FMP - Brief 1 - Children's Book Research

I decided to do some market and design research within childrens books to try and gain a better understanding about my target audience. Looking within Waterstones, at the 'Little Ones' section aimed at children aged 3 - 5, I wanted to evaluate a range of books to look at design and content aspects - Looking at illustration style, how much the book relied on image to explain the story, what words and how many words this age range are expected to be able to read within retail. So I analysed a few case studies:

Case Study 1 :

6 Pages in total - 4 lines per page, 5 words per line

Colours: Bright, bold, colourful, interactive, range of textures

Case Study 2 :

2 lines, 6 words per line, per page

Pull out sections - revealing underlying images

Content - rhyming phrases

text 1 /8 in size to image

Sans serif typeface

Case study 3:

Small, pocket sized

Serif typeface

20 Words per page, over 2 / 3 lines

Case Study 4:

'I love my dad'

Content pushed over double page spreads

Short sentances, 4 words per page

Watercolour illustrations on white

Case Study 5:

Pupper Book - 'Jolly Snowman'

Words on curved path

2 Lines per page, 10 words per line

Author - Lambert and Goldhark

Part Book part puppet

Look up illustrator artist - Anna Walker

In Summary:

The size of the children's book was the most impacting thing, as a child has to be able to hold the book, a child of this age has limited fine motor skills (the ability to hold, or grasp) with the size it means an image to a small child looks huge, and is visually engaging. Ideally text needs to be limited to short words and sentences, with a word limit of 15 words per page. The colour palette needs to be vibrant and engaging but this will go hand in hand with the illustration style I intend on using. The stock of the books were all produced on very thick, dense card, which gave the thickness and realistic quality of a book, with just a few pages - no more than ten. Other elements within the books involved textures, stock - shiny, velvet, gloss etc, and in some cases puppets. All of these elements I need to consider, not just within books but all of the products I intend on creating.

Interactive puppet book

Children Book window display