Picture book
Lesson 4
Designing the layout for your picture book
Introduction
In this lesson you will learn about layout, and the graphic design tricks that help to make eye catching graphics.
You will apply this to your double page spread and start developing your own layout.
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 - Being a picture book editor
Task 1 - Graphic design techniques in a picture book
Complete the interactive below to demonstrate your understanding of the graphic design techniques used in the book 'How many mice make an elephant?'.
There are three examples to complete.
For each example, drag the graphic design element to where you find it in the book.
Use the blue arrows at the top or bottom right hand side to move from image to image.
Note: if you need help completing this task, re-watch the graphic design techniques videos in Lesson 2, Activity 2, Task 1.
Task 2 - Evaluating the layout
Evaluate the layout of existing pages from the book 'How many mice make an elephant?'. How well were each of the graphic design techniques used?
Use the Rose, thorn, bud 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.
Task 3 - Layout for different audiences
Go to Matt Ottley’s website below
Depending on your target audience, explore the book covers for either:
younger children (if you are adding a double page spread to How many mice make an elephant?)
young adults (if you are adding a double page spread to the book targeted at teenagers)
Choose one book cover from the website
Evaluate its layout using the Matt Ottley rose, thorn, bud template
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 page above, any other pages or other material linked to beyond this page are not endorsed by the department.
Activity 2 - Designing your layout
Task 1 - Putting it all together
Watch the video, Layout with Google Slides, to learn how to design an effective layout in Google Slides.
Apply the techniques shown in the video, and throughout previous lessons, by designing your double page layout for your big question using Google Slides.
It must include your big question, assumptions, calculations, estimated answer and fun facts developed in Literacy and Numeracy lessons.
It must include all visual design elements and graphic design techniques explored in Applied lessons 1-3.
Allow 45 minutes for this task.
Note: If you are not using Google Slides, you can create your picture book layout on paper, in Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote or any other digital tool you are familiar with.
Activity 3 - Colour
Watch the two Adobe Design Principles Course videos on colour.
Visit the Adobe colour trends website.
Explore the palette options in Graphic Design and Illustration
Select one of the palette options that you think would best apply to your design.
Note: if you are using digital tools to create your layout, you can download the colour palette as a .jpg.
Apply this colour palette to the elements in your layout. You can use the colours in your images, text, shapes and background.
Reflect on what you learned from the videos about the effect of colour on the audience – what is your selection of colours communicating?
Understanding Color | Adobe Design Principles Course
Duration: 1:17
Color in Action | Adobe Design Principles Course
Duration: 4:02
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.