Changing Directions

 "I'm considering... kinda just changing the whole thing." - me, 1 week after the mid-point review

CONFLICTING IDEAS

- Intention to create a large book, in which there would be 2 smaller books, in which would be 7 short stories and 8 fully illustrated waterfall cards

- Lots of work and very complex - lots of elements to consider

- In documenting work, found that I was very drawn to the final story

- Inspiration taken from Duck, Death, and the Tulip and The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse

- Wanting to simplify the format and lessen the workload in order to create one compelling story

- Wanting to flesh out the story about grief, loss, and omens of death

- Black is heavily associated with death in Western cultures, due to connotations with mourning and funerals

- White is associated with death due to lilies atop caskets and angels, and the purity and innocence of those that have passed

- Both colours come to represent one idea

- Black cat and white horse both an omen of death

FORMAT

- Attempting to keep the same format

- Waterfall cards very unique, wanted to keep this novelty element

- Considered double-sided cards - wouldn't work due to cards not folding fully back when tab is pulled

- Pulling horizontally could work to flip like a book but all rides on whether the cards will fold back fully

- Considered making two - one black and one white

- Longer pull tab to fold over like a notebook - would result in a very long waterfall card which wouldn't fold properly (did trial this and the limit seems to be 6 cards)

- Realising I wouldn't be able to use the jigsaw effect for the text as discussed in a previous review

- Wanted to introduce another character to make it make more sense

REFERENCE POINTS

- Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch

- 3 characters

- Explains a complicated concept in a simple way for any audience

- Simple but beautifully designed characters

- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy

- Appropriate for any age to appreciate

- Beautiful style, beautifully illustrated throughout

- Text and images composed very well throughout book

- Big Panda and Tiny Dragon by James Norbury

- Simple book with simple concepts but very powerful

- Simple but effective character design

CHARACTERS

- Designing a third character to go alongside the cat and the horse

- Started from scratch and returned to the symbolism that black and white can hold again

- Considered using the innocence of the colour white and the corruption of the colour black

Possibilities for the character - wanting to invert the meanings of black and white again

Trying to map out key points of a story using the bird character

Trying to use the concept of aging to invert black and white (e.g. white aged hair vs black youthful hair)

- Realised my concepts were straying too far from initial brief

- No longer a story about colour, more so a story about death

- Decided to leave it and discuss during next review

CLARIFYING AND SOLIDIFYING

- Advised to strip everything back and solidify the main message of the story I'm trying to tell

- Clarifying message to illustrate how black and white can both result in the same message, regardless of the journey itself

- Main inspiration - The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse; minimal character design and flexible storytelling

- Venna and the Cat / Venna and the Horse

Venna and the Cat vs Venna and the Horse

- Decided to also include the Turkish map fold technique

- Biggest page for a pivotal or poignant part of the book

- Would make the waterfall card feel less out-of-place as it felt very much like I had just put it in the book with no meaning or reason

- Another pop up element gives more context

[demo of mock-up book]