Jolly Phonics

Nowadays teachers use a system called Jolly Phonics to teach primary school children. This is a thorough foundation for reading and writing; it teaches the letter sounds in an enjoyable, multisensory way and enables children to use them to read and write words. The only problem is, the learning materials are quite academic and boring.

So, I've decided to redesign the Jolly Phonics system. Nowadays teachers use this system called Jolly Phonics to teach primary school children. This is a thorough foundation for reading and writing; it teaches the letter sounds in an enjoyable, multisensory way and enables children to use them to read and write words. The only problem is, the learning materials are quite academic and boring.

Exotic Fruit/Veg Idea

Exotic Fruit and Veg Presentation

So, after my crit today I now don't think this idea would work. I'm finding it too hard to come up with a list of fruit and veg that would be suitable enough, it's either too exotic or too normal. Didn't know what to do so I emailed my tutor with a new idea after wracking my brains to find a new route to creating my learning cards:

First Crit

So after deciding my typeface I moved onto the concept of how I would represent the abcs in the alphabet. The first thing that came to mind was using the animals, although this is quite a cliché, it is the easiest category to find an animal for each letter and one that everyone knows of.

Although in order to make my learning cards stand out compared to the rest of them already available I need to think of a good selling point. I began thinking of the technique of creating the imagery to make it unique. So I just randomly chose the word 'apple' and started drawing it in different ways to see if anything amazing would pop up.

PDF of presentation

From this I think I've decided I want to use found material to create my imagery because it is unique and would be something the children are familiar with and can relate to. Instead of just doing fruit, I think using exotic fruit and veg to represent the letters would be a good way to go because it targets yummy mummies as they would want to educate their children to eat a diverse range of fruit and veg and generally be healthy.

Sassoon as a typeface

So, after many trials of different typefaces that might work for my learning cards I finally decided to use Sassoon, a typeface researched to be well taken by children:

Why Sassoon?

Character Design Inspirations

Some really really nice vector illustrations that could work well with my idea. So simple but effective and gets the point through:

Genevieve Gauckler Website - inspiring work and good website

Random Tutorial

So, I had two random tutorials in the studio today. Probably just as well because I was a little stuck with where to go next with my project. It seemed like I had a ton of research done and I was getting a little bogged down with this part of the project and not actively going out and experimenting with my ideas.

Some things I was told to look at:

1) Maybe look at how the alphabet is taught in different countries.

2) Talk to classmates and 1st years because some of them have children or younger brothers and sisters.

3) Create a questionnaire asking people of their opinions of what works best when teaching children the alphabet for the first time.

4) Start thinking about stock, email printers and get quotes possibly?

The second tutorial which followed not long after took me by surprise a little because I was not expecting to have to explain where I was with my project twice but oh well, it still gave me some useful insights on how to develop my idea.

Feedback:

1) Research MONTESSORI which is a method of teaching (sand paper alphabet)

2) Go to bookshops to research the stock and format of children's books to get a feel for what works well. Also to see how they shelve the books.

3) Design a questionnaire for nursery- make it more exciting to fill in, target the audience.

4) Clarify your target audience, needs to be more simple if for young toddlers.

Leo Lionni

So some backstory before delving into Lionni's work. From 1931 to 1939 he was a well known and respected painter in Italy, where he worked in the Futurism and Avant-Garde styles. He then moved to the world of advertising design, became an art director and finally settled down in the 1960s to devote himself to becoming a children's book author and illustrator. He produced over 40 children's books. He experimented using a variety of mediums: paintings, sculptures, collages, drawings, mosaics, designs, posters and advertisements.

He became widely recognized as one of the most distinguished and innovative designers and artists of the twentieth century. His life, most especially his early, formative years, bears testimony to how his everyday experiences, his family, and his surroundings influenced him as an artist and creative thinker.

A very sweet story as to how Lionni discovered his love of creating children's books:

"In 1959, at the top of his career, he decided he would retire on his fiftieth birthday, move to Italy, and follow his own creative spirit.

I reached the conviction that all human acts have social and political consequences....You must feel responsible for every line you draw, for every decision you make.

Then, shortly after he made his momentous decision...

a little miracle happened.

He was taking his two young grandchildren, Pippo and Annie, from Grand Central Station to his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. When the two youngsters began acting up, he said, "I’ll tell you a story." He pulled out of his briefcase an advance copy of Life and began tearing out pages of the magazine, and from them, small round pieces of various colors.

I put my briefcase on my knees to make a table and in a deep voice said, "This is Little Blue, and this is Little Yellow," as I placed the round pieces of colored paper onto the leather stage.

His grandchildren were mesmerized by the story (as were the adult passengers sitting within hearing distance). When they got home, Leo showed the children how to make the story into a book. And it was a book they could “read,” even though they were too young to actually know how to read. They were thrilled with their accomplishment. The next night Fabio Coen, a friend who was a children’s book editor, came to dinner at the Lionnis’, saw the little book, and decided, right then and there, to publish it.

But it would take more than one evening with Fabio before I could fully understand how much the simple little tale of two blobs of color would affect my soul, my mind, and my way of life."

Lionni's work has a sense of innocence to it, it uses basic shapes to map out the figure of the animals he's illustrating. Sometimes his typography is made up of found paper which links and collaborates the text with the image. His innovative use of collage, white spaces, and clean, modern design was a major influence on Eric Carle, Ezra Jack Keats, and other children's book artists.