Eduscope

COVER STORY

When veteran educator and author Bob Burr turned to BrainVox for help to launch his new textbook, he had some very specific design ideas in mind.  Elements such as the ‘7’ were to be emphasised with colour and size, particular phrases included on the front and back of the book cover, and so on.  He also needed flyers to hand out and a website – actually 4 websites – to cope with sales to different markets.

We initially provided samples using predominantly blues and golds in the palette for the book cover; a rich blue for weight and to suggest communication, trust and confidence, and yellow to both lighten the design and to suggest intellect, clarity, and success. Bob requested we rework the designs with reds and golds since a great deal of his target customers were likely to be of Chinese origin, and these colours were thought to be culturally significant for that market.

Later market research among target students suggested that this was an outdated viewpoint.  His market preferred the more ‘Western’ palette, seeing it as more modern and business-oriented.  We revised the designs accordingly.

Once the cover design was complete we designed advertising flyers for the book for use in bookshops and to be distributed to student groups.  We expanded the use of the gold colours on the flyers for a lighter and more welcoming design, while still retaining the base palette by including elements from the book cover.

This approach was echoed in the four websites set up for the project.  As well as the main direct-sales website that allows students to purchase the book immediately, we set up microsites with alternative pricing and information targeted at other specific markets – libraries, IELTS centres and bookshops.

We also created 4 direct email campaigns using MailChimp and newsletters based on the website style, each directing one of those sectors to the appropriate website.

Happily, Bob’s book is now flying out to students around the world.