1. The brief
Reading through the brief I learnt that the project required us to create a book based on the poems we were given and draw sketchbooks in the process.
The poem I received is “sleepwalk”👇
Next I researched the content and background of the poem in detail：
2.Research
Sleepwalk was released in 1980 on the album snap, crackle and BOP. It is a punk poem written by John Cooper Clark, a performance poet from England. He was a poet who rose to prominence in the context of Thatcherism in England, and in this poem the poet uses dark humor to describe the struggling lives and emotions of people living in the Thatcher
In an autobiography about John Cooper clark, called“ I wanna be yours” is mentioned that the poem was born during a trip the author took to Belfast, Northern Ireland in the 80s.It was a special period in England. There was a violent conflict between politics and nationalism but it also had a racial or sectarian dimension.The conflict began during a campaign by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and local authorities.[34][35] The government attempted to suppress the protests. There were incidents of collusion between British state forces and loyalist paramilitaries. The Troubles also involved numerous riots, mass protests and acts of civil disobedience, and led to increased segregation and the creation of temporary no-go areas.
More than 3,500 people were killed in the conflict.
I think this background is very helpful for this composition and for understanding this poem.So with this background I made an understanding of the poem’s content.👇👇
-1-2 paragraph:
The author describes his own condition at that time. During that time the author was addicted to drugs. The author wanted to quit drugs and no longer rely on drugs, so he tried to redeem himself through sleepwalking.
-3-12 paragraph:
The author described what he saw during sleepwalking. This is to reflect the real background of the time and some social problems at that time.
The author saw the suffering of people under the intense conflict and the struggle live in the face of rampant Thatcherism. Some adults had lost their jobs and they were walking aimlessly in the streets. Some adults lost their houses and they were living on the streets. Children lost their places to play and took the broken houses and steps as the place to play. The author’s intention is to find redemption through sleepwalking, but he does not seem to be redeemed by the conditions in which he sees others in his sleepwalking. People at the time seemed like the walking dead.
-13-15 paragraph:
The author was not redeemed during the sleepwalk, but he was still full of hope for the future. He hopes the world will return to normal, people will emerge from struggle, and they will also break free from a negative attitude towards life.
3.Design idea
I think the author constructed a space in his sleepwalk. I summarized the things that appeared in the space constructed by the author.
Straight line, door, citie, step, friend, eyes, closed eyes,zombie,birds, disaster, subway, domes, pool, myself.
These things build the world in which the author sleepwalks. I think these things make me feel that the poem is full of space. So I wanted to bring out this sense of space in my book. And the words I have summarized are helpful in expressing this space and the content of the poem.
So I decided to make a pop-up book, a pop-up book would make it easier to express this sense of space and bring it to the reader.
I want to use black and white colour scheme throughout the book. This is because the black and white color scheme can better express the author’s struggle in sleepwalking.
4.Illustration design sketchbook
The idea of the cover‘s font: Sleepwalk is composed of all kinds of people in the “sleepwalk”，I drew the deformed human body to form the word “sleepwalk”.
5.Final illustration
Cover/back cover :
Inside page：
6.Exploring the structure of books
I used Post-It notes to do some explorations on the structure of pop-up books.
7.Process of making the book
8.Final book
The whole book is made in the form of a pop-up book. Each page shows the picture of each paragraph in the form of my own illustrations. Through some cutting and splicing, I made these pictures pop-up, and finally made this pop-up book, hoping to make readers feel the world in the author’s sleepwalk through different pictures combined with the structure of the book. The whole book is interactive and substitutive.
Clear presentation video