Final Crit Feedback Evaluation

Feedback from the crit was all good and they didn't point out any changes I need to make and judging from the comments they understood my intentions/where the idea came from, which is reassuring!
The only suggestions made were to do with presentation boards and how I can take the practical further.

Before submission I want to look at how the colouring/activity book can be adapted into a tablet app. Since children have more access to tablets or similar technology nowadays, it would make the activities more accessible to a wider audience - it also means that they would have a choice with how they could engage with it.

Action plan between now and submission:

• Photograph finished work for presentation boards
• Finish writing statement of synthesis
• Produce app mock-ups for boards and possibly a short animation
• Research/produce potential distribution/contexts (where it would be sold or used)

Presentation Boards So Far

After the crit tomorrow I'm going to revisit these boards. I want to include some good photographs of the finished product, including the packaging and pack of crayons. I also want to produce some mock-ups or proposals for how I could take this work further, since there's still a week until submission. The most important board at the moment is the one explaining the concept behind the colouring book, so hopefully the feedback tomorrow will let me know whether or not I've explained it well enough.

Presenting the final product

I got everything printed today and I'm really happy with how it came out. I was initially worried about which type of paper to use but I found a good matte stock that wasn't too thick and felt like just the right texture to colour on. If I were to print again I think I'd use a slightly thicker stock for the cover. The one used was thicker than the interior pages, but not by that much. I used the same thicker stock for the card envelope I want to encase everything in, which again, could have done with being a little thicker. 

Cover & Packaging

I felt like the previous cover needed something adding to it.. so I added a bit of texture and then carried this over to the packaging for the crayons and a kind of envelope to hold it all together. I'm pleased with the consistency of the designs, I just hope they look okay once printed and assembled.

Almost there!

I finally got everything assembled! Since the whole of the inside is black and white, I wanted to use some bright colours on the cover - after all the target audience is children, so it needs to look attractive (especially as it's supposed to be educational but not boring).

I feel like I'm in quite a difficult position at the moment because I won't get any feedback on this until Friday, but I have to print it tomorrow (Thursday).. So I'm just going to have to have a bit of confidence that it looks okay.. Any feedback I get on Friday I can just propose to alter I suppose.

Now all that's left to do is create some sort of packaging for this and the crayons I want to present with it!

Paper-doll drawings

For the last section of the activity book I wanted to put in a paper-doll so that the child can decorate it to match their preferences, rather than being given an existing colour scheme or set of gendered clothes. I've tried to include a range of clothing and hairstyles that can be coloured in, but I'm also going to put in a page with a template so that they can draw their own.

Having pages that will be cut into means I'll have to account for that when I assemble the InDesign document and have a few blank pages.

As well as the paper-doll, I had a talk with Patrick who suggested I find a way to add more layers to the colouring pages because I felt like they were lacking something.. We discussed looking up some facts to go with the images and creating some sort of task involving the use of colour to categorise the toy pages. 

still to do:

• research facts to go with images
• research colour/gender associations in various cultures
• create front and back covers
• assemble InDesign document 
• design some sort of packaging

Pages progress

These are the colouring pages I'm happy with so far. I think adding more to the compositions (like a bit of background) has really helped improve them compared with my earlier drawings in this post.

For these I have chosen to draw jobs/professions that are typically associated with or occupied by a specific gender. I think it would be unrealistic to try and draw every gender identity in each of these occupations, so I've just drawn the opposite of what most people would expect. For example, the stay at home father - although not uncommon these days, throughout history part of the male role has been to be a 'provider' for their family. What I am trying to show with these images is that both sexes, regardless of what gender they identify with, can chose whatever type of career or role they want to.

As these drawings took much longer than I initially anticipated, I don't think I'll be able to get 32 done as I was originally aiming for. The next category I want to tackle is clothing/appearance, so I think I'm going to draw a gender neutral paper-doll for the audience to customise/make their own. I plan to spread the paper doll and all the according accessories/clothing over four pages with instructions on how to make it more durable since the stock won't be thick enough for it to stand on it's own.

As I'm coming up with ideas for the drawings, I'm noticing that the last chapter of my essay has really informed the practical content. In the last chapter I've written about depictions of gender roles, the use of pink/colour and body image - all of which are turning out to be key elements in this colouring pack. E.g the drawings of different genders in various jobs/roles covers the depiction of gender roles, the interactive colouring aspect covers the use of colour in regards to gender and for body image I am producing a paper doll.