Writing my own Brief for college

Back in May I did a blog post about a book I received in the mail. The book was 'Swedish Folk Tales' with illustrations by John Beaur. Recently in college we were given the task to write our own project brief. I knew right away that I wanted to do a children's book and since I said that I was going to do illustrations based on the story 'Daga and the Flying Troll of Sky Mountain' from the book. I am making a start on it now.

Here is my brief that I've set myself;

Project Brief

Puffin Books are looking for talented illustrators to produce illustrations and a book cover design for a new individual edition of a classic Swedish fairy tale from the book ‘Swedish Folk Tales’. The book is filled with many tales of trolls and princesses, all with original illustrations by John Bauer. Although iconic as they may be, we are looking to create a new illustrated version of a tale from the book that will appeal to children with a fresh, imaginative and collectable look. It is a perfect opportunity to bring to life one of these stories, which is not as widely known as the Grimm’s tales or Alice in Wonderland. The aim of this brief is to eventually create a series of small paperback books each to be sold individually. The target audience for this paperback version will be 5 to 8 year olds. The series will be called ‘Old Folk Tales’. Your illustrations must have an imaginative concept and original interpretation. Aim to capture a classic element.  Your design must address the topic of open mindedness and individuality in a fun and relatable manner. It must have a point of difference from the many other fairy tale books it is competing against.

Format: 5x180x240mm, S - 0.5 W - 18 L - 24cm

Requirements

In your sketchbook –

·      At least four pages of research on other illustrators that inspired you, photographs, films etc.

·      Thorough exploration of the story. Look at environments, symbolism, concept, overall feeling and mood.

·      Character development for all main characters.

·      Development sketches showing rough ideas, compositional sketches, thumbnails and colour experiments.

·      Develop thumbnails in rough format showing examples of text position; choose at least four to develop further.

·      Experiment with colour using at least two different methods.

Deliverables

·      Sketchbook showing research, development of ideas and thorough experimentation of media.

·      Two fully finished illustrations from two different scenes in the story.

One fully finished design for a book cover, back and spine.

So that is my brief. I will be posting my progress on my blog at least once a week up until the project is completed.

Nicola