Blackburn College — A general-purpose lined book reordered every year since 2022

The brief

Blackburn College came to us in 2022 for a general-purpose lined book that would work across the college — not tied to one subject, but standardised on the things every department wanted in every student's hands: clear presentation expectations, a place to set and track targets, and a built-in vocabulary log.
The team had spent years watching the same issues come up across subjects. Books arriving back in May looking nothing like they did in September. Targets set verbally in lessons but never written down, so students couldn't tell you what they were working on if asked. Key vocabulary covered in class but lost the same week, because there was nowhere consistent to record it. And spellings — the same words misspelled in maths, in business, in health and social care, because students never built the habit of logging them.
The college wanted those four things printed in every book, with the Blackburn College logo on the cover so the standard is visible the moment the book lands on a desk.

What we designed

Working with Blackburn, we built a lined book with the college's everyday expectations baked in around the writing pages.

A college-branded cover with the Blackburn College logo top-left and ruled lines for name, class, teacher and subject.
A presentation expectations spread setting out exactly how every book should be treated — Your exercise book is your responsibility. Look after it as it is a record of your hard work — with clear rules: keep it neat with best writing, date and title underlined, diagrams in pencil, mistakes neatly crossed out, ruler used for underlining, no graffiti, no scribbling out, no tearing pages out.
Six target-setting slots spread across the front of the book, each with To hit my target I will… and an achieved tick box — so students have a permanent record of what they're working toward at any point in the year, not just what they were told in the last lesson.
A key words and important facts spread, with one column for Important points and facts… and a two-column table for keywords / Definition — so the vocabulary that comes up in lessons has a fixed place to live, not buried in the middle of class notes.
Lined writing pages throughout, each with a date field at the top so every entry is timestamped and findable.
A dotted "My Notes" page at the back for working out ideas, mind-mapping or anything that doesn't fit the lined pages.
A "My Misspelt Words" log opposite a dotted page — one fixed place to record words students keep getting wrong, with enough lines to last the year.

The finished book

900 books land at Blackburn College every year — enough for every student on a course that uses them — and the college has reordered for every cohort since 2022. Every book opens onto the same presentation expectations, the same target-setting slots, and the same vocabulary structure, so the standard is consistent across departments and the habits the college wants to build are designed into the page itself.