Our Year - Wakefield District
THE BRIEF
Illustrations for Our Year 2024 and the ‘Get Creative’ - An A-Z of creative activities booklet, and illustrations for The Wakefield Curriculum resource.
THE PROJECT
A series of illustrations and icon designs for the ‘A–Z Creativity Kit for Schools’ and ‘The Wakefield Curriculum’ - A resource connecting Wakefield's rich cultural and heritage assets with practical teaching tools to inspire lessons.
‘Get Creative’ is an A–Z of creative activities offering step-by-step guides, inspiration, and tips to help teachers and students experiment with art, craft, and design in fun and meaningful ways.
A–Z Creativity Kit for Schools
We were commissioned to create a playful and engaging A–Z Creativity Kit designed to inspire imagination in classrooms across Wakefield. Developed in collaboration with local cultural partners, the kit encourages children to explore creativity through a wide range of activities — from drawing and writing to hands-on discussions and collaborative tasks.
Our role included developing the cover design, redrawing key visual resources, and weaving in thoughtful design details throughout. To make the kit easy to navigate and visually engaging, we introduced a series of dual-coding symbols that help teachers and pupils identify activity types at a glance — such as icons for drawing, writing, or discussion.
The result is a colourful, cohesive, and accessible resource that supports creativity, confidence, and collaboration in the classroom.
The Wakefield Curriculum
As part of the Our Year Schools Programme, we were commissioned to help design and develop a new Wakefield Curriculum for Early Years, Key Stage 1, and Key Stage 2. Led by Kate Fraser at SPARK and created in collaboration with Wakefield’s cultural partners, this project celebrates the region’s rich heritage and creativity.
The curriculum is structured around three core themes — Coal Mining, The Local Environment, and Sculpture — each exploring key aspects of Wakefield’s identity through art, history, and place. Every theme is supported by a variety of engaging materials, including ‘how-to’ videos, images, and activity sheets, alongside a detailed PDF guide with prompts, questions, and artist links to help teachers deliver creative, curriculum-linked learning.
Building on our previous work for the A–Z Creativity Kit, we were invited to bring the same playful design approach to this project. This included the potential reuse and adaptation of existing icons and typefaces, as well as the development of new symbols to represent each of the three overarching themes — creating a cohesive and visually engaging learning experience for schools across Wakefield.
“Charlie is an absolute pleasure to work with and extremely personable in her professional approach.
She was extremely responsive, and we were especially grateful for her adaptability to meet our deadline, making adjustments as needed to meet branding guidelines. Her work is fresh and vibrant, and we truly enjoyed her collaboration and ideas towards the Our Year to GET CREATIVE illustrations which played a huge influence in the overall design.”
Natasha Cambridge - Our Year - Wakefield District
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