Red Paper Design » Published

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:

Loading Images

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.

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.

Ransom: Goal!

redpaper — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:19:05 +0000

Goal! is a reading scheme with a football theme for less able readers wanting something interesting to read. These are workbooks that accompany the series.

Ransom: Boffin Boy

redpaper — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:21:33 +0000

A fun take on comic book super-heroes, and a good read too. Originally 6, now 12, graphic novels done in a manga style. These readers are aimed at older children needing help with reading who would be put-off by books written for younger readers. Ransom are particularly good at this sort of stimulating read, as is further demonstrated by their Goal! series.

The artist is Peter Richardson. He works in Illustrator, and his artwork is easy for a designer to work with, as the files are highly editable and adaptable for constructing prelim and cover pages, as well as being easily utilized for particular excerpts in worbooks.

Parragon: First Readers

redpaper — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:01:39 +0000

A series of books that Parragon produces for M&S that young readers read with an adult. They are all very traditional fairy tales, designed to give children confidence to begin reading. These are hardback books with coloured metallic foil blocking in the titles and logo.