While it may not be summer yet, now is the perfect time to begin planning educational materials for the next school year. Teacher’s manuals, reference materials and children’s workbooks must combine functionality, durability and safety, and Finish Line Binderies is on top of current educational design trends. Here are a few tips for improving your educational materials:

Safety Trends

Coil locking - Mechanical binding styles such as spiral wire and Wire-O allow educational materials to lay flat and be held in one hand. However, the exposed ends of wire binding elements can pose a safety issue. At Finish Line Binderies, we overcome this by “coil-locking” these exposed ends to secure the wire and prevent it from catching on clothing, backpacks or small fingers. Coil locking is a process of wrapping the wire ends around the final loops at both the book’s head and foot.

Plastic Binding Elements

Non-metal binding styles such as plastic spiral and plastic comb binding are also available at Finish Line Binderies. These styles take advantage of plastic binding elements for improved safety. As with other mechanical binding styles, plastic comb and plastic spiral binding elements are available in dozens of colors to match your designs.

Planning tip: Including an easel on the cover of teacher’s manuals or workbooks can turn any book into a display piece. Easels can take a variety of forms, and must be designed and constructed to properly support the weight of the book. Let us help you plan your educational materials to include easels.