FINE WILD FOOD

What a fantastic lunch! With so many different dishes to taste. 

The dandelion fritters were very inspirational and I even made some of my own - children loved it!

BRITISH WILD FOOD

I have watched very interesting series OUR FOOD: WEST OF SCOTLAND on BBC2 and last weeks one was about mushrooms as well as other wild food in West Scotland:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01gw5ny/hd/Our_Food_West_of_Scotland/


Giles Coren takes us on a great journey. It is good to know that the basic skill of hunting and foraging are still known and practices on a daily basis. Botanist James Wong is on hunt (in Argyll) for a gourmet food for free! - MUSHROOMS...often being overlooked. He said: " to us British we are a little bit reticent about eating wild mushrooms" "Mushrooms are nature's recyclers"... which makes me think of mycelium! 


Moist climate of Scotland and Autumn is a perfect time for mushrooms. James carries on saying that mushrooms are "Serious Gourmet food that's growing out there on a car park, and no one has a clue".


Scarletina Bolete - a very interesting one!

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Then come TWO GREEDY ITALIANS. SERIES 2 - STILL HUNGRY on BBC2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h02gt/Two_Greedy_Italians_Series_2_Still_Hungry_Liguria_and_La_Bella_Figura/

 programme where both chefs explore Italian culture and cuisine. An this weeks Gennaro and Antonio meet a woman who lives a very simple life at the top of the mountain and makes use of the wild plants that some would call weeds.

BOTH PROGRAMMES ARE SO WORTH OF WATCHING!

BOOK PAGES FINAL-ish

I have been working towards the end product now. Improved details from User testing questionnaires but there is a matter of an owl. One person mentioned to design different owl, so I did - much simplified. 
I have spoken to few children including my own about the outcome and it was not approved. Saying that I do agree with them.... I have realised that the owl in my previous post looks too scary and uninviting, therefore I have decided to go back to my previous on - the one from user testing, add few missing lines and changed colours - and the results are much better. Pleasant looking owl. So here it is:

COVER:

When I printed the cover the brown tree that covers the spine looks too washed out, therefore I have made a change by covering the spine in red block of colour; the outcome of it is much presented and visible type. 

The back page - I have changed the font from Noteworthy to Gabriola at 22pt - in my opinion it looks more appealing and the roundness of the letters give the impression of an autumn wind movement. The book cover will have a widow pop-up at the bottom left hand corner:

As the reader opens the window he/she will see the mushrooms:

I have created the above page with the use of the photoshop. I wish I could take my own pictures! Unfortunately that is one of the constraint...time scale.

PAGE 1 & 2

PAGE 3 & 4

PAGE 5 & 6

PAGE 7 & 8

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

As additional features, I have already mentioned that I will produce cards - in a form of pocket booklet, easy to carry to the wilderness. There will be 2 kinds - the red cards and the green cards. Red of course will give a warning and it will mean that this particular mushroom is poisonous, green on the other hand are edible mushrooms. All spiral bound. 

PAGES AT THE END OF THE BOOK:


If times permits I would like to create at least one page of flaps with pictures of mushrooms. As they open the back of them will be coloured red or green - AGAIN EMPHASISING THEIR EDIBILITY and they will contain facts on the revealed spot.

PROTOTYPE OF MY BOOK COVER...

At present I am doing work experience at Pendragon  - Company at Malvern who produces packaging. I had this fantastic opportunity to design a prototype for my book cover! 
I have experimented  with 2 designs:

 - one with cut out window

 - the other on with hide and reveal window

...my hard work at Pendragon:

... designing a prototype book cover ...

there work involved creating an appropriately measured cards in in  CAD software called KaseMake (purely designed for packaging use)  ready for to be cut out on the platform, then completed in the factory by gluing all together. It was fun!

***

I have decided to put forth the second one ( hide and reveal), simply because it emphasises even more my idea of mushroom hunt - just as the title suggests. I have listened to children with regards to natural depiction of nature, additional features: a window and the results are truly satisfactory and affirm my belief that this book is a perfect solution to the brief given.

IMPROVEMENTS BASED ON USER TESTING

So I have listened to the voice of my audience and have improved my design to much appealing one. I am very happy with the results. I have to say that the user testing part plays a big part in any design. Every time it proved to be fruitful and resulted in desired outcome. 
I truly enjoy designing for children; not only because I have two of my own but also I believe they are our future and we need to shape it to the best of our abilities. 

BOOK COVER:

PAGE 1 AND 2:

PAGE 3 AND 4:

PAGE 5 AND 6:

...

Additional features to work on ...

SKETCHES...AND COLOUR

I have been doing more sketches...and working with illustrator and photoshop.... for the cover

Changed colours of the mushroom and nome's trousers...

RESEARCH - ECO PRINTING

I would like my book to be printed on sustainable material with vegetable or soya ink; environmentally healthy and for the children. I do understand that for children of my chosen audience: 5-7 years old that might be quite difficult due to variety of colours used in order to enhance their liking but I still believe that it is possible. 


I have researched some of the companies in UK that do offer sustainable printing:


http://www.geniedesignandprint.co.uk/GreenPrinting.html

The company sent me a booklet with all variety of recyclable paper. Fantastic!

http://www.printwell.co.uk

http://www.seacourt.net

http://www.menzies-nunn.co.uk/flash.php

http://www.azimuthprint.co.uk/

............ I could go on. But for my design to work along side foraging  it has to be sustainable. This is the way designers need to go! We have responsibility not only to produce sustainable design but also to educate those who use our services.