Lecture 11: Assignment 7 - God Created Fly and Forgot Why (Final Presentation)

Finally, it is down to the last leg of our storybook production. First things first, I generated additional images for the page numbers, one for each page and depicting a character or object used in that particular scene. It was challenging at first to decide on and tweak the images, especially in 'fattening' the pitchfork so it is wide enough to fit the page number, but here they are:

Page 2: Mushroom

I changed the colour tones of the mushroom so that they look brighter and more luminous, tying in with the illustration's colour scheme.

Page 4: Plant

This is to depict the strange purple plant that Ethan found in his garden.

Page 6: Star

This is to depict the star-shaped fruits of the strange magic tree.

Page 8: Baby angel

I decided to trace out the outline of the baby angel to use as the page number for this page because I did not want too many details to distract readers away from the main illustrations, hence the level of abstractions lesson came in handy here.

Page 10: Devil's pitchfork
I hope this 'fattened' pitchfork still looks like one.

Page 12: Devil Head

I used the universally-recognized devil head shape, again another example of an abstract symbol, to represent the devil in the story.

Page 14: Flame

This depicts the flames that consume the devil after the adult angel casted a magic net on him.

Page 16: Baby angels

This depicts the multiple angels popping out of the star-shaped fruits.

Page 18: Apple

This apple is representative of the variety of edible fruits that were hanging on Ethan's tree at the end of the story.

In the end, Jasmine decided to implement only the first four images as page numbers and rotate them for the next four pages and so on. Other changes that were made included the changes to the font to a Serif font, Johnyokonysm, as below:

Though this is a Serif font, it does not look serious or formal but instead has a rustic and 'laid-back' feel, which I feel is not as heavy as Eras Bold ITC font and hence is more suitable for a children's book. We also varied the size of the text to fit the page to give it more balance, ie. if there are few words, the size of the text would be bigger to fill up the space and vice versa.

Another change was to the storyline itself. Instead of burning the devil in a violent fashion, Jasmine's friends commented that maybe trapping the devil in the cage was perhaps a less "violent" approach that was more suitable for younger kids. Hence, we decided to implement this suggestion. Lastly, we changed the ending to include the words "happily ever after" as this very recognizable phrase indicates a happy ending as well as unambiguously signifies the end of the story.

We had arranged an appointment with Reddy in his office to show him our print-outs as he requested. He thought that our work was nice, except that the text could be changed to a dark grey instead of black so that it looks even less heavy. We decided to take his advice since the pure black and white contrast might be too stark and hence not in line with the 'kiddish' feel evoked by the colourful illustrations.

Below is the completed work, with the pages of images and text arranged in a printer-friendly order (as in printed on the same piece of paper in a stapled book), hence the page order appears mostly jumbled up:

Cover page:

Inner Cover Page:


Pages 1 and 18:

Pages 2 and 17:

Pages 3 and 16:

Pages 4 and 15:

Pages 5 and 14:

Pages 6 and 13:

Pages 7 and 12:

Pages 8 and 11:

Pages 9 and 10:

Now, the next task which I had was to get the book printed. We had decided to print our book using a thin cardboard-like glossy paper for the cover (instead of hard cover which might be costly) and glossy inner pages (normal paper might be easier to tear, especially with young children handling it). I decided to follow the example of my Wind Symphony concert programme booklet which was similarly done and looks quite professional.

Next, I had the option of going to a lower cost printing company which might not have the materials we wanted or a more expensive, “professional” one that had everything. I opted for the latter because even though we might have to spend more, our work would most likely be professionally done and after all, it is only a once off thing. My friend from another tutorial group recommended a Queensway printing company (“Ultra Supplies”) that is apparently quite popular with NUS students, hence I decided to try my luck there.

Their service was convenient because all I had to do was to bring a CD or DVD and they could print from there. However, I had a hard time describing the page sequence and all to the staff member who served me, probably because he does not seem to be a local. Nonetheless, he managed to get a book printed; however the page numbers were cut off, so he advised me to go back and adjust them from my own computer which would be more convenient than their computer that doesn't have the fonts we were using. Furthermore, he recommended me to adjust the image resolution to a higher one so the text on the back became clearer. Although he charged me extra for the book, I was willing to pay because it was part and parcel of being inexperienced in such an area (it was my first time having something like this printed at a printing company).

The following week, I did as the guy told me to and finally managed to get the book printed without much hassle. However, to my surprise, Jasmine said she did not like the purple colour of the printed cover as she had chosen a dark blue background instead. Although I was puzzled because it did appear purple on my screen, and I thought it looked ok, she had a point when she said that kids would have many questions to ask if they see the sky as purple in the cover, because in real life the night sky is rarely purple.

In any event, she printed another book with the dark blue background separately and we presented it during the lecture, where Reddy's son and wife were among the "special guests" present. I think all had a good time during this lecture, especially those who interacted with Reddy's playful boy. Although our book did not stand out amongst others such as the jaw-dropping pop-up animal texture book (which was incidentally done by my two friends from the other tutorial group) as well as the "double-meaning" Mother Swan story, I felt our book was intriguing enough for any child between ages 5 to 7 to read and we had no regrets choosing the direction that we had chosen for our storybook to take.