Over One Hundred

Dove, The Man Manual: Dove’s new advertisements for...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:57:33 +0100

Dove, The Man Manual:

Dove’s new advertisements for it’s Men+Care range are reminiscent of 1950’s public service announcement videos, and borrows its simple graphic styling from model-making instruction manuals.

The light-hearted adverts explain in simple terms that with Dove’s Men+Care moisturising and antiperspirant properties, men are allowed to live their life to the fullest - and ultimately not suffer from ‘malfunction’.

The ads are entirely grey, with subtle uses of colour when signage or arrows are used. An interesting approach by Dove, and a departure from Lynx male product advertisements that talk solely about attraction.

Dove Men+Care, Malfunction: http://youtu.be/d6U5rKwGQSU
Dove Men+Care, Outer Layer: http://youtu.be/QZ_W3Rn6HfU

Jurassic Snacks With Astrid And Max, A Recipe Book For Boys And...

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:01:00 +0100

Jurassic Snacks With Astrid And Max, A Recipe Book For Boys And Girls - Sam Bartlett:

My aim was to try and engage children with cooking in a new way, through ‘narrative recipe’. Recipe books aimed at children are all written in the same methodical approach as those books aimed at adults, they might have a few more exciting characters, brighter colours and easier recipes, but these seem to be the only discernable differences.

My books tell the story of Astrid and Max, two dinosaurs with a passion for cooking; each 8-step guide is easy for children to follow, and sees them create a healthy snack/drink.

In every paperback collectable book there are pink preparation pages (for parents to see the ingredients and method needed) and white colouring in and activity pages at the back for children (for something to do whilst waiting for things to cook).

www.sam-bartlett.co.uk

VCM511 Unit Evaluation: Over the past twelve weeks I have been...

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:41:00 +0100

VCM511 Unit Evaluation:

Over the past twelve weeks I have been creating a collection of children’s narrative recipe book, for the purposes of my project I created one fully illustrated book and two ‘dummy books’ (books with front covers and empty pages).

Children’s recipe books are written in the same methodical approach of books aimed at an older audience, admittedly there are more characters around the pages, brighter colours and simpler recipes, but past this both books are primarily the same. My goal was to engage 4-7 year old children with healthy eating and cooking through a recipe book with narrative, a book where the main characters cook on their own, and the children reading are keen to follow.

I knew from fairly early on in the project that I wanted to tackle the children’s sugary sweets and drinks market in the homes of children, in an attempt to introduce children to tasty, healthy alternatives. The Jurassic Snacks collectable paperback books were at the end of a long evolution of ideas that included a fruit crusher for kids, a ‘tasting book’ and an edible recipe book full of delicious flavours. I’m glad that I pursued the idea of a narrative recipe book because I feel like the collection of 8-step recipes, combined with Astrid and Max, create a complete product that can be adapted into other markets (e.g. fruit juices, cake mixes etc.), and the longevity of the product was something that the other ideas lacked.

I went through many different designs before I settled with Astrid and Max, the anthropomorphic dinosaurs; such as a cooking boy dressed up as a dragon, a normal boy that loved to cook, brother and sister dinosaurs, a family of cooking monkeys, and a cool-dude dinosaur. My main issue with having a dinosaur as a main character was the fact that this naturally attracts a male market to the product, which was why I began to involve Astrid into the recipes. Retrospectively perhaps my stories could have been made more appealing to both male and female 4-7 year olds by creating the story around animals that didn’t generally favour one or the other (i.e. hedgehogs, monkeys, lions etc).

I chose to have my books in paperback, against the recommendation of others; this was a decision that I made to benefit the collection as a whole, because although hardback books feel more complete in themselves, paperback books take up less space on shelves when part of a broad collection. In conjunction with this, I decided to have the front covers of the books printed on coated 300gsm paper and the inside of the books printed on uncoated 250gsm paper. The uncoated paper helped add subtle texture to the illustrations on the page, helping their colour jump out, and making each page feel satisfying to touch.

In the final month before the unit of work was due, my project turned into a race against time; I had 3 books to illustrate with 8 illustrations each (minus the covers) and each illustration took around 3-4 hours each. My lecturers advised me that my concept was made clear by just one of my books, and that they’d rather see 1 book executed well (with 2 ‘dummy books’) than 3 books executed quickly. This was an abrupt change to my working pattern, but a change that helped me produce a book that I am proud of, rather than 3 that had been thrown together. Had I thought more about it, I would have realised this myself and given myself more time to spend on my book to make it perfect, I think that I got too wrapped up in the illustration side of things as I accidentally let the project management side slip.

Overall I am very happy with the body of work that I have produced for VCM511, and it is probably my strongest work to date. I was overjoyed with the service and quality that Purely Digital offered me for my prints, and I would definitely consider them again; had I been able to afford it, I would have had the dummy books printed and perfect bound with them too, as I wasn’t as happy with these prints in comparison. I felt like I stuck to my Learning Agreement and Time Plan very well over the course of the project, of course had I set my self 1 complete book rather than 3 complete books as my task in the beginning I could have spent more time on the illustrations and the general construction of the collection. Had I done this, I would have liked to produce more dummy books to show the longevity of the collection, perhaps a box to store them, posters, merchandise, or even a mocked-up magazine to run alongside the collection.

Jurassic Snacks, Front Covers: Here are the final 3 books covers...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:28:45 +0100

Jurassic Snacks, Front Covers:

Here are the final 3 books covers for ‘Jurassic Snacks With Astrid And Max’; the Breakfast Smoothie cover will be part of a complete 8-step narrative recipe book, whilst the other 2 covers will be mocked up as dummy books with blank innards to give an impression of how the collection of recipes will come together.

I tried to keep the outcome of the recipe as the focal point of the front cover, allowing it to sit central on the table; although I tried to do this in an unforced way. Instead of just plonking the strawberry ice pop in the middle, I decided to place the ice pop moulds, with some ice pops surrounding them in Astrid and Max’s hands.

I treated the back of the book much like I did the text throughout, a close-up of a tabletop with several of the ingredients needed spread over it. Pricing was an issue that I thought hard about, I wanted to keep the price fairly low as there would be a large volume of recipes available. However, since I produced these covers, I have been told that perhaps the price point undersells the books.

thedsgnblog: DDB | http://ddb.com ” The 91st Art Directors...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:13:38 +0100

thedsgnblog:

DDB | http://ddb.com

” The 91st Art Directors Club Annual This book is an extension of the “keep fighting the good fight” campaign, which pokes fun at the industry while celebrating the best of the year’s creative achievements. Designed at DDB New York, Creative Direction: Matt Eastwood & Menno Kluin, Art Direction: Carlos Wigle, Copywriter: Aron Fried, Book Design: Juan Carlos Pagan & Brian Gartside, Illustrations: Rami Niemi.”

At DDB we are guided by playbooks, not rule books. Rigid methodologies minimize creativity. Paint-by-numbers gets you the same painting every time. That is not to say we do not have tried and true approaches to building and growing world class brands – we do. But rather than share our methodologies, we rather you spend time on the rest of this site and take a look at examples of our work, peruse some of our thinking, participate in our debates and discussions – basically get to know who we are.

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Craig McCracken, Cartoonist: More often than not, we take the...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 12:27:03 +0100

Craig McCracken, Cartoonist:

More often than not, we take the art within cartoons for granted, we get used to the characters and story far too quickly and forget the artists and animators behind the exciting art style. Craig McCracken is one such artist that has brought his imagination to the global stage through his Emmy award winning series Powerpuff Girls (1998-2005) and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends (2004-2009) aired on Cartoon Network. He also held a large role in the storyboarding of Dexter’s Laboratory (1996-2003), also aired on Cartoon Network.

His art style is very unique, blending heavy usage of geometric shapes with exaggerated characters that speak volumes about their personality through their faces and figures. A simplistic style that is usually accompanied by flat colour, both of which help his target audience identify with the shows, which is probably why they have become so successful.

Wonderful artists like McCracken can be enjoyed by both adults and children, and with his new project ‘Wander Over Yonder’ in production for release in Summer 2013, we are sure to see plenty more from him. For everything McCracken, Powerpuff Girls and Foster, head over to Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Kevin - Kevin McShane: Artist Kevin McShane has spent...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:03:00 +0100

Cartoon Kevin - Kevin McShane:

Artist Kevin McShane has spent the last two years on a peculiar and somewhat unique project, he has drawn himself in the style of 100 different cartoon shows. Homage to some beloved children’s show artists such as Matt Groening (The Simpsons), Hanna Barbera (The Flintstones), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball Z), Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls) and Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) appear in the list.

A fantastic project that everyone can understand and enjoy, it is fantastic to look through his 100 characters, and serves as an almighty thank you to all the illustrators and animators that have been making cartoons for both children and adults to enjoy for many, many years.

To see Kevin McShane’s assemblage of characters, click here.

Jurassic Text Layouts: Children’s books need to be...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:11:29 +0100

Jurassic Text Layouts:

Children’s books need to be engaging and educational, text can make or break this balance; a spread can pop off the page with text or it can be made completely dull and boring depending on its placement and treatment.

I was concerned that text would make the book boring, or trip up on the illustrations that I have produced. To see how other illustrators/publishers have treated text throughout their books I took a trip to WHSmith to get some hands-on time with contemporary children’s books. The above images are type experiments over a double page spread to try and see how type could work throughout my recipe book.

The most successful experiments, I feel, were those that separated the text and the image. Integrated text works throughout some books, but as there isn’t much room on my illustrations for text, artwork was being covered which I would really rather avoid.

The typefaces that I used through my narrative recipe book were Clare Hand and Amatic.

Anthropomorphise This! Steven Neish’s Guide To Character...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:40:00 +0100

Anthropomorphise This! Steven Neish’s Guide To Character Building:

The movie blog site Best For Film recently posted a guide to personification and anthropomorphism in cinema. Looking at anthropomorphic characters for my children’s recipe book, this article seemed relevant material to look at.

The author of the article ‘Anthropomorphise This!’, Steven Neish, talks first about puppets as the most commonly used characters for personification. He then goes on to explain that inanimate objects, robots, concepts and ideas, and even miscellaneous items can all be transferred into characters with tons of personality and charm.

‘While Walt Disney’s Pinocchio is the archetype, featuring a wooden likeness that just wants to be a real boy, there is also Chucky, who just wants to kill a real boy, and Mr. Garrison’s right hand, which just wants to… well, we’ll leave it at that.’

- Steven Neish, Best For Film

To read the whole article ‘Anthropomorphise This!’ by Steven Neish on Best For Film, click here.

Cooking With Astrid And Max In The Kitchen: Obviously, cooking...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:56:36 +0100

Cooking With Astrid And Max In The Kitchen:

Obviously, cooking in a kitchen cannot take place without, well, a kitchen. Drawing a kitchen isn’t as simple as you might think; what does a kitchen look like? Well, we all have the kitchens that we are used to, but incorporating the essence of my kitchen into a universal kitchen was tricky.

To help me out, I scoured through many different kitchen interior websites to help me understand what basic kitchens have, popular colour schemes, placement of appliances, and a load of other things that we all just take for granted.

Finally, to help me draw the same kitchen scene from different locations, I created a flat plan based on my research. When the drawings were done, it took a lot of work to get the colour scheme just right; often browns in a kitchen environment looked like something out of the 70’s or 80’s, and being a modern children’s book, this was something that I wanted to avoid for fears of it becoming quickly dated.

Cooking Mama, Learn to Play and Cook: Trying to produce a...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:07:19 +0100

Cooking Mama, Learn to Play and Cook:

Trying to produce a children’s recipe book has been an inspiring experience, as I have got to learn about the many different ways that artists, the government and parents use to try to reach out to their children and get them to eat and live responsibly. Cooking Mama on the Nintendo Wii is one such method that producers 505 Games have tried, in order to get children excited about delicious and unusual food.

Throughout the game, players are put through a series of tasks that all drive towards a common goal of creating a new dish; this could include chopping vegetables, opening cans, stirring mixtures, setting timers on ovens etc. Obviously this does not actually get children into the kitchen, the child doesn’t get to taste what they make, and ultimately it keeps children infront of televisions a little while longer - but it certainly gets children inspired by food and I’m sure that this game has often become the springboard into many juvenile culinary experiments.

A charming art style that goes hand-in-hand with a delightful set of characters and engaging gameplay. This certainly is one way to get children fired up about cooking exciting foods, and I’m sure any child after playing will be enthused about repeating what he/she sees on-screen, in the kitchen.

For a brief sample of gameplay, click here.

To buy or find out more about Cooking Mama, click here.

Draw It, Line It, Colour It, Refine It: I am currently in the...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:15:00 +0100

Draw It, Line It, Colour It, Refine It:

I am currently in the final 3-4 weeks of my Final Major Project, the terrifying count down to Hand-In has begun, but let’s not focus on that.

My children’s recipe book is going to be based around the narrative of Astrid and Max cooking in their kitchen, with the children reading encouraged to cook along with them. For more on narrative recipes, click here.

Each book contains three recipes that follow an ingredient theme, the book that I am striving to complete for my Final Major Project is based around Strawberries (other books may be based around bananas, nuts, grapefruit etc). Each recipe is made up from eight steps, so in total that is 24 illustrations, excluding front and back covers and and other illustrations for preparation pages, parents sections etc.

Drawing the 24 steps was a process that took me quite a while, making the characters look engaged and the same throughout was the toughest challenge. After this it was the linework that needed to be completed; this stage allows me to refine the drawings on Adobe Illustrator, make them look more real and fix any mistakes. Finishing this, the final stage is adding colour to the characters and composition on Adobe Photoshop - the longest stage of them all. Above you can see the development of this composition from the initial to final stages.

Jurassic Snacks With Astrid And Max: For my Final Major Project,...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:33:10 +0000

Jurassic Snacks With Astrid And Max:

For my Final Major Project, my goal is to try and get children cooking healthily in the kitchen. This was spurred on by the revelation that sugary, fizzy drinks are canned at around 55p in shops, whilst orange juice (for example) is sold at £1.30. I wanted to try and get children away from sugary sweets, food and drink, but instead of tackling this on the shelves with some new branding, I decided to tackle it at home with new kind of children’s recipe book.

There are listening books, reading books, scratch ‘n’ sniff books, touching books, and I wanted to complete the sensory experience with ‘tasting books’. The recipe book will be written in narrative, so children can read along and watch the characters cooking and follow themselves; by the end of the book the children will have a healthy snack/drink to feast on. This is different to other children’s recipe books currently on the market, as these books are simply the same methodical recipes as adult recipe books - with bright pictures and perhaps characters (for a post explaining narrative recipe, click here).

I felt that characters were an important anchor for children, as they often need to find someone/something to relate to in products aimed towards them (see Tony the Frosties Tiger, Coco Pops Monkey, Happy Monkey Milkshakes, Disney Characters, Umbrellas with faces etc). I thought a lot about adding another layer to the experience through anthropomorphism, as this is also massively popular with children; we see children’s channels covered in anthropomorphic characters with Peppa Pig, Octonauts and Shaun the Sheep to name but a few. Henceforth, after a lot of experimentation with characters and animals alike, Astrid and Max were born; two dinosaurs that really enjoy cooking.

A Ball For Daisy - An Illustrated Picture Book By Chris...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:05:33 +0000

A Ball For Daisy - An Illustrated Picture Book By Chris Raschka:

The winner of the 2012 Randolph Caldecott Medal, A Ball For Daisy tells the story about love and loss in a way that only Chris Raschka and his beautiful paintwork could tell it. Throughout the book we explore the joy that a new toy can bring, which children easily relate to, and the devastation caused when that certain toy breaks or is broken by someone else.

The picture book market is approached in a different way by Chris Raschka, as it is littered with cartoonist impressions of characters and events, whilst Raschka relates to his audience with a suggestive, colourful journey with paint. He portrays the narrative in such a loose way, both children and parents are asked to use their imagination in order to communicate with the semiotic language that he uses throughout A Ball For Daisy.

Raschka’s identifiable swirling paint strokes, and impressionistic style tells an emotional, affectionate story that any child will be able to connect with - especially children with dogs, or children that are trying to deal with a loss of one of their favourite things.

To buy A Ball For Daisy, or to find out more, click here.

Amanda Visell, Illustrator: When talking about inspiration,...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:00:32 +0000

Amanda Visell, Illustrator:

When talking about inspiration, Amanda Visell admits that she has always been intrigued by vintage Disney and war era cartoons. It was this inspiration that gave birth to her accessible, juvenile style, and her friendly roster of characters. It is a lot more common today to see artists with humble roots in painting/sculpture turn to digital children’s book illustration, this is because when used correctly, working digitally can be quicker than any other medium for producing strong, professional work. However, Visell has stuck to her material roots when illustrating, creating imagery through the mediums of painting and sculpture which she has become very popular for doing.

Early in her career she moved to Los Angeles to seek a job in visual development for animation. This venture eventually led to success, as she was able to work on projects for The Simpsons and the feature film Elf.

In 2005 she took to exhibiting her wonderful paintings, which she has recently become most famous for. Her amazingly adventurous characters, predominantly made up of geometric shapes, are a vibrant insight into her fantasy-filled mind. To see more of Amanda’s work, visit her website here.

Forma: London-based designer Arjun Harrison-Mann created this...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:24:00 +0000

Forma:

London-based designer Arjun Harrison-Mann created this custom typeface based on the history of design and typography. The type’s layered structure represents the complexity and connectivity of memory, and more specifically, how ephemera can trigger different memories about a certain event or place.

A nice piece of design, this layered style of design is becoming increasingly popular, but Forma seems to offer something new to this growing typographical market.

When describing his work, Arjun says:

‘A typeface inspired by the history of type, specifically
Aztec and 3rd century Coptic mark making, entitled ‘Forma’.
This typeface was custom made for my final major project based on
autobiographical memory and how ephemera can trigger memories.
Therefore I chose to use a layered structure to represent the complexity
and connectivity of autobiographical & triggered memory.’

- Arjun Harrison-Mann

To see Arjun’s Forma project, or any other piece of his work, check out his Behance page here.

Children’s Collectables, Skylanders and Moshi...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:01:18 +0000

Children’s Collectables, Skylanders and Moshi Monsters:

Collectables and children go hand in hand, I’m not sure why children have to collect things, but I know when I was a child there was a need to collect and show my friends. I grew up with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh card collections, amongst several football sticker books; today the things to collect are Moshi Monsters and Skylanders, both of which contribute to in-game rewards in their respective children’s video games.

An idea that I’ve had for my Final Major Project is a periodical magazine that includes narrative recipes for children. I’m not sure whether these would be a series of books with different recipes, or a collectible folder with new inserts released periodically. If this is to become a collectable, periodical magazine for children, then it is important to note the techniques that are popular in the collectables market, and why they work.

Both Skylanders and Moshi Monsters purchases relate to in-game rewards that the children can receive and play with. Perhaps I could mimic this approach and get children rewarded through some kind of browser game like Moshi Monsters? Or, maybe the magazine could offer rewards and competitions for children that send in photos of their new culinary creations.

Collectables, and getting children to collect them, is a powerful tool that can lead to customer loyalty and long-term customers.

Make And Bake With Peppa Pig, Children’s Cooking: It is...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:00:41 +0000

Make And Bake With Peppa Pig, Children’s Cooking:

It is key that before I go ahead with my Final Major Project (creating a children’s narrative recipe book) that the combination of narrative and cooking really is a new concept. I propose to create a children’s story that they can read with their parents in the kitchen about a character cooking, and as they read they can follow along and follow the story. This means that by the end of the story the children reading will have a tasty meal/drink that they have made, this can educate children in reading, counting, rhyming, cooking, and also introduce them to new healthy flavours, fruit and vegetables. For an example of what I mean, click here.

Recently I saw an advertisement for the ‘Peppa Pig Make And Bake Collection’, a similar project to mine where the developers use a familiar character to coax children into cooking and learning new tastes. It is a brave project that has been marketed well, the Peppa Pig website offers those that sign up freebies such as a Peppa Pig teddy, a chef’s hat, a lunchbox, and even tickets to ‘Peppa Pig World’.

This looks like an exciting way to get children eating food that they have cooked themselves, but it does not always take the healthy approach, with one of the recipes featured being ‘Peppa’s Butterfly Cupcakes’. Also, the recipes are not in a narrative format, and are kept in the traditional step-by-step format. Although the developers of this magazine and other magazines like it use characters to try and get children cooking, I could not find any that did so in the narrative format that I propose.

Narrative Recipes, For Adults And Children: I am basing my Final...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 14:54:00 +0000

Narrative Recipes, For Adults And Children:

I am basing my Final Major Project (FMP) on the idea of a ‘tasting book’; there are reading books for children (looking), ‘scratch and sniff’ books (smelling), books with built-in fluffy materials (touching) and books with buttons that make sounds throughout the reading experience (hearing). My idea completes the set of sensory books, a book for children with a narrative recipe that they can cook/create alongside the character leaving them with some food/drink after their reading experience. This can introduce children to new flavours, fruits and vegetables in a fun, exciting and educational way.

Whilst researching into whether this idea has already been taken, I found this extract from an adult’s narrative recipe book. The recipe involves no ingredient weights, but instead guides the reader through the recipe just by talking. For example:

Thus make a pear pie, but don’t put in any quince. You may butter them when they come out of the oven; or beat up the yolks of two eggs and half a pint of cream, with a little nutmeg, sweetened with sugar, take off the lid and pour the cream. Cut the crust in little three corner pieces, stick about the pie and send it to table.

In my proposed book the weights and ingredients would be listed for the parent, and instead of talking the child through the recipe, they would read about a character that cooks and follow his/her lead. For example:

‘After this in went cubes of ice - Max could only carry six, so Max had to do this twice!

The first part was done, so now onto the fruit. Doggy tried to steal some, but Max told him to scoot!

Three slices of pineapple - one, two, three! Max ate the fourth, and it was as sweet as sweet can be!’

Graze Boxes - Healthy Snacking, For Children? Graze offer the...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:18:00 +0000

Graze Boxes - Healthy Snacking, For Children?

Graze offer the user a chance to receive a selection box through the post periodically, these boxes consist of four healthy snacks that the buyer can feast on. These boxes cost just £3.89 including postage costs, with the first box being half price.

Whilst I am looking into healthy eating/drinking for children, it may be an appropriate way of getting them introduced into new foods through a periodical magazine that includes free fruit/nuts. Perhaps these free samples could come with a recipe that breaks the fruits down for children into smoothies or cakes. The most important thing here is introducing children into new healthy flavours and getting them away from sugary sweets and fizzy drinks - through applying Graze’s business strategy to a younger market.

The only problem with this strategy is that the fruit will need to be dried so it does not go mouldy, this detracts from the freshness aspect, so these ingredients could be a component in a recipe that other ingredients would have to be part of.