Understanding Bixy Dayna Gibson April 29, 2021
Understanding Bixy | Childrens Book Senior Project Book Bachelor of Technology in Visual Communications Visual Communications: Art + Graphic Design Farmingdale State College, State University of New York
My Story Unique Values 1 2 43 Product Competition
Personas Visual Strategy 5 6 87 Cultural Relevance Marketing Strategy
My Story 1
My biggest fear in life is people mistreating my sister because of things she cannot control. My sister is my favorite person in the entire world. She has OCD, ADHD, Autism, and is devlopmentally delayed. There are things that one is introduced to early on in life that are completely out of one’s control. When people have a sibling with developmental disabilities, they are taught about it since the day they were born. People can be cruel to those that are different. When people grow up with a sibling who has this, they are taught early on what that looks like and it is nothing to be made fun of for. As children, they play together with no care in the world. As they grow older together, they realize there is a difference between them but that does not change the love for each other. As adults, the sibling without disabilities can become an advocate. When someone has to advocate for a loved one, the cruelness in the world is obvious.
Product 2
The Understanding Bixy children’s book series follows a character that has multiple developmental disabilities. This book series will spread awareness of what some developmental disabilities may look like. The first installment of the book series introduces Bixy to the world through her first adventure where she encounters other characters while displaying some of her developmental disabilities.
Book Spread 1
Book Spread 2
Book Spread 3
Book Spread 4
Unique Values 3
There is a need in this world of children’s books for a different kind of lesson. When conducting interviews, there was a need for a children’s book that would teach about those living with developmental disabilities. It is viewed as needed as it became apparent during these interviews that this was something many people do not know or understand. One person went so far as to say he felt “ignorant” on the subject itself. That was when it was realized that this is an important subject to talk about and to make more apparent in the children book genre. When comparing the competitor book series with the “Understanding Bixy” children’s book series, it is easy to see the differences. “Understanding Bixy” zeroes in on a specific topic while having a fun story to go with it. The other book series talks about other life lessons first. The “Understanding Bixy” children’s book series explains other life lessons through the lens of someone living with developmental disabilities which is a far different kind of book to its competitors. This book series shows the young readers some of the things that these people would do and also some experiences when encountering certain situations and people. Developmental disabilities affect every one in six children. They affect over six million people in the United States alone. This is something so common yet not talked about enough. While it is apparent that there are so many children’s books that help to teach many life lessons to young readers, there really are not any that tackle this topic. With a book series like “Understanding Bixy,” there are so many opportunities to introduce young readers to real people that live with developmental disabilities while also giving those with developmental disabilities a character to look up to and someone they can see themselves in. It is really important in this world for everyone to just treat each other with kindness. The first step for this is to just be aware of our differences and not to judge those differences which is how “Understanding Bixy” children’s book series can help the world in the right direction.
Competition 4
Dr. Seuss Series The Dr. Seuss childrens book series is a main competitor when it comes to the Understanding Bixy book series. While very similar in teaching life lessons, Understanding Bixy does this by explaining the specific topic of awareness rather than all topics. Elephant & Piggie Elephant & Piggie children’s book series teaches young readers many important lessons but misses the subject of awareness. Understanding Bixy tries to do the same but targets this topic while going on all different kinds of adventures. Pigeon Books Pigeon book series is a childrens book series that follows around a pigeon who does not want to do things that children should do through a very funny pigeon. Understanding Bixy doesthis but on a particular topic that the pigueon series does not cover.
Personas 5
Understanding Bixy is meant for many people to read and learn from, however, there are three main target audience groups that it is aimed toward: the caregivers, the innocent, and the unaware. While these specific individuals are who was in mind while creating the children’s book series, anyone is welcome to read. The first target audience members was the caregivers. These are the people who take care of either children or adults that have developmental disabilities. These individuals very likely put the lives of these people before their own and do everything in their power to make sure that their loved one has a full life. They worry that their child or adult child will grow up being mistreated and made fun of. All these people want is others to understand thats their child or loved one is different yes, but not less. The second target audience members are the innocent, the people who have developmental disabilities themselves. When conducting interviews, there were five interviews that questioned individuals that have developmental disabilities. This research gave some alarming news. When asked if these individuals ever witnessed someone being treated unfairly because of a disability, four out of those five people said themselves. They explained that they were made fun of because of something they did that was out of their control, was strange, which they were unaware of. The last target audience group, the unaware, are the people that have never encountered someone with developmental disabilities. Whether it be relatives or just seeing someone at the store. These people know nothing about developmental disabilities or what those who have this would do if they encountered someone. These were the individuals that were never even thought of until conducting research. These individuals explained being unaware of how to react when encountering someone with developmental disabilities
The Caregiver
Jerry Porter (46) Goals “I want people to understand my child even though they’re different.” Jerry Porter is the loving father of a son who has developmental disabilities. All he wants in life is to make sure his son is treated with respect and has just as many opportunites as everyone else. He is very protective and wants to teach his child that not everyone will be as nice as he wishes. He would also like to spread awareness to those who don’t fully understand people with developmental disabilities. Motivations Incentive: Wants to help others. Fear: Selfishness and cruelty. Achievement: People becoming understanding. Growth: Wants people to understand. Power: Patience. • To help his child understand the world. • Other people to understand his child. • People to treat his child with respect. • Educate people on what developmental disabilities are. Behavior He will read this story to his child. He will hopefully enjoy the story being told and appreciate the attempt to help others to understand the way his child is along with other children like his child. Frustrations He hasn’t found anything that helps spread awareness about his sons developmental disability. He just wants the world to look at his son the same way as everyone else
The Innocent
Stella Goodwin (10) Goals “I want people to look at me like they look at everyone else.” Stella Goodwin is a child with developmental disabilities. There are many things about the world that Stella has trouble understanding. Stella is a friendly child who becomes easily frustrated when she is confused sometimes resulting in large tantrums. She has an infectious laugh and happy go lucky personality. Motivations Incentive: Remain in safety. Fear: Abandonment. Achievement: Learning new things. Growth: Learn about the world. Power: Infectious Happiness. • To understand the world. • To understand people. • To not feel different. • To cope better. Behavior Stella is mostly happy when using this product. She will understand things better along with maybe understanding the people around and her part in the world. Frustrations Reading the story should work well unless maybe she cannot read certain words which can stop her from wanting to continue using the product.
The Unaware
Rachel Williams (24) “I don’t feel qualified to have an opinion on this subject.” Rachel Williams is a Computer Programmer at a Wedding store. Rachel doesn’t know anyone who has developmental disabilities nor has she ever really came into contact with those who have developmental disabilities in childhood or adulthood. Only from afar. Rachel believes all people are human beings however she’s never been around people with developmental disabilities so she doesn’t know how or what she can do to help if she ever does encounter someone. Motivations Incentive: Become educated. Fear: Being seen as a bad person. Achievement: People becoming understanding. Growth: Wants to understand people. Power: Open-minded. Goals • Become more aware of the different kinds of people in the world. • Do not be quick to judge odd things people do since some people cannot control the things they do. • Keep on living the way she is but perhaps with a better look into others lives. Behavior Rachel is a happy person who has just never thought about those with developmental disabilities. She doesn’t think about these people unless she actually see them which she rarely does. When she does she is kind but she can do more. Frustrations Rachel doesn’t discuss this subject with anyone because she feels she doesn’t know enough about it. She tends to believe she is just not qualified to even have an opinion.
Cultural Relevance 6
People have one or more developmental disabilities in the U.S. Every one in six people have one or more developmental disabilities.
Visual Strategy 7
Those with developmental disabilities are different, yes, but never less. During the beginning stages of the logo, it was thought to have the whole character in the logo. When the character design had a very unique hat, it became apparent that this would be a creative way to symbolize the character Bixy. This hat became the image of the logo. Having the hat of the main character was thought to show that when one sees this hat, one knows that this is Bixy. The whole character is not needed, only the hat is. It was simple and became the final logo. The prototype of a children’s book starts off with a storyboard. The storyboard is created to show the story to be told, and helps to provide a way to think out illustrations that would go with the words of the story. After creating the storyboard with the sketched out illustrations and the storyline, it is time to move on to a medium fidelity prototype. First creating the story and figuring out what illustrations one will need. Once the illustrations are figured out, it is time for that love of drawing to come in handy. Here drawing after drawing will be created to go with each page of the book. The medium fidelity prototype figures out where the lines of the story will go on each page and where the newly drawn illustrations will be on those pages as well. After maneuvering the placement of the illustrations and the copy, it is time to move on to the final stage: creating illustrations with vibrant colors on the computer, or scanning in the fully colored illustrations to the computer to then position each page of the book. This final stage brings the book to life and starts to tell the story one wishes to tell. Though this part takes the longest, it is the most crucial part of the children’s book.
Logo Final Logo Alternate Logo
Black Logo White Logo Reversed Color Logo Color Logo
Clear Space
Minimum Size 1 in 72 px 0.5 in 36 px
Colors #AA91E0 R: 170 G: 145 B: 224 C: 35% M: 44% Y: 0% K: 0% #23C6B0 R: 35 G: 198 B: 176 C: 68% M: 0% Y: 41% K: 0% #FFFFFF R: 255 G: 255 B: 255 C: 0% M: 0% Y: 0% K: 0% #000000 R: 0 G: 0 B: 0 C: 60% M: 50% Y: 40% K: 100 %
Typography Heading chaloops medium Aa ABCDEFGHIJK L M NO PQRS TUVWXYZ abcdefghijk lm n opq rs tu vw xy z 12 3456 7890 Body gibson regular Aa ABCD EF G HIJK L M NOP QRS TUVWXY Z abcdef ghijklm nopqr stuvwxy z 123456 7 890
Marketing Strategy 8
Interviews were conducted in order to figure out if a children’s book series about this specific topic was needed. The information given was that it would indeed be something people would be interested in. Specifically the first target audience members, the caregivers. These are the people who take care of either children or adults that have developmental disabilities. These individuals do everything in their power to make sure that their loved one has a full life. These individuals worry that their child or adult child will grow up and old being mistreated and made fun of. All these people want is their child or loved one to be met with kindness and acceptance. During the interviews conducted, many of these people were parents or guardians of a loved one with developmental disabilities. These were the people that advocate for someone with developmental disabilities on a daily basis. These were parents and sometimes siblings of those people who worked hard to be sure that their loved one will love the life they lead. They work hard to be sure that even when they leave this world, their loved one will always have someone they can depend on. This sometimes is when a sibling or relative becomes that loved ones advocate and or guardian. During the interviews when speaking to parents of someone with developmental disabilities it was noted that many wanted something very similar, they wanted their child to be treated fairly and to be sure their futures would be okay without them. During the interviews, when asked if they thought about the hardships of those with developmental disabilities, fifty percent of the answers said on a daily basis. These all happened to be parents, guardians or relatives of someone with developmental disabilities. When speaking to a mother who works with many people who have developmental disabilities as well as her own daughters, she explained that she not only worries about what is going to happen to her daughter when she is gone but also about her clients.
Acknowledgments
Bree Bree This entire experience is inspired by my sister. She has multiple developmental disabilities including: OCD, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and is intellctually delayed. This meant so much to me because my sister is the kindest person I know. She never judges anyone regardless of how different they may act or look, welcomes everyone and anyone with open arms, and brings joy to everyone she meets. On my worst days she is a shining light with the most contagious laugh. If more people had the kindness that my sister shows on a daily basis, I truly believe cruelty would cease to exist. She loves the story I created and loves Bixy. Mom & Dad Without my parents support and love, I don’t know where I’d be today. I was only able to do what it is I wanted in life because they are always there to support me. The only reason I was able to go back to college and put all of my focus into it is because I knew I would be okay with my parents help. They let me dream and reach for the stars. My mom puts a lot of work into making sure my sister has a better life and to ensure that she will be okay for the rest of her life. Not only does she do this for my sister but she is also a broker for many others like my sister. She does her best to ensure independence and happiness for all of her clients. Brothers Barry, Billy, and Danny: my brothers and I were introduced to developmental disabilities at a very young age. We understood that there were differences between us and our sister but it was never something to make fun of. My older brother has always fiercly protected us from the negative things in the world. He inspires me to protect others the way he always protected us. This means the world to me. When it comes to my little brothers, I don’t know if I would have survived college without them. They’ve helped me with school work whenever I asked while simultanesouly talking me down from quitting college altogether.
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