PRINT DESIGN

The goal: To update Kindergarten and First Grade phonics readers to be more inclusive and diverse.

How we got there: Several stakeholders, including our diversity and inclusion expert, reviewed the readers and made suggestions to make them more inclusive. Then the illustrations were updated or completely redone by in-house and contract illustrators, and the new illustrations were laid out in InDesign with the text. Last, the covers were updated to match the new illustrations, and the books were re-published!

My role: I created spreadsheets to track the reviews, and spreadsheets and JIRA tickets to assign the illustration tasks, and move them through review steps. When the illustrations were ready, I handled the interior layouts and cover updates in InDesign, and prepared them for printing.

A Nice Postscript

At the time, my main role was building web components, but I volunteered to take this project on because I wanted to strengthen my print design and production skills. My willingness to go above and beyond my normal job duties was graciously acknowledged by the great people I worked for at the time.

Rachel loves to learn and even more so when she can apply it to her work. Everything she works on is given the same level of attention and thoughtfulness with regards to diversity and inclusivity. She took it upon herself to take a LinkedIn training to created accessible documents and helped fill a gap in print team resourcing. Rachel is able to apply a level of innate cultural awareness to each asset she creates and it is inspiring.
-Amy Velasquez, Creative Director, Stride