Micro Blog Workbook.
Full course identity and spiral-bound workbook for The DO Lectures’ Micro-Blog System with David Hieatt. A practical, tear-out-friendly tool full of writing lessons, tips, exercises, and a plain ‘dummy’ cover to keep it safe when left on tables.
Scope
Client
Duration
Year
Making a workbook that felt personal, motivating, and built for real daily writing while solving the practical problem of people leaving it around in shared spaces without it disappearing.
The Micro-Blog System is about building better writing habits in short, honest bursts, so the workbook had to feel like a trusted companion. Something you’d want to scribble in, tear pages from, and keep coming back to. But course participants often work in cafés, co-working spaces, or at home with family around, meaning the book could easily get left out. The challenge was designing something inspiring and useful that still had a low-key, almost forgettable exterior so it didn’t scream “valuable thing to steal”. All whilst keeping the inside rich, encouraging, and aligned with David Hieatt’s can-do/will-do energy. Plus it needed to support easy annual updates and page-tearing without falling apart.
Craft a warm, characterful course identity and wire-bound workbook with tear-out flexibility, lots of writing space, and an IKEA-like ‘dummy’ cover that protected the good stuff inside.
I developed the visual identity to have straightforward typography with personality, a muted but inviting colour palette, and scribbly graphic elements that matched The DO Lectures’ raw, get-it-done spirit, and writing. For the workbook, we went with sturdy wire (spiral) binding so it lay flat, pages tore out cleanly for notes or sharing, and new lessons could slot in or swap out each year. Inside has clear sections for lessons, micro-blogging tricks, daily prompts, exercises, and plenty of open space for handwriting. To handle the theft risk, we added a deliberately plain, unassuming ‘dummy’ cover – a knock-off IKEA manual that still tied back to writing if you looked closely enough.
A workbook that people actually lived with and wrote in. Tore from, left lying around safely, and kept coming back to year after year.
The Micro-Blog System workbook became exactly the kind of thing writers need. Tough enough for daily use, flexible enough to grow with the course, and smart enough that the dummy cover did its job perfectly. Coffee stains, missing pages (the good kind), notes scribbled in the margins, and the satisfaction of knowing the design helped with their progress.
A curated selection of projects that reflect our commitment to simplicity and purposeful design.
