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Zodiacville Runners: Children's Fairy Tale Illustration Project

Juyeon Park's Zodiacville Runners is a children's fairy tale about Zodiacville's animals participating in a running festival hosted by the Dragon King. The project is an experimental mixture of traditional Korean 'minhwa' attributes, fable narratives, and the illustrator's digital pointillism painting styles. The book measures 260mm X 260mm, with rounding post-processing to ensure child safety. The project was carried out in South Korea from October 2018 to February 2019, with plans for distribution in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine.

The illustration technique involved layering hard-type dots one by one in a digital drawing environment, inspired by the oriental back-painting technique. The book is divided into two parts: one for children and the other for educators. Educators can use the learning guides and supplementary materials to organize classes, while children can learn about Korean culture naturally through the illustrations and Russian hint texts. The project was based on anatomical research to represent detailed animal characters suitable for the cognitive ability of teenage children.

One of the challenges faced during the project was ensuring that the humorous expressions in the illustrations did not convey distorted visual messages to growing children. Professional elementary teachers and volunteers from youth institutions were consulted to address this concern. The project was awarded Bronze in the A' Print and Published Media Design Award in 2021, recognizing its outstanding and creatively ingenious designs that contribute to quality of life improvements.

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