Picture book
Lesson 1
Visual design elements
Introduction
Throughout this week you are going to learn about visual design elements and graphic design techniques to help you create either:
an additional double page spread for the numeracy picture book 'How many mice make an elephant?' This book's target audience is primary school aged children.
a double page spread for a new version of the book being written for an Australian teenage audience.
In this lesson you will be learning about the visual design elements used to communicate effectively to your target audience.
Watch the video for an introduction to the lesson.
Understanding the tasks
Rating the tasks
This lesson contains a few activities. Each activity will have one or more tasks. These tasks have been given a rating.
Some of the tasks in this lesson are must do. These are important to help you understand the introductory ideas or skills.
Have a go at the should do tasks and reach out to your friends or teacher if you need some advice. These will usually take a bit longer to complete than must do tasks.
Could do tasks will probably take you some extra time and might need you to get creative or problem solve. We strongly encourage you to try these.
Activity 1 - Visual design elements in How many mice make an elephant?
Task 1 - Visual design elements
Watch the video Designing for an audience to learn how visual design elements are used in graphic design.
Demonstrate your understanding of the information provided in the video by completing the drag the word interactive to match the key terms and definitions.
Task 2 - Visual design elements in How many mice make an elephant?
Look at the page, Measuring different things from the picture book 'How many mice make an elephant?'.
Identify the different visual design elements that have been used to communicate measurement to a younger audience.
Use the Visual design elements in How many mice Google Slides template to help you document the visual design elements you see.
Click on the button above to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Image from How many mice make an elephant? (c) Pan Macmillan. Used with permission.
Task 3 - Meeting the needs of the target audience
Use the interactive PEEL activity to explain why How many mice make an elephant? is suitable for a primary age audience.
Click on the question mark symbols inside the interactive to see specific instructions for each section.
When you have finished writing your paragraph, use the blue Copy button to extract the text and paste it into a Word or Google Doc, ready to share with your teacher.
Activity 2 - Audience and design
Task 1 - Visual imagery for different audiences
Explore the work of:
Shaun Tan
Sir Quentin Blake
Eric Carle
by visiting each illustrator’s website below.
2. Compare the visual design elements used by each illustrator to target different audiences.
3. Complete the Triple Venn diagram Google Slides to show the similarities and differences.
Click on the button above to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Note: while we have linked to the pages above, any other pages or other material linked to beyond these pages are not endorsed by the department.
Task 2 - Using visual design elements to create identity
Creating a persona for your target user is a great way to profile your target audience and focus on what they need from the product you are designing.
Create an audience persona which outlines characteristics such as their interests, like and dislikes.
Find three examples of visual media that would appeal to this audience. This could be a picture book, a graphic advertisement for a product, or a digital magazine.
Use the My target audience Google Slides template to compare and contrast the visual design elements used in the different media.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Task 3 - Using visual design elements to create identity
Creative professionals often create a unique identity in the market so that their work is highly recognisable. This is seen in film with directors such as Tim Burton who has a dark, creepy style.
Go to Sir Quentin Blake's website found in Task 1.
Critically analyse what makes his work unique. Ensure you look at the visual design elements, but also consider his target market.
Suggest ways that he could strengthen his professional identity, through his illustrations.
Use the Creating an identity Google Slides template to complete this task.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Activity 3 - Creating your own imagery
Task 1 - Drawing for a specific audience
Watch the video about applying visual design elements when drawing for a younger audience.
Complete the drag the word interactive to match the image with the explanation of the technique.
Task 2 - Using the visual design elements
Create a drawing for your target audience that illustrates the difference between LOUD and QUIET.
Try to use all six of the visual design elements in your illustration.
Allow 20 minutes for this task.
Task 3 - Gaining feedback
Show your imagery to someone for feedback.
Explain how you have used the visual design elements, and why you think this image works well for your audience.
Ask them to critique the image, from the point of view of the target audience. You can use the My imagery PMI feedback Google Slides template to help record the feedback you receive.
Click on the image to open a new tab and view the Google Slides.
Click on the Use Template button to create a copy for you to edit.
Handing in your work
Don't forget to hand in the work you completed today!
Your teacher will have told you to do one of the following:
Upload any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your Learning Management system (MS Teams, Google Classroom for example).
Email any digital documents you created and any photos you took of your written work to your teacher.
Make sure you keep any handwritten work you did in your exercise book or folder as your teacher may need to see these when you are back in class.
Banner image from How many mice make an elephant? (c) Pan Macmillan. Used with permission.