MAKING WATER
MACHINES

BOOK DESIGN + CO-AUTHOR
FOR STEM EDUCATION

(PRINTED) BOOK

BOOK DESIGN + CO-AUTHOR
FOR STEM EDUCATION

Collage of front cover of book (with abstract cartoon boats and waves), Jacques Cousteau’s portrait as a line drawing, line drawings of household materials used in the experiments such as rubber bands, paper clips, tape, scissors, etc. an excerpt diagram of materials used in the experiments set against a yellow background, and the first page of Chapter 8: The Buoyant Catamaran, with historic photographs and drawings of Polynesian catamarans, plus buoyancy diagrams, and text. Collage of front cover of book (with abstract cartoon boats and waves), and the first page of Chapter 8: The Buoyant Catamaran, with historic photographs and drawings of Polynesian catamarans, plus buoyancy diagrams, and text.

The book’s design concept is a collage of educational material: tying the disparate experiment photos together, and ensuring it is fun for kids to sift through.

As the book is intended for both children and teens – and as it contains advanced science and engineering information (text) – the illustrations were drawn with lightweight lines to make the content appear friendly and simple/approachable.

For the same reason, warm and vivid colors are used throughout, and the fonts are a combination of sketchy and very legible humanist typefaces.

Blank pages that are meant to be filled in with drawings and notes by students are not left entirely blank, but have notes, backgrounds, and diagrams on them to provide encouragement to sketch.

Having already designed other books for Iridescent, I was able to also author content on this one, pushing to include real-world examples, particularly historic and unique ideas and projects, so that it can be more inspiring and educational than a simple STEM activity manual.

I conducted my own research for the scientific illustrations and diagrams, with the client serving as advisor.

I also designed the Spanish translation of the book.

FOR

Iridescent (now Technovation) & ONR/Office of Naval Research

DIMENSIONS

7.5″ x 9.25″, 114 pages

FOR SALE

WORK / CREDITS

Book Design, Illustrations, History + Reference Material Author (text & images): Ioana Urma. Project Text: Paige Teamy. Science Advisors: Sheila Patek & Suzanne Cox. Reference Image Authors: See book. Activity Photos: Heather D’Augustine, Mariana Rutigliano, & Cristiano Meira. Edited by: Tara Chklovski.

Line drawing of the household materials needed for an experiment with text: large plastic bottle with cap, nail or awl (something pointy), balloons,1/8″ plastic tubing (from pet stores or hardware stores), heavy aluminum foil, scissors, duct tape, straws (bendy and big straight one)
Diagram of a medusoid, an artificial muscle based on the jellyfish: plan on the left in salmon, red, and blue colors, and the way the muscle moves on the right in blues and greens.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Sheila Patek in orange and Jacques Cousteau in green lines with a red cap on.
Pages 22-23, first pages of Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, with text, photographs describing the mantis shrimp, related vocabulary, and a diagram showing how the shrimp fires its dactyl to crush shells to eat.
Pages 24-25, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment (rubber bands, paper clips and sticks, drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Sheila Patek, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Pages 26-27, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, with step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, and some photograph examples of animals which spring use their legs to spring/jump: a kangaroo, a Lesser Egyptian jarboa (mouse), and a jumping frog.
Pages 28-29, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, on the left page space to study an animal by drawing it, and on the right REAL WORLD EXAMPLES, such as the medieval catapult and a zootrope of a kangaroo jumping, with a more examples described in a couple paragraphs of text, in various blue and green colors.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Hero of Alexandria in green and John Dabiri in indigo.
Pages 38-39, first pages of Chapter 5: The Octopus’s Suction Cups, with text, photographs describing the octopus related vocabulary, and a diagram showing how the suction cups work, in greenish and reddish colors, mostly.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Daniel Bernoulli in aqua, Sheila Patek in orange, Hero of Alexandria in green, and John Dabiri in indigo.
Pages 40-41, Chapter 5: The Octopus’s Suction Cups, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment (tape, balloon, rubber band, etc, drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Evangelista Torricelli, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Diagram of the first use of hydrofoils on a boat, Emmanuel Denis Farcot’s British patent, 1869, in cream and orange lines against a blue background.
Front cover in Spanish: HACIENDO MÁQUINAS AQUÁTICAS, HACIENDO MÁQUINAS II, Por Paige Teamy, Tara Chklovski, y Ioana Urma, Iridescent, showing a cartoon boat being pushed and swallowed by a large abstract wave, in mostly blue colors with yellow and red highlights.
Pages 22-23, first pages of Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, with text, photographs describing the mantis shrimp, related vocabulary, and a diagram showing how the shrimp fires its dactyl to crush shells to eat.
Pages 24-25, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment (rubber bands, paper clips and sticks, drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Sheila Patek, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Pages 26-27, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, with step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, and some photograph examples of animals which spring use their legs to spring/jump: a kangaroo, a Lesser Egyptian jarboa (mouse), and a jumping frog.
Pages 28-29, Chapter 3: The Mighty Shrimp Machine, on the left page space to study an animal by drawing it, and on the right REAL WORLD EXAMPLES, such as the medieval catapult and a zootrope of a kangaroo jumping, with a more examples described in a couple paragraphs of text, in various blue and green colors.
Pages 70-71, first pages of Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, with text, photographs describing submarines, related vocabulary, and a diagram showing submarines sink, and photographs of many historic examples.
Pages 72-73, Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment such as (rubber bands, water balloons, plastic syringes, an empty plastic bottle, etc. drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Cornelius Drebble, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Pages 74-75, Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, with some photograph experiment and submarine examples.
Pages 76-77 Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, on the left page an experiment demonstrating buoyancy, accompanied by a sketchy diagram and photos of submarines, and on the right side text describing real world examples with diagrams of fish swim bladders and a photo of a scuba diver.
Pages 88-89, first pages of Chapter 11: The Spinning Sprinkler, with text, photographs describing how sprinklers work, related vocabulary, and a diagram of Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion (for every action there is an equal reaction) with a balloon, and photos of historic and modern sprinkleres and lawns.
Pages 90-91, Chapter 11: The Spinning Sprinkler, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment such as (scissors, straws, paper clips, tape, an empty water bottle, etc. drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Hero of Alexandria, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Pages 94-95, Chapter 11: The Spinning Sprinkler, step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, with some photograph examples.
text with arrow on right pointing right: scroll to see some chapters side by side
text with arrow pointing to scrollbar above says: scroll to see some chapters side by side
Line drawing of the household materials needed for an experiment with text in Spanish: rubber bands (bandas elásticas), paper clips (clips de papel), and various sticks (un objecto largo y rígido)
Pages 46-47, first pages of Chapter 6 in Spanish: La Medusa Propulsada por Vórtice, with text, photographs describing the jellyfish, related vocabulary, a diagram showing how the jellyfish moves through water by propulsion, and photographs of jellyfish, all in Spanish and mostly blue colors.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Evangelista Torricelli in red orange, Alexandra Techet in dark blue, Archimedes in orange, and Roger Hanlon in purple.
Pages 48-49, Chapter 6 in Spanish: La Medusa Propulsada por Vórtice, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment such as (a plastic cup, scissors, pens, pencils, plastic ties, etc. drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist John Dabiri, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw, all in Spanish.
Pages 50-51, Chapter 6 in Spanish: La Medusa Propulsada por Vórtice, step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, with some photograph examples, all in Spanish. Pages 52-53, Chapter 6 in Spanish: La Medusa Propulsada por Vórtice, on the left page, a game of matching the animal with its vortex wake, and on the right page text on real world examples, a diagram of an artificial muscle called a medusoid, and photographs of jellyfish, all in Spanish.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Alexandra Techet in dark blue and Archimedes in orange.
Line drawing of the household materials needed for an experiment with text in Spanish: rubber bands (bandas elásticas), paper clips (clips de papel), and various sticks (un objecto largo y rígido)
A diagram of Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion (for every action there is an equal reaction) with a balloon, and photos of historic and modern sprinkleres and lawns
Pages 70-71, first pages of Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, with text, photographs describing submarines, related vocabulary, and a diagram showing submarines sink, and photographs of many historic examples.
Pages 72-73, Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, showing on the left page the household materials needed to MAKE the experiment such as (rubber bands, water balloons, plastic syringes, an empty plastic bottle, etc. drawn as line-based illustrations) and how long it will take, with helpful advice from scientist Cornelius Drebble, and on the right, a cream-colored graph page for sketching with instructions to draw.
Pages 74-75, Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, step by step instructions on how to build the experiment model, with some photograph experiment and submarine examples.
Line drawn portraits of scientists Alexandra Techet in dark blue and Evangelista Torricelli in red orange.
Pages 76-77 Chapter 9: The Sinking Submarine, on the left page an experiment demonstrating buoyancy, accompanied by a sketchy diagram and photos of submarines, and on the right side text describing real world examples with diagrams of fish swim bladders and a photo of a scuba diver.

next project

In a lush green park with bricks seemingly floating in the air at various heights, an old man holding a plastic bag reads the text painted on one of the bricks, while standing facing away from the camera.

FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION

BOSTON, MA