Treasured Islands: Book Design Project

Visual Communication Design Programme
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology

Semester One, 2013-2014 


There are over 700 schools in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. However, in these schools there has been no island-specific education in the curriculum and children have little awareness of their unique ecological environment. To address this, Dakshin Foundation and ANET have been working with the Department of Education ANI to develop content and make environmental education mandatory in schools. 

In this collaborative project, 16 undergraduate and postgraduate Visual Communication Design students redesigned ‘Treasured Islands’ – an out of date and out of print environmental textbook specifically for teachers in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (grade 6-8). The first edition of this book was published by Kalpavriksh and ANET in 1999 and has since been put forward by the Department of Education ANI as a recommended classroom resource. Facilitated by Kumkum Nadig, Ramesh Kalkur and me, the task was to reconceptualise the design, illustration and navigation of the book as well as incorporate new information and activities. The project objectives included: 

• Understand the challenges in designing a teaching resource in this context

• Integrate images, text, information and activities in meaningful ways

• Design for ease of use

• Develop appropriate, informative, engaging and contemporary illustrations

• Deliver a book that can be easily translated into multiple Indian languages

This new edition of ‘Treasured Islands’ will be used for teacher training workshops and will provide the basis for a range of supplementary materials, which will be designed in phase 2 of the project.


Class crit

Design propositions

Client meeting and presentation

Editing and proofing

Coral Reefs - Chapter divider page

Coral Reefs - Chapter opening page

Coral Reefs - Who’s Who page

Coral Reefs - Photo spread

Rocky Shores and Sandy Beaches

Mangroves - Who’s Who page

Mangroves - Inphographics

Tropical Forest - Chapter opening page

Jellyfish Topi - Activity page

Who Are We? - Activity page

Activity pages

Students: Ananya Singh, Aneri Jhaveri, Isha Sinh, Juhi Agarwal, Koyal Chengappa, Maanasa Ganesh, Meghna Jaswal, Pramod pai, Pranav Dharamsi, Prateek Vatash, Pratyancha Puri, Priya Jain, Sree Lakshmi Sola, Sreeja Basu, Vishaka Jindal, Vivan Kamath


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