Birthday
ism
Print Design & Illustration
A picture book following the lovely poem written by Daniella Segal, that deals with the contradicting desires of people to be both younger and older at the same time, yet wanting nothing to change at all. Odd how these all go together. The illustrations and design accompanying this text are meant to interest the adults reading to their kids, along with the kids themselves, using humor, simple added value and more..
The Concept
Working together with Daniella throughout the process, I created the conceptual concept of the storytelling to go along with the lovely text. The emphasis was on creating images that would add a layer of meaning to the text so that the story would be interesting to both children and adults.
The mouthless expressionless characters leave much room for the readers to place themselves within each situation in the picture book. The backgrounds created by a combination of line and color become these generic places everyone can relate to. Throughout the book, in every page each one of the two characters stay isolated from one another, with their text, until the very last page where they hold hands and join together on the same page and text. Completing the idea and thought of how these contradicting feelings of want to grow older, younger and stay the same age go along together.
Patterns
Each chapter is colored by a different monochromatic palette that symbolizes the main emotion of the memory and the mood accompanying it. The first chapter of a bleak childhood disappointment of ones self is purple, the second of a friendship ending in the desert yellow and the third and last chapter following the last memory of its kind of a grandparent in the loving color pink.
Color Palette
Each chapter is colored by a different monochromatic palette that symbolizes the main emotion of the memory and the mood accompanying it. The first chapter of a bleak childhood disappointment of ones self is purple, the second of a friendship ending in the desert yellow and the third and last chapter following the last memory of its kind of a grandparent in the loving color pink.
Character Design
The two main and only characters, the kid and the adult, demonstrate the contradicting and yet similar sides of each verse of the poem. The design of each resembles the other, but with the addition of the characteristics of his age. The overall look and feel is very simplistic, almost no facial expression, leaving room for the reader to interpret their own feeling of each situation.
Background design
The background design and items illustrated combine lines and color in a playful way,
at times using shading for depth or lines for flatness. This combination is meant to create and interesting image for all ages.
