Media production
Signe Gabriel
Ett hav i vardagsrummet
Table of contents
Final results
Final results 2
About the project: 3
Why make a picture book? 3
Research 4
Existing picture books: 4
Avsändare and modtagere: 5
Research, children and parental depression: 5
Process 6
Visual brainstorm 6
Storyboard 6
Inspiration 8
Visual experiments 9
Characters and colours 13
Making storyboard in colours 14
Design rules 15
Lettering for the front page 16
More choices 16
Finding a metaphor for dad’s depression 16 Difference between the normal state and when dad is sick 17
Safe objects: 18
Recognizable objects: 19
Driving the story forward: 19
Making use of reading direction: 20
When help arrives: 20
Going from the story into the “fact-sheet” spread 21
About my roles in this project 22
Relation to uppsats 22
About the project:
For my media production, I have written and illustrated a children’s book about
depression. I did my project in collaboration with Gabriel Häggebrink who is a graphic design student.
In Sweden, one in four adults at some point in their life experience depression. When a parent is depressed, it also affect their children - the children experience a loss of
structure in their everyday life, they feel like they can’t reach their parent, and since they don’t understand what is going on, they might worry a lot, take blame and responsibility, and feel ashamed. The best way to start helping these children is by talking to them so they can understand what is happening to their parent. Conversation and understanding can be a protective factor that helps to avoid that the child gets psychological problems later in life.
I wanted to create a children’s book that would both function as a semi-therapeutic tool to help open up conversations with children who experience having a parent or other adult close to them with depression, but I also wanted a book that could exist in any classroom, kindergarten or library and might be picked up by any child, so that it can help change the discourse and hopefully make mental health issues something that can be talked about more openly.
Why make a picture book?
I chose to make a picture book (and not a brochure, campaign, etc.) for several reasons, some of which are:
-
the picture book is an object the child already knows from it’s everyday life and already understands. It is not something new, adult or scary. Reading with an adult is associated with quality time, not a chore.Research
Existing picture books:
On the Swedish market, we were only able to find two picture books explicitly dealing with the topic of parental depression. We chose the ones that are marketed as being about depression.
More books without a doubt exist that also deal with depression. One classic example is
“Stackars Pettson” by Sven Nordqvist. We chose not to include books like this in our
market research because we wanted to compare our project to other books that had informing children about depression as their main goal, and not ones were this information is only available if the reader succeeds in interpreting it as present. Of the books we found, one tells a captivating story through metaphor but doesn’t mention depression by name (Mammas Hår by Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus). The other one explains the issue more thoroughly and direct, but the story is unmemorable (Når
Mammas tanker ändrade färg by Sara Galli and Mats Molid).
From our intervies with experts on children and depression it became clear that
approaching depression directly and naming it is important, but not forcing the child to relate their own situation to it (which metaphor can help with) are equally important. Therefore, we wanted to create a book that could land in the middle of these two, and both tell a good story, but also be direct in communicating the issue.
Avsändare and modtagere:
Our target group is children around the age of 5. Both children a couple of years
younger and older will be able to enjoy and benefit from the book. Both for this project and for my essay I have been reading about child development and children’s
understanding of metaphor. When they are this age, they should start to be able to understand abstract and symbolic thinking.
There are a number of organisations helping children and dealing with mental health issues. As our afsendere, we chose BRIS- Barnens Rätt i Samhället. They are a
well-established and well-known organisation, and apart from most other organisations, they actually publish material for both children and adults.
Research, children and parental depression:
To get started we had to understand depression and how parental depression affects children. To do this, we read:
-
A report from Socialstyrelsen: Barn som anhöriga. Konsekvenser och behov när föräldrarhar allvarliga svårigheter, eller avlider. (2013)
-
A Phd paper by Maria Afzelius: Families with parental mental illness- Supporting-
Monique Häggebrink - specialpædagog-
Sanna Hansson - psykolog-
Erik Nordström - psykologFrom our reading and interviews we were able to put together a checklist of important points that we wanted to include in the book. It became like a scaffolding we could lean on, and we kept going back to it throughout the process to make sure we were on the right track. The issue is delicate and we had to constantly balance between being clear in our communication and being gentle. Besides, we wanted to avoid certain pitfalls in our presentation of the issue, especially those that concern the child’s role and responsibility. The checklist had a total of 22 points. I will mention just a few of them here:
-
Don’t cement the people into their predicament, neither parent nor child-
The child is not at fault and does not have the power to cure the parent-
Feeling of distance, can't connect with parent-
important to include a sense of hope for the futureProcess
Visual brainstorm
We took 30-40 small pieces of paper and just sketched down all our ideas.
Storyboard
From the visual brainstorm I put together a
storyboard of 11 spreads. Normally, a standard picture book for children has 12 spreads, but we wanted to reserve the last spread for a page with information.
At the same time, I then wrote the manuscript. I went back and forth between
manuscript, visualization and the checklist to make sure everything fit together. It was important to have a narrative that made sense and was exciting, in which I could fit all the points from the checklist, and at the same time I had to balance it over only 11 spreads in a way that made sense visually.
A lot of possible visualizations/metaphors popped up. For example, the depression could have made dad transform into a dragon or turn inwards like a turtle. Some of the reasons to chose the ocean as metaphor were, that one of the points on our checklist was to not equate the person with the disease. With the ocean as metafor, the problem is
externalized. Dad can still be dad, even though he is sick. The depression becomes a third entity to fight together. Second, it made for a dramatic setting for the narrative.
Inspiration
Svein Nyhus - using marbled paper to create interesting backgrounds. (Example:
Akvarium by Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus)
Dorthe Karrebæk - letting the characters appear multiple times on the same spread to drive the story forward and create a sense of sequence and time passing - instead of “snapshots”. (Example: Idiot by Oscar K. and Dorthe Karrebæk)
Visual experiments
Making marbled paper using water, corn starch, oil paint and turpentine. Fun but unpredictable, I ended up making 50 sheets.
Experiments with transparent paper sketches on top of a marbled background using calque paper. I liked this technique, but it easily became too gloomy, and I felt like I needed something more colourful for the target group.
Experiments with water colour on different backgrounds
I ended up choosing to use water color on marbled background. The watercolour is colourful and has a soft texture and a friendly contrast that I think fits well in a children’s book. The marbled paper could make the backgrounds interesting and the watery look of it was a good fit for the book’s water theme.
Characters and colours
In the other books from our market research, the depressed parent was always a woman. It was important for us to show that men can also get depressed and that they can also need help. Furthermore, to keep the narrative simple, we chose to focus on the
relationship between one child and one parent. It was important to show a single dad who is (under normal circumstances) caring and capable. I tried to make him look friendly.
I wanted to keep the child’s identity open. The child is a girl but neither her looks nor her name (“Ona”) indicate that she has a specific personality or preferences. In other words, I needed her to be “just any child” so that more children would be able to identify with her.
Looking at my storyboard, it was clear that the story would go from a normal, happy everyday-like state into the depressed state and then back again. I chose two colour scales, one for the normal state and a less colourful for the spreads where we are dealing with dad’s depression. As the story develops, most of the colours disappear and then come back again.
Making storyboard in colours
Design rules
Gabriel sat up some rules for me regarding the placement of the text and the distance between text, edges and illustrations. I then printed and cut out the text to be able to work it into my compositions.
After a few spreads were done I incorporated a second rule about hierarchies of the most important visual elements and their placement within the pictures. This helped the rest of the compositions become more clear and focused.
Me and Gabriel worked close together. Several times in the process we went through everything together to survey that everything added up and that we were sticking to our checklist, manuscript and design rules.
Lettering for the front page
Looking at other books for reference.
More choices
Finding a metaphor for dad’s depression
One of the experiences a child whose parent is depressed might have is first that the parents mood changes, and later that there seem to be a new distance. The child feels like the parent is mentally far away and unreachable. To show this, I chose to visualise the depression as a cloud over the fathers head. It is heavy and becomes bigger and starts to rain on him so he becomes soaked in water, in other words, the depression changes his state completely. The water keeps pouring until the whole livingroom is filled with water and becomes and ocean.
The ocean shows how the depression affects Ona’s relationship to her father. It is
unknown, it changes how the home feels, she feels isolated and can’t reach him. As Ona’s father gets better again, the cloud gets smaller. The last picture is happy and hopeful but we can still see the cloud. Dad is feeling better, but it was important to show that
depression doesn’t disappear over night.
Difference between the normal state and when dad is sick
Safe objects:
Stuffed animal as a companion follows her through the story to make it less dangerous. The stuffed animal is worried just like Ona, and in that way acknowledges her emotions and experience. At the same time it takes over the Dad’s role as caretaker. When he is capable of being there for Ona again, the stuffed animal becomes less humanized again.
The fish has its own parallel narrative. It creates an alternative focus when things get heavy.
Recognizable objects:
The picture of the dad and uncle Roger is seen on spread 2, then we see it floating around in the ocean, reminding us that he can also be a capable, happy person. It also introduces Roger early on as a character we can trust.
Driving the story forward:
Characters appear multiple times on one spread. Using this technique helped me create dynamic compositions that both create more sense of space and time on the spreads, as well as helping the reader navigate the pages.
Making use of reading direction:
Narrative moves forward left to right, with exceptions on the front page and spread 8. (Front page: looking for dad like he used to be. Spread 8: Floating from the strange ocean state back into the real world.)
When help arrives:
Help arrives in the shape of Uncle Roger. We have seen him before on a happy picture with Dad, so we know he is a friend. I wanted a person from the outside to bring some ease to the situation to show the children reading that talking to another adult can be helpful. My initial thought was that the person coming in could be a grandmother, but then decided on Uncle Roger. The grandmother could become less of a “real person” and more of a “fairy grandmother”. Building on the decision I already took making the depressed parent a dad, and that men can be succesful single parents, I also wanted to show that help can come in the form of male family friends or uncles.
According to the experts we talked to, it is very common that the child tries to take responsibility. On this spread, I take the responsibility away from Ona by letting the grown ups clean up while she is allowed to just be a child. By letting her have the back to them, she doesn’t have to deal with this process, but can just focus on her breakfast, like a child is supposed to. Roger is not a professional though, as he also points out himself, and Dad and Ona go to talk to a psychologist.
Going from the story into the “fact-sheet” spread
On the 12th spread we decided to let the doctor, who we also meet on spread 11, explain a few very crucible points about children's role in regards to parental depression. These are based on our interviews and by doing this spread. By doing this, we were able to fulfil our two different goals of both being direct in addressing the issue of depression, and telling a captivating story through metaphor, without having to compromise on either goal.
About my roles in this project
The book was a collaboration with graphic design student Gabriel Häggebrink. We have similar fields but our practical skills ended up complimenting each other more than overlapping. We have worked very close together but had separate roles. Said very shortly, we did the research together, and then I wrote and illustrated the story while Gabriel digitalized the illustrations and did all graphic design.
More specifically about my roles:
-
I found and read the reports on children and depression.-
I contacted and interviewed the Danish sources. Gabriel contacted and interviewed the Swedish ones.-
we made the first visual brainstorm together.-
I wrote the manuscript in Danish. Together we translated it into Swedish.-
I made the storyboard.-
I made the character design and all visual experiments, including the marbled paper.-
I made the finished illustrations. Gabriel put together the backgrounds and theillustrations digitally.
-
I made the hand lettering for the front page, but Gabriel adjusted it digitally. We did research together by going to bookstores and libraries to look at formats and sizes of books as well as on title lettering. Together we decided on size and format.-
The text for the 12th spread and the last spread with info for adults we did together. But I was not involved in the design of the adult spread.Relation to uppsats
In my uppsats, I analyzed the illustrations from one of the related mediaproductions,
Mammas Hår, to find out how the illustrator Svein Nyhus uses visual metaphors as a tool
to communicate complex concepts to children. Because I worked with visual metaphor in my mediaproduction as well, the two became closely related. I didn’t start my uppsats until after I was done with the MP, but going through the process of creating visual metaphors myself, I had some tangible background knowledge and a sense of direction for my uppsats.
In starting the MP, I just went with my gut when I had to find a metaphor that worked and couldn’t really explain why. After writing the uppsats, however, I can see that there are in fact patterns and rules one can apply when choosing a metaphor to explain something to a specific target group. The practical knowledge of making this book combined with the theoretical knowledge from the uppsats feels like a solid
Reflection
Making a whole book was a big job but I am happy that we went through with it and actually finished it, even if it made for some intense months. I think making a finished book and not just a pitch taught us a lot about the process of creating a picture book, and even if in the future, if collaborating with a publisher, I will have a narrower responsibility, knowing what the entire process looks like might make the work easier. For my part, working with someone with a slightly different approach has definitely been an eye opener. I was ready to jump in with both feet from the beginning, but I can
certainly see the benefit of creating dogmas and rules for yourself, especially when setting up a big project like this. I usually think I can hold the plan for a whole project in my head, but I think lists and written-down rules are going to be a tool for me in the future when structuring my work. In the end, it makes for a better product.
I am really interested in the picture book as a medium and believe it has great, still unexplored potential both as art, poetry, story and therapy, for all ages.
