The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Inside, Outside, Upside-Down: A Sweet Children’s Book About Understanding the World Through Relative Positions

It’s hard enough for grown-ups to grasp that distances shape how we relate to the world, so how is a child to comprehend the importance of positional relationships in making sense of the world? In Inside, Outside, Upside Down (public library) — not to be confused with Upside Down Day, the curious 1968 gem by NASA’s head of publicity — British illustrator and animator Yasmeen Ismail offers young minds a primer on relational aesthetics in the form of a playful activity-book.

Beneath the simple line drawings and primary colors lies a more subtle message that understanding the world is about understanding everything in relation to everything else — about, to borrow Henry Miller’s perceptive formulation of the art of living, how we orient ourselves to it — and, most of all, that everything is a matter of perspective.

Complement Inside, Outside, Upside Down with French graphic designer Janik Coat’s Hippopposites, a minimalist primer on aesthetic opposites.


Published August 20, 2014

https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/08/20/inside-outside-upside-down-yasmeen-ismail/

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