Books can come in a number of different shapes and sizes, covering an infinite number of topics and genres for any number of individuals. A book can contain written or printed work, pictures, illustrations, colours and type or nothing at all in the case of notebooks and journals, there for you to customise and fill yourself. The pages can be bound with glue or sewn together and bound with covers.
I looked at 3 completely different books to analyse their purpose, production and overall success.
The first is 'Our Garden Birds' by Matt Sewell. As a self professed bird nerd this is one of my favourite books as it beautifully combines my love of art and illustration with my slightly more geeky interest in wildlife.
I looked at 3 completely different books to analyse their purpose, production and overall success.
The first is 'Our Garden Birds' by Matt Sewell. As a self professed bird nerd this is one of my favourite books as it beautifully combines my love of art and illustration with my slightly more geeky interest in wildlife.
The book explores 52 garden birds altogether (1 for every week of the year) and each double spread contains a beautiful watercolour painting/ illustration accompanied by a humorous extract with Sewell's own commentary of that particular bird, making the book more endearing as he gives each bird it's own personality/back story.
The physical aspects of this book are equally as beautiful as its contents. The stock used is relatively thick with a lovely grainy texture. The pages are bound together with glue and encased in a hard cover. Each double spread is laid out relatively the same keeping fluency throughout the publication. There is a lot of white space allowing your eyes to be drawn to the colourful illustrations, aswell as tying every individual drawing in together. The alignment of the text is centred in the middle creating almost the look of a poetry book and a serif font is also used throughout increasing legibility. In the details there is a hand painted watercolour flick under the Latin name of each bird which resonates the main colours used in the illustration on the opposite page.
This book is great because it appeals to a wide age range with it's bright and quirky illustrations appealing to children and it's more humorous tone of voice in the text addressing an older target audience.
The second book I looked at was 'Shapes' by Orla Kiely. This book is set out in the style of a children's book with round edged pages made out of extremely thick cardboard.
The book is bound with glue between the pages creating a seamless finish on the spine. It is then bound in a fabric, hard back cover.
The book uses colourful yet muted colours characteristic of Orla Kiely's work. It uses simplistic shapes and printed textures like stripes and spots.
The typography is a stylistic serif font used for the single word on each page. The colours used on each page are complementary and are limited on each double page spread.
The book could appeal to a wide audience from anyone with an appreciation for colour and shapes to young children. it is successful in remaining simple yet engaging to the audience.
I then also looked at a Graphic Novel to compare. 'The House that Groaned' by Karrie Fransman uses a limited colour palette of the same colour blue in varying shades and black in this book. The pages are made of a thick stock and are bound with glue in a paperback cover.
The front cover has cut out windows which then opens up to reveal the interior rooms of the house in lime yellow. This is the only example of this colour used in the book. Different shades of blue are used to illustrate different sceneries and times of day.
3 Main typefaces are used throughout the book, with the main font in the speech bubbles digitally produced with a hand rendered feel and all the rest hand drawn.
The content of the graphic novel would mean it's only suitable for those over 16. The story is told through illustration rather than words.
This book is great because it appeals to a wide age range with it's bright and quirky illustrations appealing to children and it's more humorous tone of voice in the text addressing an older target audience.
The second book I looked at was 'Shapes' by Orla Kiely. This book is set out in the style of a children's book with round edged pages made out of extremely thick cardboard.
The book is bound with glue between the pages creating a seamless finish on the spine. It is then bound in a fabric, hard back cover.
The book uses colourful yet muted colours characteristic of Orla Kiely's work. It uses simplistic shapes and printed textures like stripes and spots.
The typography is a stylistic serif font used for the single word on each page. The colours used on each page are complementary and are limited on each double page spread.
The book could appeal to a wide audience from anyone with an appreciation for colour and shapes to young children. it is successful in remaining simple yet engaging to the audience.
I then also looked at a Graphic Novel to compare. 'The House that Groaned' by Karrie Fransman uses a limited colour palette of the same colour blue in varying shades and black in this book. The pages are made of a thick stock and are bound with glue in a paperback cover.
The front cover has cut out windows which then opens up to reveal the interior rooms of the house in lime yellow. This is the only example of this colour used in the book. Different shades of blue are used to illustrate different sceneries and times of day.
3 Main typefaces are used throughout the book, with the main font in the speech bubbles digitally produced with a hand rendered feel and all the rest hand drawn.
The content of the graphic novel would mean it's only suitable for those over 16. The story is told through illustration rather than words.
The layout varies on every page to adjust to the content of the story and make as much visual impact to the audience as possible shown here for 'KABOOM!'
Overall the book is successful at telling the story and being visually pleasing to the audience as the uniform colour scheme and typography runs throughout to create a fluent publication.
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