Minihaus

Project Title: Minihaus

Components: Printed Activity Book, Wooden Dollhouse, Stickers, Packaging, Wrapped Crayons

Software Used: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign

Typefaces Used: P22 Toybox, Mr. Eaves

Team: Myself, Ashton Crochet, Rhena Johnson, Kennedy Roush

My Roles: Book design, Case study design, copy writing

My team and I were tasked with creating a physical object geared toward children and centered around a specific design philosophy. Our philosophy was drawn from the Bauhaus and Swiss Design movement, hence the project’s name. It’s based on the principle that to fully understand something, a designer needs to break it down into its most fundamental components. Our product reflects this visually through its focus on geometry and its primary color scheme. The house itself is an educational tool to teach children about the Gestalt principles, which are the most fundamental concepts in design. The activity book serves as an interactive element.

The activity book is packaged inside a manila envelope with a set of crayons. Teachers would be able to order sets of the books online - one book per student - and have them mailed in.

Set of MiniHaus activity book, pen, markers, stickers, and paper bag on a white background. The activity book has a cover design inspired by De Stijl and the Bauhaus with red, blue, yellow, black, and white blocks.
Three brown paper envelopes with red stickers labeled 'MINIHAUS' and a collection of red and yellow, white, blue, and black crayons in one of the envelopes on a white background.
A colorful activity book with a red, yellow, and blue cover, and a white activity booklet on top featuring geometric shapes and the words 'Activity Book' in block letters.
Colorful stickers of furniture and household items on a page, including a blue sofa, red armchair, yellow lamp, yellow toilet, yellow teapot, and a black and white striped rug, with instructions at the top.

The house itself was also a core component of the project; each room corresponds to a different Gestalt principle. The dining room, for example, shows Similarity due to the repetition of chairs and plates.

Each room contains a ‘painting’ on the wall which also showcases its corresponding principle.

Close-up of a multi-story dollhouse with bedroom and living room decorated with colorful furniture, wall art, and small accessories.
Miniature dining area with a table set for four, surrounded by tall wooden chairs, with a colorful game board on the wall and a small kitchen area to the side.
A miniature kitchen model with wooden cabinets, a black countertop, a stainless steel sink, and a backsplash of yellow polka dot wallpaper. There are three small colorful cups on black shelves and a framed artwork with red, white, blue, and black geometric shapes on the wall.
Miniature room with a red table, a blue and red chair, a black bookshelf with colorful books, colorful wall art with geometric shapes, and a red and yellow floor mat.
An illustration of a red rectangle with white text saying 'MINIHAUS'. Below are black-and-white, three-dimensional alphabet cubes spelling 'ACTIVITY BOOK', and four colored blocks in red, yellow, and blue, resembling the form of the dollhouse itself.
Red separation spread explaining the Gestalt principle of Proximity and how to implement it.

The activity book is divided into six sections, each corresponding to a different Gestalt principle. Each section opens with a brief explanation of its principle, followed by one or two spreads of activities allowing the students to use it in practice.

Instruction page for placing three stickers close together in the corners of a page.

This spread is mostly blank to allow space for a sticker sheet, which students would use to arrange stickers on the page according to proximity.

Colorful stickers of a couch, armchair, fireplace, rug, lamp, dog, and toilet on a white sheet of paper, with crafting instructions at the top.

Shown above is the final version of this spread with the stickers included.

Yellow background with black geometric shapes such as squares, circles, and triangles illustrating the concept of similarity. The page contains text explaining that similarity is the idea that if multiple shapes look the same or similar, the brain groups them together, even if they are far apart or dissimilar shapes. The word 'SIMILARITY' is prominently displayed in large, stylized font.
Educational worksheet showing black outlines of various geometric shapes, including squares, triangles, hexagons, and circles, with a color-coded grid on the right used for shape similarity comparisons.

The crayons included in the package would be used to draw inside the book, for activities such as this one.

A blue background infographic explaining the concept of symmetry. It shows two smiling faces side by side with a vertical line between them, demonstrating reflection symmetry. Below is an ice cream cone and a baseball, with a vertical line in the middle, illustrating symmetry in objects.
Outline of a lamp and a bed, illustrating symmetrical shapes and instructions for drawing lines through their centers to show vertical and horizontal symmetry.
Line drawing of a pepperoni pizza, a Mackintosh chair, a sofa, and a cabinet, illustrating symmetry and line division concepts.
Red background with text explaining the concept of an anomaly, illustrating two examples of shapes with anomalies: a white triangle within a square grid and a white triangle among black circles, with labeling and descriptions about anomalies.
Illustration showing a set of cat and dog faces in red, yellow, and blue with some anomalies to be identified and marked.
Illustration of a hedgehog with text that reads, 'All this, and they don't think to include a single hedgehog.'
Yellow infographic explaining the concept of continuity with a dashed curved line, the word "CONTINUITY" in black, and a black wavy line that resembles a pipe. The text describes how the eye follows connected shapes and compares it to a river on both sides of a bridge.
Diagram illustrating paths from shapes to the bottom with a matching shape at the end, and a set of four bar charts with one staircase leading to the top, color-coded in red, blue, yellow, and black.
An educational infographic explaining the concept of closure with text describing how the brain perceives shapes as complete outlines, depicting a white circle in the middle, and illustrating a zebra with black and white stripes.
Illustration of a blue kitchen sink with faucet and a yellow oven with stove, with instructions to finish drawing the kitchen counter and do the same for objects shown.