CLIENT
description
Layogenic
Layogenic was the final project for my degree. It’s an analysis and a guide to creating picture books for blind and sighted children.
YEAR
2017
EXPERTISE
Investigation and
Book Design
The work is comprised of two sections. The first section is an extensive study of the technical rules for developing books for blind children. Advantages and objections of tales, the braille system and the tactile illustrations are some of the points that can be found in this section.
The second section is about all the creative processes used for the realisation of the book; such as the plot, the textures and shape studies or the samples of the materials which have been used.
La búsqueda del gamusino is the final result of the project, a book that everyone can enjoy reading.
This project was made with the support of the ONCE (SP)
ABOUT THE IDEA
Layogenic is a Tagalog untranslatable word used to describe, for example, an impressionist painting that, when seen from the distance, looks beautiful and fascinating but, once viewed from a close location, has no sense and is impossible to understand.
This sensation is similar to what a blind kid must feel all the time when going into a conventional book store. Most of the big booksellers don’t have a braille section, so imagine a tactile picture books section. Tactile picture books are an almost non-existent market within the publishing industry. The few books that have survived are handmade or have been designed for didactic use only.
This is why this project intended to create a functional, funny and interactive book which all children can enjoy and begin their reading journey.
The characters had several changes through the process; however, I was confident they would be interactive. They would be able to leave the book so the kids could touch them and play.
Their shape must have a common link but be different enough to recognise each of them; that is why the simple geometric shapes were the smartest choice. They also would be perfectly differentiated by their texture.
A small group of blind and sighted children decided on the textures and colours after testing different options to represent each character's features and qualities. It was one of the most interesting parts of the project, showing how much perception we miss by relying only on our vision.
Locations were strategically chosen to be "easy-to": easy-to recognize by the kids, easy-to-make graphics and easy-to texture. It is difficult to put many elements together and create a mental picture using just the sense of touch; that is the reason for the lack of details. In this case, less is more.
All the shapes are simplified as much as possible and based on paintings made by children. The textures have also been chosen by kids, depending on their sensations. Most of them are real, like the wood used for the trees or the sand in the park.
The gallery shows the steps taken to create the locations. From the roughs to the measures, the materials diagram, the colour sketch and finally, the production.