Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Blurb printing.

http://www.blurb.com/


As the main focus of my design project is to make a book- not only looking at the cover design, as originally stated in the Penguin/Puffin brief, but also to consider both the interior editorial and illustrative designs, planning ahead is really key.
Although it is something that I would really like to spend time on myself and improve on by hand, time really will be of the essence during this project, as I hope to create a substantial body of work that will need to be produced quickly and effeciently.
Therefore, I have looked into getting my books printed and bound by online company, Blurb. The company has been used by a few of my friends in the past, including my partner's Architectural design portfolio, and I have seen some really great results.
Another great asset of this website (as well as the time saving element!) is the fact that you can print various editions- a luxury collectors edition, hardback, and standard paper back- which would be a great way to demonstrate my book ranges- an integral part of this brief.


To get the designs ready, printed, and returned I need to make sure I'm really prepared. Going to be a busy fortnight of designing ahead- trying to get the bulk of my research completed this weekend!

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//World Book Day.

http://www.worldbookday.com/about/

Another consideration for my design developments throughout the Product/Range/Distribution brief is to combine my design outcomes and the rebrand for the Grimms Fairy Tales with one of the most popular events in the school calendar in the UK and Ireland, 'World Book Day', in 2012 celebrating it's fifteenth year, celebrates literature and a love of reading among children. 

The scheme consists of each child in participating school's recieving a voucher which entitles them to either £1 off any book costing over £2.99 in selected retailers (Waterstones, WH Smiths, etc) or any of the selected eight World Book Day books for FREE. A wonderful scheme and event which I always looked forward to as a child, and will fully support and encourage if/when I one day have my own children at school. 

But, perhaps, most importantly, the fact that each child was allowed to come to dressed up to school as their favourite fictional book character was a BIG deal (I was Tinkerbelle twice!). Definitely worth considering adding the promotional factor for World Book Day 2013 to my designs. Some really exciting possibilities I could explore in terms of the promotional design.

More design developments and considerations can be found on my Design Practice blog.

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Hay Literary Festival & Waterstones.

http://www.literaryfestivals.co.uk/hayfestival.html

After my initial inspiration and idea to look a little more into the Hay Festival, as a source of promotional marketing and promotion, I'm really excited about the possibility of using it as a platform to widen my project outcomes- working, and looking more into retail and advertising design, as opposed to the original outcome limitations of the Penguin/Puffin project, which simply requested for a book cover to be designed (which, realistically, could be a project that covered two or three days, not six weeks that we have for this Product/Range/Distribution project). 


The Hay Festival seems like the perfect location to advertise my book designs. What I had intended for my design was to be quite a high-end, heirloom design, with high- spec print and finish- something that could be passed down amongst generations, and the stories shared with various generations throughout the years.


Naturally, in today's society, reading as an enjoyable activity is often regarded as more of a middle class past time- as well as the process of buying books themselves (and being able to buy them as e-books through more expensive digital devices such as Kindles and iPads), so the literary festival, a family run festival (where I have discovered that children's authors Michael Morpurgo and Polly Dunbar- the later of which I saw an an arts exhibition competition I enter, and was wonderful, are featuring/talking this year).


I also discovered that their associated partners are wide and varied. Earlier in the day, I rang up the local Waterstones store in Leeds to discuss coming in to photograph their store (again, middle class- lovely shop!) to work on my own promotional designs, for research, and to show my designs in context once they are complete in the next couple of weeks, and, very kindly, they agreed! So, naturally, I was delighted to see on the Hay Festival website that Waterstones are a sponsor, as well as Waterstones running the  'Children's Book Prize' and being the main sponsor of the 'Children's Laureate' (perfect products for my target audience)... all falling together in place very nicely! 


Time to re-write my brief! See my Design Practice blog for more design developments.

http://waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterstones

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Literary Festivals.

http://www.literaryfestivals.co.uk/festivalslist.html


Researching some general literary festivals within the United Kingdom, to act as inspiration for potential promotional and marketing designs within my project outcome, specifically to promote my new branded Grimms Fairy Tales book series.


For me, the literary festival that particularly stands out in the Hay Festival, down in my neck of the woods (I live in Shropshire, so it's just next door!) in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. The Hay Literary Festival is one of the largest and most popular in the entire world, and attracts wonderfully talented and prolific guest speakers, combining literary topics with theatre and music- this year attracting speakers such as children's author, Michael Morpurgo and musician, comedian, and composer Tim Minchin (who has, most recently, scored the West End production of Roald Dahl's classic story, 'Matilda').


I will go on to look at Hay in a little more detail, though I think this has really great potential for my design project, and something that I could get really excited about- as well as putting my designs into further more context (as well as being Penguin/Puffin branded).


More design developments can be found on my Design Practice blog.

Aberdeen Writers Festival

Aldeburgh Literary Festival

Aldeburgh Poetry Festival

Althorp Literary Festival
Appledore Book Festival
Asia House Festival of Asian Literature
Athlone Literary Festival
Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival
Ayot Literary Festival
Bard of Armagh Festival of Humerous Verse
Bath Festival of Literature
Bath Festival of Children’s Literature
BBC Proms Lit Festival
Belfast Festival at Queens
Beverley Literature Festival
Beyond the Border - Wales International Storytelling Festival
Big Oak Literary and Arts Festival - Londonderry
Books, Borders, Bikes, Peebleshire, Scotland
Borders Book Festival
Boswell Book Festival
Bournemouth Literary Festival
Brighton Festival
Brighton and Hove City Reads
Bristol Poetry FestivalBudleigh Salterton Literary Festival
Burnham Market Book Festival
Buxton Festival

Cambridge WordFest,

Cambridge Winter Wordfest,
Canterbury Festival
Caomhnú Literary Festival
Chalke Valley History Festival
Charleston Festival
Cheltenham Literature Festival (Times )
Chipping Norton Literary Festival
Chorleywood Literature Festival (edge of the Chilterns)
Coleridge Literary Festival
Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival
Cúirt International Festival of Literature (Galway, Ireland)

Dartington Hall Way with Words Festival
Daphne du Maurier Festival
Dublin Book Festival
Dublin Writers Festival
Dundee
Durham Book Festival
Dylan Thomas Festival

Ealing Literary Festival
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Essex Book Festival
Essex Poetry Festival
Eype Literary Festivals, Dorset
Word Up, London
First Story Festival
Folkestone Book Festival
Free the WordFrome Festival - Writers and Publishers Day

Gort Literature Festival
Graham Greene Festival
Guardian Hay Festival
Guernsey Literary Festival
Guildford Book Festival

Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival
Havant Literary Festival
Hay Festival

Hebden Bridge Festival

Henley Literature Festival
Hexham Book Festival
Hillingdon Festival of History and Literature
Huddersfield Literature Festival
Humber Mouth Literature Festival
Ilkley Literature Festival
Islay Book Festival
Immrama Lismore Festival of Travel Writing
Inverness Book Festival
John Clare Festival
Kings Lynn Literary Festival
Kings Lynn Poetry Festival
King's Sutton Literary Festival
Knutsford Literature Festival -
Laugharne Weekend Friday
Latitude Festival
Lavenham Literary Festival
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Literary Leicester Festival
LennoxLove Book Festival
Lincoln Book Festival
Lichfield literature
Linlithgow Book Festival, West Lothian
Literary Dundee
Litro Live!
London History Festival
London Literature Festival
London Word Festival
LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend
Manchester Literature Festival
Manchester Childrens Book Festival
Marlborough Literature Festival
Middlesbrough Literary FestivalMorley

Nairn Book and Arts Festival

Newcastle Winter Book Festival

New Writers UK

North Herts Book Festival

Ottery St. Mary Coleridge Literary Festival

Oxford (Sunday Times) Literary Festival

Peak Festival

Penzance Literary Festival Cornwall

Petworth Literary Weekend, West Sussex

Pocklingtom Literature Festival
Port Eliot Lit Fest

Richmond Upon Thames Literature Festival (Formerly Book Now Festival)
Redbridge Book and Media Festival

Saffron Walden Literature Festival

Salisbury International Arts Festival

Scarborough Literature Festival

Scottish International Storytelling Festival

Sentinel Literature Festival

Sevenoaks Literary Celebration

Shoreditch Festival

South Asian Literature Festival (SALF)

Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival

Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival

STANZA Poetry Festival

Surrey Heath Literary Festival

St. Ives Literarture Festival

Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Strokestown International Poetry Festival

Swindon Festival of Literature

SW11 Literary Festival  

Times Cheltenham Literature Festival

Thame Arts & Literature festival
Theakstons Harrogate Crime Writing Festival
Throckmorton Literary FestivalTS Eliot Festival
Ullapool Book Festival
University of Aberdeen Writers' Festival
University of East Anglia Literary Festival
Warwick Words
Wells Festival of Literature
Wenlock Poetry FestivalWest Cork Literary Festival
West Meon Festival of BooksWigtown Book Festival
Winchester Writers’ Conference Festival and Book Fair
Wirral Bookfest
Wolds Word (Louth, Alford and Lincolnshire Wolds)
Woodstock
Worlds Literature Festival (Norwich Writers Centre)
World Literature Weekend (London Review of Books)
Worcestershire Literary FestivalWordfringe
Words in Motion at the Big Chill
York Literature Festival

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Existing Puffin Grimm's competition designs.

Researching some examples of design outcomes generated as a result of the Penguin/Puffin brief which I am basing my own designs around for my Product/Range/Distribution design outcome(s). Really interesting to see some of the design interpretations that people have made, and the various styles and design methods that have been used to create the wide variety of cover (project) examples- the majority of which are illustrative, perhaps the most common and natural association with children's literature, and one which I will be most closely looking at, and working towards, myself.

Pictures sourced from various Google Images links.

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Grimm's Fairy Tale Book Covers.

 

Researching a few quick examples of the wonderfully varied designs for past and present covers for Grimm's Fairy Tales, here, taking a more classic, traditional, illustrative approach, many with ornate, art deco- like designs. Although I intend to go for something a little more modern, which I think will be more appropriate to the age of contemporary penguin/puffin designs, as well as my own "style" and design portfolio, it's great looking at some of the more traditional designs, and seeing how this style has evolved and changed, and how the covers have developed and changed throughout the years- and how I, myself, can use this as a source of inspiration within my own design outcomes and development.


All pictures sourced from various Google Images links.

Design Practice II//Product/Range/Distribution//Papercraft.

Taking a look through another one of my favourite design books which I own, 'Papercraft', as a source of inspiration for some of my future paper crafted designs. For me, this book proved a little more specific than another one of my book sources, 'Tangible', due to the fact, as the title reads, these designs were created solely out of paper, and, therefore, are a lot more relevant to the materials I hope to be working with (which I think will work really well with the traditional style of the stories, and natural materials- along with the bold, silhouette style of the imagery in general).
Here, I found some really cool, and very varied methods of production in terms of paper crafting- my favourite, perhaps, being a paper crafted castle by Peter Callesen, which is just perfect for my fairy tale theme.
Really inspired by these designs, can't wait to get started now! More design developments and progress can be found on my Design Practice blog.