National Archives Brief (RESEARCH) - Activity Books

Activity Books 

I wanted to look at existing activity books for inspiration for when I design the pages in my activity book. I feel like this is an important step in the design process and it will benefit me.

Science Museum Activity book

http://www.nhmshop.co.uk/toys-and-games/books-for-kids.html?age_filter=3914

I admire the colours on this activity book. I like the way how everything is jumbled around to make it look fun and engaging. I want to achieve this sort of layout when I design the pages for my activity book. 

The one thing I dislike about this layout is some of the images used. They have used photographs on the right hand side page. I feel this does not look quite right with the hand drawn illustrations. 

The Tate Activity book 

https://shop.tate.org.uk/books/kids

This is an activity book for children which is available at the Tate Gallery. I chose to look at this book because there is a lot of interactivity for children. I particularly admire the pages which let the reader cut images out. This is something I am considering including for my final design. I feel this type of interactivity makes the child feel engaged with the book and it makes it more fun.

Other sources

Real- Life mystery's: can you explain the unexplained? - Susan Martineau

This is one of my favorite activity books which has inspired me to create a similar design. I admire the 'hand-made/ thrown together' feel to these pages, I think this makes the book visually appealing to look at and I feel like a lot of children would want to engage with the content. 

The way how the pages are laid out are to make it seem like there is less text. Small paragraphs of text makes it a lot easier for people to read, especially young people. I want to be able to achieve this in my designs. 

Map Mazes (Paperback) - By Sam Smith 

   

I really admire the colour on these pages as I think is captivates the viewer and make the maps look interesting for young children to look at compared to a standard adult map .I like the soft colours used. I would love to include a map this colourful and fun looking in my activity book but I feel like it would take too much time to create as I have a time limit.

Maps Activity Book -  Aleksandra Mizielinska & Daniel Mizielinska

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maps-Activity-Book-Aleksandra-Mizielinska/dp/1783701099

This is an example of an activity book which I think looks very boring at first glance. I wanted to look at an example of a bad design so I know what to avoid when it comes to designing my book. 

I feel like the front cover of this book looks engaging until you open up the book and are immediately greeted by a bland layout. 

I want my activity book to have an old theme with not a great deal of colour so I will need to be careful when considering my designs and layout to avoid it looking boring.