Collection 100: Dinosaurs in Books & Film

I looked in Children's books as well as on the internet to find out more about Dinosaurs, as well as to look at styles of illustrations, book layouts and what else is already available. Here are some scans from the books I have looked at. 

The Dangerous Book for Boys 

Henry's House Dinosaurs - Philip Ardagh (Illustrated by Mike Gordon)

 Totally Dead Dinosaurs - Martin Oliver

Ripley's Dinosaurs - Believe It or Not!

Field Guide to Dinosaurs - Steve Brusatte

Week one

There is a lot of detail in the images and design in the Dinosaur Encyclopaedia and the Ripley's Dinosaur book, yet they seem to be aimed more at boys, focussing on how scary the dinosaurs are. I have learnt a lot about dinosaurs from these informative books, but I think my dinosaur cards will be quite different, as I want to appeal to a slightly younger audience, as well as being interesting to both boys and girls. 

Week four

Now that I have decided to create a book instead of cards, researching different types of dinosaur books is even more important, as I need to make sure what I am creating is individual and would stand out from the other dinosaur books available. Also, by looking at the covers of these books and the pages inside, I can ensure I include all the information I need to make my book seem realistic.

Colouring In / Activity Pages

As I am creating colouring pages which contain information about the dinosaurs as well as the possibility of also containing activities, I decided to look at some successful examples to see what is relevant to what age range.

I don't think creating a colouring page like this disney colouring in page would be suitable for my project, as I am creating 100 pages, so to print this many in colour would be expensive, and I also think it would look too busy.Disney's Bambi

These colouring pages are interesting as they contain scenes which could help the person looking at the book understand more about the world that dinosaurs lived in. However, they are very busy, and don't contain any information about the dinosaurs.Crayola

I think these are the best images as there is a small amount of background scene but it does not take over the page, and there could possibly be space for text. Colouring Book Fun

Colouring Pencil Packaging


I intend to supply colouring pencils with my final product, and so will need to create packaging for these pencils which works as a set with my product. I did a quick google image search of pencil packaging to help give me some ideas where to start.

Dinosaurs in Films

As well as looking at dinosaurs in books, I thought about which films/TV programmes were famous for dinosaur characters. However, in the end, I decided to create a book and not a moving image.

Jurassic park                                              Disney Dinosaur

Toy Story 1, 2 & 3                                   Barney

Collection 100: Dinosaurs in Crafts and Illustration

Initial dinosaur image research

Before deciding on what I would create for the Collection 100 brief, I researched general dinosaur images to help inspire what to do next. 

Blublu

Click to enlarge

Although this image probably isn't relevant to what I will create, I find it really interesting due to the amount of creatures there are and the size they take over. As this brief is all about '100', I also have the opportunity to create something quite dramatic.

istockphoto                                     Etsy

Flickr & Etsy

 Gemma Correll

Andy Council

Flickr

     

Ben Heine

Dinosaurs in illustrations and patterns for children

When I eventually decided that I would create dinosaur cards for children, I thought it would be useful to look at the different styles of illustrators who have drawn dinosaurs. These styles of illustrations are quite different to the illustrations I have found in the dinosaur books I have looked at. In the books, the designs are detailed, with the emphasis seeming to be on how scary the dinosaurs are, and the target audience seems to be boys. I prefer these designs, which are more attractive to look, and I think would appeal better to younger girls. I like the simplicity of the images, meaning that the focus can be on the interesting shapes of the dinosaurs, rather than the details in their skin. The bright, unrealistic colours also draw my attention more to this style of illustration than the serious style in the dinosaur books. I would also like to experiment with creating patterns with the dinosaur illustrations I will create, as I think these could be useful for packaging.

Ashley Thomas

Bright Star Kids

Volksfaden                                              Fred the Dog

 

Hello Lucky

Harlequin

 

Sian Tucker                                   Johnny Yanok

 

Owaboo

Where is Graphic Design?

As Malcolm Barnard writes in Graphic Design as Communication, "Most people see more examples of graphic design before they get to work than they see examples of art in a year." Graphic Design is everywhere! He writes about the letters, numbers and symbols on household items as well as the amount of packaging, branding, advertising and print someone will see in just one morning.

Just looking around my room I can see so many examples of Graphic Design. Here are some examples of the obvious, as well as the unique.

• TV adverts
• CDs/ DVDs
• Signs
• Websites
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Catalogues
• Books
• Adverts
• Packaging
• Wrappers
• Labels
• Clothes
• Bus Stops
• Instruction Manuals
• Maps
• Leaflets
• Menus
• Coffee Patterns
• Graffiti
• Cakes - As typogateux proved, graphic design can even be edible.