The Brief

The hardest part about this exercise was actually trying to find an illustration that I was interested in using for the Brief. I did think about this exercise long before I started to write it up as I visited Manchester in August and while I was there I decided to see if there were any Art and Design events on locally that might help me with my course or any of my exercises and assignments. After doing a Google search, I found that there was an exhibition on at The Lowry in Salford for Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler who wrote and illustrated The Gruffalo and other various Childrens’ books.

The Gruffalo is a well known Children’s picture book that was first published in 1999 depicting the story of a Mouse taking a walk through the woods and cleverly deceiving and avoiding predators – the main predator being The Gruffalo that the Mouse made up to protect himself against the other predators bt then realised actually exists! He then had to deceive The Gruffalo into believing he is the scariest animal in the woods.

The story is 700 words long and is written in rhyming couplets featuring repetitive verse. The story has been adapted into plays and an animated film for TV which is hugely popular on Christmas Day! There is also a ride dedicated to the story at Chessington World of Adventures and a series of Woodland Trails. The Gruffalo has also expanded to merchandise such as soft toys. In 2004, the story continued with the sequel The Gruffalo’s Child.

The Gruffalo is such a fun character – he looks very dopey and innocent in appearance despite his menacing demure to the small mouse! The Mouse manages to deceive him and escape from him I believe because of this! Scheffler altered the look of the original Gruffalo to make him less scary for young readers as he had sharp eyes and teeth and a more scary appearance and this is how he came about the cute, friendly, dopey character he is today.

The Lowry, Salford

After my Google search to try and find local Design exhibitions in Manchester, me and my Husband quickly realised that we only had an hour to make it to The Lowry and to quickly look around the “Julia and Axel” exhibition. I knew it would be a really good exhibition to go and see and that it could be helpful in my current Illustration unit.

We needed a time slot to be allowed into the exhibition so when we got there with 45 mins to spare we quickly filled in the entry form and showed email confirmation at the door to which we was told they had already let the last group in of the day.. I explained that we were not local and would not be venturing that way anytime soon and that I was a student studying Illustration and that I only needed a few minutes to take some photos to evidence the trip and for me to refer back to In the future – they let us in to look around! This probably worked out well as they told us that it had been heaving with parents, families and children all day and at the time we walked through the door it was practically empty! The exhibition looked into the lives, work and careers of the author and illustrator but it was also an interactive playful exhibition for children to explore the characters from the books. I particularly liked seeing the original notes and sketches – the sketches were bright, bold and vivid Pro Marker drawings on a layout pad and sketchbook pages.

What questions need to be asked/what needs to be instructed in a brief?

I decided to write some rough notes to help me remember what I would need to include in a brief.

I then managed to bullet point the basics of what I think makes up a design Brief:

Overview

• What is the story about?
• Who is the author?
• Who is the reader? Where is it to be read and when?
• Supporting information for the Designer.

Client

• Who is the client?

Concept

• What is required to be produced/represented/communicated?
• Any visions/missions/morals/values/life-lessons it needs to represent?
• Educational?

Target Audience

• Who is the Target Audience?
• What is it communicating?
• Are there any problems to overcome when communicating?
• How does the target audience need to feel? Is there an emotional response that is needed?
• Is there a call to action required for the audience?

Inspiration

• Any stylistic aspects to be included/researched?

Design

• How many concepts are needed for final critique/presentation? What are the requirements for final presentation?
• Technical requirements – sizes, dimensions, large/small scale, print or digital? What file formats does it need to be saved as? PDF? PNG? High res?…
• What medium is to be used? (hand-drawn, pen, paint, mixed media, digital etc..)
• Does any text need to be put on the illustration? What content needs to be included?
• Key themes for visuals?
• What is the end use? Further advertising/publications/Merch etc…

Timescale

• What are the timescales for the design/s and any final deadlines/presentation dates?

Budget

• What is the budget for the campaign?

Contact

• Who should be contacted during the design process?

Requirements

• Accessibility – fonts and any information must be clearly legible and accessible.
• Inclusivity – Celebrating everyone as an individual and being inclusive to all faiths, religions, cultures, race, backgrounds, beliefs, colour etc…
• Be age appropriate for the target audience given – nothing to cause offensive/sexualise.

Competitors

• Any competitors to be made aware of?

I bought this above poster from the gift shop after we had looked around the exhibition – it is the artwork that they used to advertise the exhibition; it has been used in posters, adverts, banners, social media and now as merchandise to be sold in the gift shop. The illustration depicts all of the characters that feature in the books but also in the exhibition – it gives the target audience an idea of what Is being shown and what to expect. The Gruffalo being the main character is centred in the middle. The artwork appeals to all ages but primarily targets young children and their families, (maybe illustration students like myself too!).

The illustration Is fun, bright, happy, innocent, friendly and inviting.

The hierarchy of the poster is simple – top to bottom informing the viewer of the most crucial information. It lures you in with the featured names and then once it has your attention it gives you the crucial dates and information at the bottom. The illustration supports the posters content and further adds appeal and the need to go and see the exhibition. I did want to use this illustration for the brief but it had to be taken into account whether the Illustrator drew the illustration and also designed the poster or whether an independent designer was brought in to do that.

As my brief for this exercise purely concentrates on the illustration alone, I shall write my brief an illustration alone.

I therefore decided to write my brief for this illustration that was in the exhibition and also features in the book itself:

The illustration depicts the moment when the mouse has come to the realisation that the Gruffalo does exist and he is trying to cleverly persuade him that he as the mouse is the most scariest animal in the woods to prevent himself from being eaten on a slice of bread! The look of confusion and complexity on the Gruffalo’s face as he struggles to understand how this tiny little mouse is the most feared animal in the woods, the look of terror on the face of the snake who is visibly terrified of the Gruffalo and oblivious of the mouse and the look of confidence, strength and cunning mischievous playfulness of the mouse who is deceiving all of the predators!

The illustration is very bold, bright and vibrant – it has been drawn by hand using what I believe to be pro-markers and then it has been manipulated digitally for use in the books/film etc…

The primary focus is the characters and what is happening – the theme of the illustration is based in the woods with the snakes home (the logpile), there is a fast moving river or stream in the back of the illustration which could be a metaphor to suggest the flow of the pages and the storyline or show the journey of the characters moving along on each page within the story.

The characters expressions are key to the feel of the story on this illustration – the characters are also drawn to the target audience in mind – they appear cuddly, friendly, fun, innocent, playful and engaging. The colours used are very earthy and down with nature and have the theme of the woods in mind – Browns, Greys, Yellows, Greens, Blues…

Here is my brief for this illustration!….

The Brief

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson – Illustration Brief for page 6 of the book

Overview

Julia Donaldson is the author of a new children’s book titled “The Gruffalo” that is predicted to be one of the best-selling children’s books of our time.  The story will be aimed at young readers between the ages of three to eight years. Three to five year olds will appreciate the elements of surprise and repetition in the story whilst the six to eight year olds will enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the text. The story is aimed primarily to be read at nighttime as a bedtime story or to be used as a picture book for younger readers to engage with the characters, colours, theme and emotions of the characters before learning to read.

The Gruffalo is a story which uses repetitive words and rhyme. The storyline starts with a mouse who walks through a wood and encounters three predators – A Fox, an owl and finally a snake. Each of these animals invites the mouse into their home for a meal, the implication being that they intend to eat the mouse. The mouse declines each offer, telling the predators that it plans to dine with a “Gruffalo”. The mouse then describes the Gruffalo’s frightening features, such as “terrible tusks, terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws”

The mouse tells each predator that they are the Gruffalo’s favourite food. Frightened that the Gruffalo might eat them, each animal flees. Convinced the Gruffalo is fictional, the mouse says:

“Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn’t he know? There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo“

After getting rid of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real Gruffalo which has all the features the mouse thought that it was inventing. The Gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse. Instead, the mouse insists that they themselves are the scariest animal in the wood. Laughing, the Gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse. The two walk through the wood, encountering each of the three predators again. Each predator is terrified by the sight of the Gruffalo and escapes to their home, but the Gruffalo believes that they are actually scared of the mouse. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the Gruffalo in a “Gruffalo Crumble”. The Gruffalo flees, leaving the mouse to eat a nut in peace.

The Design Concept

Our client Julia Donaldson would like you to create an illustration for one of the pages of her book. The page of the story that she would like you to illustrate is the moment the Gruffalo and the Mouse meet the snake. The mouse at this point has realised the Gruffalo actually exists and in a last attempt to try and not be eaten by him, he tricks the Gruffalo into believing he is the scariest creature that lives and exists in the woods by making him follow and see for himself how scary he is to the other animals. At this point in the story they meet the snake who is visibly petrified of the Gruffalo not the Mouse, however the Gruffalo has been convincingly tricked and believes that the snake is afraid of the Mouse and not by him. He is very confused and complexed. The Mouse with a newfound confidence and strength is happy that he is deceiving his predators. The illustration must be bright, bold, colourful and engaging and depict the Gruffalo and the Mouse walking through the wood to meet the snake at his home by the logpile. The colours that need to be used on this illustration need to reflect the theme of the story, (the woods) and reflect nature. The client would like to see a range of Brown, Grey, Yellow, Green and Blue colours as well as texture and an eye for detail with intricate detailing of the characteristics and appearance of the characters particularly the appearance of the Gruffalo –

• He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws.
• And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.
• He has knobbly knees, and turned-out toes.
• And a poisonous wart at the end of his nose.
• His eyes are orange, his tongue is black.
• He has purple prickles all over his back.

The younger readers will mostly be engaging through the illustrations alone. The illustration must depict the characters emotions and body language. The story has flow and rhythm throughout the book with the rhyming text and the journey that the characters walk in the story – a metaphor would be optional to include in this illustration to show flow, movement and a journey that is being walked throughout the pages by the characters – this could be shown by something in the woods or something that reflects nature.

Target Audience

The target audience for the book is children aged three to eight years old. The story aims to be educational whilst also being engaging for creativity and imagination. Three to five year olds will enjoy the bright, bold, colourful illustrations and appreciate the elements of surprise and repetition in the story whilst the six to eight year olds will enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the text. The book can be used during younger years as a picture book to promote creativity and imagination, read alone or be read with family members and the child.

The story is communicating a playful, cunning plan to try and survive. Although the Gruffalo is portrayed in the story as being the scary monster he is, he must be illustrated in a playful, cute, funny, dopey and innocent way so as to not scare the young readers. The young children who read the story and look at the illustrations on the pages need to feel safe, engaged, inspired, curious and excited to see the characters and read the story over and over again. There is a possible opportunity for potential new ventures leading on from the success of the book; there might be room for advertising, film/TV production and merchandise to accompany the book and the story in the form of soft toys, therefore the characters need to have strong characteristics and be soft, cuddly and loveable.

The client would like to see three concepts presented for critique/presentation for discussion and feedback. A concept shall be chosen and then time to finalise, changes to be made for final presentation at a later date for the publishing house.

The client initially prefers a hand drawn approach and would like to see drawn concepts specifically using Pro markers as this allows for bright, bold and vivid illustrations. There is then chance to manipulate the illustration digitally for publication also. The client would like the illustration to be no larger than A5. There is no text content needed on the illustration itself.

Timescale and Deadlines

The client would like to finalise plans with the publishing house for a book release date in May 2024. The concepts need to be presented to the client on the 20th December 2023 with hopes that the final illustration can be finalised and completed by February 2024.

For any queries/resources/assetts that you might need and find necessary to help with the illustration process you should contact the client at Julia.d@thisisntreal.co.uk who will be able to provide these for you and assist you further in the design process.

Requirements

The client wishes the book to be inclusive to children of all backgrounds, beliefs and race and would like the illustrations to feel like a “safe place” to spend a few minutes of their day absorbed in the fun, and engaging pages. The illustration must be age appropriate for the target audience with nothing that promotes an offensive or sexual nature.