Reflection

Problems encountered
a. In view that everyone can have their very own designing style, we had taken much time to adjust the colors and frames to make it coherent throughout the book.

b. Our team decided to use Adobe Illustrator due to the need for large number of vector drawings involved. While we often use Adobe Indesign for the designing of publications, this is the first time we use Adobe Illustrator for the design of a book.

Hence, we do not exactly know the requirements or guides required in our story frames for the printer. Our team had to check the different requirements from various printers and worked accordingly.

c. In the search for printers for our storybook, we realized that a good number of printers do not work on hard-cover or perfect binding. Some indicated that the number of pages for the storybook is too insignificant for perfect binding.

d. Our first printing effort was not successful. The printer failed to cut the paper along our specified guides. Hence, there are pages showing incomplete frames or come with white spaces at the bottom of the page. Fortunately, we had sent the book for printing early, thus allowing us to print another book on time for submission.

However, due to the time constraint, the second book comes without a hard cover, which would otherwise requires longer printing time.

Lesson Gained
a. We learnt the importance of time planning and having contingency plan. Fortunately, we had planned for time to allow checking and possible re-print in case of any misprint.

Hence, we were able to find time to work on our second printing after the first attempt which we were not satisfied with.

b. We learnt that when working as a team for design process, it is important for all members to be well-informed of the concept and design decisions in order to ensure the coherence of the storybook.

c. We also now appreciate that the production a storybook takes more than a storyline and a series of illustrations – it requires the synergy of both. Layout, framing, text organization, colors are all part of considerations in order to effectively deliver the story and its message

Problem in production

For our storybook to show substantial resemblance to the magical book, our team has intended hard cover and perfect-binding for our book, just as we requested for our first printing attempt. However, the printed quality was not within our expectation.

While we went for a second printing attempt, we also considered that hard cover printing will take more time than what we could afford to. Thus we resorted to printing the book at a different printing shop with soft cover in view of the time constraint. However, this is compensated with a quality heavy paper for the cover.
This is a lesson learnt though :)

Storybook Organization Exploration

Besides the usual coherent flow, our storybook also explores various representations and framing. This variety helps to break the monotonous one-frame-one-scene style and capture interest of the reader.

For instance, instead of putting the following two scenes as two separate frames, we link them through certain similarity eg. the environment.


In another example, our book takes the form of the magical book in some pages

Storybook Font Exploration

we explored several fonts for our main text in the storybook, the boy's handwriting in the magical book and the words on the magical book.

Considerations we had before our final choice: Relevance to context, Mood and Readability :))

Storybook Color Exploration

(The above two pictures are of the same composition but explored in different colors)

The final choice of colors is largely vibrant and cartoonish. Some of the main subjects are injected with the sense of 3D through simple shading and choice of color combination.

The sense of depth created also helps to bring forth the foreground and background relation, and aids in directing reader’s focus and flow of view.

Final Project - Exploration

Here are some of the main items we discussed and sketched to create the standardized style for our overall storybook.

Final Project - FInal Storybook

The final storybook we printed!

FInal Project - Storyboard

After all the brainstorming, doodling and sketching, we finally came up with our storyboard! It also includes the various perspectives and organization of frame we considered.

Final Project - Main Character Development

A boy, by the name of Nat, is the main character of the story. I am in the process of experimenting with colors, style and features to portray Nat.

Above: I have drawn the outlines of the boy in the first try. And injected shading to give a sense of 3D in the 2nd.