CONCEPT : Blog entry 36

To get some ideas, and just to see what was already out there, today I went to Waterstones to have a look at all of the bird guides on sale.

There seems to be two types; the standard identification guide, and the arty picture book;

 (Dale, 2014)

 (Floyd, 2010)

(Sewell, 2012)

 These three books are very similar in format, the only difference appears to be the topic (animals, location, etc.) and the style of illustration (all nice watercolours). The format of the pages is even the same! For each bird/animal, there is a one page image, and one page of text. This was going to be what I was going to do, although now I think I will have to rethink that, and do something different.

 (Sibley, 2013)

 (Palin, 2013)

I have another book like this, A Dissimulation of Birds (Palin, 1998) same author, although this focuses on just birds, where as A Murmuration of starlings covers animals and birds. This is why I'm not going to do a book based around the idea of collective nouns, although I have thought about including it.

(Berrie, 2013)

 (Svensson et al., 2009)

 (Vinicombe et al., n.d.)

These are just some examples of the standard bird guides that are on offer. All very similar - this is the thing that I wanted to do something about when I was thinking about re-doing the nature reserve signs.

What I would like to do is combine the arty nice book, with the traditional guide, while also drawing attention to the Red List.

These books may be very similar, but non of them focus on the Red List; this is what I am aiming to do.

(Lindo, 2013) 

This book doesn't so much focus on the birds, I mainly just liked the little detail on the page number, I think its really sweet and a good way to bring back the theme of birds.

  Another book, similar to this, but which does focus on the Red List and bird watching is While Flocks Last, by Charlier Elder (Elder, 2009) this book highlights the difficulties of tracking down all of the birds on the Red List; it shouldn't be that hard!

(Basford, 2013)

This idea I thought was really sweet! Its a colouring book. I also found a couple of scavenger hunt books. I really like this idea, although I think I could have only really used it when I was thinking about the nature reserve sign project...but it's a nice idea that I might come back to (it would be a really good way to appeal to kids).

Basford, J. (2013). Secret garden. 1st ed.

Berrie, C. (2013). Bird post cards. 1st ed. Lawrence King.

Dale, H. (2014). The country set. 1st ed. ANOVA National Trust.

Elder, C. (2009). While flocks last. 1st ed. Oxford: ISIS.

Floyd, M. (2010). Birdsong. 1st ed. London: National Trust.

Lindo, D. (2013). The urban birder. 1st ed. New Holland Publishers Ltd.

Palin, S. 
(2013). A murmuration of starlings. 1st ed. Merlin Unwin Books.
(1998). A dissimulation of birds. 1st ed. London: Minerva Press.

Sewell, M. (2012). Our garden birds. 1st ed. London: Ebury.

Svensson, L., Mullarney, K., Zetterström, D. and Grant, P. (2009). Collins bird guide. 1st ed. London: HarperCollins.

Vinicombe, K., Harris, A., Tucker, L. and Harris, A. (n.d.). The Helm guide to bird identification. 1st ed.

CONCEPT : Blog entry 16

Notes from concept panel:

- Do you need to work against conventions of traditional guidebooks? Challenge them? > going in to illustrator

- Sewell watercolours, quite childlike, cautious about not turning away hardcore birders with more representational images of birds and animals.

- Would it be better to settle on birds or location?

location; wildlife of the area??

- Think about who the audience is that don't want the traditional..

- more modern approach; would typography be a more challenging way to tackle it?

- probably aiming towards a younger audience

- Look beyond guidebooks > BBC spring watch

- style of badger and cockatiel images > simple/abstract

- worried about the idea of a guidebook..how will it challenge us??

- photography presentations of guidebooks

- David Attenborough books

- flight patterns flocks, shape whilst in flight..silhouette?

- key qualities of the species that can make it simple and easy to identify, really break it down

- sound? for the visually impaired

- Graphic/simplistic images

________________________________

I've still got a lot to think about from todays comments.

From these however, I've had the idea of just doing a document (book/guidebook/whatever) not necessarily a 'guide' on a location, which can include history and species information relevant to that site.

For just messing around and research purposes, I'm going to start with Attenborough Nature reserve near Nottingham; mainly because its close, but also because it has a big visitor centre, and I know they are doing lots of work with the RSPB to help with conservation. 

My plan is to take my camera equipment, sketchbook, paints and a picnic, and spend the day there and see what comes out of it. Gather as much information as I can from the visitor center, and report back. I think I'll be doing this tomorrow, as it might be the last day for decent weather this week.

For today though, I want to have a bash at doing some really simple images of birds with block colours in photoshop/illustrator.

Thinking about little bits from the concept panel, I also have a few other little things that I want to try out too, and see how that works; I'll add these later..with any luck.

CONCEPT : Blog entry 15

I have also been thinking about the possibility of creating an app, instead of a traditional book.

Below are some screen shots from the app Merlin Bird ID; this app stands out as the most stylish, and is also very easy to navigate, and helps you identify the birds that you see by asking simple questions, perfect for a wider audience than standard twitchers. How ever that is it's down fall too. Once you find you bird (if you find it because, as of yet, the database is quite limited) little information is offered. you very simply get a short paragraph describing the birds appearance, favourite places to hang out and a rough description of the noise it makes, although it does also offer a short clip of its call too.

Merlin Bird ID app screen shots

The following screen shots are from bird guide apps that are less impressive; these take on the form of a standard guide translated into an app. These offer lots more information, more detailed (yet traditional) images,  these are more comprehensive, but all very similar, and not as interesting or appealing.

screen shots of other similar apps

Ideas:

- A book with QR code (kind of thing) bit, which will take you to an app where you can hear the call?(Is a book and app too much?) also..ho to make QR codes look nice, blend in with the rest of the page whilst still being functional?

- Find a way to make it to into a game, similar to ladybird books for children, almost like the Merlin ID app, but also bearing in mind apps like tinder that call themselves 'games'

- Change the app, create something more appealing and less traditional, that functions similarly to an identification game, offering more information than Merlin ID, possibly in a similar humorous style to Matt Sewell's Our Song Birds, and include information on the birds red list status.

- make it more like a social network, users can add local sightings to a map visible to other users. This may not be particularly helpful for for more common birds, but when it comes to migration, and rarer birds, even down to being excited about having a woodpecker in your garden, this might be a nice feature to try and create.

-QR codes carved in trees! I'm not sure how exactly I would use this, or even if it would work, it just popped into my head. Imagine if your walking around a nature reserve, your not sure what your looking for, you scan a tree, and the app pulls up all of the bird sightings from within the nature reserve, or within a set distance of that spot...Working on a similar concept to the Around Me app.
- Could do all my testing at Attenborough nature reserve.

for some reason this just reminded me of the stuffed toys you can buy from the RSPB; these are a little bird, all different, and when you squeeze them they play the birds song. They're very cute, and appeal to kids too - something that I should think about.

I have so many cool ideas for this! But I have no experience of making an app, and would have no idea where to begin....