Printed book Development

Introduction

This blog post aims to bring the process of designing the narrative and illustrations for The Steel City Clean Up together. I will use mock-ups to communicate the final printed book. I will also showcase the process of designing captivating covers for the book.

Typeface Exploration

The below images showcase the development process of finding the most fitting and legible font for the narrative sections of the book.

Figure 1 – Experimenting with different type faces in Adobe Illustrator. Trying to find the right font for the narrative.
Figure 2 – Adding the typefaces to a test page of illustrations to decide which font works best.
Figure 3 – Experimenting with typeface weights to ensure the narrative is legible.
Figure 4 – Further exploration regarding typeface weight.
Figure 5 – Experimenting with different narrative composition in regards to page space.
Figure 6 – Further experimentation with narrative composition.

Further Development

The below images showcase the development process of laying the book illustrations out in Adobe Illustrator and adding the narrative.

Figure 7 – Laying the illustrations out in Adobe Illustrator in the correct order ready for narrative placement.
Figure 8 – Adding the narrative to the illustrations layout in Adobe Illustrator.
Figure 9 – Adding inserts of Onomatopoeia to pages to depict sounds.

Challenges

I faced a challenge when laying out the final picture book narrative on top of the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. While the storyboard from the layout development post provided a roadmap for the narrative flow (as seen in figure ten below), adapting it to fit the illustrations required careful adjustment. I had to reconsider the placement of text but also negative space within the illustrations to ensure readability and visual harmony. This meant deviating from the initial plan as the illustrations needed varying amounts of space available for the text narrative. Although I had to slightly adjust this, the amendments ensured the story outcome remained captivating.

Figure 10 – A recap from the layout development post used to showcase encountered challenge.

The Steel City Clean Up Cover Development

The below images showcase the development process behind the book covers, created using Procreate and Adobe Illustrator.

Figure 11 – Using Procreate to explore cover composition with illustrations from the finished book, (Front cover).
Figure 12 – Using Procreate to explore cover composition with illustrations from the finished book, (Back cover).
Figure 13 – Inserting the front cover into Adobe Illustrator to add the title ‘The Steel City Clean Up’ and credits.
Figure 14 – Inserting the back cover into Adobe Illustrator to bring the finished book together.
Figure 15 – Adding the Broomhall Books publication stamp/logo to the book cover.
Figure 16 – Adding the colour graded logo mark to the back of the book, to depict age range that the book is most suitable for – (0-5years).

The Steel City Clean Up Mock Ups

The below images are mock-ups of the final children’s book The Steel City Clean Up.

Figure 17 – Final product mock-up of the front and back cover. (Envato Elements).
Figure 18 – Final mock-up of the inside credits page before the start of the story. (Envato Elements).
Figure 19 – Final mock-up of spread one. (Envato Elements).
Figure 20 – Final mock-up of spread two. (Envato Elements).
Figure 21 – Final mock-up of spread three. (Envato Elements).
Figure 22 – Final mock-up of spread four. (Envato Elements).
Figure 23 – Final mock-up of spread five. (Envato Elements).
Figure 24 – Final mock-up of spread six. (Envato Elements).
Figure 25 – Final mock-up of spread seven. (Envato Elements).
Figure 26 – Final mock-up of spread eight. (Envato Elements).
Figure 27 – Final mock-up of spread nine. (Envato Elements).
Figure 28 – Final mock-up of spread ten. (Envato Elements).
Figure 29 – Final mock-up of spread eleven. (Envato Elements).
Figure 30 – Final mock-up of spread twelve. (Envato Elements).

Figure 31 – Final mock-up of the end pages. (Envato Elements).
Figure 32 – Final mock-up of the front, back and story snippet pages. (Envato Elements).

References

Unlimited stock videos, music, Photos & Graphics (no date) Envato Elements. Available at: https://elements.envato.com/ (Accessed: 16 May 2024). 

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