My Favourite Fairytales - Meld Group

THE BRIEF

Meld wanted to create a series of children’s classic stories that were not only lovely books to treasure but also help teach the audience to read.

Things to consider

• How to connect with not only the reader but the listener

• As the range would be over 10 books at launch illustrators of a similar style would need to be sourced

• How to make them educational as well as fun

THE SOLUTION

Part of the brief was to create a brand for the range. It had to fit in with the illustration style, not be over powering and have a classic timeless feel. “My Favourite Fairytales” was chosen as this personalises and gives ownership to the audience, the scroll was added to hold the name keep a traditional and classic feel.

For me one of the most important elements to the brief were to keep the audience engaged. The most likely scenario would be the child being read to so it was integral that the pages they were looking at kept their interest. I decided the best way would be hidden details and dynamic text.

How text is written can change the way it is read, for example if a word is in capitals or bigger the reader assumes it is meant to be louder and vice versa. When designing the layout of pages I incorporated this thinking, words or speech that needed highlighting were made bigger / smaller, tumbling down the page or put in a different font. This helps the reader bring the story to life for the listener, giving them visual clues.

Different fonts were used in the stories to highlight repeated words, for example a “hairy font” was used in “Three Little Pigs” to bring out the “big bad wolf”. Not only giving the reader a clue to emphasise the words but also allowing the listener to start recognising the repeated set of words.

Activity pages were added at the back to encourage reading. Fun puzzles like spot the difference were also added to keep activities light hearted.