Red Paper Design » Publishing

QEB: Get Ready For Grade 1

redpaper — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:05:19 +0000

Workbooks for Grade 1 (and then Grade 2) covering addition & subtraction, phonics, time & money, and vocabulary. They may look simple but they were really fiddly, exasperated somewhat by editorial rewrites in the face of the tightest schedule ever. We worked over much of Christmas to get these done. But they were fun, and the artists were both blazingly fast!

Thanks also to Jane Walker at QED for rushing me some gratis copies from the US in time for the London International Book Fair.

Grade 1 artist: Bill Bolton

Sample pages:

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Deafinitely Theatre: The Boy and the Statue

redpaper — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:43:43 +0000

Illustration: Beccy Blake

A quick A5 theatre flyer designed for Deafinitely Theatre/Tricycle Theatre.

We designed this flyer, working with the artist Beccy Blake. The title lettering was created using the Berliner Grotesk typeface, making the infant ‘a’ out of the ‘o’ and ‘l’ letters, as infant letters were appropriate for the target audience age group. The rest of the type was set in Badger.

The Boy and the Statue is a new play for 4-7 year olds, accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences.

Saturday 3rd July
11.30am and 2pm
£6 / £5
Box Office 020 7328 1000
Tricycle, 269 Kilburn High Rd, London, NW6 7JR

Penguin Active Readers: Covers

redpaper — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:20:58 +0000

Covers from the 7 reader books we designed for Pearson Education. Penguin Active Readers are published internationally and feature a wide range of genres in UK and International English for ELT. Covers are usually by the artists, but sometimes use stock photos or classic paintings or prints.

Artists: Mike McKeever (Monkey King), Katie Mac (Good Day, Bad Day), Adam Hunter Peck (Stories of Other Worlds), Nick Hardcastle (Bleak House), Sonia Kretchmar (Under the Bridge).

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Illustrator’s roughs

redpaper — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:29:11 +0000

Although I like seeing finished artwork when it comes in, I get more excited earlier in the process, on receipt of roughs. I think it is because though the final artwork is usually very accomplished it is in the roughs that the draftsmanship can be seen.

So here are a few recent examples:

Nick Hardcastle:

Bleak House

Mike McKeever:

Monkey King

Sonia Kretschmar:

Under the Bridge

Jamel Akib:

The Young Ghost

Adam Hunter Peck:

Country of the Blind

Penguin Active Readers: Stories of Other Worlds

redpaper — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:47:57 +0000

Stories of Other Worlds cover artwork: Adam Hunter Peck

Part of the Penguin Active Readers series for 2010, published by Pearson Education. Three short stories by H.G. Wells: The Country of the Blind, The Door in the Wall, The Young Ghost, illustrated respectively by Adam Hunter Peck, Mike Lacey, and Jamel Akib.

Country of the Blind

The Door in the Wall

The Young Ghost

Firecrest: Project Learning – Mammals

redpaper — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:27:12 +0000

This is a buy-in from an Australian publisher. The original was in mono with inconsistent typography. But the text was good, so rights were bought and we were asked to repackage the book with Firecrest’s artwork to produce new layouts. An Einstein boffin character is used to raise issues and mediate the learning.

(The © watermark is not art of the design! LOL)

Heinemann: Abacus Maths

redpaper — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:12:13 +0000

Abacus Evolve is a versatile and customizable maths course produced by Heinemann. We worked on the interactive teaching resources, ie. whiteboard presentations. They used Easiteach software from RM (Research Machines) which allowed easy onscreen manipulation of objects, drawing, writing in front of the whole class on interactive whiteboards by teacher or pupils. Easiteach was preferred over PowerPoint because it is so easy for the teacher to adapt on-the-fly in response to the class.

Oxford Reading Tree: Snapdragons stage 2

redpaper — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:14:01 +0000

Covers and sample spreads from the 2nd stage/level of Oxford Reading Tree Snapdragons. We were commissioned to produce 60 titles, in 10 levels or stages, using a wide variety of artists, typefaces, layouts and formats to motivate and stimulate readers. Though clearly leveled to provide a progression through the series, each title had to be an interesting book to pick-up and read for its own sake.

Artists: Andy Peters, David Mostyn, Jess Mikhail, Judy Brown, Lizzie Finlay, Liz Pichon

You might be thinking why have they scanned in the covers at such different sizes? That is because the books are different formats, some small, some landscape, some square… The series uses a variety of styles, illustrators, fonts and formats to keep children interested as they read.

Firecrest: Day and Night – Everglades

redpaper — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:20:43 +0000

Lavish fold-out books describing animals and plants in their habitats. We have begun the second book which covers the Everglades. A beautiful fold-out spread pictures the flora and fauna of the habitat, and subsequent pages work through each example. These designs were done for the Bologna and Frankfurt book fairs. We are now working on them for publication in the USA.

There are different fold-outs covering the nocturnal habitats too.

Oxford Reading Tree: Snapdragons stage 1

redpaper — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:25:40 +0000

Snapdragons is part of the ever expanding Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) from Oxford University Press. Usually ORT book stories centre around the Biff and Chip characters, with consistent artwork and type. Not so the Snapdragons branch of the tree. We were commissioned to produce 60 titles, in 10 levels or stages, using a wide variety of artists, typefaces, layouts and formats to motivate and stimulate readers. Though clearly leveled to provide a progression through the series, each title had to be an interesting book to pick-up and read for its own sake.

Artists: Jan McCafferty, Sue Hendra, Jim Kavanagh, Joanne Partis, Ian Cunliffe, Colin Mier

The books in stage 1 had very few words! The artwork needed to be clear, fun and bright. At this level the text was always placed at top left of the spread, but because this was Snapdragons we were allowed to use a variety of approved type faces.