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!