RESEARCH SUMMARY AND MINI READER DRAFT:
TUTORIAL 210526
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NOTES:
General – cohesive, coming together. Only thing that feels off is the boarding pass.
BOARDING PASS
– Massive HELLO at the start! Something to get some interest in there
– Perforation is enough to mirror the conceit of a boarding pass, does not have to mimic too overtly.
– Needs to contribute to the reading experience rather than be a gimmick.
– Flip 180 degrees…
– Set text straight too
– QR code at the bottom
– All set in Axo sans to match the main booklets
– Worth investigating a lighter stock
– Add something for adults about bibliography etc at the end
MAP
– Lose the lines, ‘draw form the UK to JAMAICA’.
– Add instructions for kids to connect the countries, put that at the top maybe, don’t need the lines? Not sure.
– REVERSE – confirmed to include ‘Outro for adults’, ‘Index of Key Terms’ for adults, list of Figures of each booklet (fig 1, fig 2 etc). Citations need to include the adults, so both kids and adults can go deeper..
– INDEX OF KEY TERMS
– Add colophon
– Mention where the map comes from in the text
– Could there be an intro ‘go deeper’, on the folded back page where typography line is currently?
FOLDER
– Name on the inside front (commission stamp, Axo)
– Piece of copy about learning together, or a CLOSING STATEMENT on the back inside panel (commission stamp, Axo sans). Well done for learning together.
– Title on spine, commission stamp Axo sans
– Heavier impression with main copy on back
BOOKLETS
– Card outer covers confirmed, slightly lighter card stock to stop the bounce, print at home, revise positioning. BOUGHT FROM SHOP.
Riso block colours will get quite messy, lots of rubbing.
– One more pass over the last three booklets, HISTORY spread of UNIFORM as an example, quite sparse compared
– Setup is flexible enough for have some spreads more photography heavy
– IF TIME – look at standardising the stamps, customized Axo sans instead of the very stamp-like
– Is there an argument for stamping everything? Restrict it to the outer folder? This is probably too much (time and money also)
– Add self inking stamps to the pack, present it with it
MINI READER
– Lose thumbnails
– use ‘ME’ not ‘DAD’
– Standardize position of black boxes throughout, Ella conversation a nice conceit
RESEARCH SUMMARY
– Add in personal stance and Matthew C comments
– Can glossary of terms be folded in to the writing?
– Confirm own position in relation to the project, can I do this at the end? ANSWER THE QUESTION at the beginning
SUMMATIVE SLIDES
-WHAT ARE THE KEY MOMENTS THAT GOT ME TO THIS PPOINT AND HIGHLIGHT THOSE
– NEEDS A STARTING POINT, could this be a previous iteration
– Timeline conceit, focussing
– Image of daughters hand stamping
SHOW
– Broad overview, but what you do say do in detail .e.g structure of booklets grounded in interview with teacher. ‘Informed by’
– Starting point needed –
Filled-in iteration for the show, ask a family or Ella to do it
– Present with self inking stamp
TO DO:
COMMISSION STAMPS
LAST PASS OVER BOOKLETS 3-5
PRINT COVERS READY FOR BINDING, paper sourced today
MAP REWORK FRONT
MAP ADD CITATIONS ETC BACK
GET MAP PRINTED DIGITAL PRINT
RISO FILE PREP- PAGINATE 2 UP ON A3
XEROX FILE PREP – PAGINATE CONVENTIONALLY
Here is a file containing latest visuals, Mini Reader draft and Projected Contribution in a single pdf…
TUTORIAL 140526
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HOUSEKEEPING
– 1 to 1s next week (assessment activity otherwise)
– Complete physical mockup ready for next week (can come late to tutorial for stapling
– MINI READER digital version needs to be paginated for print, without bleed
– MINI READER Digital version for submission TO BE ADDED to RESEARCH SUMMARY for submission
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MAIN TUTORIAL NOTES
– Length good, feels longer without benign longer, but also looks good at this body copy size. Plenty of space.
– Contents notes on inside cover good, keep them.
– Brands – should they be more ubiquitous? No, overtly named them from an ethical standpoint but followed up with what the brand names are doing about colonial history
– Tutor likes the out-to text on inside back cover,
– References, that would be separate, back of the map? Map could be printed in 5 colours, a key system.
– Origins discussed – on close inspection of the packaging, Tate and Lyle sugar as an example, you can’t find the origin of the sugar. BUT I t has Union Jack flags on it, made it Britain since… etc.
– Note from tutor – quote marks, en dashes/hyphens marked up in tutorial
– MAP. Can work, collage good. Annotate with facts about it. Intro to the wider physicality of the Empire. That change of pace is good, A5 to A2.
It could bring it all together in a few ways. Previous unit map issue has persisted.
– MAP – bring in participation, drawing lines between the destinations and the UK. Knocking back some of the detail in the map.
– MAP. Flow and pace applies here too, A5 booklets and then a change of pace to the map. ‘It’s a really nice addition’. Tinker with it as discussed.
– Be less worried about production, open up and be more expressive. 5 colour, all the objects, each of them in corresponding colours.
– MAP – map being borrowed is appropriate.
– Image sources – kept mainly to Wiki commons, Wellcome Collection, Library of Congress.
– Next steps – see below
‘• Riso booked for 29th May
(• Zerox booked for 29th May, backup)
(• Bath-based Riso printer approached as backup)
• Professional photography booking 28th May
• 21st May – all 5 booklets drafted, ring binder hand stamped with copy and front cover, map?
• w/c 28th May – finessing, prep Riso files for 29th
• 29th – printing and binding
• 30th-1st – Photography at home, prep Summative pdf, revise/typeset Research Summary
• 2nd June – PCSA submission’
– COVER. Go back to passport? Probably not. Simple stamp on the front, hand done, name and title on spine, copy and objects on the back.
Foiled cover wrong, this is much more sensitive. Described clean look of the cover. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Overriding title (Where’s That Really From?). Try a minimal cover using your hand stamps, try a version that’s a passport design, heat transfer versus commissioned stamps discussed
– Back cover – write copy, add the 5 objects on there, commission a stamp or do a heat transfer, as front cover
– Keep the links for binding
– NUMBER THE INNER PUBLICATIONS.
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ACTION POINTS
– Buy folders (done)
– Next week’s target – all the booklets complete. Can be late to tutorial next week.
– Design map
– Do 3 outstanding booklets, HAVE FUN!
– Experiment with binder – transfers, stamping, commissions a stamp
Engaging with and situating words in new contexts, I found this really helpful and a reminder to question and interrogate words and languages. Fascinating to hear the different meanings of favourite or detested words from the group, and to get into the ‘why’ of my word ‘HARM’. I chose it because I tell my kids ‘do no harm’, but the word can mean so many things, positive any negative. Does a white lie do harm?
Interesting references:
– allora and calzadilla
– BEN VAUTIER
– claire fontaine
SHILPA GUPTA
PDF WITH TUTORIAL PRESENTATION, INCLUDING ‘CONTEXT’ DRAFT:
TUTORIAL 070526
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MAIN TUTORIAL NOTES
– Step back and look at the roughs before getting into the rest of the objects.
– Maybe make the stamping manual inside the publication? Could be a problem for mass production, looking ahead.
– Riso still an option, lend itself to the colour combination, but it could be a time issue – priority is design and content for submission. Could be for showcase.
(- Riso will give you the stamp-like quality without having to stamp manually.)
– Riso will elevate this, where colour is such a crucial part.
– Use extra week to do it? You have showcase period of time too.
– Content – working really well, but what isn’t quite clear are the ‘Sections’ which would be useful for a user of it. Clearly showing history, object and action parts. How would I title them? Nothing boring, open and funny one of voice. Could be ‘THEN’ ,’OBJECT’, ‘NOW’. How ca I differentiate each section?
– Contents on inside of the binder?
– Page numbers?
– Intro paragraph on inside of the folder too?
– Number each of the publications, important for kids’ usage
– This can have a life beyond degree
– Context writing presented.
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ACTION POINTS:
– Try and do 2 more object sections for next week, add sections
– Consult with publications on Riso, make a booking.
(- Don’t rule out testing at the end of the month, tbc with school)
– Extra tutorial with Matthew C today.
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EXTRA TUTORIAL WITH MATTHEW C (UPDATED 5pm)
– Prioritise design over material priorities of Riso at this stage.
– Other decisions have bigger impact on how this functions as a piece of design
– Guiding information inside of binder, contents, numbers for the publications, names on the spines, instructions
– Same, Rhythmic, Edirtorial feel in these pages. They are patterned. Could this be enriched by thinking of it more as an ATLAS?
– passport motifs are implicit, publication reads more as ‘travel’ , or ‘atlas’
– Therefore, could I handle the layouts more loosely? Something that spans a whole page, not every page has a fill-in-the-blanks. What if one page is simply a map? A page that is images or just images. That would draw readers in for the quality of the design as much as anything else.
– Way-finding elements, dotted lines, arrows for added depth. Same content, different structure?!
– What is the central enquiry of this work? Have led so far with the critical questions about Empire and colonialism, the stuff that’s not graphic design. Exploring those things USING graphic design. Is it that or is it an exploitation of the tools that produce this critical engagement with colonialism? So lens on object or GCD, or both?
– So it’s both, but can I reflect that in the writing?
– In the writing, am I focusing on the FORM of the passport or the contexts or both? Can this be done easily.
– Flipped the passport, no forensic depth on guilloché, heraldry etc. This is intended to get people to think twice. M happy for me to dictate what the balance is, but this should become cleat through the writing.
– Say ‘these are the formal gestures that dictate’. The writing should focus the attention. COULD SLIDES REFLECT THIS JOURNEY TOO?
– INCLUSION OF A MAP at the end to bookend the experience for kids and parents, a lay-in at the end? A3 tip in can make this feel more expansive.
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MEETING WITH PUBLICATIONS WORKSHOP
– Riso booked for 29th May, Xerox booked for 29th May as backup. Sourcing local option in the meantime
– Source a local backup? Does this need to be printed formally now, or can it wait for the show?
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TUTORIAL NOTES 300426
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MAIN TUTORIAL
– RING BINDER a good durable choice for schools environment, may need to compromise curved edges.
Deconstruct it and see what happens.
Stamp on the front only? What about blurb, could this act as a VISA or boarding card?
Binder is a good way of housing it. Has to be durable for kids.
– Passport front cover – maybe the usual cover is too heavy now? Just bring in the passport undertones and use them judiciously in the publication where appropriate. This doesn’t need to be a gimmick.
– Spreads – Riso? Bring that back in, make a booking for week after next? Duotone printing. It might giver everything a visual complexity, consistency between varied content and then printed flat. Perhaps lean into the more loos layout, overlays etc.
– BOARDING CARD in there, hole punched, with the
– REFERENCE FROM MATTHEW – Perambulation Riso printed walking tours. Map, locations etc.
– LEARNING HIERARCHY discussed. ‘Must, many and some’.
– ACCESSIBILITY can be dubious, reality is that there isn’t a universal approach in education, therefore visual engagement is important. Be captivated by the visuals, cook someone in from that. Be creative with the typography, type thematically close.
– TYPEFACE REFERENCE – Abyme foundry, Axo typeface. Interesting history in handwriting and letterforms found in school manuals, technical drawings, architectural plans. Reach out to them for license.
– Discussed tabbing system of James Goggin work, won’t work here, kids will not file in order, but we can add or serialize the folders.
– REWARD SYSTEM is good, keep the stamping, What would the teacher’s stamp say? Just design one stamp for them. Maybe ‘You’ve arrived!’
– Don’t use passport for front cover, too on the nose, that could be a stamp itself?
– TESTING – with teachers etc, local families again. How many copies would I need to make?
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MINI READER:
– Intellectual engagement
– Work with text, but also bring in quotes from kids, interviews etc
– Cover, back cover, marginalia.
– Cover design – ‘Where are the missing pieces of the Parthenon, Daddy?’
– Sequential
– Keshavarz reference – add a chapter behind it, do this for all of them. e.g. Sanghera, use classroom chapter at the end? Opportunity for deeper engagement.
– You don’t have to annotate this? The other writing will be personal enough?
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ACTIONS POINTS:
– Get stuck into at least two booklets for next week to nail down visual direction
– Reach out to ABYME for temporary font license.
– Consider ring binder, commission stamps? What could the stamp be for the teacher?
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EXTRA IDEAS:
– Tip in a spoofed boarding card containing instructions?
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DRAFT ABSTRACT
PRESENTATION
TUTORIAL NOTES 230426
– ‘Are there any other locations apart from a school where you could circulate this material?’
Consider a library if school doesn’t work. If nothing came from the school, it could work.
What conditions would that bring?
– ‘You don’t; need to see what you do here and single, standalone projects… it might have another extended life. Imagine this existing in a school and then the same principles or spirit then being pushed through to a library’. Children go, free resource.
– Design – by removing guilloché, makes it much simpler. Inconsistencies with column width because of time (just a day spent designed the rest of the week researching and writing). 3 spreads for each good. Structure discussed (THEN, NOW etc). Add in intro to parents, consider front and end matter down the line, introductory statement and glossary.
– Activities – shared breakfast reference! Kids will go find object and ask questions about it, can this go deeper?
– User testing after you see the schools – see the teachers and then get it in front of kids.
– FORMAT – look at splitting the five items into separate publications? To create one whole one?
Could there be a follow up? Building on these ideas? Could the items link somehow? Could they be linked somehow? Not using narrative. The item could be separated out, one a week. Should we drip feed the content? Passport as a folder, mini publications within it, bitesize chunks. It allows us to go deeper in two the objects as well. Structural decision there.
– End on a cliffhanger at the end of one book, link the book with the copy, some kind of narrative? ‘Next time we’ll be collecting something really sweet’. Could they document the journey of one object?
– Kids could investigate the objects themselves, let the objects speak back to them. Could it be more sensory, howdies it smell, open the pack and pour it?
– Could the text be based on how a kid would find out about the items themselves? From their point of view?
– 5 mini publications, making up one big one.
(Could this be a treasure hunt IN the library? Kids find the object, fill in the passport)
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ACTION POINTS
1 – See teachers, confirm appointments and ask about user testing.
2 – New iteration based on that feedback
3 – Testing and evaluation, school or library or families I know socially,
TUTORIAL NOTES 160426
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BRIEFING K205 10AM
– Production Surgery w/c 27/4, extra day in London
– Make time for final photography of project before Show in June, worth at least using the library facilities.
– Project the enquiry into a different direction? What can I change about it? DIfferent format, audience, whatever. Can I project INWARDLY, change the guts of the publication. Zoom in.
– WRITING. X 2. Mini reader CONTEXTUALISES your work.
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MAIN TUTORIAL K201A 2PM
– Tutor agrees on route 1. Reworked publication for publication through a school as a piece of homework, in a shared learning space, taking in all the feedback from testing and various sources
Strength of this project will come when you meet the conditions that it will be published within. How would you upscale this from 5 test cases to a class of 30, 60…a nation. It becomes an economic thing. Go back to it, audience is confirmed. How do I now get it into the hands of that audience, them taking it home and having conversations with parents about these particular themes and issues. That movement into it being a real project, over a localized, small setting, is when it starts to take real shape. The project could have different lives. Step 1, getting it into kids and parents via the school. Then, it could grow and build into an exhibition later in life, or for older/younger demographics. Imagine it existing, making it exist in the world, then it lives and it can turn into other things. Dictated by this start.
You have a visual style emerging and the content, now THROUGH the school, the context, what are the limitations going to be? How is that visual language going to adapt or change, crystalline? The next question is going o the school and asking about the conditions and limitations, and using that as a the building blocks to work from.
Interview stakeholders to appraise it from their perspective. Execution will happen after that. Aim for second half of May to get this out to kids through the school is possible. Can it work? Let them take the lead, may not be possible.
Spoke about paper in kids’ homework, do mine come with material like this?
Discussed paper nature of it. Is there a web presence? Could I put in QR codes that could take you to further learning and encourage further depth? A set of links to help the kids and me to help the legal parameters that are present in this. Would this turn out to be kind of guerrilla?
How would you cost this? Charitable organizations? Worth investigating.
Lo-fi, economic hat on when producing would be the assumption.
Summary – speak to the school in the next stage, using very practical questions of them, and then from there what are the material parameters than can translate the current iteration into the next one.
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ACTION POINTS
– Emailed local school, Oakfield Academy (again), to ask for review of the publication and what issues would need to consider either theoretically or for actual release within the school. This needs to be quick!
– Start a new iteration of the publication, taking in all the previous feedback but also building in the online strand to it, the letter to parents. This will at least start the making in advance of hearing from the school.
– Look around yourself for references and advice, government or academic, on what kind of thing works in this context, maybe there are some details or approaches I can glean and use to guide the next stages.
– Plan, if you can, the next month
– Investigate funding of this for further steps, perhaps after MA.
– Start ABSTRACT, 200 word draft for next week.
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TUTORIAL 190326
Thoughts and takeaways after receipt of Peer Assessment feedback:
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ENQUIRY
– Consider appropriate use of imagery in there, is use of racial stereotypes right? Agreed, to reevaluate this inclusion. Are the old advertising images needed at all?
– Reinforce ‘journey’ theme in there.
Could this be the object travels from here to here? Dates? More specific geographies?
KNOWLEDGE
– Better explanation of the Empire at the beginning?
– “Does tone of informality and historical fact balance?” Will look. In what way?
PROCESS
– How will I expand beyond the passport? WORKSHOP format? At school, excluding adults?
DISAGREE about the testing – it has happened throughout, but it could be more diverse?!Or could it? Do we mean TYPE of source or diversity in the kids/families. I live in a predominantly white town and the testing has to be local in the context of this project.
COMMUNICATION
Feedback: ‘Using the research that you’ve done, could some of your questions or statements be rephrased to better explain the lasting effects of empire? E.g. “ideals of Empire” -> “racist ideals”. It’s important that we aren’t passive with language, especially in the context of introducing this to diverse publics How can you explore the subject of travel as it relates to the effects of the empire? Could you explore this theme for adults?’
Response: I agree that the language needs looking at again, but broad questions like ideals need to be kept simple for the audience. The moment to engage kids with this is very ‘school-y’ according to a publishing source I interviewed. With that in mind, it needs to be really clear what I’m saying. I worry that moving from legacies that can be easily explained into other things would not help sustain kids’ engagement.
REALISATION
– Typography bigger and clearer, this is feedback I’ve had from the testing
– Bigger maps, pacing of the spreads, giving the reader breaks? Will need to consider this.
OVERALL
Some of these points are spot on, some I disagree with. I need to step back from this, collate my feedback from a children’s author (coming on 27th) and publisher who are currently looking at this iteration and then consider how this can expand.
My instinct is to expand this into a workshop format, perhaps in a school rather than just a homework piece. Where kids use a passport of sorts to go round a space, finding objects and stamping but on stamping, then get info. Could this be some kind of digital thing? No, that feels wrong.
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NOTES ON RECORDING AFTER SEEING SHAHEER 19/2/26
– Testing was worthwhile.
– Peer feedback was worthwhile, discussed generally, Specific points like stereotyping.
– Tutor: Feedback came from different groups. One is kids/parents, where you need to be kind of gentle and position the text positively. Two, scholars of colonialism and empire who would be more critical. How do you balance that? Also need to keep it super clear for the uninitiated.
– Tutor: ‘family and fun, but also things that aren’t’ Need to explain the opposite of that. At what point does balancing the sense of play, overlap with the weight of the subject. It’s a hard challenge. Using a journey to guide people through still good. Tea spread is still tempest successful, you can tell it a journey. You focus on the history of objects but there are people that don’t get talked about.
– Distance needed from this now, so I can evaluate over Easter.
– Group activity discuss, that would contextualize it (Tutor). Could use other documentary forms of Empire that could introduce other things.
(Use a map, ref https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1932449340834208)
– Dual audience discussed. I have to prioritise the kids as the audience, perhaps a year or so older in age demographic. Object based thing is working.
– Tutor: There is a dialectic in there – want to make something good and navigable for kids, but using that form to talk about something dark, a difficult challenging.
– Could this be in a physical space? Hide objects? Write ON the objects for example. Passport is just used as a device to show you get reward to finding new knowledge. It’s not just about subversion any more.
– Tutor: Projection2 – we can do that we want. The brief is almost excitably the same as question 1. We’re taking an enquiry that is fascinating to you, building on it, building a body of work. It’s kind of in my hands. No specific formats to follow. No thematic curveballs.
– What would I do? Capitalize on the school contact. By having that as a route, it does have an innate ethical approach. Even though the school is located in Somerset, rural UK, could I make something that is transferrable to all schools? A kit of some kind? Mentioned the exceptionalism and jingoism, but this shouldn’t be the focus.
– Remove the parent from the exercise in the next iteration. A simpler publication and a space where I can show objects, that kids can investigate on a deeper level (families mentioned going deeper in audience participation) with labels etc. So this becomes a colonially ROOTED thing but the emphasis is on ethical buying habits etc. Film it maybe.
– Tutor – make sense to me. The break is a good time to zoom out. Are you building a critical childrens’ publication series, or is it a specific workshop kit? Zoom out and ask yourself. Does it answer my enquiry. Does the enquiry need to be updated? Go into school and workshop is performed.
– Akidsco books discussed again – discussed and nominated kids as the audience rather than parents. Doubling down on the enquiry, but rewording to a then and now kidnapping of thing? This isn’t about a worthy, white-washing book for parents to share with their privileged kids. I want this to be universe and unique enough to actually get the kids to think about a history. If I can make it engaging and refine this thing, passport becomes part of a broader vehicle. Fun could be in the type of stamp they can use, or physical workshop could be a REAK way to engage. Some of the audience feedback, in one example a child just stamped the objects because she knew she gas the stuff in the house, with no deeper engagement. Govern principle should be engagement. In a school system.
– Tutor: Good, the outcome is a thought that a child will have not the document. Projection 2, you can iterate on the passport but perhaps project in a different direction, Informed by what’s happened.
– Passport feels like a feature not a focus. Part of the workshop.
– Interesting thing would be how to record the workshop. Should it be filmed? At what point can I record the learning?
– Tutor – central challenge of learning. Assess the journey and evidence rather than the outcome.
– See the school soon for discussion.
– Discussed practicality and timeline.
– Tutor approves the direction, sounds good. Speak to school in first instance.
– In the absence of marks at this point there anything I need to do or I am lacking? Tutor – no. Just make. Body of work that you’re interested in. Orient your work towards you and your mark.
– Tutor – happy with the amount and quality of production you’ve done this unit. But you can think about editing this thing down.
– Lean into simple production, emphasis on knowledge outcomes, lo fi looks. Quite roughly produced, references a passport form if I use one.
– Tutor – your outmode is imparting that knowledge, planting an enquiry in the minds of the kids.
– Film the workshop in some way? Tutor – You will need to check permissions from a UAL point of view as well.
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ACTION POINTS and THOUGHTS ON WORKSHOP ENVIRONMENT
– Interview with author Darren Chetty 27/3/26, to record
– Reach out again to school to meet up and discuss a ‘History of Objects’ workshop. I need to keep comms open with the teacher/school as this is a vital avenue for testing.
– Look at new references on workshops or physical spaces that look at colonial legacy of objects, e.g.
SHOULD I VISIT OVER EASTER? It’s specifically about colonial objects, though historical rather tan connecting then modern.
London Museum Docklands, Caribbean Voices
(Some kind of trail in the museum to follow, emphasis on Carribean products)
Think about this from a curatorial perspective.
– Lo fi feel to any new output
– Reflect and start to rough out some idea on a workshop format, and then I can start thinking about its form. More objects etc, world map inclusion. How would it be set int in a space?
– Ask Matthew about ethics of filming any output, working in a school.
– Does the enquiry need to be updated? – YES. Look at rephrasing to a more universal outlook.
– Use a map? Ref https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1932449340834208
– Interesting reference: https://www.museumdetox.org/
– It makes sense to use the passport in a workshop environment.
– How would that workshop be recorded? In film?
– Could this be FIND OBJECT, WRITE DOWN FACT, COME BACK FOR A STAMP. Sort of gamifying it.
– Could this be a pack of some kind, where you get a bunch of objects in a box, chuck it into school and then watch the kids learn? So it does not need any introduction. Teacher gets pack, lays it out in a classroom or hall and the kids find the knowledge and write down facts to get a passport stamp. They travel through the knowledge.
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