Children’s Book
STEAM all around us!
Book Design • Design Thinking • Digital Design • Graphic Design • Illustration • Interaction Design • Layout Design • Print Design • Visual Design
Project Scope
Project Goals & Objectives
To create a children’s book that talks about science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
Project Requirements
To be cost-effective. To be illustrated. To be full color. To be of high quality.
Project Scope Description
Illustration Research & Story Absorption, Rough Sketches and Layouting, Final Line Work & Coloring, Typography, Final Digital Layout.
Project Exclusions
Inclusions: The Ghanaian culture (hairstyle, style of communication or language, art references), children of color, STEAM elements.
Exclusions: Photographs (everything must be illustrated excepts logos)
Project Constraints
Time: Illustration takes a while especially when there is back and forth during iteration. Give or take, it will take about 6 months.
Money: The project is self-funded. Initial payment has been made already for commencement.
Scope: All deliverables have been submitted. Illustrations would start soon.
Resources: All resources are available except printer settings
Risks: The inability to find high-quality printers in Ghana
Project Assumptions
This project would be completed in time if all factors involved are produced in time. The illustrations could take longer if agreement on the final style is not reached early.
Project Deliverables
Book - Printer Version (PDF), Book - Online Viewing Version (Accessible PDF)
Do you illustrate? I have a short story I want to turn into a book!
The words that caused my heart to stop for a second! It restarted with excitement! I love to use my skill set for educational purposes! I hoped this book was an educational one!
Story
In a classroom setting, a teacher taught about STEAM to a small-sized class. The student took turns talking about specific topics in STEAM guided by the teacher. Various elements under STEAM were illustrated to reinforce learning. The illustrations gave a clear picture of what the different topics in STEAM look like.
Dialogue
Sir Yaw: Hello class. I hope you all had a lovely weekend I spent most of my time in my backyard garden, harvesting tomatoes with my family. How did you spend your weekend?
Monica: Sir! I went to work with my mother. She sells fabrics at the Makola mall. It was my first time going to her shop and I loved it so much.
Sir Yow: Oh wow! That sounds exciting. Can you share your experience with us?
Monica: Yes Sir. Mummy said I made her very proud and saved her from losing some money. A gentleman came to buy two (2) lace fabrics, three (3) checked fabrics, and one (1) headgear. The lace fabrics cost GH¢50 for one (I) piece, the cost of the checked fabrics GH¢35 for one (I), and the headgear cost GH¢20. Sisi the shop attendant said the total would be GH¢2 15, but that was not right. The good thing is, I was adding up the numbers in my head as she mentioned them and it summed up to GHe225. I told my mother and she realized I was right. I saved my mummy GH¢10.
Sir Yow: Great work Monica That is impressive. I am delighted you were bold enough to speak out.
Monica: Sir Yaw. I wasn't but then I remembered the last thing you said before we left school on Friday, "Don't be afraid to make mistakes, mistakes are opportunities to learn new things”.
Sir Yaw: That is a very intelligent thing to say. Thank you Monica Monica's weekend experience is the perfect story to introduce today's lesson. Who has heard of STEAM?
Peter: Sir! Sir! I have! I haven't just heard of it, I have seen it too. I helped my mummy prepare a salad for the family on Saturday. She poured water into a saucepan and gently placed four eggs in it before putting it on the stove. Bubbles were formed in the water as it boiled and I also saw vapor come out of the saucepan. Mummy said it is called steam.
Sir Yaw: You are right Peter. Water is converted to steam when heated. Great job. The STEAM I am asking about is different though. It is spelt capital S…T… E... A... M. It is an abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. For today's lesson, we will try and identify STEAM around us.
Sir Yaw: Monica, from your experience in your mother's shop, how were you able to sum up the numbers?
Monica: Sir, that was easy. We have been learning addition in our Maths class for some time now. That helped me save my mummy some money.
Sir Yaw: Great! Peter, what did you learn from the experience you had spending time with your mother in the kitchen?
Peter: When water is heated, steam is formed and that is chemistry. I learned that in my chemistry class. My mother also told me not to go close to the stove because the fire can burn me.
Sir Yaw: That's an amazing observation and yes, care must be taken around fire. So, is it right to say we have STEAM all around us?
Seyram: Yes sir. I had a video call with my big brother on Sunday. He is away in school and I hardly get to see him. During our call, he mentioned he loves Technology and that was what made it possible for him to see me. Sir, please what is Technology?
Sir Yaw: Can anyone explain to us what Technology is?
Abubakar: Sir, my tablet is technology Daddy's phone is technology too, but I don't know what Technology means.
Sir Yaw: You are right Abubakar, tablets, and phones are technologies. Technologies are things created by humans that make our life easier. Examples are cars, computers, sanitizer dispensers, and televisions.
Abubakar: I want to create something to help me clean my room. That would be so convenient.
Sir Yaw: I look forward to seeing you come up with that invention Abubakar. Thank you for sharing your story Seyram. Iris, who is an Architect?
Iris: My daddy is an architect.
Sir Yaw: Hahahahahahah. Yes, he is. What does an architect do?
Iris: Daddy draws a lot of houses. My daddy is very good at drawing. He said he loves Art. He even knows how to draw his houses in 3-dimensions (3D). I want to be just like daddy when I grow up.
Sir Yaw: It is good to see you love what your daddy does. Iris said her daddy draws in 3-dimensions (3D) and I could see the confusion on some of her faces. 3D means the Art takes into consideration the height, width, and depth of objects. Art like that "bops out" at you when you see it on paper, it doesn't look flat.
Sir Yaw: The Arts in STEAM does not only represent drawings and paintings but also our music and fine arts, just like our traditional drumming and dancing. Who can mention some of our traditional dances?
Abubakar: Boborbor, Kete, Adowa, Apatampa. I love watching videos of our Ghanaian cultural dances.
Sir Yaw: Yes Abubakar. That's correct.
Sir Yaw: We have talked about how Science, Technology, Arts, and Mathematics can be appreciated around us. Now let's talk about Engineering. An Engineer is someone who designs and builds things. They identify a problem and those it affects and then create a solution. There are so many types of Engineers. Seyram's mother is an Electrical Engineer, we will invite her to tell us about her job.
Monica: STEAM sounds fun. I would like to do that when I grow up. I will be an Engineer or an Architect.
Sir Yaw: You can be anything you put your mind to. You have to appreciate all the STEAM around you. How sound travels when we talk, how we breathe, Robotics and so many more. Monica, there are so many fields in STEAM that you can pursue when you grow up. You can be a Doctor, an Architect, or an Engineer in so many disciplines. Or a Teacher, an Artist, a Pilot, a Designer, a Pharmacist, Mathematician and so many more. STEAM is all around us!
Execution
With the information above, it was time to create and make the book a reality. I started off by spending time absorbing the story, then researched various types of children's educational books, did some rough sketches, experimented with some book layouts, then turned all sketches into vectors, iterated on different illustration styles, colored in the characters, and scenes, figured out the best typography for children, and finally laid out all the pages and elements for the book. All these steps involved a lot of iterations and intimately communicating with the author. We had several calls that explained why I took certain creative decisions and why I represented the text in such a way. All her inputs were considered and integrated into the final design of the book. The design thinking process was a crucial tool in this process, the initial meeting with the author allowed me to Empathize with her story and goal. We were able to define the type of illustration style she wanted (flat illustration) and the number of pages which all led up to the cost of the project. The idea is the story itself, which was then broken down into pages from which illustrations were produced from. The rough sketches and layout designs formed the prototyping stage, it gave us an idea of what the characters would look like and the environment they will be in. Finally, we tested the illustration with teachers, school owners, children, the general public, and toddlers. We cycled through all these stages to ensure we created a book that had the human in mind.
Illustration Research & Story Absorption (Empathize, Define & Ideate)
After empathizing and defining the scope of work with the author, I need to ideate the best way to represent her story in a creative yet educational way. After 2 weeks of research and story absorption for a week, I decided to go represent the story in a mild comic style while still keeping the children’s book style. I also decided to add illustrations of different STEAM elements no matter how advanced or complex they may be. I reached the decision because of the nudge theory, even though children may not necessarily understand some of the illustrations, they will have them imprinted in their minds for the future. Now that I had defined the direction I was going on, it was time to start prototyping.
Rough Sketches and Layouting (Prototype)
This is the fun part! At this stage, I am experimenting with the look and feel of the characters, gathering various inspirations to guide me, figuring out what the classroom will look like, ensuring the Ghanaian culture is represented in the book, and so on. Below are some visual processes to give you an idea of the prototyping stage.
Initial sketches trying to figure out the best illustration style.
Figuring out what clothing style would work for the different demographics of the characters. Also the body style, I realized an oval head was quite unique from the research I had done.
Getting closer to a style I like. I liked that the body was smaller than the head.
This sketch really expressed what I was looking for.
Now it was pretty straightforward to create the other characters. All I need to do now was to figure out the hairstyles, especially for the ladies.
As you can tell, the style of illustration has been established. Big oval head with a thin small bdy. I also experimented with accessories like a school bag.
This is where I explored the different layouts of the book. How text and images will go together. The square dimension was an ideal size for little children and could easily be carried allong.
Final Line Work & Coloring (Prototype & Iterate)
Now that I had established a style, it was time to transform the sketches into vectors. I created basic shapes to mimic the illustrations to achieve the vectors. I started off with basic elements to give the author an idea of what the illustrations, scenes, and characters could look like. The author then updated how the uniforms should look to match her company’s colors not the color of her YouTube Channel brand logo. I also realized a neck for the characters would look much better, so I iterated to include it. The author and I met several times to ensure all the characters matched up to how she imagined them and that story was embodied by the illustrations created.
Turning the sketches into vector was pretty straight forward. I created one without an outline and the other with an outline.
The classroom set up was also established to show how the students and the teacher will fit well into the scene.
The outline was also done to see how that would look like.
The other students were also added to the scene to see how the scenes will come together.
With the neck added, I was satisfied with how the characters looked like. It was time to finalize the illustrations.
I explored different facial expressions of the characters (luckily there was no sad part of the story).
I explored how the characters would like from different sides
I explored how poses could affect the character illustrations
I finally explored shading. Which the author did not like too much, she preferred flat colors through out.
Typography
Since this is a children’s book, I wanted to ensure the fonts or typography used was playful and childlike. As though a child wrote the story on each page. This led me on a quest to hunt down children's fonts of all kinds. Below are some explorations.
Final Digital Layout
Now that all the design elements have been completed, it is time to put all of them together. Design thinking allowed the author and me to drill deep into the project. Together, we were able to create an amazing book that I believe will touch a lot of children's lives and the future generations to come. Below is a glimpse of the final STEAM all around us! book layout.
