Name: Zo Marriner

Student ID: 15010160

Module: GDES2014
The National Achieves Critical
Report
http://gdes2014-marrinerz.weebly.com/

Contents
Introduction - Page 3
Research - Page 3
Design and Production - Pages 3 - 5
Conclusion - Page 5
Bibliography - Pages 6-8
Appendices (Add-ons) - Page 9

Introduction
This project is a live brief for The National Archives to create an ebook on
three historical figures of British history for children ages 5-7 in Key Stage
1, it helped myself gain a greater overall respect and understanding for
what it takes to design for childrens education. The purpose of the
module is to understand, learn about and produce an educational take on
childrens book design, but to also focus on how children learn and how
that relates to the design of educational resources for a target audience.
Research
When researching for this project I must consider the target audience;
what is too easy, what is too difficult and is there a middle ground. To gain
a more in depth understanding the myself and my classmates went to The
National Archives, it served as primary research on the historical figures
and as an opportunity to be six-year olds again and experience how a
subject matter is taught to us. The experience of being in a six-year olds
shoes gave me inside information that I otherwise would not have known,
for example on how teaching resources were used and how much the
information needed to be watered down to make it easier for 5-7 year olds
to understand. Other research was mainly secondary from books and the
internet, secondary research helped to support the primary research
whereas the classes built up a foundation of knowledge on the subjects of
how children learn, the illustration styles and the types of books suitable
for certain age groups. After the classes I decided to to take the
information learned further, looking into other artists, authors and the
types of childrens learning resources there are, this information can be
found on my blog with the posts between week 1 and week 5.
The classes also touched upon visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
learning, I already had previous knowledge of these types of learning but
it refreshed and added to that known knowledge, Im very much a visual
and auditory learner so my research for the historical figures was based
on reading books and watching or listening to documentaries on a
particular historical figure. Documentaries are stocked full of information
so to pick key facts out I watched each documentary with a notebook and
jotted the facts I found the most interesting/ relevant for the target
audience down, however when adding this information into the final
outcomes the facts were made more age appropriate, for example in fig. 3
Elizabeth has two siblings it is not stated that the siblings were in fact
half-siblings.
Design and Production
Designing the e-book was based on the layout, I struggle when coming up
with layouts because I want the work I do to compliment my illustrations,
Im more of an illustrator so I knew I wanted to make the design bright,
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bold, and interesting for the target audience. I aimed for getting a result
that was eye-catching as well as informative in the visuals, I tried my
utmost to balance out the colourful visual illustrations with activities such
as dot-to-dot, a maze puzzle and a kinetic activity on the Main page in
fig. 3.
The kinetic activity in fig. 3 could be used in two different ways, the first
way would be to print out the activity sheets and cut and stick the options
in the right order, the other way is if it was an online activity the options
could be dragged into the correct positions, I considered both routes for
this activity in the e-book because sometimes printing is not an option in
schools or it would be too expensive to print in colour.
The typography was hand rendered using a graphics tablet, the type
sometimes blended in too much with the background so adding a stroke
around the text helped the text stand out more and it became a lot more
legible, making sure the text is legible is key when working on childrens
resources because it makes it easier for them to understand the activity
and it sets the atmosphere of the e-book, hand rendered type was also a
disadvantage, it meant I could not easily change it and I had to make sure
the spelling was correct. I did consider fonts and typing out the text but it
did not fit with the organic nature of of the hand drawn illustrations. I
decided to use illustrations of the historical figures rather than pictures
because I thought it would appeal more to children by capitalising on the
supposed personalities of the historical figures; Elizabeth I was thought to
be stubborn and regal, Cook was adventurous and Florence Nightingale
was shown to be the ever loyal nurse. I did however use the idea of
stereotypes a little bit because stereotypes have more a visual difference,
the idea of stereotypes was used mainly in the positions the historical
figures are in fig. 2, it's the reason Elizabeth I is almost in the centre of a
double page spread, she is the centre of attention since she is a queen.
I knew I wanted an art style that was a combination of two artists I
admire; Loish (Lois Van Baarle) and Jill Murphy in the style she used for
her The Worst Witch childrens book series, in my final outcomes the
visual stylisation is similar to Murphy with black line work and the
colouring style is similar to Loish after looking through her official art book
The Art of Loish. I was really drawn to the use of the facial expressions in
Murphys work, they seems to tell the personality of the character and
carry the series of stories very well, this is something I picked up from
Murphys style, I wanted the viewer to be able to see personality in the
characterised historical figures in my illustration shown in fig. 2. When
trying to make the pages flow together I used a house style by
incorporated the same texture into the background for consistency, this is
a texture I produced out of ivory cardstock; I ripped, burned, coffee
stained and dripped orange candle wax on it to create the texture and I
scanned in the result to use it for the background. In the final week I
made improvements and switched out a task on the Starter page to fit
the target audience better, the task incorporated the historical figure with
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the least attention (Florence Nightingale) so it evened out the information

a bit more fairly since the the Main page was all about
I used Paint Tool Sai to produce the illustrations for the e-book as well as
Photoshop to set up the layouts of each page. During the stage of
production of the final outcome I tried to get permission for a local
primary school to participate in user testing, I even went as far as to
produce a user testing feedback sheet to make the feedback process
easier to understand for both myself and the students, parents and/or
staff of Hurst Green Primary School, I also asked around family, friends
and neighbours who had children of their own around the age of 6 to help
out with valuable feedback so I therefore could make improvements.The
feedback received was to do about the difficulty of the tasks which was
something that was also brought up in the peer assessment, the tasks
were too easy in their opinions. Throughout the process and production of
final pieces client feedback for improvements in skype calls were also
incredibly helpful incase there was any questions, peer assessment also
played a major role in telling me the improvements, it helped me with
typography and the difficulty of the tasks as well as putting much more
thought into the layout, to make the layout just as visually pleasing as the
illustrations.
Conclusion
In conclusion I feel like this project expanded my knowledge in history and
graphics, it gave me the experience of working to a proper live brief and
actually getting the opportunity to meet the clients of said project, it has
also made me realise that childrens book design is more rewarding than I
first thought because my work has the chance to inspire the next
generation as well as teach children. However this module has also made
me more aware I should consider more variety in my work, one of my
habits is to go with the first thing that comes to mind or looks good and
this module has challenged this by producing multiple ideas in the form of
drafts.
Over the course of the module Ive had to research into a lot of different
artists, authors and different types of childrens publications, from fiction
to factual educational material, it has opened my eyes a bit wider to how
board the subject area is and how much of an impact it could have on a
childs life, from the words of Piet Grobler Picture books especially are the
first introduction a child has to art.

Module Bibliography
Child, L. (2000) I will not ever never eat a tomato: Featuring Charlie and Lola. United Kingdom: Orchard Books.
Child, L. (2012) The offical website for Lauren Child. Available at: http://www.milkmonitor.com/ (Accessed: 5
October 2016).
Child, L. (2014) The new small person. Edinburgh, United Kingdom: Puffin.
Keeping the kids quiet! (2015a) Charlie and Lola - I am not sleepy and I will not go to bed (HQ). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrU5ganCiDk (Accessed: 5 October 2016).
Keeping the kids quiet! (2015b) Charlie and Lola - I will not ever never eat a tomato (HQ). Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDsfgkn-tLE (Accessed: 5 October 2016).
Lauren Child (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Child (Accessed: 5 October
2016).
Encyclopedia (1974) Hornbook. Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/languagelinguistics-and-literary-terms/literature-general/hornbook (Accessed: 7 October 2016).
Encyclopedia (no date) John Newbery. Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-andarts/english-literature-1500-1799-biographies/john-newbery (Accessed: 7 October 2016).
George Cruikshank (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cruikshank
(Accessed: 7 October 2016).
Hornbook - Wikapedia (no date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornbook (Accessed: 7 October 2016).
John Tenniel (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel (Accessed: 7 October
2016).
Miranker, C. (2008) Hands-on History of Books: Hornbooks. Available at: http://www.bookmakingwithkids.com/?
p=716 (Accessed: 7 October 2016).
CGP Books - Key Stage Two Range (no date) Available at: https://www.cgpbooks.co.uk/Student/books_ks2
(Accessed: 11 October 2016).
Heit, L. (2013) Animation sketchbooks. Thousand Oaks, CA, United States: Chronicle Books (CA).
Jill Murphy (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Murphy (Accessed: 11 October
2016).
Murphy, J. (1981) The worst witch strikes again. Harmondsworth, United Kingdom: Puffin.
Murphy, J. (1983) A bad spell for the worst witch. London: Puffin Books.
Murphy, J. (1994) The worst witch all at sea. London: Puffin Books.
Murphy, J. (2001) The worst witch (Young Puffin story books). Puffin Books.
Murphy, J. (2005) The worst witch saves the day. London: Puffin Books.
Murphy, J. (2007) The worst witch to the rescue. London: Puffin Books.
Murphy, J. (2014) The worst witch and the wishing star. London: Puffin.
Sutherland, M. (2016) Malcolm sutherland animation. Available at: http://www.animalcolm.com/ (Accessed: 11
October 2016).
Van Baarle, L. (2016) The art of Loish: A look behind the scenes. Edited by 3DTotal Publishing. United Kingdom:
3DTotal Publishing.
Van Baarle, L. (no date) Loish.Net. Available at: http://loish.net/ (Accessed: 11 October 2016).

Van Baarle, L. (no date) Loish.Net. Available at: http://loish.net/artcommission/cbbc-the-leonardo-game/

(Accessed: 11 October 2016).

BBC Four (2016) She-Wolves: Englands Early Queens Jane, Mary and Elizabeth She-Wolves: Englands Early
Queens Episode 3 of 3. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Tpbkt2FgU (Accessed: 25 October
2016).
BBC (2006a) Primary history - famous people - Florence nightingale. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/florence_nightingale/ (Accessed: 7 November 2016).
BBC (2006b) Primary history - famous people - Queen Elizabeth I. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/elizabeth_i/?famous_monarchs (Accessed: 6 January
2017).
BBC (2011a) History - Captain James Cook. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/cook_captain_james.shtml (Accessed: 28 October 2016).
BBC (2011b) History - Elizabeth I: An overview. Available at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/elizabeth_i_01.shtml (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Did Florence nightingale actually invent the pie chart? (no date) Available at: https://www.quora.com/DidFlorence-Nightingale-actually-invent-the-pie-chart (Accessed: 7 November 2016).
Dr Alan Brown (2013) Florence nightingale. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBVX5s43_Ks&t
(Accessed: 7 November 2016).
History - British Collection (2013) Elizabeth: The virgin queen - part 2. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0BEaSnadtQ (Accessed: 24 October 2016).
History - British Collection (2014) Elizabeth: The virgin queen - part 1. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmhak-RI67o (Accessed: 24 October 2016).
James Cook (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook (Accessed: 6 November
2016).
Kldal (2014) Captain cook the man behind the legend. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=GnxADGOidYU (Accessed: 6 November 2016).
MrsTudor1 (2014) Elizabeth I: From prison to palace (episode 1). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VQbvaGl4jrg (Accessed: 27 October 2016).
Smart Kids (2015) Florence nightingale | cartoon for kids | fairy tale | story for children | stories for kids. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ugQ8fd2L9U (Accessed: 6 November 2016).
TrumanEmanuel and Dailymotion, 2016 (2015) Horrible histories - Mary Seacole & Florence nightingale.
Available at: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2y56tl (Accessed: 7 November 2016).
(No Date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale (Accessed: 6 November 2016).
Ahlberg, A. and Ahlberg, J. (2011) Peepo!. By Janet & Allan Ahlberg. London: Puffin Books.
Auditory learning (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_learning (Accessed: 29
October 2016).

Carter, D.A. (2009) White noise: A pop-up book for children of all ages. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Childrens Publishing.
Kinesthetic learning (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesthetic_learning
(Accessed: 29 October 2016).
RaisingOurK (no date) Dot to dot worksheets - free and printable! Available at:
http://activities.raisingourkids.com/connect-dot-to-dot/index-02.html (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
RaisingOurK (no date) Mazes - printable activities for kids 003. Available at:
http://activities.raisingourkids.com/printable-mazes/003-mazes.html (Accessed: 6 January 2017).
Visual learning (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_learning (Accessed: 29
October 2016).
Script > calligraphy fonts (no date) Available at: http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=601 (Accessed: 6 January
2017).
The University of Worcester (2015) Piet Grobler - university of Worcester. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtOHk9vfDg (Accessed: 13 November 2016).

Appendices (Add-ons)
Fig. 1 - Front Cover

Fig. 2 Starter double page

Fig. 3 Main double page

Fig. 4 Plenary double page

Cover

Fig. 5 Back

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