Design Me an Alphabet

10/12/2017

Mrs. Peanuckle's Fruit Alphabet art by Jessie Ford

Mrs Peanuckle's Vegetable Alphabet art by Jessie Ford

Jessie Ford effectively uses an arresting graphic design with bold images and colors to highlight the world of produce, alphabet style. The appealing pages include clever annotations. Some text is informative, with details such as a pronunciation guide for Jicama, and a safety tip about eating berries found on bushes "Always ask before eating berries you find outside - some can make you very sick." A few entries seem a bit strange. Listing ice cream in a book about fruit seems a stretch.
But really, it's the striking graphic design and the charming little touches which make these board books eye-catching. Young readers will enjoy discovering the expressive faces gracing the individual fruits and vegetables.

Creating Graphic Design: A Student Project

What makes a graphic design stand out? An examination of art created by Ford provides opportunities for observation. Why not distribute copies of these books to budding artists and discuss principles of effective design. Ask: How does the artist use color, contrast, size, scale, shape, and placement to create a graphic that is interesting and informative?

Students might be encouraged to try making a graphic design. A common item that students have is a backpack. Why not create graphic designs based on "What's in my backpack?" or "What's in my lunchbox?"

Always up for a challenge, I decided to try making a graphic design using an item from my lunchbox. (In this case it is a chocolate chip cookie.) Of course, that meant I would be starting with a capital letter "C."
After locating a few simple materials, I was on my way.
Solid colored heavy printer paper seemed like a logical choice for a background material. Scissors helped a free-form cookie take shape. I added pops of color with some yellow and purple post-it notes. Waxy brown crayon markings served as the chocolate chips. A hole punch made short work on the remaining scraps and gave the design some pizzazz.
Using children's board books to teach students principles of graphic design is a fresh and fun approach to teaching visual arts. This activity is suitable for students of all ages