Makoa, Kainalu, and the Ocean
Victoria University of Wellington - 2022
Overview
During my university studies, as part of my “Communication Design” course, I was tasked with designing and developing a children's book. This included the concept, illustrations and writing. I chose to design an educational yet fun story to teach children about sea creatures.
Creating awareness about the ocean is crucial in our day and age because of the detrimental effects pollution is having on the environment, especially the ocean. Learning about these creatures reminds young readers that our oceans are beautiful and we need to protect sea creatures in order to live in harmony alongside them.
This story follows two characters as they explore the oceans and its creatures whilst displaying bravery and courage.
Design Process
Visual Style
As the aim of the book is to educate and excite children about the ocean, I designed a number of fun components to maintain the reader's focus, due to children being primarily visual learners. The visual style of the book is simple illustrated characters and scenes that can be easily recognised by children.
Character design
The physical design of Makoa and Kainalu is simple, yet recognisable as to maintain the young reader's focus throughout the book.
Makoa represents the reader. The visual components of “Makoa” resemble that of a child in hopes to create a sense of familiarity with the young readers. “Makoa” in Hawaiian translates to bravery and courage.
Kainalu represents a guardian similar to a parent or authority figure. The visual appearance of Kainalu is a strong large figure to represent safety and protection. “Kainalu” in Hawaiian translates to “respect for the ocean”.
The sun represents safety and happiness, featured on pages in the book when Makoa is safe and displaying excitement for the ocean.
The ocean represents bravery. When Makoa is in the ocean this tells readers he has used bravery to nurture his curiosity.
