Wind on the Hill

‘Wind on the Hill’ is a picture book project created for my Illustrating Narrative unit in university. My chosen text Wind on the Hill written by A. A. Milne, tells the story of a child wondering about the concept of wind.

No one can tell me, Nobody knows, Where the wind comes from, Where the wind goes. The child lays on their stomach on the grassy hill and watches as the wind catches the dandelion puff in their hand and the seeds are blown away.

It's flying from somewhere, As fast as it can, I couldn't keep up with it, Not if I ran. The child races after the wind downhill, eyes closed running with all their might.

But if I stopped holding The string of my kite, It would blow with the wind For a day and a night. The child sadly reaches out their arms as the red kite is blown away from them.

And then when I found it, Wherever it blew, I should know that the wind Had been going there too. The child crawls on all fours through some bushes to find their missing red kite.

So then I could tell them Where the wind goes... But where the wind comes from Nobody knows. The child sits on a grassy hill and hangs onto their kite and watches in the direction of the wind source.

Design Process

We were tasked with designing the entirety of the picture book including the text layout and sizing of the book itself to produce a final printed book.

Format thumbnail designs showing mockup drawings. The book is square, opening out to be a rectangular spread. This aids the illustrated movements of the wind in the story. Text is quite large, around 18 point, and begins in the top left corner and ends on the right -hand page. This is to move the eyes across the spread through the placements of text. while also conveying a sense of movement that is prevalent in the story. The illustration fills up the whole page for the audience's enjoyment,

Mockup spread showing the grid layout of where the text placement will be. Three lines of the poem starts on the top left corner with the last line of the verse on the other side of the spread.

Physical Book

Holding the physical printed book showing the cover

Holding the physical printed book showing the first page spread

My picture book was also among four selected to be part of a design degree showcase that was exhibited during September-December of 2018.