Istd - 236 Suess' Alphabet -
236 Suess’ Alphabet is a book I created in response to the ISTD (International society of typographic designers) 2002 brief ‘ A 100 Books That Changed The World, by Scott Christianson and Colin Salter (2018). This book published by Pavilion Books was a collection of works selected for their significance in shaping the course of history.
Upon first reading the collection of works, one book stood out to me as I was initially surprised with its inclusion. I was surprised to see one of my favourite books to read as a child, 'The Cat in the Hat' by Dr. Seuss ("Seuss"), was being recognised as a book that changed the world. In response to the ISTD 100 books brief I have chose to focus on the 'The Cat in the Hat’ to investigate the significance of the work and how the book influenced children's literature indefinitely.
The conclusions of this study guide is a typographic reaction to 'The Cat in the Hat's influence on children's literature, education and learning techniques.
Aim
The aim of this project is to create a publication to demonstrate how 'The Cat in the Hat' influenced young children’s literature and education. This publication is targeted at not only readers audience with an interest in Dr. Seuss, but also individuals with roles in beginner readers literature and education. The aim of this publication is to illustrate how Seuss, through his mix of unstructured style of rhyme and humour, changed Children’s attitude to reading forever.
Objective
The objective of this publication is to illustrate the influence that 'The Cat in the Hat' had on children’s literature and education. Upon publication, 'The Cat and in the Hat' was a complete outlier from traditional early primers books available at the time. The book revolutionised how children began learning to read, completely flipping what was previously seen as best practice. Traditional early primer books, such as the Dick and Jane series, assumed that beginning readers learned new words best by associating them with pictures and memorising them through dutiful repetition. They were often extremely structured and weren't particularly interesting to read.
'The Cat in the Hat' on the other hand, with its reliance on memorable rhyming pairs and word families, beginning with its catchy title, accentuated for early readers how sound and symbol correspond. Seuss employed the 236 simple words in such a creative and fun manner that it made children want to read the book. The book served as a gateway to the
phonics- based approach, which eventually changed the whole-word pedagogy.
This publication aims to compliment the genius of Dr. Seuss, communicating to readers the impact the joyous musical notes and tales had on children.
Through this publication, readers can visually see the effect of Dr. Seuss’s deliberate sense of comedic randomness and illustrations, which resulted in children marvelling at the words before them.
Design Rationale
This publication is a purely typographic piece consisting of 26 spreads and 52 pages. I decided on a size of 165.1 × 234.95 mm medium octavo which would have been similar sized to beginner readers at the time. It is printed on munken white stock paper 120 gsm. This is a bulky soft white stock suited well for this publication. The book has a white hardback cover, this will symbolise the beginner readers at the time of Cat in The Hat.
The book has two main structures in place. The first structure consists of three layouts, layout A, Layout B and Layout C. Each layout has different column widths to differentiate. These layouts are seen in the publication following the rhythmic pattern in Dr. Suess' book Cat in the Hat - ABCBAABBABAB.
The second structure holding the book in place is the 236 words that are running throughout the publication on the left inner spine. These words are in alphabetical order and are present to signify the purpose behind the book. Red and blue are used for the end papers to represent thing 1 and thing 2, two characters from the book that appear near the start and the end. I also use these colours to voice different texts throughout the publication. 236 also includes a primary interview outlining education and children's literature in present day.
