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Diversity and Color palette in African American award winning books (an nerd exercise)
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From: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:32:09 -0600
Feel free to disagree :-)
One day I was sitting in Mock CSK's. I pointed out that the color palette of many of the books presented for Mock awards every year were the same - often muddied or dark and within a narrow color range. Then I realized it was often because publishers go back to the same "stable" of talent in the hope of name recognition at the point of sale.
To see this the way a child sees these books, go to Amazon and enter the search terms: "coretta scott king award"
You'll get back a page of mostly oranges, browns and yellow.
The 2014 awards show a bit better range on the CSK page (all categories) in terms of color - but still not as broad as other award categories.
http://www.ala.org/emiert/cskbookawards
Now do the same exercise with Caldecott and you'll get a wider pallette of colors.
Caldecott 2014 http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal
Caldecott 2013: http://www.ala.org/alsc/2013-caldecott-medal-and-honor-books
Even Pura Belpre uses a wider palette:
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal
And Sibert: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/sibertmedal
I tell my daughter who is a visual arts major that the key to shaping art is to learn to see what you "didn't see" before you started the journey.
I searched CSK winners on Google images and saw the same pattern. Most (but not all) fall in the orange, brown, gray and red palette imparting a sameness in overall design.
I suspect the ability to hold a brown skin color on a four color lithography press informs some of the palette choices which errs on the part of heaviness and too many full dots on press. But I also know from all the press runs I've had to babysit that this is not necessarily a good thing and can be managed - on press or better, at color separation. Hence maybe this exercise will serve as a wakeup call.
Sometimes market reactions to a book (as with a greeting card) are pre-ordained before it hits the printing press by selections made or not made by the art directors and editors. People do have visceral reactions to covers before they open them to see what lies on the page.
At Hallmark my engineers were called "dot watchers." I still have my lithography loop for analyzing press results on a printed page.……..Christine
(and Jason Low - I know you're chomping at the bit to point out that Lee and Low's AA books have a wider palette. Yes they do. I checked your website)
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 16:32:09 -0600
Feel free to disagree :-)
One day I was sitting in Mock CSK's. I pointed out that the color palette of many of the books presented for Mock awards every year were the same - often muddied or dark and within a narrow color range. Then I realized it was often because publishers go back to the same "stable" of talent in the hope of name recognition at the point of sale.
To see this the way a child sees these books, go to Amazon and enter the search terms: "coretta scott king award"
You'll get back a page of mostly oranges, browns and yellow.
The 2014 awards show a bit better range on the CSK page (all categories) in terms of color - but still not as broad as other award categories.
http://www.ala.org/emiert/cskbookawards
Now do the same exercise with Caldecott and you'll get a wider pallette of colors.
Caldecott 2014 http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottmedal
Caldecott 2013: http://www.ala.org/alsc/2013-caldecott-medal-and-honor-books
Even Pura Belpre uses a wider palette:
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal
And Sibert: http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/sibertmedal
I tell my daughter who is a visual arts major that the key to shaping art is to learn to see what you "didn't see" before you started the journey.
I searched CSK winners on Google images and saw the same pattern. Most (but not all) fall in the orange, brown, gray and red palette imparting a sameness in overall design.
I suspect the ability to hold a brown skin color on a four color lithography press informs some of the palette choices which errs on the part of heaviness and too many full dots on press. But I also know from all the press runs I've had to babysit that this is not necessarily a good thing and can be managed - on press or better, at color separation. Hence maybe this exercise will serve as a wakeup call.
Sometimes market reactions to a book (as with a greeting card) are pre-ordained before it hits the printing press by selections made or not made by the art directors and editors. People do have visceral reactions to covers before they open them to see what lies on the page.
At Hallmark my engineers were called "dot watchers." I still have my lithography loop for analyzing press results on a printed page.……..Christine
(and Jason Low - I know you're chomping at the bit to point out that Lee and Low's AA books have a wider palette. Yes they do. I checked your website)
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Received on Thu 06 Feb 2014 04:35:38 PM CST
