Educational Strip | 24Steps Art and Design

This exercise asked us to create a strip of up to 5 images using metaphor or comedy on coping with puberty. We were allowed to choose any element of puberty to focus on. As it is to be published by the school as a leaflet I had to decide on a format before working on designs. I felt that it should be, in some way, cute and thought that a pocket sized leaflet would be ideal. I googled leaflet layouts and found this one. I adapted the 8 page leaflet to produce a 6 page one that would allow for a front page and a sequence of 5 images/pages.

By taping the 2 blank pages together a booklet is formed allowing an easy progression through the pages that is not given by the leaflet folds on their own.

So to start getting ideas for the design I brainstormed all the issues relating to puberty. Then I brainstormed how to cope with these issues. After this I chose acne as an issue to focus on and searched on Google for a list of specific tips given by established organisations, e.g. NHS. I chose to use the following tips:

Wash with mild soap
Wash with warm (not very hot nor very cold) water
Wash skin twice a day
If the problem is severe your Dr can prescribe medicine that will kill the bacteria in the skin

Initially I interpretted this brief to mean a leaflet would be produced per issue but on re-reading the brief I re-assessed this. I could now see the leaflet covering several puberty issues with each ‘strip’ focussing on one. So I decided to show how skin problems/acne could be coped with in three frames using the metaphor of a little creature that is angry and red and at the end is cute and fluffy. I felt this metaphor may more appealing to teenagers as it is non-confrontational being a creature i.e “my skin is like this angry little creature” – “you can stop it getting worse by washing in warm water with mild soap twice a day”. I noticed my son’s friends saying ‘is like’ a lot and also being very keen on kittens and puppies so I thought this type of imagery would speak to them. My initial sketches, below, show how I played with my idea of a little creature. My first attempts were a bit too creepy. I used red and spiky angles in the first frame to show skin that is inflamed and can be painful.