Catholic Virtues
The Catholic Schools Pupil Profile greatly supports children’s spiritual, moral, vocational, social, and cultural development.
Did you know we have created a collection of child friendly displays focusing on the Values and Virtues?
They are particularly aimed at 4 – 11-year-old pupils using bright engaging colours linked to the pairings, photography and illustration, as well as selecting a simple, clear typeface with the preferred letter ‘a’ to aid early readers.
For more information see:
https://www.twothirdsdesign.co.uk/products/catholic-displays-values-virtues-plaques-and-tree/
If you are interested in the displays above and would like an accurate costing, it would help if you could provide the following:
- Dimensions of the space so we can advise on the size.
- A description of the area (e.g. high footfall, near a heat source – radiator or direct sunlight) so we can advise on the right material.
- Photographs of the area (e.g. Reception, Hall, Corridor) so we can assess the right fixtures.
We will get back to you ASAP or alternatively contact us on 0121 233 2057 to discuss the possibilities.
Bespoke enquires welcome!
Does your school environment reflect your faith? Are you due your RE Inspection?
If you are a Catholic or Church of England school, your Christian ethos will be the foundation of everything you do.
Let Two Thirds Design help you to create faith based displays by producing signage and display boards that reflect your distinctive Christian character, showing the outside world as well as those inside, the school’s Christian foundation.
Take a minute to look around your school. Does your school environment reflect your faith? If you answer no, then get in touch with the Two Thirds Design team – we’ll be happy to help!
Our solutions are varied as your school is unique and can include typography, illustrations, photography and pupils’ artwork.
A selection of the latest available materials can be used to transform any area, from high quality glossy acrylic plaques to cost effective Foamex boards, bespoke hardwearing wallpaper to a printed metal DiBond, for outdoor and indoor use.
Say NO to messy pinboards, Blu-Tacked notices and stapled displays!
As you'll see on our website, we transform school spaces, but did you know we also provide customizable everyday wall displays?
We produce interactive, usable information panels that are a quick and easily adaptable solution to display your information. They are neat and tidy, and can be easily customized with your school colours, values and logo.
These can be used in your corridors to display children’s artwork, in reception spaces for parents information panels or teachers who's who boards, to hall and communal spaces where the schools values or house point system can be prominently displayed and updated as required.
We only use high quality materials and create our displays using a variety of sized clip frames, window posterFix holders, acrylic poster pockets and leaflet holders. Our bespoke graphics are printed to the reverse of the acrylic boards making them easy to wipe clean.
Satisfied Customers!
Over the summer break we were lucky to install our work in some inspiring Birmingham schools.
So...blowing our own trumpet...here's what a couple of them said...
Two Thirds Design - a wholly professional company with creativity, flair and importantly patience with the client.
Think big and outside the box! Anything is possible!
Emma Tyler
Co-Headteacher
Greet Primary School
Thank you for your beautiful work at English Martyrs’. The children have had a wonderful time roaming around the school to find all the new displays. Our thanks to you and your team for not only understanding but enhancing our original vision for our school.
Evelyn Harper
English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School
How about focusing on your School Houses this year?
The House system is a long standing tradition that creates competition, promotes good work and behaviour, encourages teamwork, provides opportunities to take on responsibilities and brings everyone in the school together.
Need some food for thought?
Here’s a selection of Banners and Boards…
Did you know your school signage, reception hatch and waiting area is your shopfront?
After the fist impression of your website, visitors and parents will enter your school gates and make a judgement on your reception entrance area.
A cluttered messy space with unorganised noticeboards, shabby walls with faded displays all leaves visitors with a negative experience, but an entrance that is warm, bright and welcoming and reflects your school's ethos and values, will make a good lasting impression.
Organised areas that are clearly sign posted help parents and visitors scan information quickly; e.g. notices, achievements, staff boards, school motto and examples of children's work.
Through our work we visit many schools we often find ourselves sitting in reception, and we often ask ourselves, do I feel welcome here? Is it obvious what school I am in? Can I quickly scan a staff board to see the member of staff I'm about to visit? Am I sitting in a public space like a health visitor centre or does it feel like a school? If the school is a faith based primary or secondary, can I tell?
Take a look around your reception space and if any of your answers to the above questions are no, then get in touch with the Two Thirds Design team. We are happy to visit your school, take a look around your reception space and offer concept ideas and prices, at no obligation, free of charge.
Let Two Thirds Design transform your school space.
The Tape Measure is out!
We've had a busy few weeks measuring up at some fantastic schools... now for the creative bit!
Wall Vinyls
Wall Vinyl’s are a great cost effect solution, using simple solid coloured shapes and vinyl cut lettering can make a dramatic impact. There are many types with different grades of adhesive strengths on the market too; we can even wrap the face of a radiator! We always specify the right solution for that specific environment.
Here are a few helpful tips to see if this material is the best solution for your space:
- Do a masking tape test - Leave a piece about 50cm long over night, if it is still looks like it did when you applied it then great! If it has peeled or fallen off then we should complete a sample test using our vinyl.
- A textured wall may be better with a brick vinyl solution.
- Matt chalky paints can repel vinyl, so if you were going to redecorate we would suggest a satin or gloss finish. The longer you can leave it after the last coat the better as it can take up to 6 weeks for the paint to properly cure!
- If the wall is showing any signs of damp, or the area will be affected by a heat source then direct to wall vinyl probably isn’t the right material. A vinyl wrapped diBond (metal) board cut to shape would be perfect!
Environment Matters
As human beings, we naturally react to the physical impact of our surroundings. We adapt our clothing to move comfortably through hot or cold air. We spend considerable sums on furniture that makes us feel relaxed and secure. We respond to pleasing décor. And we react just as readily to our emotional atmosphere.
Study after study indicates that a positive school environment is essential for optimal teaching and learning. We at Two Thirds Design understand how important the environment is as an aid to learning. If a child feels secure, happy and calm in their surroundings, they are more likely to feel relaxed and able to learn.
We can help your school develop an environment that will enable all students to feel positively connected to their school, relaxed, and realize their maximum potential. Whatever your requirements, we can help you transform your interior or exterior spaces into calming quiet corners, for reflection and down-time, all the way through to stimulating, engaging spaces to be used as resources or inspiration.
Comic Sans? Oh NO!!!
Working with a lot of Primary Schools we are often asked to use a font with a single story lowercase a and g rather than the more ornate letter-press versions of these letters. So that any school’s signage or display reflects how pupils are taught letter formation and handwriting skills, and allows early readers to decode text more easily.
Many clients only know of Comic Sans and when they ask, all the designers in the world say “Oh NO!”
“If you love Comic Sans, feel free to use it with the understanding that it makes your work appear amateurish and thus the information it presents is perceived as unprofessional,”
says Robin Williams, author of The Non-Designer’s Design and Type Books and How to Boss Your Fonts Around.
Comic Sans was originally designed back in 1994 and has been supplied by Microsoft windows since 1995, hence why it’s so ubiquitous. The font eventually found widespread popularity and derision in equal amounts. Most designers agree that you can use many alternatives to Comic Sans and still have clarity, legibility and element of informality.
So here’s helpful list of fonts that either contain a single story a and g or contain alternative characters (in an OpenType font both forms can be contained within the one font and us lovely creatives can switch between the two forms in our design software):
- Adequate
- Advert
- Apple Casual
- Apple Chancery
- Ayuthaya
- Berlin Sans FB
- Cambridge-round from aviation
- Campton Bold
- Chevin-std from g-type
- FF Advert
- FF Basic Gothic
- FF Chambers Sans
- FF Dagny
- FF DIN Round
- FF Duper
- FF Jackie
- FF Karbid Slab
- FF Karbid Text
- FF Lance
- FF Nuvo
- FF Nuvo Mono
- FF Profile
- FF Schulbuch Nord
- FF Super Grotesk
- FF Unit
- FF Unit Rounded
- FF Unit Slab
- FF Utility
- FF Zwo
- Futura
- Heinemann from Fontsworks UK
- Hiruko from thinkdust
- Litera
- OpenDyslexic from Dyslexic Fonts
- Report from Typodermic
- Sassoon from Monotype
- UkrainianFuturis Bold Font
- UkrainianSchoolBook BoldItalic Font
- Ultura Light, medium, italic, heavy
- Uncle Salty 2 Font
- Uncle Salty 9
- Unit BlackAlternate Font
- Unit BlackAlternateItalic Font
- Unit MediumAlternate Font
- Unit RegularAlternate
- Unit LightAlternate Font
Another installation
4 School House Saint banners are just about to go up in St Marie's Rugby - St David, St George, St Patrick and St Andrew.
New website! v2.3
Old/New website!! ok, so it look pretty much exactly the same or very close to the untrained eye, but we really like the current design and well if it ain't broke don't fix it right.
Despite appearances the site has had a complete over hall and under the surface a lot has changed here are just a few.
- New Layouts - we've added some new layout designs and tweaked others.
- Bootstrap based theme.
- Ditched - Highslide in favour of Fancybox for lightbox galleries.
- HTML5 & CSS3 - A lot of original site design was powered by image backgrounds and css sliding doors, we've replaces ones that gave us curved corners, drop shadows and gradients with CSS3.
- IE6 - we used to make a vague attempt to make it look
goodok, now we don't. - Retina graphics - we've created new retina graphics, especially where they contain text,
- Custom Content Types & Taxonomies for WordPress - we've used them for ages on our clients sites, but this one was originally build before they existed so we created a load and migrated over the old content as best as possible.
- Icon Font - several icons throughout the site have been replaced with a font.
- Sprites - small background images have been combined into sprites.
- Finally we've put some effort into optimisation, we already served some of the graphical assets from a CDN, thats now most.. and were also taking or JS and CSS optimisation and cacheing further in a effort to really minimise load times.
The result hopefully a faster, easier to user site !!
