Mocking bird facts

Some types of mockingbirds are known to lay "alien eggs", or eggs that are laid in another bird's nest. Similar to the cowbird, the mockingbirds' offspring will force the other nest inhabitants from the nest, taking all the food from the parents and forcing the foster-parents to rear and fledge them.

When the survey voyage of HMS Beagle visited the Galápagos Islands in September to October 1835, the naturalist Charles Darwin noticed that the mockingbirds Mimus thenca differed from island to island, and were closely allied in appearance to mockingbirds on the South American mainland. Nearly a year later when writing up his notes on the return voyage he speculated that this, together with what he had been told about Galápagos tortoises, could undermine the doctrine of stability of species. This was his first recorded expression of his doubts about species being immutable, which led to his being convinced about the transmutation of species and hence evolution.



Thoughts 

-Maybe mockingbirds are less innocent to how they initially seem-could this refer to the children etc?
-Foster parents could relate to Truman, a great friend of Lee.
-Influential animal, in evolution terms. 
-Black vs white 

Where to kill a mocking bird came from?

Atticus said to Jem one day, "I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."

That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. "Your father’s right," she said. "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."

My ideas: 

When relating this to the book it may be suggested that the usage of a mockingbird is to highlight the loss of innocence. The symbolism of the mockingbird may be applied to key characters in the novel. Jem and Scout have their innocence taken from them by being exposed to racist trends, their fathers trial, and attempted murder of the two. Boo's parents robbed him from any childhood in which he may have had, and tom Robinson was trailed and died although innocent. The children also show a progression throughout the book, leaving their naivety and previous traits through the book. 

Who would purchase the book

Primary audience

The target audience for this film is generally adults from 25-40, of an ABC1 demographic. The reasonings behind this demographic being most prominent is that younger adults usually study this book at GCSE and thus are less likely to re-read it in immediate years following. Whereas a 40 plus audience is likely to have already read one of the strongest pieces of literature ever written. The book is for anyone who is interested within cult books, and American history, with key historic themes being expressed.

Secondary audience 

When relating the secondary audience to that of the primary, it is evident that user often re-read books especially that of cult classics, and thus it may be suggested that a second copy is required. As a result of this I propose that the secondary audience for the book is individually who have previously read the book but would like a new, fresh insight after not reading the book for years. Generally speaking the target audience would be 25-60 years.

Tertiary audience 

The tertiary audience for the book is that of individuals in which are self educated and would like to gain a greater stance upon literature/American history. This may be an individual whose education was not strong, but has the determination to learn.

Book cover design-how to make a good book cover

What Makes a Good Book Cover

IF YOU FIND yourself in a bookstore, Peter Mendelsund can be hard to avoid. His dust jackets wrap big-name contemporary releases like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Of course, catching a potential book-buyer’s eye is only part of Mendelsund’s job. A truly great jacket is one that captures the book inside it in some fundamental and perhaps unforeseen way. As Mendelsund describes it, his job is “finding that unique textual detail that…can support the metaphoric weight of the entire book.” That, of course, requires actually reading a manuscript closely enough to A) determine the metaphoric weight of the book and B) find a handful of relevant details within it. In other words, making a great book cover isn’t just about making. It starts with understanding.

This comes up whenever authors who’ve worked with Mendelsund talk about his work. Each ends up explaining in their own way that his powers as a designer come in large part from his powers as a reader. As Ben Marcus recalls about working with Mendelsund on The Flame Alphabet, “I was struck by how carefully he’d read the book. He fucking seemed to have studied it.”

It takes a certain type of reading to make a great cover. One of the challenges of the job, Mendelsund says, is resisting the urge to simply pluck an image from the text itself. “It’s very tempting to read a book only for visual cues when you’re a jacket designer,” he says. “‘Oh, her hair is blond, and it’s a cold climate, and they live on a hill.’ That’s just really treacherous. Because if you read that way, you’ll miss the point of the book. And almost never are those kind of details the point of the book.”

-eyecatching

- “finding that unique textual detail that…can support the metaphoric weight of the entire book.” 

- resisting the urge to simply pluck an image from the text itself. 

-focus on the main story of the book 

-ensure that details gathered are not features of the protagonists etc.

The Many Styles of Peter Mendelsund

On one level, dust jackets are billboards. They’re meant to lure in potential readers. For a certain contingent of the publishing industry, this means playing it safe. “The path of least resistance when you’re designing a jacket is to give that particular demographic exactly what they want,” Mendelsund explains. “It’s a mystery novel, so you just splatter it in blood, and put the shadowy trench coat guy on it, and use the right typography.” Familiarity, the thinking goes, will always sell something.

Mendelsund does not subscribe to this view. He’s said that he prefers an ugly cover to a cliche one, and looking at his body of work, the thing that holds it together is that nearly all of his jackets have something weird going on, in one way or another.

His covers for Dostoyevsky’s novels are bold, for example, are sparse geometric abstractions. At the time of their release over a decade ago, they bucked the industry trend of covering backlist titles in realist paintings and photography. Today, as Mendelsund points out in Cover, abstraction is very much in vogue for these sorts of titles. His covers for the works of Michel Foucault are similarly unexpected. Each displays a bright photograph of a single object—a spring, a broken pair of eyeglasses, a megaphone—relating in some way to each text’s central theme.

-stay away from generic iconography

-ugly books are better than generic books

-diversity is key

Harper lee-who is she etc

Background and Early Life

Famed author Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). The youngest of four children, she grew up as a tomboy in a small town. Her father was a lawyer, a member of the Alabama state legislature and also owned part of the local newspaper. For most of Lee's life, her mother suffered from mental illness, rarely leaving the house. It is believed that she may have had bipolar disorder.

One of her closest childhood friends was another writer-to-be, Truman Capote (then known as Truman Persons). Tougher than many of the boys, Lee often stepped up to serve as Truman's protector. Truman, who shared few interests with boys his age, was picked on for being sensitive and for the fancy clothes he wore. While the two friends were very different, they both had difficult home lives. Truman was living with his mother's relatives in town after largely being abandoned by his own parents.

In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature. After graduating in 1944, she went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Lee stood apart from the other students—she couldn't have cared less about fashion, makeup or dating. Instead, she focused on her studies and writing. Lee was a member of the literary honor society and the glee club.


Aspiring Writer

Transferring to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Lee was known for being a loner and an individualist. She did make a greater attempt at a social life there, joining a sorority for a while. Pursuing her interest in writing, Lee contributed to the school's newspaper and its humor magazine, the Rammer Jammer, eventually becoming the publication's editor.

In her junior year, Lee was accepted into the university's law school, which allowed students to work on law degrees while still undergraduates. The demands of her law studies forced her to leave her post as Rammer Jammer editor. After her first year in the program, Lee began expressing to her family that writing—not the law—was her true calling. She went to Oxford University in England that summer as an exchange student. Returning to her law studies that fall, Lee dropped out after the first semester. She soon moved north to follow her dreams to become a writer.

In 1949, a 23-year-old Lee arrived in New York City. She struggled for several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British Overseas Air Corp (BOAC). While in the city, Lee was reunited with old friend Capote, one of the literary rising stars of the time. She also befriended Broadway composer and lyricist Michael Martin Brown and his wife Joy.

In 1956, the Browns gave Lee an impressive Christmas present—to support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and devoted herself to her craft. The Browns also helped her find an agent, Maurice Crain. He, in turn, was able to get publisher J.B. Lippincott Company interested in her work. Working with editor Tay Hohoff, Lee worked on a manuscript set in a small Alabama town, which eventually became her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

1930's America

At the beginning of the 1930s, more than 15 million Americans–fully one-quarter of all wage-earning workers–were unemployed. President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he argued, were all Americans needed to get them through this “passing incident in our national lives.” But in 1932, Americans elected a new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who pledged to use the power of the federal government to make Americans’ lives better. Over the next nine years, Roosevelt’s New Deal created a new role for government in American life. Though the New Deal alone did not end the Depression, it did provide an unprecedented safety net to millions of suffering Americans.

After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the largest stock market crash in American history, most of the decade was consumed by an economic downfall called the Great Depression that had a traumatic effect worldwide, leading to widespread unemployment and poverty. In response, authoritarian regimes emerged in several countries in Europe and South America, in particular the Third Reich in Germany. Weaker states such as Ethiopia, China, and Poland were invaded by expansionist world powers, the last of these attacks leading to the outbreak of the Second World War a few months before the end of the decade. The 1930s also saw a proliferation of new technologies, especially in the fields of intercontinental aviation, radio, and film.

THE GREAT Depression of the 1930s was catastrophic for all workers. But as usual, Blacks suffered worse, pushed out of unskilled jobs previously scorned by whites before the depression. Blacks faced unemployment of 50 percent or more, compared with about 30 percent for whites. Black wages were at least 30 percent below those of white workers, who themselves were barely at subsistence level.

There was no relief from the liberal Roosevelt administration, whose National Recovery Act (NRA) of 1933 was soon referred to by Blacks as the Negro Removal Act. Although its stated goal was nondiscriminatory hiring and an equal minimum wage for whites and Blacks, NRA public works projects rarely employed Blacks and maintained racist wage differentials when they did.

Nor did traditional organized labor offer any alternative. Although American Federation of Labor President William Green gave lip service to civil rights and claimed to oppose segregated Jim Crow locals, he did nothing to enforce this on affiliated unions.

Blacks were either excluded or forced to organize in separate unions, such as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Black workers who tried to organize often found themselves a target of lynch mobs, in both the North and South.

Summary

-The beginning of the concept 'the american dream'
-time of great depression
-large amounts of poverty
-black people were even more unemployed
-30% pay difference
-lynchings were still apparent
-slave trade had not been abolished for long
-KKK

general plot

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression, and is narrated by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer with high moral standards. Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill are intrigued by the local rumors about a man named Boo Radley, who lives in their neighborhood but never leaves his house. Legend has it that he once stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and he is made out to be a kind of monster. Dill is from Mississippi but spends his summer in Maycomb at a house near the Finch's.

The children are curious to know more about Boo, and during one summer create a mini-drama they enact daily, which tells the events of his life as they know them. Slowly, the children begin moving closer to the Radley house, which is said to be haunted. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a fishing pole, but are caught by Atticus, who firmly reprimands them for making fun of a sad man's life. Next, the children try sneaking over to the house at night and looking through its windows. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, who lives in the house, thinks he hears a prowler and fires his gun. The children run away, but Jem loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them back, they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up.

Other mysterious things happen to the Finch children. A certain tree near the Radley house has a hole in which little presents are often left for them, such as pennies, chewing gum, and soap carved figures of a little boy and girl who bear a striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. The children don't know where these gifts are coming from, and when they go to leave a note for the mystery giver, they find that Boo's brother has plugged up the hole with cement. The next winter brings unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie's house catches on fire. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near the Radley house, someone puts a blanket around Scout without her realizing it. Not until she returns home and Atticus asks her where the blanket came from does she realize that Boo Radley must have put it around her while she was entranced by watching Miss Maudie, her favorite neighbor, and her burning house.

Atticus decides to take on a case involving a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell, a member of the notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer of Maycomb society that people refer to as "trash." The Finch family faces harsh criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of Atticus's decision to defend Tom. But, Atticus insists on going through with the case because his conscience could not let him do otherwise. He knows Tom is innocent, and also that he has almost no chance at being acquitted, because the white jury will never believe a black man over a white woman. Despite this, Atticus wants to reveal the truth to his fellow townspeople, expose their bigotry, and encourage them to imagine the possibility of racial equality.

Because Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves whispered at and taunted, and have trouble keeping their tempers. At a family Christmas gathering, Scout beats up her cloying relative Francis when he accuses Atticus of ruining the family name by being a "nigger-lover". Jem cuts off the tops of an old neighbor's flower bushes after she derides Atticus, and as punishment, has to read out loud to her every day. Jem does not realize until after she dies that he is helping her break her morphine addiction. When revealing this to Jem and Scout, Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage: the will to keep fighting even when you know you can't win.

The time for the trial draws closer, and Atticus's sister Alexandra comes to stay with the family. She is proper and old-fashioned and wants to shape Scout into the model of the Southern feminine ideal, much to Scout's resentment. Dill runs away from his home, where his mother and new father don't seem interested in him, and stays in Maycomb for the summer of Tom's trial. The night before the trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and Atticus, fearing a possible lynching, stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is concerned about him, and the three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men arrive ready to cause some violence to Tom, and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem, Scout and Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her innocence brings the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.

The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom's evidence. According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her while her father was out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Tom's version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright. According to the sheriff's testimony, Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face, which means she was most likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Given the evidence of reasonable doubt, Tom should go free, but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces him guilty. Scout, Jem and Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit in the balcony with Maycomb's black population. They are stunned at the verdict because to them, the evidence was so clearly in Tom's favor.

Though the verdict is unfortunate, Atticus feels some satisfaction that the jury took so long deciding. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes, because a black man's word would not be trusted. Atticus is hoping for an appeal, but unfortunately Tom tries to escape from his prison and is shot to death in the process. Jem has trouble handling the results of the trial, feeling that his trust in the goodness and rationality of humanity has been betrayed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell threatens Atticus and other people connected with the trial because he feels he was humiliated. He gets his revenge one night while Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school. He follows them home in the dark, then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a large kitchen knife. Jem breaks his arm, and Scout, who is wearing a confining ham shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on, is helpless throughout the attack. The elusive Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves the children. Finally, Scout has a chance to meet the shy and nervous Boo. At the end of this fateful night, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo, the hero of the situation, won't have to be tried for murder. Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he has viewed the town and observed her, Jem and Dill over the years from inside his home. Boo goes inside, closes the door, and she never sees him again.

Knowledge:

-Narrated by a child

-Alabama-great depression 

-children messing around-neatly folded trousers

-trail causes a stir in the family

-cuts of the heads of flowers-has to read as a punishment-morphine addiction 

-left arm 

-actually took a long time to decide

-Tom tries to escape and is shot dead 

-children are attempted to be killed

-Boo stabs the man and saves the children 

-closes the door and never see's boo again-penultimate. 

Iconography that could already be associated:

-Split between black and white

-clock 

-through a child's perspective

-tree

-notes-fishing line

-fire

-trail

-beheaded flowers

-knife 

Introduction into research

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."

As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.

Knowledge gained from this:

-1960's? complete research into America at this time

-based on her personal experiences

-'destruction of innocence'

-Issues relating to class, gender roles, racism, social injustice. 

-morals

-story based on event in 1936-what occurred at this time?

My knowledge of the book

As I have not previously read the book, I wanted to note the facts surrounding the book in which I already know, in order to gain a greater insight into the mind of a user who has no concept of the book, just themes they have heard. My knowledge is as follows:

-Main theme expressed is racism
-Some aspect of killing a mockingbird?
-Large focus on death
-Some form of child in the book (on the covers in which I have previously seen)


From this it is evident that if the book is targeted at a new audience the approach cannot be too ambiguous, although as a classic it may be suggested that the book has already been read by millions, and thus a second edition or a physical copy may be required as a collectors item. This must be researched further in order to gather a greater stance upon the target audience for this book.

Research strategies

When referring back to secret 7 last year, Simon mentioned that he often did not listen to the song first, and developed a design based purely upon the songs title in order to develop a more ambiguous approach to that of his competitors. When relating this to the book To kill a mockingbird, it would be naive to suggest that you are able to develop a book without understanding its concepts, although you are able to formulate a book without viewing previous designs. In conjunction to this and the idea that the books generally express iconography trends may be tackled by completing such action. Although wider research must be conducted into that of general book cover design, and covers relating to the genre. General research should be as follows:

• Genre-Adult Fiction
• Design that currently appeals to adults
• Research into the book-plot etc
• Research into the author
• Research into the original cover-relating back to the brief 'classic' 
• Books of a similar genre and their design
• List of all generic iconography associated with the book. 

To kill a mockingbird brief

To Kill A Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece of modern literature and was voted the most loved book of the last sixty years by The Times readers in October 2009. It has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold over thirty million copies worldwide. So no pressure.

We would like you to design a new and classic cover for this book. The trick here will be to come at it from a fresh perspective and to avoid repeating the obvious iconography from the many previous editions in print. If you can get your hands on a copy of the book in order to get a sense of the beautiful writing, this will only help to inspire your design. The cover should feel timeless and confident, and appeal to a whole new generation of readers.

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy supplied and be designed to the specified design template – B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine width 20 mm, incorporating the ARROW branding and all additional elements such as the barcode.

What the judges are looking for

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

The winning design will need to:
-have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
-be competently executed with strong use of typography
-appeal to a contemporary readership
-show a good understanding of the marketplace
-have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against

Copyright must be cleared for all images used in your cover design and you must include a credit line on the back cover of your design for any third party images used. For example: ‘Cover photograph by Joe Bloggs’.

My thoughts 

From reading the outlined brief it is evident that the judges are looking for a new take on a book cover in which is completely unique to the generic book covers produced. The book must appeal both printed and online, and thus CMYK must be considered. Key iconography must not be copied, with birds and blood not being used. When thinking about my cover of in Cold Blood, the generic design was very stereotypical, with multiple book covers being explored beforehand, as a result of this research techniques must be considered when completing this brief. 

2nd small brief-which brief

When deciding upon the second small brief to complete, my initial ideas were surrounding that of secret 7, as I have a large interest in the music industry, and would like to express this further within a design piece in which could be suiting to my portfolio, as well as gaining myself an academic stance. As a result of this I waited until January for the briefs to be announced. Unfortunately, it was discovered that secret 7 is not running this year, and thus another brief had to be selected.

As I was unsure upon what may be considered a small brief, the YCN and D&AD briefs were re-read, and it was discussed whether they could be shortened in order to make a smaller brief. Although this was applicable, it was decided that this would leave my deisgn appearing very weak compared to others, who may have treated this as a large brief, and thus it was decided to complete another entry for penguin.

As I was not completely happy with my cold blood design, once comparing it to others within the class, I felt that completing a new design would allow a fresh approach t be developed.

The two briefs left were, to kill a mockingbird and the secret diary of Adrian Mole age 13 3/4.

In order to select a brief key considerations had to be made, including the target audience, amount of submissions per piece and general aesthetic. Some of these considerations have been listed below.


To kill a mockingbird

• One Of the most popular book's ever written
• Frequently read at GCSE and thus people will be more likely to select brief
• Large number of designs already completed for this cover. 
• Generic mockingbird/blood
• Already members of the class doing this 

The secret diary of Adrian Mole age 13 3/4.

• How can I relate this to a modern age?
• Many young people have read this
• Would it have to be illustration based? 

Which would I personally prefer to complete?

When thinking specifically about the two books I would suggest that I would prefer to design the cover for To kill a mockingbird, as I believe the genre to be more suiting to my practice than that of Adrian Mole's. I also believe that I would also like to read the book, as I have not previously and thus this may allow me to do so. As a result of this It has been decided to complete this design, although the key considerations above must be outlined. 

Aesthetics

As the aesthetic properties of a design often get noticed first, research was conducted into the different ways in which patterns, typography and colour may be used in order to express a niche style in which would interest the audience. Both instagram and pinterest were used in order to collect such 'patterns' as these a common social medias/apps in which are used by the target audience to discover new innovative products. 

Colourful and 3D typography was a common theme expressed, with hand rendered approaches appearing most distinctive. A consistent use of typography may also link the designs together allowing for a well articulated design, in which follows a specific formula. Typography may be explored fully, with CAD/Hand Rendered approaches being tested.  

Double exposure works well especially within screenprinted designs as it allows for an extra element to be involved within the aesthetic. This may also be a way in which to develop a set rather than individual product. The top left image expresses a way in which minimal patterns can be expressed in order to keep consistency. This may also be focused upon within the designs. 

Alcohol is deemed as a luxury in many cultures, although alcohol does have large negative effects and thus its usage in design must be extensively explored.Illustrations may be used in order to express a more friendly approach and eliminate the negative effects. 

Watercolours have been a strong influence within this moodboard, as multiple styles has been expressed. The simple design through the chanel bottle is one of the strongest with a spot effect being used. This would work effectively on multiple platforms, other colours could also be used in order to develop further designs. 

Critique of concepts

When discussing the concepts with my peers and Simon it became highly apparent that the cards should not be used as the main influence within the design, as a stationary set is the key focus and thus not the concept behind the cards design. Other key ideas were expressed in which are exhibited below:

• The 'taboo' concept is strong, but the idea behind gay marriage is that it is no different to heterosexual marriage and thus specific cards should not be developed for such design. 

• An artistic style may be expressed between the products in order to develop continuity. 

• A neutral design may be more effective, where the cards can be used for general use. 

• A style must be consistant throughout in order to link the products. 

• the design should contain a concept although the style may be extensively researched and experimented with in order to develop this. 

• It was also suggested that a gay lag pattern could be used, but I believe this to be cliche. 

When discussing the concept of the illness cards it was suggested that the concept would be highly difficult to link with the stationary, and thus this idea should be discontinued, or involved within another aspect of the design. 

From the feedback gathered I am currently unsure upon the ways in which I plan on tackling the brief, and thus a plan must be developed. In order to progress with this further, ideas will be developed in which focus upon aesthetic rather than underpinning concepts, although contexuality should still appear present. 

Concepts

Diversity within the UK

When thinking back to the topic of diversity, a mind map was developed in which outlines some key sub-topics that may be interesting to focus upon. These sub-topics could potentially become key areas in which the card/stationery set focuses.

When visiting card shops it is very rare that 'taboo' topics are covered and thus my initial idea would be to tackle these ideas through a selection of cards. The range could include: A gay marriage card, Happy divorce, Like a farther on fathers day, and a happy adoption card. One key issue with this is that I am unsure how to transfer these themes into a notecard set etc, and thus this may be discussed within the critique.

Illness cards

When thinking about get well cards, it is often that there are not cards in which express what you really want to say, and thus a commical approach should be taken. I personally believe that this is highly important when discussing serious illnesses as they can often appear heavy and the individual experiencing the event often does not want to think about the event. Thus a light humour approach would be appropriate, again the issue with relating this to a notecard set is difficult and thus this will be discussed within the critique.