Graphic elements influence in books for children in the contemporaneity: analysis of two works from the Children's University collection

Abstract

Books for children are said to be an artistic-cultural object made up of several modes of languages. Thus, this paper departs from the assumptions of cultural semiotics, more specifically the theories about multimodality, and tries to identify both the discursive and educational aspects of works aimed at children published in contemporary times. Studies on illustration and graphic design of books for children, such as Nikolajeva and Scott (2011), van der Linden (2011), Ramos (2013) and Paiva (2018) are also used. This paper focuses specifically on the analysis of two books from Universidade da Criança [Children's University] collection, published by the label Estraladabão, by Federal University of Minas Gerais Press, in 2018: O que existe? O que não existe? (COSCARELLI, 2018) and O que é um livro? (RIBEIRO, 2018). Other professionals involved in the creation of the books are identified along this paper. Nowadays, books for children can be considered as an object of multiple authorship: besides the writer and the illustrator, the main authors or protagonists, as called in this paper, there are also other professionals, who were called secondary or coadjuvants authors, such as graphic designers, editors and specialized editorial coordinators, critical readers, content and language reviewers, and often also other editorial and educational specialists, such as advertisers, paper engineers, translators, adapters, psychologists, pedagogists and psychopedagogists. Some elements of the graphic design of the selected works and the relation between written text, illustration and design were analyzed in the following order: 1- Cover and fourth cover; 2- Format of the book and other elements of materiality; 3- Layout: how the written text and the visual are presented on the page, which includes a series of elements and relationships between them, such as: type and size of letter, space between lines and graphic spot (the area of the print: written text and illustration). It should be noted that the definition of this last element involves the relationship between written text and visual text. Finally, it is important to say that this paper is part of a collective research developed within the framework of the Group MULTDIC – Multiliteracies and digital information and communication technologies, entitled Literatura e visualidade: a importância do projeto gráfico em livros para crianças na contemporaneidade [Literature and visuality: the importance of the graphic design in books for children in contemporaneity].