Responsive / The Wind In the Willows

The main things that struck me about this brief was that the main answer was in the story. So I took it upon myself to re-read the book, and watch the film. The Wind in the Willows was a classic, always has been and probably always will be. After my investigation I realised that the story focuses more so on the companionship of Mr Toad, Ratty and Mole. On the brief it states that the deliverable must emulate the exquisite charm of England while also paying respect to both adults and children (because the adults are the main buyer).

I wanted to depict Toad as the Main focus, and the other characters as companions to his journey. I was playing on the English charm by incorporating a traditional picture frame that shows the story of the book almost coming to life with characters stepping outside of the picture frame. I've kept the infamous river and willows in the background of the picture frame.

Sketch Work

Final Drawing - I used a biro to complete the design, simply because it provided a more scratchy, hand rendered finish which I thought both adults and children would appreciate. I thought the adults would enjoy the quality of the hand render while the children would love the cartoony styled illustrations.

Applying filters and editing the levels of the illustration just covered up all of the time I'd spent on the drawing and you lost that fineness and detail of the characters.

Colour alterations // 

Front, Back & Spine. 

On the brief it says that the book must be able to sit against other books in shops such as Water stones. I took this onboard and made my way to Water stones. The results can be seen below...

The only regret I have is spending so much time drawing during this module and during this brief, I really think its time to start designing directly into Illustrator for projects such as these, however I'm still happy with the results and confident of my design.