Designer Jon Bland gives kids 50 things to do before the end of year 7
Graphic design has a lot of power: to persuade, to delight, to foster recognition. It also has the power to help make the scariest years of a school career that little bit easier, as a few recent projects have shown. One, which we featured last year, was the playful Studio Hato-designed tool for year six kids to express themselves, and now we’ve got the equally charming 50 Things to do before the end of Year 7. Created by designer Jon Bland and teacher Sophie Farrar’ the sweet little tome sets out tasks to complete during that terrifying first year into big school, and aims to help the kids – many of whom barely speak English – feel more comfortable within their school and their communities. The booklets were kept pared-back in design and printed on yellow school paper sourced directly from the good people at Manchester Academy, “a secondary school facing many challenges,” according to Jon.
“Not only are many of the pupils new to the school, they’re also new to the country. It was therefore important that the publication developed the children’s social, creative and subject specific skills, whilst encouraging them to explore the school and Manchester itself,” he explains. “The project would have naturally made a wonderful website, but with an extremely tight budget and with many of the children having very limited internet access, a publication produced in the schools reprographics department was the only solution.”
But from these tight constraints – both in terms of the brief and the resources – has come something very sweet and very practical, which reinforces the capacity of design to do good.
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Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.