Pages

Saturday 24 November 2012

Layout is sooo tedious!

After playing around with the layout, I've come up with a few pages, which I'm pleased with. At first I had no idea how to plan the text and illustrations together but I found out as I got on with it that the best way to do it is to go with the flow. That seems to be how I work best. I find that if I plan it 'too' much that I overwhelm myself. I need to sit there, 'do' it and rearrange as I go. 


Action - Experiment more to test the way things could or might work. It's no use picturing it if it doesn't work visually and it's not being tried out

Friday 23 November 2012

Experimenting with layouts

Since I've gathered quite a lot of information together, I've begun to experiment with some of the illustrations I've done to see how they would look with text combined.

This layout is very basic. I decided the image on the left was much too big and so was the title. (The border is simply there because I took a screenshot on Photoshop, however, I kinda like it so it may be something to consider!)


Trying out some different imagery and adjusting the text so it fits centre across the page


This is when I added typed text and realised it looked much too 'academic.' It looks boring, non-inviting and too much information - something a child wouldn't be interested in reading. Their eyes would possibly drift to the image at the bottom instead of the information provided. After analysing this, I decided that the information needs to be broken up with illustrations a lot more so it's more pleasing to the eye. 


So I changed it to this. I didn't like the way the type text looked, so I decided to write it myself instead and see how it looked. I'm not sure about the two canopic jars in the bottom hand corners, however, I do like the two at the top of the page because it draws your eye in and makes you want to read what's next to it. Atleast, this was my aim! Also, I added a dashed border which I quite like. 


Hierarchy of text - considering the importance of text and making this part slightly bolder


This is my current layout, which I'm liking, although still not sure about the bottom hand corners. I may change that after I add more text. This will most likely be a double page spread, which I'm going to continue with today.


Action - Continue with worksheet layouts to come up with an overall 'look' 



Friday 16 November 2012

Manchester Museum - Ancient Worlds Exhibition

Today I went to The Manchester Museum to see the Ancient Worlds Exhibition, which of course includes a section on Ancient Egypt - the chosen topic for my client brief. I spent a couple of hours in there looking at the exhibits and taking notes. I happen to also be amongst a group of school children at the time, which gave me lots of insight and ideas, but I'll get to that in a moment.

One of the most interesting things I found out while I was reading in the plaques there (that I didn't know and hadn't read anywhere previously) that the Egyptians believed when a king died, he would actually turn into the God of the Underworld - Osiris. So each time a Pharaoh passed on to the Afterlife, he would essentially 'become' the 'new' Osiris. I'm going to look more into this because I find it really interesting, especially since i haven't read anything like it before in the books I've researched from.

Another thing that grabbed my attention was the amount of amulets that have been found and dug up from the tomb of Horudja - these were all placed on her body, inbetween the linen bandages. The Ancient Egyptians did this because they believed these amulets had magical powers and would ensure her a safe journey to the Afterlife.


So, as I was amongst a group of school children whilst I was taking notes and pictures of artefacts, I kept my ears open, listening to teachers and observing the way they were interacting and engaging with the children. I also took notes on my observation of this, noting down what the children seemed most fascinated by and the kind of work they were doing. I think watching them and observing their interaction between teachers and other pupils has opened my eyes more so to the target audience and boosted my confidence in this area.

One of the things I observed when I was at the museum was the way in which the teachers interacted with the children and the way the children interacted with each other. I noticed that that they were split into small groups and that they had been set a task with worksheets to identify certain artefacts in the museum. Once they found their sought after artefacts, they drew them on the sheet.

I thought this was a good, motivational task as it allowed kids to treat it like a treasure hunt so to speak. They seemed to be enjoying the challenge and had a lot of excitement about them as they tried to see who could find the object first.
I also heard teachers sounding out words, for example – Sarcophagus – Sar-coffa-cus. I think this is particularly interesting and helpful to children because these words aren’t always easy to remember. If they are sounded out like this or written down on paper, I think it’s more likely to stick in their minds.

One negative of today is that I only saw ONE mummy and it was badly lit too, but I did manage to get an awesome picture of it's feet! This is the mummy of Asru.





Action - Add research to file.
              Now I've gathered quite a bit of information, start thinking about worksheets and activities