Ten things..- Questionnaire Reponse

1. Most children learn at home about relationships, how to be practical, how to clean the home and themselves, relationship building, what is right and wrong, safety at home and outside. 

 2. A child should learn about all of the above at home and these are constantly being improved as a young child grows up and becomes a teenager and young adult.
 

3. The first difficult question was where do babies come from and how do they come out of a mummy's tummy. It is also difficult to time the discussion as to what happens to a girls body and the changes that occur at around the age of 10 and 11 through to early teenage years. 

 4. A range of books may be helpful to let children of the age of 10/11 to know what happens and answer questions that they hear in the playground to distil the myths surrounding sex education. 

 5. Directed at ages 10 - 13

6. Some illustrations may be appropriate but more discussion and explanations may be better. There is so much information on the internet the books should focus on discussions with parents rather than friends who have picked things up from the internet.

OUGD301 - To Do this week

Looking at my timeline and 5 briefs I've decided to list what I have to do this week in order to stick to my time plan.

Type Factory:

Research 6 typefaces

Experiment and research colour palette

Content of timeline - Collect

Design Branding and identity

Layout of publication - Research

Contact list of professionals based on concept:

'Show me mine, I'll show me yours'

Sending a piece of work to gain another for exhibition.

10 Things:

Research reading ability of target audience

Childrens books

Choose 10 topics - Research

Doing my nut in:

Collect Content - Organise

Research target audience

Accessorize:

List items to illustrate for both collections x2

Produce Initial surface pattern designs

Print range

Casa Mia:

Type a day - Continue

Come up with colour palette

Dissertation:

Make notes on 'No Logo'

Case studies - WallMart reseach further

Chapter

10 Things - Waterstones Children's reading

I visited Waterstones to gain an understanding of my Target Audience, and the designs areas I will need to produce work for in order to display my publications. As I'm not a parent I don't know at what age children can read, or to the extent so I did a bit of product research too, picking up books from different sections and age ranges and making note of the amount of words and illustrations used.

Sections:

'Very first books' 

Pictures, textures and toys. Books are seen as a toy and interactive rather than reading material.

' Baby and Toddler 0-3'

Double page picture books, Sentence per double page spread.

'Little ones 3-5'

Large book size (Easier for a child to hold)

Pop up

More Writing

4 Lines x 2 Sentences

'Favourite Friends'

Hungry Caterpillar

The Gruffalo 

Spot

Toys

'Fun things to do'

Colouring Books

'Learn'

School

'Key Stage 2 (ages 7 - 11)'

Academic subject books

'Nature and Dinosaur'

'Science'

'History'

'Picture books'

'Learn to read 5-8'

'New Readers 5-8'

'Fiction 5-8'

'Poems and jokes 5-8'

After speaking to my housemate who studies Primary Care at University, she suggested my target audience should be Keystage 1 (6-7 Years) as at that age they can read words, and understand them enough to take in. 

Ten things - Primary Research

I wanted to get a broader range of topic to look at producing books for, but as I'm not a parent I found it difficult to think of many. I decided to conduct a questionnaire and ask those I know with children to answer it.

1) What topics do you feel a young child learns at home, and not at school?

2) Which topics do you feel a young child should learn at home?

3) What subjects did you find difficult explaining to your child / children

3) Did ever of your children ever ask questions you found hard to answer? E.g What happens when you die? What does divorce mean? Examples please.

4) As a parent, would you find useful, a range of childrens books which look at illustrating and explaining sympathetically such topics?

5) If such a range of books were produced, what age range do you think they would be best directed at?

6) In relation to question 5, would you suggest only illustrations, or illustrations and type (for a child to read, or to be read to)

Brief time management - Chosen Briefs time scaling

Doing my nut in

Content given
Obtain content, put into context
Research what tone of voice I want
What context is the publications going to be in?
Educational?
Informative?
Humorous?

Begin Research (few days worth)
Start Designing

Research time scale - 3 Days
Design Time scale - 2 Week s
Print Time Scale - 2 / 3 days
Binding time scale - 2 days

Casa Mia Re-brand

Content given for products
Photograph meals (find photographs)
On going 'Type a day' project

Type a day timescale - 2 Months
Design time scale - 1 Week
Print time scale - 1 Week (screen print)
Finishing - 3 Days

Start After Christmas

10 Things

Research Driven
Obtain research, attain content
Research Library areas
Research Childrens books
Illustrative material produced after research

Begin Research now 
Start designing

Research time scale - 1 Week
Illustration time scale - 1 Week
Design time scale - 1 Week
Print time scale - 3 Days
Binding time scale - 3 Days
Finishing - 2 Days 

Type Factory

Research Driven
Students work to attain
Promotional Material
Design now, event after christmas

Research time scale - 2 Weeks
Attaining student / professional work - On going over brief start to finish
Design work - 2 Weeks
Print Time scale - 2 Days
Binding and Finishing - 2 Days
Producing and holding event - 2 / 3 days

Accessorize Autumn and Winter collection

Illustrative material
Driven by products in store
Products determine illustrative content
Pattern design 
Design Now

Illustration time scale - 1 / 2 Weeks
Pattern Range Design time scale - 3 Days
Design work - 1 Week
Application of Pattern to design material - 2 Days
Print time scale - 2 Days
Mocking up - 1 Day

10 Things you should know about

10 Things you should know about...

Brief:

To Create a series of 10 children's books which focuses on teaching them things they wouldn't necessarily learn at school. Life skills and things they need to know outside of school at a young age should be the main focus. They will need to be highly illustrative to make them more understandable and easy for a child to read without assistance.

Considerations:

What will your topics be?

Do you need to talk to parents / teachers to find out?

How do I make the books easy to understand

What age group are you targeting

Background:

Parents are finding it more difficult to find time to read to their children, what is the result of this? What aren't children learning? Some things aren't taught in school, such as basic first aid, and when to call 999. What other necessities arent children learning?

Deliverables:

A range of 10 books

Extensive research into your 10 Topics

Products in appropriate environment

Problem:

1. Children need to learn basic life skills young
2. Children aren't reading as much as they should

3. Children find it difficult to read

4. Some parents don't have enough time to read with their children 

5. There are some things children won't learn at school

Solution:

To produce a range of books looking at different topics to educate children on important life skills, some which they won't pick up at school, to learn from home, such as basic first aid, others such as their alphabet, geography, objects around the home etc. The books will be heavily illustrated so children don't necessarily need a parent to help understand whats going on. 

Range:

There will be a range of 10 topics (the topic titles will be researched in what is needed most)

Distribution context:

They will be placed in Waterstones and available within children areas of libraries.