

Sustainable cook-book Research

Simple in Season - 4 strips reflect 4 seasons and what foods to eat in those seasons. The Southern Foodways Alliance - Beautiful earthy colours, simple illustrations and paper textures.

Baby and Child Vegetarian Recipes - Lots of fruit and veg is colourful and appealing, reflects theme and healthiness. The Sustainable Table - brown paper texture reflects sustainable theme, natural, no toxic inks. Simplistic illustration looks modern and suitable for the theme. 

London Book Fair Trip 2014

Three Different Innovations:

Digitized story telling coming in many different forms, whether it be apps on a smartphone or tablet, games on a computer or e-books on something like a kindle. I saw a lot of these ideas at The London Book Fair which is appropriate as more and more children are getting used to using such technology. It often enhances the childs experience with things like interaction (touch, tap, swipe, flick) sound, games, animation and videos.

Books as different shapes, not squares or rectangles. I particularly liked these ideas as it would definitely appeal to children having something they're not used to (normally see rectangular books and screens) The shape often reflects the content for example the cookbooks are food. The Sandwich designs are also made from a foam material which again enhances the childs experience with a new texture to touch.

Books as toys. There are many different ideas to do with this, such as the 'Teachers Pets' which is something I even had when I was a child. It is a small plush with a zip mouth, but when you unzip it the book is inside. The cupcake product is actually a box with the book inside, as well as other added features like free cupcake cases, wooden spoon, apron etc. 'Who Lives Deep in the Forest' had buttons included in which, like the e-books and games, the child can press and they will make sound effects. Of course there were lots of intricate pop-up designs that I really enjoyed also. Book covers were also made out of different materials such as the one featuring a chicken is like a soft pillow, definitely suitable for very young children who like to throw things about!

Development Ideas

Some initial front cover design ideas and different steps of creation, involving the painted texture foods I made earlier. After receiving feedback off peers and clients, I need to look more into the sustainable side of the book such as emphasizing seasonal foods, colours etc. These designs however seem very suitable and appealing to children in my opinion due to the busyness, colours, textures and the game of 'follow the lines' on the front. Others feel the bowl could be illustrated as well as it could seem out of place, and that the lines should all be different colours or patterns. 

While I like this sleek simple design, I do not feel it is as appealing to children as my first design idea. Here I used my hand drawn food sketches accompanied by different fonts that mimic hand-written styles, giving that messy yet personal feel like a scrap book sort of deal. The minimal design emphasizes the sustainable theme as it leaves out unnecessary things, only giving us the important info. My tutor felt reminded of another book after looking at my design - 'The Sustainable Table' which I felt was a brilliant quirky designed book that worked well for its target audience, alas my book is aimed at children so again, I will be changing/going with a different design idea. 

Research into Children's Cookbooks

Brightly coloured, busy and fun. Hand render style fonts or cartoon-ish fonts will appeal to children.Eat seasonally graphic is inspirational to me but too much wording isn't suitable for children. Mixture of both photographs and illustrations.

The top ones seem very plain and boring, formal straight forward layouts. The 'Little Chef' book is better as its more illustrative and colourful in style. The 'Cooooookies' and 'Marmalade Flapjacks' art is very beautiful I think, the colours, textures and fonts use as well as it's busy-ness will appeal to 8 year olds. 

The Ellas kitchen book is very simplistic but still colourful and engaging, with messy hand render style fonts and child like illustrations. The 'First Cook Book' again has a nice illustartion style which I think works better than using photographs on a front cover. Little chef characters may be appealing and humorous for children.

Ring binders for childrens cooking books is a good idea I think, as they are more durable and can be laid down flat, whereas a normal bound one cannot. 'My Favourite Recipes' has a lovely intricate art style and 'The Kids Cook Book' had a just as nice, simplistic art style. 

'When we were very Young' BBC documentary series about childrens cook books