As a graphic design studio with a predominantly corporate focus, it’s such fun when we can ‘spread our wings’ on a project like this one! Many Salt projects are guided by brand guidelines where consistency and polished design are required. So what happens when we have a project that calls for fun, playful design without the usual confines of corporate design? We kick-off our shoes and grab our most colourful markers!

Where to begin?

Sometimes, it’s difficult for our clients to know how to begin a new project. So to help with the process, we ask questions to develop the project’s intent and design direction.

The first questions focus on the purpose of the project:

• What is the reason for this project?
• Who is the audience?
• What is the best way to connect with this audience?

And then there’s the technical questions:

• How many pages?
• How long will it take?
• How much will it cost?

For a new educational resource about Native Australian Bees titled “Powerful Pollinators”, our client had so much knowledge and information to share with school-aged children. They wanted to educate and inspire the generation of future farmers; to show them how important these tiny creatures are to our native habitat and to the future of our environment. By focussing on determining the answers to our questions we were able to understand and develop a strong creative brief for the activity book.

Colour your world!

We wanted to get these avid readers excited about the pages of this activity book. To grab their favourite markers and get to work adding even more colour! Bringing the pages to life with vibrant patterns and graphics, we created a design that catches their attention, encourages them think, learn and have fun!

Understanding what it is we are designing

We read what we design. It’s imperative to ensuring the design befits the content – what is seen first, what comes next, what are the important take-aways from each page. Once we understand the content and context, we use our design expertise to add value and support what is being presented, so it can be easily read and effectively understood.

For Powerful Pollinators, our client provided us with a collection of information snippets and facts, plus a few ideas for activities suitable for the reader’s age group. It was quite a mixed bag!

To begin, we spread the activities across the 12 text pages and then added the relevant fact snippets. Once we had the content in place, we embellished the page designs with heading styles, highlight treatments for facts, and coloured patterns to add life and interest. By considering the page layouts, font styling and colour palette, we brought together the pages to create a playful, yet consistent design. We also remained mindful of the comprehension ability of the reader age group – ensuring font sizes were appropriate and the level of information suitable.

We’re buzzing with excitement to know this activity book has kids having fun while learning!

Thanks also to Ellie and Frankie who tested the activities!

Because everything is better with a sprinkle of salt!
SALT.Shaker