Eric Carle on children’s books
Catching up on my professional reading, I came across a gem I think is worth sharing. In the May 2009 (No.176) edition of Books for Keeps, Joanna Carey interviews 80-year-old Eric Carle. On being asked how his years as a poster designer and then a graphic designer influenced his work with children’s books, he responds:
Enormously! The rules that govern graphic design can easily apply to children’s books. Each page in a child’s book is, in effect, a mini poster. Advertising teaches you to convey complex ideas economically, but with maximum impact and children need pictures that they can read and understand immediately. It’s all to do with composition. It’s just a matter of moving things around until they are in the right place. (p.5)
These words, along with Carle’s May 19 blog post Some thoughts on LOOKING and SEEING, (not to be confused with a current TV advertisement!) may well stimulate students to produce some interesting art pieces or picture books. Eric Carle and the United Kingdom’s new Children’s Laureate, Anthony Browne, are on the same page when it comes to the importance of “looking”. Browne has made the encouragement of this a priority for his term as laureate: What I believe we all need to do is to stop and really look at pictures and at the world. By looking we learn so much. He has some interesting things to say about Creativity in Schools.
