When I was younger, I loved to read the Magic Tree House Series. If you are unfamiliar with the stories, the main characters Jack and Annie find a tree house in the woods behind their house. As they explore the new territory, the kids find many different kinds of books that can whisk them away to the time or place the subject the book cover shows. Just by opening a book about dinosaurs, knights, or mummies Jack and Annie go on many adventures while learning many different facts.
The power of books and the way the author Mary Pope Osborne uses her words to excite children about learning inspired my design for this project. The whole story of the Magic Tree House series starts when a book is opened, this lead me to use interactive features of the book's physical form to draw upon this message of the series. I created a book jacket to have a window peering into the plot nestled in the foliage of the oak tree holding the tree house. Behind the jacket is the cover which has the shadow of the main figure Jack and Annie meet on their travels. When you interact with the book, by taking off the jacket, you are moved from one figural space to another just like the main characters to show how reading can transport and teach you new things.
To create visual interest, contrast, and draw the eyes of young readers I manipulated the colors of the text to show the shadow of the figure laid over the text. These book covers were designed in Adobe Illustrator, but I also used traditional created textures to make up the tree on the spine and covers. I love to work in many different ways and look for opportunities to utilize multiple skills in my projects. For the tree bark texture, I used a linoleum carved linocut print to give the book a different feel. Design is able to communicate without words. Using all the skills I have as a designer, I worked to show how interaction design can be used in physical media to create further meaning and communication of larger ideas.