First Years, Fifth Project - How Stuff Works

You can't produce a piece of design (or illustration) for something you don't understand. 

Design and Illustration are both complex subjects, but at their heart lies one constant question that has to be answered:

What are we trying to communicate?

To achieve the level of understanding necessary to have something to say, we need to undertake very thorough research.

Usually, if the research has been fruitful, the actual structure of the design falls quite easily into place. There will probably be an obvious sequence that needs to be followed.

This is what this project was about - take a subject the students don't know anything about, set them to thoroughly research it and then ask them to design a digital publication that explains how the thing works in seven, double-page steps.

It couldn't be easier.

Here's what thorough research and good design development looks like (courtesy of Emma and Tabitha who had to explain how ancient civilizations knew that the earth was a sphere):

Here's the final digital publication followed by a selection of other student's work: