Children’s Books and Good Design
Children’s books rarely interest me from a design perspective. In fact, before a few days ago, none had. But my son has gotten a couple of new books that make impressive use of white space, text placement, and framing to increase the effect of the story and illustrations. They’re Lets’ Do Nothing! by Tony Fucile, and Freight Train by Donald Crews.
More pictures after the jump.
David Shannon's books are fantastic and I eat his illustrations up!
Eric Carle, of course, is the best of the best in my book.
I definitely like Carle's art. I haven't heard of David Shannon, but I'll look for his books next time we're out.
There's something different about these to books though, and it's more about print design than art or illustration. Fucile's comic style is appealing, but I was more interested in how the huge open spaces, off-center focus, and speech fonts affect how I perceive the storyline. It's almost cinematic.
And Freight Train is brilliant in it's simplicity. Flat illustration and sans-serif block text used wonderfully.
For me it depends on the children's book whether I have great interest or little. I still want to make picture books for adults. In other words use a similar format, but have adult themes with a fantasy or fairytale overture to it. Maybe illustrating the original Grimm's fairy tales.
I love the Caldecott Awards for illustration in children's books. Coretta Scott King and Pure Belpre award winners are interesting as well.