Asif Hossain

First editionTamralipi × 10 Minute School2020

ঘরে বসে Spoken English

Munzereen Shahid’s first book, and one of my first big projects. Part one is the cover I designed; part two is the page system inside, built with the team, and one page you can actually solve.

Publisher
Tamralipi × 10 Minute School
Book Cover Designer
Asif Hossain
Inner pages & illustrations
10 Minute School creative team: Dipankar Das, Ihtisham Ahmed, Anisha Saiyara Taznoor, Rony Mondol, Foiag Ahamed Pranto, with Asif Hossain on execution
Author
Munzereen Shahid
Edited by
Ayman Sadiq
Year
2020
Get it
Rokomari

01The night shift

Ten days, ten thousand.

In May 2020 a small team of us spent ten days making this book, most nights until four or five in the morning. I took the cover. Inside, the illustrators and I built the pages that 80 classes would live on.

The book launched on 16 May. The next morning Munzereen wrote this.

“I launched my first book yesterday! And it just crossed 10,000 sales this morning. I still can’t believe this.”

“We stayed up till 4/5 am almost everyday to make this book look the way it does. Thank you, Asif Hossain bhaia, […] for making this book look like a piece of art.”

Munzereen Shahid on Facebook, 17 May 2020
  • 10days to make it
  • 10,000+sales by the next morning
  • 144pages in print
  • 80classes in four levels

That December, Tamralipi and 10 Minute School brought it out in print. For 10 Minute School the book became a real line of revenue; for me, it was the project that put my name in front of the design community in Bangladesh.

Part oneThe coverপ্রচ্ছদ

02The build

Six layers, one promise.

The promise on the cover is simple: you can speak English, at home. Here is the cover taken apart, in the order it goes together.

  1. 01

    Ground

    A night blue that warms into plum at the foot. Calm enough for a study book, deep enough to make one warm colour glow.

  2. 02

    Words

    The English you are about to speak (Do You, Speak, English, travel, success), set huge and pressed down to 20%. The cover is made of its own subject.

  3. 03

    Wave

    A dotted wave across the top and the foot: a voice, drawn as sound.

  4. 04

    Teacher

    Munzereen herself, in yellow. Readers already knew her from her classes, and the yellow is the only warm colour on the cover, so the eye lands on her first.

  5. 05

    Title

    ঘরে বসে small, SPOKEN ENGLISH stacked big. The Bangla says where (at home); the English says what.

  6. 06

    Name & mark

    Her name in clean capitals, and the 10 Minute School mark on top: the name people already trusted.

The approved front cover of Ghore Boshe Spoken English
Layer 01 / 06Approved

03The proofs

Six proofs, one press.

Before the final, the same composition went through six proofs: two navy builds, then purple, teal, red and orange. Side by side, the navy is the one where the yellow glows most.

Proof 01: navy, first build
01 Navy, first build
Proof 02: navy, second build
02 Navy, second build
Proof 03: purple
03 Purple
Proof 04: teal
04 Teal
Proof 05: red
05 Red
Proof 06: orange
06 Orange
The approved, printed front cover
Final Navy, with the 10 Minute School mark · printed

04The jacket

Printed with flaps.

Five panels, one wrap. Keep scrolling and the book opens out flat, the way it went to press. Tap the open jacket to see it large.

The full printed jacket, flat: author flap, back cover with the online course, spine, front cover, and the flap with a note to the reader
  1. 01 FlapAbout the author
  2. 02 BackThe online course
  3. 03 Spine
  4. 04 FrontThe cover
  5. 05 FlapA note to the reader
The full printed jacket, flat: author flap, back cover with the online course and QR code, spine, front cover, and the flap with a note to the reader
The full wrap, as printed.

Part twoInsideভেতরের পাতা

05The page system

Eighty classes, one page.

The inside was the creative team’s work, and I was one of the hands on it. Every class opens the same way, so a reader always knows where they are: the running head, a blue title pill, the class and its level, one line of instruction, then the lesson.

Page 09 of the book: How to introduce yourself in English
  1. 1Running headঘরে বসে 13 pt + Spoken English 12 pt
  2. 2Title pillBangla 13 pt bold, white on blue, with a hand-drawn outline
  3. 3Class & level12 pt bold; the level sits in its own colour
  4. 4InstructionOne line, 9 pt
  5. 5Lesson8 pt, a 15 pt step, hints in Bangla
  6. 6Word bank134 pt column, 14 pt colour headers
  7. 7FolioBangla numerals
Trim
5.5 × 8.5 in 396 × 612 pt
Margins
42 · 45 · 42 · 39 pt top · bottom · inside · outside
Type
Axiata English · Tatsam Bengali Rounded Bangla
Text
#231F20 a warm black, never pure

Four levels

The level pill changes colour as the book climbs. The contents pages carry the same four colours.

Six boxes

Each word-bank box is a pair: a strong header, a soft body. The same strong colour marks the hint it answers.

The same rules, four levels in

Page 20, Class 08, Easy: how to praise someone in English
Easyp. 20 · Class 08
Page 60, Class 32, Medium: two friends talking in English
Mediump. 60 · Class 32
Page 84, Class 49, Hard: making new friends in English
Hardp. 84 · Class 49
Page 124, Class 70, Advanced: ten common mistakes in spoken English
Advancedp. 124 · Class 70

06Page 09

From pencil to press.

Class 01, “কীভাবে ইংরেজিতে নিজের পরিচয় দেবেন”, how to introduce yourself. The page that sets the pattern for every page after it, in four passes.

  1. 01 SketchWhere everything goes
  2. 02 GridMargins, columns, a 15 pt step
  3. 03 ColourEach hint takes its box’s colour
  4. Page 09 as printed
    04 FinalAs printed

07Your turn

Now, introduce yourself.

Page 09, live. Type your own answers in the plain blanks. For the coloured ones, drag a word from the box of the same colour (or tap the blank and pick). Then check your page.

ঘরে বসে Spoken English

কীভাবে ইংরেজিতে নিজের পরিচয় দেবেন

Class: 01 Difficulty Level: Easy

খালি জায়গাগুলোতে ডান পাশের শব্দগুলোর থেকে যথাযথ শব্দ বেছে বসান। যেমন,

  1. 1. Hi, my name is . (আপনার নাম বসান)।
  2. 2. I come from . (আপনার দেশের নাম বসান)।
  3. 3. I live in . (আপনার এলাকার নাম বসান)।
  4. 4. I’m . (আপনার বয়স বসান)।
  5. 5. There are (আপনার পরিবারের সদস্যসংখ্যা বসান) people in my family. They are . (আপনার পরিবারের সদস্যদের নাম বসান)।
  6. 6. I’m a student at . (আপনার প্রতিষ্ঠানের নাম বসান)।
  7. 7. My major is . (আপনার মুখ্য বিষয় বসান)।
  8. 8. My favorite subject is . (আপনার প্রিয় বিষয় বসান)।
  9. 9. My hobbies are . (আপনার শখ বসান)।
  10. 10. In my free time, I also enjoy . (অবসরে আপনার প্রিয় খেলা বসান)।
  11. 11. I (don’t) like/ dislike/ hate . (আপনার অপছন্দনীয় জিনিস বসান)।
  12. 12. My favorite food/ drink is . (আপনার প্রিয় খাদ্য/ পানীয় বসান)।
  13. 13. I like movies. (আপনার পছন্দের মুভির ধরন বসান)।
  14. 14. My favorite singer/ band is . (আপনার প্রিয় সংগীতশিল্পী/ দল বসান)।
  15. 15. I study English . (আপনার উদ্দেশ্য বসান)।
  16. 16. I would like to be a/ an . (আপনি কী হতে চান সেটা বসান)।

Sports

Jobs

Hobbies

Movies

Subjects

Because

০৯

0 / 16 lines filled

08All of it

136 pages, one sheet.

Every class page, 9 to 144, laid out on a single sheet. The strip under each page marks its level.

  • Easypp. 9–40
  • Mediumpp. 41–70
  • Hardpp. 71–106
  • Advancedpp. 107–144
All 136 class pages of Ghore Boshe Spoken English on one sheet, from Easy to Advanced

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