National Literacy Trust Evaluation

So during this brief, I started off with the idea of learning to read and write being a lot like learning to ride a bike. But I thought that people would not instantly ‘get it’, which is why I redirected my focus to the statistics of reading and using more of a shock factor. After a few experiments using Photoshop, I decided to change my focus once again to aim at a much younger audience as well as their parents and carers. This is when I began to research and explore the theme of children’s literature. I decided that using an owl would be effective because of the connotations they have and the links with reading. I decided to expand on this and characterise the owl in order for children to identify with it and engage with the campaign. This brought me on to my second dimension - my initial idea was to create an interactive app through which children could create their own bedtime stories, although it was pointed out to me that the demographic for small children using smartphones and tablets is very small, which is why I changed this to a website. I decided to design a website because as a child I remember engaging with websites such as GCSE bitesize and the Nickelodeon website, and I believed that this would be a much more effective way to promote learning and literacy amongst children.

In hindsight, I believe that my strongest points were my exploration and experimentation using Adobe CS5, as my skills have greatly improved and I believe this is shown throughout my development and work. I was also pleased with how effective I believe my digital illustrations to be, as I considered adding more detail, but overall the simplicity will appeal to my target audience without over-complicating the poster and website.

I believe that I could have explored my previous ideas more by using my own resources in order to see if they could have worked. I also believe that my theme of children’s literature could have come across more strongly if I had researched contemporary children’s literature more. This could have strengthened my work and as a result would have captivated my audience more.

Overall, I believe that through research and development I have produced a body of work that pinpoints the audience of children and carers effectively and encourages them to engage with the campaign.