The story museum - initial research and inspiration

 A week ago today I visited the story museum in Oxford for some inspiration! I attended a short movie on the history of stories in Oxford and whilst it wasn't that inspirational one thing definitely prevailed from it - the famous, successful books are those set in a world created by the author/illustrator which can't be a coincidence! It makes sense - a world of imagination and excitement to draw the reader in and make them excited to read more. For the idea I have now (getting onto that fully soon enough) there does need to be a connection/relation to the real world for it to make sense but nothing would prevent me from basing it around the 'ideal world' and how to achieve it!

Here are a few photos I took at the museum that inspired me:

(not in chronological order but it works well enough)

This was the first room in the museum, that you are led into by a worker at the museum - after you have chosen a character to be which is an important thing to note - who has taken on a character welcoming you into this magical world! It is all about stories and fables, each tree telling a different story and having a different puzzle which is what makes it fun and engaging. This is where me idea started to form but I also liked the idea of being fully submerged into another world, it wold just be a matter of working out how exactly to do that within a book! I also quite like the idea of a kind of a narrator telling the stories - as a side note.

I didn't necessarily get inspiration from this part of the museum (how to construct a comic book) but it was still interesting - the concept of creating characters from two or more random things/people, taking the ordinary and turning it into something not quite so ordinary... 

I was, however mesmerised by the bright, completely smooth, almost digital application of the colour in the Beano comic art, which I didn't know was done by hand and clearly collaged together to experiment with layout. That was really interesting.

This is one a few rooms set up to look like you've walked into the book which are really sweet and enchanting for the younger audience that were there in that moment in time. Whilst I can't exactly create to scale scenes within a book, I can try to go expansive with pop-up elements that really bring life to the story. It's not quite the same but I saw something similar to said idea at the museum;

Not exactly a pop-up but it is like a little world created in quite a small space. I would just need to experiment with creating depth and layers within a 2-D image.

Not all that much relevance, it just intrigued me to think about a story or perhaps place being visualised in so many different ways! This being Alice in Wonderland like you've probably never seen it before! I'm intrigued by potentially looking into the idea that different things look different to different people...

Another version of Alice in Wonderland! A key example of bringing the page to life and really creating a three dimensional effect - actually using the entire space rather than just the top of the page as a lot of pop-up books do which is definitely something I could look into!

I'm not too sure what this is bur presumably it is the planning process of a published book but regardless, it really drew me in, I love the rough wash effect of the illustrations coupled with the collaged type, there's just something really tactile about it. I want to experiment with an element playfulness that encourages the reader to be playful and imaginative - very much like the world of Charlie and Lola!

Just a little info

This was real cute! Tiny versions of all the characters we know and love - like a nostalgic where's wallie but rather than looking for just one character you're looking for your faves! Nice idea... not sure I'll find a way to integrate it but who knows...

Anyway, the idea! So, whilst I was at the museum an idea started brewing, putting all the little pieces together and then upon getting home I developed the idea further on the mind map and the idea has only developed more since then...

The outline of the idea is a children's book focused on what we can do as individuals and as a group to help save the planet! Featuring interactive elements - puzzles and riddles and what not to get the reader thinking. I then thought of adding characters into said book that have specific roles and responsibilities throughout the book (and possibly a game of some sort as well) that each reader (probably around 4-6) can chose a character to focus on whilst reading the book. I'm hoping I can find a way of a solo reader being able to read it without missing out on anything but my current thoughts are to make it a book that the family can read together or a book that can be taken into schools!

Raising questions such as 'what is your potential?' 'what can you do to save the planet you live on?' and 'how can we work together to save the planet we live on?'. I then thought about all those times reading kids magazines when I was younger, almost all of which had a section where you sent something to the magazine and won a price which made me think of doing something along the lines of 'write a short paragraph on what you can do to save the planet!' and perhaps something to do with the characters within the book. The prize being something eco friendly, designed for multiple use - a tote bag, a pencil case, a lunch box. Something made of recycled materials preferably! An element of getting the reader to engage with the idea of the book and actually think about the questions being asked and hopefully any adults engaging with it too will start to think about it as well.

I like the idea of looking at different elements of the world - the rainforest, the ocean, glaciers ect. and splitting the book into sections that way. I think it could be really cool visually! With a way in which we can help in every section.

This will be quite an intense project with a lot of research and a lot of potentially complex elements and just generally a LOT to figure out but I think this could be really effective and I want to be an illustrator to educate and where better to truly start than saving our planet!

I'm going to look into children's book about climate change and what we can do to help and how this is represented visually, alongside role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons to see how they work structurally. I shall also see if I can find any book/game duos...