Abstract:
To study guidelines for children's book illustration design to enhance seven to nine-year-old children's learning in art education. The population informants were five art educators, five elementary school art teachers, and five children's book illustrators. The research methodology included interviews and questionnaires. The data were analyzed by mean of percentage, frequency and content analysis. The study revealed that the art educators, elementary school art teachers, and children's book illustrators agreed on the five aspects of guidelines for children's book illustration design to enhance seven to nine-year-old children's learning ability in art education. 1) Objectives of the design : the design objectives should motivate the links between environment and children's art skill development. This would help children to observe the qualifications and characteristics of visual elements of art and design principles. Moreover, the illustration design should be unique, and aims to enhance art learning ability in the aspects of inference and modification, or provides children with various experiences in art, 2) The Story : the characterization should be based on the creativity of the characters so that the children feel the need to take part in solving the conflicts. The vocabulary about art should be inserted so that children can make connections between text and illustration. Moreover, it is suggested that the notion of Thai culture should be included in the story so that children can have an insight understanding, 3) Physical Characteristics : the materials and production process should be well-selected and serve the function, especially the quality of paper that should be good enough to reflect the same aesthetic quality of the illustration's master copy. The typography should be legibility and accurate so that children could remember and follow the format, 4) Graphic elements : the illustration design should conform to visual elements and design principles of children's work of art; however, the illustration design should be more challenging and encouragning so that children can create their own work. Moreover, illustrators should understand children's art activities so that they can design the suitable illustration that matches with children's art skill development, 5) The layout and book design integration : the illustration design should appropriate to the plot, the story, and the perspective of the illustration so that the integration of these various design aspects can enhance children's imagination, experiences, and learning ability.