How do you design products that increase literacy?
Donyall D. Dickey, Ed.D, founder of Educational Epiphany, is a nationally recognized authority on curriculum, instruction, organizational development, and district improvement. He hired me to conceptualize, design, and produce high-impact instructional resources that address, mitigate, and overcome both opportunity and achievement gaps.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive and the results have exceeded expectations:
- 99% of clients have purchased one or more products
- product sales increased 433%
- reading proficiency levels increased 20–60% in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, and Tennessee
Style Guide
Brand Identity
When I began working with Educational Epiphany, they had a brand logo, but little else in terms of visual identity. Over time, I’ve built a design system that defines the overall look and feel of the brand across platforms, informs product development, and is now recognized by a loyal and growing customer base. The system incorporates typography and color palette, but most importantly, Dr. Dickey’s tone of voice and mission:
Provide high-quality, initial instruction and strategic remediation to the more than 65% of the population reading below the proficiency threshold.
Products and Services
Catalog
I am so proud of the 2023–2024 Product and Services Catalog I designed. It’s a comprehensive listing of the company’s products and services, instructional materials and virtual and/or in-person professional development services—adaptable across all K–12 grades and content areas.
The company has reputation for being a deeply committed and long-term partner, dedicated to improving student outcomes in the most effective and practical ways possible. This catalog has helped the company—and their customers—meet and exceed their goals. You can see (and order from) the catalog online.
Anniversary
Social Media
Educational Epiphany is celebrating 15 years business. It’s an impressive accomplishment, as is the success of the students and teachers who benefit from using the company’s standards-informed instructional materials. I designed an anniversary logo and created a social media campaign (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn) to celebrate the company, the effectiveness of its instructional resources and workshops, and launch the new product and services catalog.
Measuring Improvement
Impact Data
Educational Epiphany has been diligently monitoring the impact of its instructional resources, professional learning, and leadership programs on student outcomes in diverse districts nationwide. I spearheaded a social media campaign that showcased the significant improvements in student achievement and educator effectiveness across urban, suburban, and rural settings.
Product Design
Literacy Kit
This boxed kit provides the tools and resources needed to help all students read at or beyond developmental expectations. I led the product development—from logo and packaging design to the card sets that comprise the kit.
The Literacy Kit supports teachers in making it possible for all students to:
- decode (pronounce words) fluently
- develop a full understanding of the relationship between the smallest unit of writing and sound
- create meaning and understanding of what they’ve decoded
- decode and create meaning with similar levels of success (fluency) and intensity
Decoding and Creating Meaning
Fluency requires proficiency in two domains of literacy development:
- Decoding
- Creating Meaning
Being able to do both is critical to students’ ability to perform at and beyond grade level expectations. Each kit contains the building blocks of reading fluency:
- 44 phonemes (sounds) that make up the English language
- 144 graphemes (ways to write the 44 sounds)
- the 30 most commonly occurring prefixes in the English language
- the 30 most commonly occurring root words in the English language
- the 30 most commonly occurring suffixes in the English language
Double-Sided Cards
The Literacy Kit contains four sets of double-sided, color-coded cards. Each card features a term on the front and a definition on the back, providing point-of-use access for teachers and students during whole-class, center work, and independent reading. Students learn to understand the relationship between the terms on the cards that make up the vast majority of the unfamiliar words they will encounter while they read.
Snapshot Cards
Each card offers an at-a-glance view of all terms per color-coded set plus an inspirational quote from Dr. Dickey.
Product Design
Dolch Sight Word Kit
This boxed set features the most commonly used words in the English language that must be easily recognized in order for students to achieve reading fluency and beyond. Working with a list of words that was developed in the 1930s and ’40s by educator Dr. Edward William Dolch, I created an accessible, modern product by conceptualizing the product, designing the logo, the packaging, and the card sets contained within the kit.
Dolch Sight Word Cards
The Dolce list contains 315 Dolch Sight Words: 220 “service words” plus 95 high-frequency nouns. These words comprise 80% of the words you would find in a typical children’s book and 50% of the words found in writing for adults. I selected appropriate colors and typography to organize the cards sets into groups by grade level, ranging from pre-kindergarten to third grade, with a separate list of nouns.
Dolch Snapshot Cards
Each card offers an at-a-glance summary of the Dolce Sight Words per grade level—plus a separate list of nouns.
Product Design
Fry Sight Word Kit
This boxed set features an expanded list of Dr. Edward Fry’s original Dolch List. Learning all 1,000 words in the Fry list would equip a child to read about 90% of the words in a typical book, newspaper, or website. I led the product development—from logo and packaging design to the card sets that comprise the kit.
Fry Sight Word Cards
Fry words are organized by the frequency with which they occur and are broken down into groups of 100, with the first 100 Fry words being the 100 most frequently occurring words in the English language.
Product Design
Universal Language of Literacy
I designed Educational Epiphany’s most popular product: the Universal Language of Literacy Kit. Containing 36 universal terms that transcend grade levels and content areas, the kit helps students build capacity and deepen their understanding of the texts they’ve read and achieve reading proficiency.
I conceptualized the product, designed the logo, the packaging, the individual card set and snapshot card contained within the kit, and the corresponding classroom posters.
Product Design
Critical Literary Language
Literary language refers to the form of writing used in works of literature, such as novels, plays, poems, and stories. The K–12 Educational Epiphany Critical Literary Language Kit promotes deep conceptual understanding of terms and devices associated with reading, analyzing, critiquing, and composing literary texts.
I conceptualized the product, designed the logo, the packaging, the individual card set and snapshot cards contained within the kit, and the corresponding classroom posters.
