activities page ideas thoughts and opinions

After producing the main final spreads I was then able to consider and focus on the activity pages that  are connected to both of the spreads. By using the research that i had conducted earlier in the module, i then looked at this further exploring the ideas.

My ideas led me to focus on the idea of creating some thing that would allow the user to be creative themselves and another sheet that made them think.

Some possible ways in which this could be achieved could be...

• Drawing onto a egg - relating back to the egg shortage helping soldiers out 
• a food miles page - shows where the food came from (children have to guess)
• A word search (allows children to find the items either to do with the war or the recipe)
• A maze - this would include various illustrations to do with the recipe children would have to find the items
• Spot the difference - two drawings of a kitchen from WW1 spot the difference.

Once the ideas for each were laid out I then created a few quick thumbnails before asking for the opinions of others to which they believed would be best suited.

The majority of people suggested that for the eggless sponge page a Egg decoration would be a nice idea as it would allow the children to be creative and show originality. For the other page they said that either a word search or food miles page would look good. 

Using these decisions I was able to come up with the concepts for both spread activity pages opting for the egg decoration and word search ideas. 

my designs so far

I am pleased overall with my designs so far. I feel that i may need to look at the front cover in more detail, as I am unsure whether the background works with the illustrations. either the illustrations need to be one colour or the background needs to be changed. 

The page spreads however I feel work well with the theme of the book, they give a sense of nostalgia and fun. Which is what i was hoping to achieve. 

design development continued...

Developing my designs on screen, I had to move the different images and text around the screens to work out the correct size and position in which they should be placed. This took time in order to get the desired look.

design development

design development of front cover adding my sketches

I decided to add sketches to the front cover of my design, this was to add the sense of creativity to the book. As a scrapbook is full of a range of different media, i thought it was appropriate and necessary to replicate this throughout my final design.

With the aid of my Wacom drawing tablet i was able to drawn free hand striaght onto the computer, this enabled me to give the drawings a child like look.

Self reflection

I am currently at the digital development stage of the Cover. I would say that the double page spreads are nearly finished and only need minor changes made. The next stage is to finish both the cover and the spreads and to work on the worksheets. I also need to user test the designs that I have at the stage, with either children or people that work with children. As i have two cousins between the ages of 8-10 they will be perfect to test my designs on and to get their opinions. 

To do next:

• Finish Cover and create blurb. 
• Minor changes on both the spreads
• Worksheets
• User testing

The 10 best childrens cook books

An article i came across whilst doing some more research...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-10-best-childrens-cookbooks-8588949.html

London Bookfair 2015 - review and research task

I found the trip to the London book fair very enjoyable as well as being helpful when creating my final pieces for this module.

Upon arriving at the Olympia exhibition centre, I spent the next 2 hours looking at various different publishers and the books that they had to offer. As well as listening to talks that were taking place throughout the day. 

I was impressed by the large range of publishers in all of the sections of the book industry. In particular I found that large range of oversees companies impressive. 

I have taken a number of different photographs throughout the 2 hours that i was there for (which are shown below). 

With regards to the research task set for the book show, the three things that I enjoyed the most from the show were... 

- Usbourne 

- The variety of childrens cookbooks in the discounted books section. 

- The quirky different books i was able to find.. 

Binding the book...

Even though the book is to be given as a PDF to schools in order for them to print them out as this is more cost effective for schools. I do need to consider what if the book were to be published in the long term. Considerations like this mean that the layout, size and colours are very important, as well as how the book is to be bound together.

There are various different ways in which a book can be bound together, these include saddle stitching with thread, using signatures and glue, by adding a cover and finally using a ring binder.

After looking at the various pieces of research that i have conducted, i can see that a popular style of binding in children's cookery books is ring binders. Therefore I have decided to use this method on my final design.