Interactive Illustration in Print Media Targeting Children's Market - Thesis Example

?Interactive illustration in print media targeting children's market (under12) Introduction The twenty first century is marked by tremendous changes in the field of learning and education especially with the advent of new technology. It has revolutionized the field of children’s literature and the manner in which they approach the same, as any transformation in technology often entails children as the front runner in using and embracing such technologies. Children in today’s generation are ‘digital’ in the true sense of the word as they are growing up amidst a highly technological environment and are surrounded by innovative technological gadgets which are specifically targeted at them. The growing market for children’s video games, and immense growth in the field of technology has led to the further strengthening of the interactive media, thus taking away the importance of print media. Against the back drop of this information, it won’t be an exaggeration to state that the increasing sophistication of the digital market has captured a major share of the children’s segment, thus indirectly driving them away from the conventional medium of reading i.e. the print media. Furthermore, the development of internet, and the growing affordability as well as ease of home computing has led to a further growth in increasing the attractiveness of the interactive digital media. Children today, have a wide variety of options at their disposal in terms of reading and learning, with internet and interactive digital media forming a huge chunk of their modern childhood activities. Considering the immense potential and popularity of the interactive digital media, and the fact that it has now penetrated educational settings, the significance of interactive print media seems to have taken a back seat. However, the importance and credibility of the print media in revolutionizing the social and educational experiences of young readers cannot be completely written off. It is on account of this very reason that educators, researchers, content producers as well as policy makers are now showing an increased interest and concern regarding the dominance of interactive digital media and its likely impact on the invasive experience and understanding of essential social concepts of children. They have stressed that the revival of the print media is necessary as it has an immense potential to stimulate the intellectual, emotional as well as physical development of children. The unique characteristics that the print media offers can go a long way in helping children in shaping their understanding of the world around them. It can also help in the development of a well designed interactive print media can help in engendering a sense of true learning among the young readers. This paper on interactive illustration in print media throws light on various aspects of the print media and its likely impact on the young readers. In the process it traces the roots of this medium and charts its evolution into a highly interactive medium which is specifically designed to stimulate a keen sense of understanding and growth among the target audience, i.e. young children (Schumm, 2006; Wooten, 2009). History of illustration in print media targeting children The market for children’s books was virtually non-existent in the olden times. Most of the picture books prior to the sixteenth or seventeenth century were mainly designed and targeted at the adult audience. Children were not given due importance as an independent market segment and hence there were rarely any books targeted specifically at them, although a privileged few i.e. mostly children from rich upper classes of the society were exposed to and /or had access to illuminated manuscripts (Pope, 2010; Cullinan, Person, 2005). Figure: An example of an illuminated manuscript for children According to Aries, the artists during the tenth and the eleventh centuries hardly displayed any interest in illustrating for children, as they did not consider them an important segment of readers. He further states that such an indifference or lack of awareness regarding children being an important segment of readers could be accounted to the huge loss of lives during the dark ages, by deadly diseases that mostly comprised of young children. Although with the improvement in the infant mortality rate in the subsequent years, and a simultaneous growth of a new middle class section in the community, a new interest in educating children was developed and observed. As a result books aimed at children began to appear which stressed on the use of alphabets, catechisms, and instructions to help children in learning. These set of books included several pictorial representations s they were primarily targeted at the young audiences who were just about to begin learning to read (Pp.34 in Sipe, Pentaleo, 2008). The alphabet books aimed at teaching Hebrew to children was found in Egypt, however, the book ‘Orbis Pictus’ is more widely accepted as one of the first picture books for children ever. This alphabet book was known to have developed as a way to attract smart children towards learning/ reading. This book was published in the year 1658 by John Amos Comenius and was titled ‘Orbis Sensualium Pictus’ (meaning The Visible World in Pictures) and could be considered as one of the first book ever aimed at teaching children about the alphabets rather than be regarded as for ‘entertainment’ purposes. The immense popularity of the Orbis Pictus acted as an inspiration to the other writers leading to a publishing of several other books focused on children as their primary audience. Initially the picture books or illustrations aimed at children contained very few pictures - about one or two pictures in black and white woodcut prints with a short text explaining / related to the pictures. This text used below the pictures was primarily intended to convey the significance or meaning of the pictures and were mainly educative in content (Cotton, 2000; Wolf, Coats, 2010; Silvey, 2002; Hall, Larson & Marsh, 2003). Chapbooks which are small pocket books containing stories for children were probably the only source of children’s entertainment during old times. They often comprised of a collection of popular children’s stories such as the “Jack the Giant killer” or “Robin Hood”. Although these books were aimed at children, the quality was often very poor and was sold at cheap rates. The books were extremely small in size and contained poor printed pieces of literature. It contained hardly four or five pages and the quality of the paper used for printing was very poor and so was the quality of illustrations. The covers of these books were often hand colored in order to give them a more 'respectable' look. (Shavit, 2009; Briggs et al., 2008; Anderson, 2005). The following figure shows an illustration from the story Jack the Giant Killer However with the change in time, and the advent of the ‘Age of enlightenment’ by the beginning of 1700s, there was in influx of new philosophers such as John Locke who began publishing picture books for children, which could be used not only for studying but also for entertainment. He was of the view that after learning to read and write, the children must have adequate exposure to pleasure and entertainment as well. This view was endorsed by several other publishers and writers, and especially considered against the back drop of the success of chapbooks, these views were welcomed by the market. British publisher John Newberry also emerged as successful children’s book writers during this period who wrote books mainly for children’s entertainment. One of his old books titled A Little Pretty Pocket Book served as a milestone which drastically changed the manner in which children’s books for entertainment were perceived. It paved way for today’s literature for children, which included better quality images and pictures which could attract children’s attention and interest (Sipe, Pantaleo, 2008; Vardell, 2008). With the growth and development of the children’s book publishing industry, the techniques for printing pictures also underwent a drastic change, resulting in the development of a wide variety of techniques for printing better and improved quality of pictures used in children’s books as illustrations. Such a development in both the popularity of children’s illustrations as well as an equal and simultaneous development of printing techniques attracted various accomplished and popular artists to this field. Despite such tremendous growth in the children’s illustrations market, and the improvement in printing technology used over the years, the artists faced great difficulties since most of the pictures were wood engravings, or etchings on metal plates. This made it difficult for the publishers to produce more copies and great difficulties were faced to cater to the ever growing market demand for such books (Freeman, 1967; Ousby, 1996; Whalley, 1975) These diverse techniques were used throughout the eighteenth century, until the development of a new innovative technique – lithography. This technique was developed by Aloys Senefelder in the year 1798 which entailed the use of a smooth stone, on which paintings were engraved. This technique made it possible for the printing of illustrations on large scale. With the introduction of such simple and easier techniques reproduction of illustrations became much simpler and cheaper, giving an impetus to the industry. It also opened the gates for newer artists to enter the industry thus raising the bar of excellence in the field of children’s books illustrations (Lewis, 2001; Sipe, Pentaleo, 2008). During the entire nineteenth century the key focus of all the picture books available in the market was nursery rhymes, folk tales or songs. The illustrations during this period were mainly used and treated as secondary to the text. Major importance was given to the text rather than the illustrations. Thus, they did not receive due importance even in the picture books. This is evident from some of the old nineteenth century books published during that era. This includes books such as John Ruskin’s ‘The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers: a Legend of Stiria’ which was first published in the year 1851. This was a fifty eight page book with only twenty two engravings / illustrations (Cullinan, Person, 2005; Shattock, 2000; Anderson, 2005). The use of effective color patterns was quite evident in the illustrations. Most of these illustrations were a remarkable transformation from the dull black and white prints in the earlier years. The paintings and illustrations during a major part of the nineteenth century comprised of use of inexpensive color. The etchings of William Blake popularized the concept further, who used studio experiments to develop and improve the colored patterns, and created a huge market for the color printing and illustrations. In the words of Alderson: “There is no gainsaying the care which Edmund Evans gave to the early print-runs of his picturebooks, if not always the later ones. The 'clever artist' in him recognized the need for printing techniques to match the illustrator's work as closely as possible and he was one of the pioneers in applying photographic processes to the preparation of woodblocks. He was also sensitive to color-values and how they could be mingled through the overprinting of tints and he exercised great care in his choice of pigments for his inks (75)” (in Sipe & Pantaleo, 2008, Pp. 18) With the increase in attention to detail as popularized by the authors such as those mentioned above, there was a further addition of more and more writers and artists specializing in children’s books, for example, Walter Crane or Kate Greenaway. Contrary to the previous authors who published nursery rhymes and other books for children, these authors integrated and coordinated the pictures and illustrations used in their books with the texts in a manner which could be easily understood and interpreted by the children, thus making it a more enjoyable or entertaining process for them. Figure: Illustrations by Walter Crane Figure : Kate Greenaway, Illustration from Under the Window: Pictures and Rhymes for Children, 1900. Fredrick Warne & Co., London and New York Randolph Caldecott in the year 1878 created a highly colorful and decorative book complete with humorous art in his book titled The Diverting History of John Gilpin. This book created a breakthrough in the children's book publishing industry and drastically changed the manner in which the children's books were published with regard to their content. So far, the books aimed at children were fairly academic in nature and although they were meant for entertainment very little thought was actually given to the concept of illustrations. With the introduction of Caldecott's interactive and colorful book full of humorous illustrations, the industry for children's picture books was changed forever for good. It is on account of this significant achievement of Caldecott that he later began to be known as the father of modern picture book (Saxby, 1997; Silvey, 2002). Figure : Illustration by Randolph Caldecott Figure: Randolph Caldecott, illustration from Hey Diddle Diddle, 1882, printed by George Routledge & Sons, London (Raizman, 2003, Pp.119) The publishing of these books with far improved illustrations which were better coordinated with the texts as opposed to the historical one dimensional prints, paved way for the development of a whole new market for children’s books and attracted various new artists across the globe. The trend was observed in the American as well as U.K. markets where new authors and artists were rapidly entering the industry with their innovative works targeted at the children, as their primary consumers. However despite such growing development in the field of children’s illustrations and the orientation of the industry more towards the children’s market, most of the publications contained more text and very few images / illustrations. The scenario changed drastically however, with the publication of Clever Bill – a book for children, written by English artist William Nicholson, in the year 1927. Contrary to the previous publications this book contained more images and very little text. This trend was later picked up by an American illustrator Wanda gag in her story Millions of Cats. Both these stories contained more images as compared to the texts and heavily relied on the pictures to convey the message rather than text as was the popular trend so far (Huck, 2004; Smith, 1963; Zipes, 2006; Meigs, 1969). During the nineteenth century there were further changes in the manner in which illustrations were printed in books. The invention of offset printing, was seen as a welcome change from the traditional and yet somewhat tedious, hand colored printing. The offset printing method afforded more ease of use to the publishers, and began to be used as a dominant method of printing illustrations. However, despite such developments offset printing was relatively tedious and entailed complicated processes which lasted for hours just for preparing the colors which were to be used for printing. It was only on account of this reason that most of the children’s books predominantly used black and white images in their books, mostly due to the ease of use and reprinting it afforded as compared to the color books (Silvey, 2002). However despite such setbacks involved, in color printing various artists and illustrators, such as Virginia Lee Burton, Wanda Gag, McCloskey etc used colored images in their books, at the same time using innovative techniques alongside their vivacious and highly creative imaginations. Their books are available in print even today and bear testimony to the era in which printing of colored picture books for children used to be a herculean task (Hall, Larson and Marsh, 2003; Sutherland, 1997; Hoyle, 2009). Figure: Illustrations by Wanda Gag and Virginia Lee Burton During a major part of the twentieth century the children’s picture books were based on issues which were held to be of primary importance in the societies, during those times, rather than focusing on the needs, desires and preferences of children for whom those books were written. The key themes were dominant societal beliefs rather than stories which would appeal to and entertain children. The themes were mostly aimed at forming and shaping the overall social development of the children and the same was applied and used in all their books, including the academic books such as those teaching alphabets and songs and other similar concept books. However in the later years, the focus on societal aspects as published in children’s books shifted to other key aspects, especially after the Vietnam War. Consequently, the issues which were taboo previously, began to be discussed publicly and freely in children’s books. The pictorial depiction by way of illustrations mostly showcased the topics related to civil rights and was aimed at expanding the experience and understanding of the young readers (Sipe, Pantaleo, 2008). Furthermore, prominent artists such as Raymond Briggs, Maurice Sendak and the likes began to publish stories and articles in children’s books which were far beyond the understanding of the young readers and were largely inappropriate for their innocent minds. By this time, new technologies were developed such as laser printing which helped in further fuelling the growth in the children’s book illustrations market, and helped the field evolve and grow as an independent and much recognized form of art. The development of laser printing helped in reprinting and / or reproduction of almost any pages of picture books. Such an ease further attracted newer artists to this industry. Artists more interested in the form of visual storytelling rather than entertaining the children, began talking this up as a challenge to nurture and develop their own talents and began publishing their illustrations in the children’s books. The incidents mentioned and discussed at length in the above sections of this paper, indicate the manner in which the industry has evolved over the years, and ushered a new era of modern printing techniques and interactive print media, thus broadening the market for children’s books even further, which is now bigger and greater than ever before (Sipe, Pantaleo, 2008). Social relationships among illustrations in print media and young readers The use of pictorial representations and / or illustrations in children’s books help in enhancing their learning skills. In order to understand and grasp the capability ./ effectiveness of children’s picture books on their learning, they must be exposed to picture reading from an early age. Picture books and illustrations in children’s books help them learn and acquire various skills such as broadening their understanding of the environment around them; recognizing two dimensional objects as seen in the picture and identifying the same in real. Interpretive picture reading skills helps the children in relating the events or sequence of events to the picture and enhance their personal experience in the process by relating the story to the events in their own lives. (Kiefer, 1995; Marantz, 1992) It is widely known that children acquire greater skills and competence through exposure of pictures and graphic illustrations, photographs etc along with the text. Illustrations help the children in understanding the information which they would otherwise have missed or overlooked in the text. Graphic representation is known to help children in broadening their understanding of a range of issues such as for instance, the illustrations related to geography helps them in understanding the cultural differences, the manner in which people in other regions live, the type of clothes they wear or food they eat etc. Presenting such critical information merely in text form may not suffice and hence graphical illustrations are a must. Similarly illustrations are used to help them understand natural phenomenon such as mountains, valleys, oceans, rivers etc. The information communicated by way of illustrations helps the children in understanding the message more clearly through utilizing their picture reading skills (McLemore, 1976, Pp. 154). It is on account of this significance of pictorial depiction of issues, and its relationship and impact on learning, that children’s books are never purely text. The illustrations used alongside texts in children’s books provide them with a base against which the information sought to be conveyed through text can be compared and cross analyzed to afford better understanding of the information disclosed by way of text. The illustrations guide the children in understanding the sequence of events or the significance or relevance of issues discussed in the text. Illustrations in children’s books assume greater importance than the text, and hence it is on account of this reason that most of the children’s books contain more pictures as compared to textual information. According to the various researches carried out by authors, researchers and policy makers alike, it has been observed that books are one of the greatest and perhaps the only form of entertainment for children which help them gain their first experience regarding the world around them by exposing them to colors, lines, shapes etc. Today there are various alternatives available at the disposal of children in print such as Magazines specifically aimed at children, comic books, etc. According to studies, Magazines are the second most popular reading choice among children especially the pre-adolescent readers. Magazines today are available on a range of topics such as children's stories, games, puzzles etc and are usually highly colorful and bright in color and design so as to attract the attention of the children and generate their interest. Furthermore, other than magazines comic books are also largely favored and appreciated by the young readers. The comics mostly comprise of stories which attract young readers such as stories about super heroes with special powers, are viewed to be highly attractive by the children who love the imagination and the same in turn, helps in widening their imagination as well. Comics such as Spiderman, Superman etc are hence highly popular among the young readers (Singer & Singer, Pope, 2001). The use of abstract imagination such as talking animals, or animals acting like humans and doing all kinds of activities which humans do, entice the young readers and are regarded as highly popular. Comics such as Garfield, Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes etc are hence highly popular among children. Although nowadays anime and manga comics have also entered the market and gaining wider popularity. Figure: Michelle Meadows' Pilot Pups, illustrated by Dan Andreasen (Simon & Schuster) Garfield Comic Strip: Language development in children is of key importance for ensuring their sound physical and mental health. The growth of language among children, hence, must be given due significance and adequate care must be taken to ensure that the key areas of language development i.e. speaking, listening, writing and reading are properly nurtured at the appropriate age. Children learn at different speeds and this level of speed is directly related to their readiness to read. The concept of ‘readiness for reading’ is alternatively known as ‘emerging literacy’. It refers to the process by which a child begins to learn to identify the printed symbols which further determines their pattern and pace of learning in the later years. Early experiences both at home as well as in the early childhood at birth, can help steer a child towards a healthy learning process and influence their readiness. Children’s books and poetries play a key role in fostering such learning readiness among children. It is on account of this reason that the children’s books must be adequately suitable for the children in the sense that they must be able to attract the child’s attention and must contain contents which help the child in learning to read as well as listen in the initial pre-learning ages. The younger children who are yet to learn to read are more enticed with the illustrations, hence the graphics used must be appropriate to enable them to identify the message being communicated or to familiarize them with lines, shapes, patterns and colors. For the older readers, i.e. those who can read, these graphics and / or illustrations must now be replaced with equal amount of text (Mayesky, 2009, Pp. 405-407). Physical communications among illustrations in print media and young readers Children today live in a highly sophisticated technologically advanced world, where visual communication is highly complex. Visual literacy in such a case has become highly crucial, as a significant proportion of messages in current times, is acquired visually, by way of billboards, signs, television, pictures, photographs etc. Children who are exposed to various forms of visual communication are in a better position to compare the information provided to them by each of these means of communication and make judgments regarding their preferences and choices accordingly. In an age where internet has penetrated almost every aspect of our lives, children growing up today, are more aware of the avenues available to them to acquire information and hence learn to interact with the information at a very early age. Books too must evolve in accordance with the changing times, and offer similar interactive means of communication, in order to entice their young readers and at the same time communicate valuable information to them. Children learn to understand various concepts and enrich their understanding of events by making sense of the text and illustrations (Stoodt, 1996). Nowadays the marketers of print media have started integrating innovative techniques in the print media as well, to keep up with the rapidly changing external environment. Books today, have become highly interactive such as audio books, which operate with the touch of a button integrated in the book, to enable its young listeners to listen to the stories which are read out to them through an inbuilt electronic device. Similarly 3 dimensional pop up books are also highly popular among young readers. Conclusion: Historically literacy was largely viewed as the ability to understand and process the information communicated and uses the same to respond or reply in print. However, with the change in times, and development of newer concepts and techniques, various other forms of literacy were developed. This includes visual literacy, which refers to the ability of not only processing available information but to respond with visual messages. Although the concept is not new, or novel but the significance and relevance of the same has been realized only now, especially given the rapid development in technology and the various forms of interactive learning which are being introduced in the market. The illustrations used in picture books aimed at young learners play a key role in influencing their understanding and knowledge and help in their overall physical, emotional as well as intellectual development. The phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is applicable even today, and the significance of this claim has been substantiated with the various studies acknowledging the influence of interactive visual communication. The print media, although sidelined due to the growing influx of highly attractive technological gadgets, still continues to be a dominant force in influencing the lives of young readers. References Anderson, V., (2005). The dime novel in children's literature, McFarland Publishers, Pp. 24-25 Briggs, J., Butts, D., Grenby, M. O., (2008). Popular children's literature in Britain, Ashgate Publishing, Pp. 25-27 Cotton, P., (2000). Picture books sans frontieres, Tretham Books Publication, Pp. 6 - 10 Cullinan, B. E., Person, D. G., (2005). The continuum encyclopedia of children's literature, Continuum International Publishing Group, Pp. 190-193 Freeman, R. S., (1967). Children's picture books: yesterday and today - An analysis, Century House Publication Hall, N., Larson, J., Marsh, J., (2003). Handbook of early childhood literacy, SAGE Publishing, Pp. 236-238 Hoyle, K. N., (2009). Wanda Gag: A life of art and stories, University of Minnesota Press Huck, C. S., (2004). Children's literature in the elementary school, Vol.1, McGraw Hill Publication Kiefer, B. Z. (1995). The potential of picture books: From visual literacy to aesthetic understanding. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill Lewis, D., (2001). Reading contemporary picturebooks: picturing text, Routledge Publication, Pp. 142-143 Marantz, S. S. (1992). Picture books for looking and learning: Awakening visual perceptions through the art of children's books, Oryx press Mayesky, M., (2009). Creative Activities for young children, Cengage Learning Publishers, Pp. 405-407 Meigs, C., (1969). A critical history of children's literature: A survey of children's books in English, Macmillan Publishers McLemore, W. P., (1976). Social studies strategies for today's learners, Ardent Media Publication, Pp. 154 – 156 Ousby, I., (1996). Cambridge paperback guide to literature in English, Cambridge University Press, Pp. 77-79 Pope, A., (2010). 2011 Children's writer's and illustrator's market, Writer's Digest Books Publishers, Pp. 226-228 Pope, A., (2009). 2009 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market, F+W media Publication Raizman, D., (2003). History of modern design: graphics and products since the Industrial Revolution, Laurence King Publishing, Pp. 119 Saxby, H. M., (1997). Books in the life of a child: bridges to literature and learning, Palgrave Macmillian Australia, Pp. 188 Schumm, J. S., (2006). Reading assessment and instruction for all learners, Guilford Press, Pp. 339-341 Shavit, Z., (2009). Poetics of children's literature, University of Geogia Press, Pp. 175-176 Shattock, J., (2000). The Cambridge bibliography of English literature: vol.4, Cambridge University Press Silvey, A., (2002). The essential guide to children's books and their creators, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publication, Pp. 218-222 Singer, D. G., Singer, J. L., (2001). Handbook of children and the media, SAGE Publishers, Pp. 34 Sipe, L. R., Pantaleo, S. J., (2008). Post modern picturebooks: play, parody, and self-referentiality, Routledge Publication, Pp.17 Stoodt, B. D., (1996). Children's literature: discovery for a lifetime, Palgrave Macmillan Australia, Pp. 126 - 130 Sutherland, Z., (1997). Children and books, Longman Publication. Vardell, S. M., (2008). Children's literature in action, Libraries Unlimited Publishers Whalley, J. I., (1975). Cobwebs to catch flies: illustrated books for the nursery and schoolroom, 1700-1900, University of California Press, Pp. 22-25 Wolf, S. A., Coats, K., (2010). Handbook of research on children's and young adult literature, Taylor & Francis, Pp. 184-187 Wooten, D. A., (2009). Children's literature in the reading program: An invitation to read, International Reading Assoc., Pp. 4-7 Zipes, J. D., (2006). The Oxford encyclopedia of children's literature, Oxford University Press Read More