Research

1. Research
Josh Brownsword

2. Existing Product -
So You Think You've Got It Bad? A Kid's Life in Ancient Egypt
Context:
This book in was published by the company on 05 Apr 2018, it
was written by Chae Strathie and has been illustrated by
Marisa Morea. It was published by Nosy Crow, who publish
kids books and apps. For Nosy Crow both author and illustrator
have only worked on this book and another very similar one
about Greece. This book is a non-fiction book aimed at
educating children on what life would have been like for
children living in Ancient Egypt. It aims to do this by using
illustrations along side bodies of text to pass along information.
The author is exploring how life has gotten better for young
people over the eras, whilst also educating them on what that
era was like. The title also suggests that the author doesn't
believe that really understand the privilege that they have in
there current time and living conditions. The Publishing
Company for this book is Nosy Crow, this company is an
independent publishing company, publishing children's games
and books. I can also see that the company wants to teach
children to read for pleasure, this I can tell due to their easy on
the eye aesthetic with bright colours. The company has Fiction
and Non-Fiction, this builds upon the idea of children reading
for pleasure as it provides a wide range of different options for
them to discover and read in an easy and accessible manner.
They also produce a range of apps that incorporate easy
accessible entertainment with reading, their flip flap series for
example allows the player to create an assortment of strange
creatures whilst also providing poems for the player to read
and engage with. This shows that the company clearly wants
children to enjoy reading and engage with it and they are
making an effort to get children involved through providing
other entertainment the same time.
Who Specifically Is It For?:
The book its self I do not believe will have one specific customer age and
gender in mind as the company will want it to reach as many people as
possible, I believe this to be because it is written for the British Museum
who will have the aim of educating people in mind.
Author and Illustrator:
Both author and illustrator have both worked on multiple other books .
Both mostly work with children's books. Chae Strathie has written
multiple childrens books, a few examples are Dear Dinosaur, Gorrila
Loves Vanilla and The Sneaky Sweet Stealer. He has won the Bookbug
award (an award voted for by children) for Gorilla Loves Vanilla. He has
also has a clear interest in history as he has worked on a few books that
have historical theme. Marisa Morea is the illustrator of the book, she
has worked on children's books, however she has not just worked on
English books, she has her own illustrated artwork she has produces,
often in a very distinct cartoon aesthetic.

3. Existing Product -
So You Think You've Got It Bad? A Kid's Life in Ancient Egypt
Colour:
This book uses colours for a range of reasons, the main reason is obviously for aesthetics, however it also uses colour to block out areas of text.
Colour is used very specifically in this book to show a child friendly and eccentric view of Ancient Egypt. It does this by using rich colours that
people instantly relate to wealth and prosperity, which is often how people think of that era due to the pharos and pyramids. The colours the book
uses to achieve this look is purple, yellows and blues, as all of these elicit a feeling importance. Blue is often associated with happiness or calmness
and has very few negative connotations. In this case the blue is used in multiple shades of the colour, one on the cover and two others on the
double page spread. The cover is a teal which works really well to look royal and extravagant, this however is also down to the contrast with the
yellow font. Blue is also used to represent the sky in the double page spread, this is used to elicit the feeling of happiness especially as it is used as
the background of three happy children. Yellow is not just used on the font it is scattered all around the page, it is used mostly to represent
jewelry which is clearly supposed to create this feeling of wealth. It isn't just used on jewelry it is also in clothing that the gods a wearing it is also
used to represent majestic animals such as lions.
Colour isn't just used for aesthetics however, it is also used as a way of laying out sections of text and information. This is most clearly represented
by the large purple area, the different colour is used here to separate that block of text from the reset of the page. This would most likely be used
to separate different parts of information, this would be due to their being a different theme within it or if the information is important. Colour is
also used in this book to represent speech from different characters, this makes it easier for children to distinguish between who's talking in a
creative and appealing way.
Imagery:
The book uses very stylized images that are clearly targeted at younger audiences. It targets that audience because the characters are very loose
in their stances as the illustrator uses lots of curves to create a lively look within the book. The characters also have very exaggerated emotions
this makes it easier for younger audience to understand how a specific character is feeling. These exaggerated expressions are achieved by
increasing the size of the eyes and other facial features, for example in the bottom left corner of the double page, you are able to tell the
characters are feeling regret, which is made clear by the direction of the pupils and the quite condensed shape. From this book I have also found
that the illustrator uses simple imagery to distinguish between male and female characters, they use earnings to show if a character is female.
Summary:
From this book I have learnt that when creating a children's book I need to use bright varied colours, however they also need to have
importance and fit with a theme. By this I mean the colour must be useful to the information I am presenting. For example if I intend
to show that something is happy I would use a yellow or blue as children would relate this emotion to those colours. I also learnt that
using curved edges on images works well as it makes everything appear softer and more friendly and open in appearance, this
aesthetic will be important to achieve if I am aiming by product at children, but will be less effective if I produce it for teenagers so I
will need to take multiple factors into account when planning.

4. Existing Product -
History of Britain in Maps
Context:
This book in was published by HarperCollins UK February 1, 2018,
the author of the book is Philip Parker. HarperCollins unlike nosy
crow does not have a set market with the books they publish, they
sell books based on crime, romance, thriller and many more
including historical books. Phil Parker has also written other
historical books all being non-fiction. This book is a non-fiction
that explores maps from throughout British history, these maps
include Mappa Mundi to modern election maps. The book is
designed so that the reader has clear visual cues to show clearly
what information the reader should be taking in, there is however
also a more detailed overview on the corresponding page. Phil
Parker clearly likes to present history in a clever and interesting
way, drawing people in with a title that is unusual, as he focuses on
the words “history”, “Britain” and “maps”. This Title draws people
in as most will never have seen how maps have changed
throughout the eras, this new way of viewing history then draws
them into the rest of his books. HarperCollins clearly has a deep
interest in a wide range of books that span many different topics, I
can see this by the large number of authors they publish books for,
I can also see this from the large range of categories that they have
on their website. They also have an interest in new authors and
authors from all different backgrounds. However due to this large
quantity of books it isn't clear if there is any reason other than to
improve their business for the books they publish, unlike Nosy
Crow who have a clear focus and desire to improve reading for
children. This however is not bad as it allows for them to help
authors who would not necessarily get a chance to have a book
published with a more niche publisher, also not all authors will be
looking of a niche company to publish their book and would much
prefer the backing of large publishing company.
Who Specifically Is It For?:
This book is clearly targeted at a mature audience, I would suggest
targeted at teens and young adult. I believe this due to aesthetic of the
book using very washed out and somewhat dull colours to create its
aesthetic. The book is also clearly aimed at people are somewhat
interested in history, but in a far more casual manner, this is because the
art and map design appears to be most important within the book.
Author and Illustrator:
The author of this book, Phillip Parker, has worked on multiple history
non fiction books based mostly on times that have involved Britain, this
includes a book on the Normans and a book about Vikings. All of these
books are clearly aimed at a more mature audience that all have an
interest in history, examples are The Northmen's Fury: A History of the
Viking World and The Normans and the Battle of Hastings (The History
Detective Investigates). There is not an illustrator for the book as all of
the maps are taken from their original designers, including people such
as Charles Booth the social reformer who researched social class in the
late 19th Centaury.

5. Existing Product -
History of Britain in Maps
Colour / Layout:
This book is hard to discuss when talking about colour, as the most control on colour the author had when creating this book was within the layout
of the pages. This all because of the author using pre created maps, he did not edit these maps, choosing to leave them identical to their original
copies. This was a really interesting way of creating the book, as he could have edited all of them to fit a specific art style. However as he left
them in their original form, so as you read through the book you will not only be exploring British history but the history of how maps have evolved
over the eras. This allows the book to tell to stories at the same time without getting in readers way, keep a theme that directs people to
information in a clear way. The layout presents the maps in a professional and attractive way, the author uses a lot of blank space on the pages,
this gives a very clean aesthetic to the book. This layout is far more likely to appeal to a mature audience as it makes the book easier to read and
understand, I do not believe however it would be as interesting for younger audiences. As even though layout is easy to read it is not very
interesting, so even though there are ways I would be able to use blank space it may not work very well when appealing to my target audience,
who will much prefer images and other graphic.
The only place on the book that I can see that there is a block of colour not part of an original map is on the front cover. The author uses a simple
yellow circle to be the background of the books title. This works really well with rest of the book and shows clearly to its reader how the whole
book is going to be presented. The yellow works really well when contrasting with the black, this obviously makes for a successful title, especially
with it being in the center of the cover creating a clear focal point on the cover. Not only does it create a minimalistic title that works successfully
to show how the book will be presented, it also fits in perfectly with the covers background. The background is a map of the west coast of England,
the map uses shades of yellow and green to show this, the colours however are bright but purposefully washed out, this links really well to the
books theme, as it makes the map look old. Due to the majority of the background being comprised of a washed out yellow the bright contrasting
yellow on top of that really stands out and draws attention.
Text / Layout:
The text on this page is also very cleanly laid out. This is primarily down to the way its presented even though there is a large amount
of text on each page. The text is laid out with a title at the top of one page with two columns of text underneath it. This approach to
text layout really builds on the books theme of minimalist and aiming at a mature audience, this is because in many ways it represents
the look of a newspaper or a magazine.
Summary:
When I come to plan my product I will have to make a clear decision on how to theme my magazine so that it flows clearly and in a
direct manner, from this book I have learnt that using a layout that is on every page can be a very successful way of doing this.
However I have found that this may not be as interesting to a younger audience as it can feel quite empty and boring, in complete
contrast to So You Think You've Got It Bad? A Kid's Life in Ancient Egypt which filled much more of its blank space that the younger
audience it aimed for would always have objects to investigate.

6. Existing Product -
Astroneers
Context:
This is a game that was released in 2019 technically however had
been playable since 2016 just in an early access state The games
key draw is its unique art style, this helps it to distinguish itself
from the other games of it genre, compared to triple AAA games
that often use a more realistic aesthetic. In the game you are
tasked with surviving in a new bright and vibrant world that while
being beautiful is a dangerous environment. The game does
however appear to fit into the more casual genre of game that
focus on exploring this planet, with just a hint of difficulty to keep
you interested and occupied.
Style:
The game uses a very distinct low poly style, which I personally
believe is very distinct and definitely eye catching. I think one of
the reasons that low poly works as it doesn’t the full picture and
look of something and still leaves a vast amount of detail to be
created by the persons imagination, which in tern makes the game
more interesting.
The way the low poly style appears to work is by breaking down
each surface into to triangles or other individual shapes of one
specific colour, in this game each shape seems to be when the
shape of the surface changes. The shapes are always one colour
rather than having a gradient of colours, when all of the coloured
shapes are together however it creates a soft and vibrant
aesthetic.
The style also makes people feel a bit nostalgic as it in many ways
it is used as a modern adaption of how old games used to look.
Old games were forced to use a low number of polygons as the
technology at the time was very limited.
Who Specifically Is It For?:
This game appears to be targeted mostly at a young audience,
specifically more around their late teenage year. I believe this however
to be mostly down to the actual gameplay of the game, which is not
what I am interested in. I am more interested in the art style which I
believe to be unique and interesting, however it does look like it would
be more appealing to a younger audience rather than people in their late
teens.
Font:
There isn’t much text here however the font used works really well. The
title uses a very futuristic looking font, this is mostly down to it being a
sans-Serif as these fonts often look more Sci-Fi than Serif fonts do.
However the gradient that is used on the font that makes it fit this
product greatly, this is because it gives it a very metallic shine that shows
that the game is all about space and technology.

7. Existing Product
• The design of this Product follows the same theme as the parts to the collection. I think this is an
effective way to get people to advertise the product. The actual vinyl is thick and transparent,
this is quite unlike most normal vinyl's. So due to this people will talk about it, this makes it
appeal much more as it is seen as a collectible item. When something has a more unique and
collectable appearance people are likely to brag about it and try to make people jealous that they
don’t have something. Word of mouth is a very important advertising tool which I could aim to
try and appeal too. So from this I can learn that having a theme that clearly runs through the
entirety of a product really helps at retaining an audience as it is likely they are attached to your
style.
• The way the product is laid out gives of a very minimalist but quite Sci-Fi aesthetic. I will not be
making an album cover but what I can learn from this is how it portrays it aesthetic and how the
cover tell the audience in a clear way what the music is likely to be about. So from this I can learn
that it is extremely important for my cover to tell the potential audience what my book will be
about.
• The cover uses very simple colours mostly just whites and pinks, but the harsh lighting that bursts
from the neon light at the centre of the image gives an intense perspective on the audience. It
gives the cover a modern/Sci-Fi look as that’s what neon light often give people the feeling of as
they are often associated with big sprawling metropolises, an example of this would be in the
blade runner film which uses lots of neon lights.
• From this image it is clear that the band The 1975 keep a clear theme when it comes to the
aesthetic of their albums. Each album clearly follows that simple pastel white and pink theme.
This is a direct contrast to their previous album which is black with the same design as this album
but in white. Have the albums be the same just in completely different colours shows the listener
that their music is very different between albums but also still in the same style of their band that
their listeners first heard. This is a simple and effective way to show a link between the albums.
Keeping the design has also helped them to build up a clear and very recognizable band logo/
aesthetic, as you will commonly see band merchandise and advertising in the clear box style with
bright neon or flat white writing in the center which fans will now instantly recognize.
The key design here is
the pink / white contrast
the design follows. This
builds a very simple but
very aesthetic look
throughout the whole
product that will intern
make this product much
more marketable. This is
because people will be
much more likely to use
it as something they
would have on show in
their house rather than
just as storage for music.

8. Production

9. Licensing
I intend to use a wide and varied amount of images, however they will all be heavily stylized to fit a
specific design that should run through the entirety of the book. However it would be impossible for me
to take the images as a lot will be of things or people that I will not be near at an point, for example I
would need to take a image of many different bands from across the UK and rest of the world to fulfil one
of my ideas. So instead I will have to look at the prices of these images off of the internet on websites
such as shutter stock. For example one image that would be useful if I was to use band images would be
an image of Liam Gallagher. To the left is a screenshot of the price that an image of LG would cost on a
site called Alamy. If I were to use the image personally it would cost £11.99, however if I were to use it in
a book, the way I want to use it, it would cost £47.99. It also has restrictions on that use as the license
only lasts 5 years with a maximum copy circulation of 2,500. There are other options for use as well on
the site such as marketing packages, for presentations or for a website, these all have their own separate
prices ranging from £11.99 all the way up to £179.99. It is however clear that on some images these will
be not accessible, as I would be unable to use this image in any of those formats, I do not plan on using
any of those formats however so this would be an option.
On Getty, another stock photo site, a similar image has a different pricing setup. The image itself comes in
two different size that will cost you different amounts of money depending on the quality. The higher
quality image costs £375 while the smaller image is under half the price at £125, however the quality of
the image reflects this price change as the image goes from 1088 x 1464 px / 2.30 x 3.10 cm at 1200 dpi
down to 441 x 594 px / 0.93 x 1.26 cm at 1200 dpi. The price on this website Is much higher than on
Alamy, however you are given much more control over the images use, if you buy from Getty you are able
to use the image for newspapers and magazines but not on the cover, editorial broadcasts,
documentaries, no commercial websites, blogs and social posts of public interest, you also can use it an
unlimited amount of times unlike the 2500 on Alamy and you also have access to the image for 15 years.
However there are still restrictions; you cannot use it on covers, commercially, promotionally, advertorial,
for endorsements, as advertising or for merchandise, so there is still an extremely long list of restrictions
on the products use.
Summary:
In summary I have found that any images that I need a license for will be heavily restricting on what I can
use them for, these restrictions depend on how much money I spend. A clear example of the price
difference is between the amount of time that I have access to the product, as I have to spend up to
£179. 99 at Alamy and to get only 5 years with the most access to the photo whereas I could pay £375 at
Getty would get me access for 15 years, so price has a big impact on accessibility.

10. Questionaire

11. Age & Gender
• The responses for these two questions show
that the majority of information will be useful
to me. The knowledge that the majority of
people who responded to my questionnaire
were between 13 and 17 years old is really
helpful, as this was the target audience I was
primarily aiming for. This means that most
answers I get will be helpful when it comes to
planning my product and what parts of the
book I should be focusing when it comes to
designing and writing the book.
• Gender is not as important as I will be aiming
to make a book that alienates one half of its
entire potential audience. However it is
helpful to know what is most important to
either gender, to understand if they agree on
topics, as this will help me to make sure the
book is interesting to all genres.

12. Aesthetics
• This graph tells me what is most important in a children's book and what most people would be intrigued by or would look for in a
children's book. Bright colours is quite a polarising option on the question, it is overall the least important point. This is useful to
know as it means I am lot less restricted in how I use colours and can use a range of hues and tones, rather than having to use bright
colours to appeal to the audience. What makes it polarizing is that it is has been set as peoples number one option the most as 33%
put it as their number one option, however 66% put it at least necessary, I will stick with the overall as I think that is the fairest
result to go off.
• Characters are the most important thing to have according to this question, this is not what I anticipated, however I will have take
this into my planning and could end up using a character in quite a creative way. 66% of people put characters as second most
important part while 16.7% of people had it in at most important or in 4th most important.
• Art theme is the second most important thing to have in a children's book according to this question, this is helpful as it confirms my
belief that an art style that is followed through out a book is what people would expect to see. Even though it was second mot
important the votes are actually quite balanced, more people had it at number one than had Characters at number 1, with 33%
having it as first or second choice. While 16.67% had it in fourth or fifth, no one had it as third.
• Colour used to represent mood is also fairly important according to the questionnaire, voted as third most important. This is
positive and negative for me, it is a positive as I will be making it more suitable for the target audience, as they will be able to more
clearly understand the situation. However it means I cant use as detailed colours that would make the product slightly realistic,
however this style would clearly not work if the audience what colour to reflect mood rather than reality in their books.
• Good image to white space is the only slightly more important than bright colours, it has the most votes as third most important
with 66.67%, however no one voted above third most important. This tells me that the audience would prefer a neat book that has
a clean and understandable layout, while at the same time not wasting too much space so that the page is still interesting.

13. Text
• The information I get from this question will be factored in when I am
planning out the text and how I present it. This is lest balanced than the
aesthetics question and there are clearly some responses more important
to readers than others.
• Bold text and large font size both scored highly in this question, bold text
seems to more important than a large font. This is useful to know as it
means I know which people would prefer when reading, this is especially
useful if running out of space, because a large font would mean I have to
pay much more attention to how I use space. Both answers got 20%
votes as second most important, while bold was voted as third 60% of the
time an fourth 20% of the time. In comparison large font got 40% votes
both the third and fourth category.
• Simple sentences is the second most useful way of writing in a children's
textbook, this fits voting well as it was voted second most useful 40% of
the time, higher than anything else. This means that when I actually start
to write the book I should remember not to go too detailed and get more
to the point much quicker, so that the reader does not het bored. This
links well with the response voted as most important, Clear and easy to
understand information. This had all of its votes in the top two
category's, with 80% of people putting it as their number one. This is
very similar to simple sentences, as it focuses mostly around keeping all
information short and concise so that it is easily understandable.
• Comedy and seriousness are clearly not a focal point with both having all
there votes in position 4 and 5. This means that I will need to focus more
on using the right emotion and style of writing for the specific topic
rather than writing in one specific way the entire way throughout.

14. Genre
• From this question I can see clearly all
the different genres that my audience
would like to see in an non-fiction
book. Clearly most people would like a
space themed book as that had over
80% of the votes. This means when
writing my book I know to base it on
different planets or different space
companies etc.
• Both animals and history also got
votes, unlike science geography and
sport. This tells me that to add some
variation to my book I could talk about
the history of space, or I could talk
about the history of our planet and the
animals on our planet.

15. Media
• From this slide I have found that my audience is
most likely to read a book on a tablet or a
phone, with over 80% of the votes. The only
other place I found people to have voted for is
magazine or newspaper. This opens a range of
things I can explore, for example if I was to
make the book for tablets and phones I could
make it far more interactive, have. I could have
different tabs that reveal more information or
objects that can be slid around on the page.
However it would mean I would have to focus
more on how I used the space as I would not
have as much.
• With just under 20% of the votes magazine was
the only other place that people said they read.
This could impact my work slightly as I could
make a magazine that is based around the book
and has the same information, however I think
it would be wise to invest more time into one
product and create some advertisements for it
than split production to two products.

16. Arts Link
• From these responses I can see a very mixed
attitude toward the art design and how it
should link to text. The first response focuses
on the fact they would notice, so in some ways
this works for both sides of the argument, as
they wouldn’t notice I should focus more on
the people that would and what they want.
• The next argument is against a link, this is down
to them wanting a cool character that would
narrate the book. However I would still be able
to create a cool and unique character that fits
in with the book. For example if I am to do a
space themed book I think it would be wise to
have an alien or some sort of space ship
narrating the book.
• The last two responses focus completely on the
book having a “cool” look. This doesn’t
necessarily help when talking about the link
between text and art, however it does give me
useful information on what they want the art
to look like.

17. Bibliography
• Anon. (UNKOWN). About. Available:
https://nosycrow.com/about/. Last accessed 28th Jan 2019.
• Jeremy sutton-hibbert . (1997). Liam Gallagher and Oasis.
Available: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-liam-
gallagher-and-oasis-in-aberdeen-scotland-1997-
74568418.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=C85FDD89-89CC-
454A-8F22-
2FAAF47B86FC&p=21412&n=0&orientation=0&pn=1&sear
chtype=0. Last accessed 4th Feb 2019.
• Anon. (-). Philip Parker. Available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/l/B005DS8N4Y?_encoding=UTF
8&redirectedFromKindleDbs=true&rfkd=1&shoppingPortal
Enabled=true. Last accessed 4th Mar 2019.