Finished "Reading Opens Doors"

 I recently got a printed copy of the "Reading Opens Doors" flip-book I completed a while back. It turned out great. If you refer back to my previous post, you can see there were some changes in the cover illustration which I think were for the better.

Click for detail

  

 Here are a couple more examples of the layout inside the book. As I mentioned before, each chapter had a door with art that represented the age group discussed in the chapter. Every example below is pulled from a different chapter to show how each chapter has a different color code. I also wanted to post an image that showed the page icons and general layout.

Click for detail

Click for detail

I know it has been a while since there has been a new post here. I have neglected this blog but I plan to post new work weekly in the future. To be able to post weekly I am going to start posting more Graphic Design work. If you have any objections please let me know.

Reading Opens Doors

This is a recent project I have been working on in collaboration with my Literacyhead.com partner. We were contracted to create a 5.5inch x 3.25inch educational flip-book for Smart Start Education, a division of The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. The flip-book would be given to parents to help the parents encourage reading through games and activities described in the flip-book. The project is not finalized and we are still working on some client requested edits. Pictured above is the cover we presented to the Smart Start Panel.

The image above is the first draft of the cover. Initially, we decided to make the front cover be a door that opens into the content of the book. The challenge was to make a door interesting and inviting. We thought using a child would be engaging and also established that showing the child's thoughts, of what doors could be opened through reading, would work well conceptually.

After the initial draft was approved, I redrew the image to be used in the color draft (pictured above).

Next I added the color, texture, and the children's thought images. From here we came to the conclusion that the kid's face needed to be cuter and more family friendly. I was also asked to include a pot of flowers to add some visual interest. The draft with these changes is the final draft image at the top of this post.

While I was working on the cover, I was simultaneously working on the book layout. Each chapter was appropriate for a specific age group. We thought it would be cool to make each chapter be a different door that is being opened. Each chapter door has drawings, or elements, that relate the to the age group represented in the chapter. Pictured above is a chapter introduction spread for the 4-6 Years chapter.

Pictured above is a spread of how most of the pages look in the flip-book. Each chapter uses a different color scheme to let the reader know which section they are in. Everything that is red, in this example above, changes to a different solid color with each advancing chapter. The pages are 5.5inches x 3.25inches, the font size is 11 point, and it will be spiral bound.

This is the Back Cover. We wanted to have visual interest/friendliness and invite the readers to use the flip-book again.

Recent Literacyhead Piece

This is my favorite tool, out of six, I created for the current issue of Literacyhead. The issue is about testing but this Tool could be used for any topic. I wanted to put a twist on the idea of feelings by showing animals that have unusual ways of feeling their way around.


This is another tool for the Test issue that I could relate to. I experienced all these feelings at different times and for different tests throughout my time as a student. I tried to channel my experience of the feelings into the facial expressions.

On another note here is a really cool musical tool/toy I found on the web today. It is a web-page that is interesting to fool around with. Have fun.

The Triumphant Return (Star Gazing)

Imagine star gazing and seeing these guys. When their Galactic conquest for tasty resources came to it's conclusion, the royalty of Earth's food chain returned to reclaim there title.

16x24 Pen & Ink, digital texture, and vector graphics.



Voting has ended

IF: Crunch

This is immediately what I thought of for "Crunch." It seems I am late, as usual, but I hope is illustration is worth wait. Thanks for stopping and, as always, comment are always welcome.

"Crunchy" 8.5 x 12 Pencil & Pen with digital texture and color.