Cautionary Tales for Children

Group Project / Layout Design / Cover Design / Art Design / Print

This group project was to design an interpretation Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children suitable for an adult audience.

Our initial research into popular book genres among young adults informed the direction of the design. Crime and thrillers were the most popular genres, so we took a true crime approach towards the book design.

The book was illustrated and laid out as if it were the diary of a criminal, depicting the crimes he committed. All the children in the book face awful fates e.g. getting eaten by a lion.

After researching criminal diaries, the illustrators produced progressively disturbing inky paintings and I created a layout to reflect the progressively deteriorating state of mind that this 'criminal' had throughout the book as he mudered more people.