Asif Hossain

Layout Design · 2026

UNICEF & icddr,b ECCD Books

Early childhood care and development books, laid out so every colour has a job.

Module 1 book, the trainer’s guide Module 2 book, the trainee’s guide Module 3 book, the play-based session guide
Layout Designer
Asif Hossain
Client
UNICEF Bangladesh, icddr,b
Project Manager
Sketchboard Interactive
Illustration
Saba Islam
Scope
Three training books
Partners
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Directorate General of Family Planning, National Nutrition Services

The brief

A book read in the middle of a conversation.

A child’s brain grows fastest in the first years, and in Bangladesh the people closest to those years are often the health workers a mother already visits. These three books train those workers, then stay in their hands during play sessions with mothers and children.

So I started with the reader, who is not sitting at a desk. A mother is waiting and a child is reaching for a toy. There are only seconds to find the right line, so the layout has to answer before anyone has to search.

A mother reading a picture book with her child
Illustration: Saba Islam

The set

Three books, three readers.

  1. Module 1 book

    Module 1

    Trainer’s guide · A4

    For the person leading the training. Ten long sessions, so it needs to stay calm and easy to teach from.

  2. Module 2 book

    Module 2

    Trainee’s guide · A4

    The same course from the other side of the room. It shares Module 1’s system, so both books read as one.

  3. Module 3 book

    Module 3

    Session guide · Landscape

    For the health worker during a live session. It turns on its side so one whole session plan is open at a glance.

The palette

Why these colours.

Module 3 runs on five pale tints and one loud cover. Pale tints keep small black Bangla text sharp, even on a modest office print. Each one is far enough from its neighbour to tell apart at a glance. The bar shows how much of Module 3 each colour covers.

  • Pink

    #FAD1DE

    The biggest area because it holds the main work. It feels warm and caring, so long instructions never look stern.

  • Lime

    #DFEBAF

    The brightest tint, used for the first thing to find: the age and the materials.

  • Blue

    #D6EFF4

    Cool and light, it steps back so the toys and rhymes read as a side column.

  • Mint

    #D6EDE2

    Keeps talking apart from doing, so speech never gets lost in the steps.

  • Grey

    #EEEFEF

    The quietest colour for the note that repeats on every page.

  • Coral

    #F15B67

    The one loud colour, kept for Module 3’s cover so the book is easy to spot on a busy desk.

Module 1 keeps it simpler

  • Lime #DEEAAE for topic headers
  • Grey #EAEAEB for session overviews
  • Amber #FEE19F for note boxes

Type

One Bangla family, three levels.

Module 3 runs on July alone. Three levels are enough: find the session, find the column, read the step. Fewer levels also mean less to think about when a child is pulling at the page.

  1. সেশন ১, the session title20 to 30 pt bold · session
  2. খেলার কার্যক্রম, a column head13 pt bold · column
  3. A line of activity text12 pt regular · step

Module 1

One long book, one rhythm.

A long book stays calm when every page type behaves the same way. A trainer can flip to any page and know what part of a session they are in from the shape of the page alone.

  1. A session opening pageOpenerOne big picture marks a new session.
  2. A session overview pageOverviewA grey panel holds the topics, aims and time.
  3. A topic page with a lime headerTopicA lime header, the method, then an amber note.
  4. A body text page with an illustrationBodyText runs clean, and pictures give it air.
  5. A key message pageKey messageTwelve messages, each with its own bold title.
  6. A poster pagePosterThe whole idea on one wall-ready page.
  • 10training sessions
  • 6play-based sessions
  • 12key messages
  • 4posters

Module 3

One page, five colours.

This is the page a health worker has open during a session. Every colour labels one kind of content, and it never changes from session to session. With a little practice, the reader stops reading labels and starts reading colours.

A Module 3 session page with coloured columns 1 2 3 4 5
  1. 1

    Lime

    The child’s age. The first thing to find.

  2. 2

    Blue

    The toy or rhyme to pick up.

  3. 3

    Pink

    What to do, step by step.

  4. 4

    Grey

    One reminder, always on the last line.

  5. 5

    Mint

    What to say while playing.

Every session, the same rhythm.

Each session runs in the same order: the book and a rhyme, then the toys and talk-and-play, then a review. Here is the whole book at a glance.

Room to breathe

The pictures do the resting.

Long Bangla text is tiring. Saba Islam’s warm illustrations break it up and show real homes and real families, so I gave them clean white space and never boxed them in.

A boy kicking a ball A father clapping for his daughter A mother hugging her child A health worker showing a book to a mother and baby A family feeding a child together A boy playing with blocks

Illustration: Saba Islam

Inside the books

A look through all three.

A tidy grid of pages from Modules 1, 2 and 3

The big picture

Clear pages for better beginnings.

Everything a young child needs sits in one wheel on the back of Module 3. Every layout before it was made to help someone deliver that care.

Book a 30-min call See more work
Building Better Brains for Future Bangladesh The Module 3 wheel: five parts of caring for a young child