I was asked to design a set of visually informative learning aids for primary school children. The content, developed simultaneously by the teachers at a school, revolves around school-chosen topics that resonate with their student community while also fitting the requirements of the UK National Curriculum.

With 6 academic units in the school year (2 per term), and 6 year groups (year 1 to year 6), the complete set of knowledge organisers adds to a total of 36 topics treated visually. These need to be printed at schools, therefore are designed to fit in an A4 page.

In this ongoing project, every academic unit is oriented towards different subjects, which define the structure and type of content. 

This requires that the design takes a bottom-up approach as well as a top-down approach to define visual styles and hierarchies.

Children at different levels have different requirements for spacing in typography, and so the treatment of typography was informed by the research de Ann Besemanns and Sue Walker, to suit the needs of beginner readers (Year 1 and 2). 

Further, the key role of illustrations was acknowledged, and so illustrations were used at top of the page, and located close to their associated text.