Unit X
Book of Play
As a graduate of Manchester School of Art, I am very familiar with Unit X – the crosscurricular unit where students work on live briefs.
I was delighted to be invited to design and lay out the Book of Play for the students of 2025.
One of the things that made this project so special is that it gave me the opportunity to iterate on my own work – the original Book of Play from 2023 was an idea I pitched and pioneered during my graduate internship at MMU.
The idea was simple: provide a sketchbook to all students on the unit with blank space to work in, as well as printed pages full of advice and exercises to alleviate some common complaints about collaborative work.
With a couple more years of student & staff feedback to integrate into it, the aim was clear. We needed to step away from the pre-defined themes of 2023, and encourage students to think more broadly; asking the eternal question: What if?
As part of the collaborative work process, the team at MMU encouraged students to take a quiz that matched their teamwork styles to different animals.
I created vector artwork and short descriptions for each of them, with as many hidden Xs as I could fit in to each.
- MMU / Manchester School of Art
- January 2025
- Freelance Graphic Designer
