Roger Burrows

Roger Burrows (born 19 July 1945, Evesham, Worcestershire) is a British writer working in the fields of geometry, design, and architectural form; a developer of interactive learning products; an inventor of various technologies.^[1] He has published numerous books,^[2][3][4] and is best known for his series of geometric design books,^[5] developed with Dr. Ensor Holiday,^[6][7][8] and published under the names Altair Designs and Images: The Ultimate Coloring Experience. He founded ix2, an educational products company based in Park City, Utah, in 2011. In 1999 he co-founded Sandvik Innovations LLC with Sandvik Publishing – Sandvik Innovations LLC was sold in 2011 to the Horizon Group; in the early 1990s he developed the Booktronics product line for Readers Digest, and before that was the Executive Vice-President of the Price Stern Sloan publishing company.^[9][10]

Roger Burrows has invented a number of technologies including Magnix, Photo Q, and Booktronics and developed Questron, an interactive book and electronic "wand" system for children.^[11] He has produced exhibitions for the Leonardo, Utah's Science and Technology Museum, for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales, and for the Architectural Association in London.

Altair Design/Images

Burrows worked with Ensor Holiday, of Guy's Hospital, London, in the early 1970s, developing a set of geometric patterns called Altair Designs. Altair Designs were variations of a unique and unusual Islamic design constructed on an arrangement of close packing of circles, with variation in circle sizes.^[12] The design variations were found to have unique visual properties and served to stimulate the visual imagination. Altair Designs were originally published by Random House as colouring books for both adults and children under the Altair Design name.^[13] Burrows began developing, in the late 1960s, a dynamic geometry of close packing spheres of different sizes where spheres change size and move from one unique close packing arrangement to another, creating unique three-dimensional forms. Burrows has given numerous lectures on his geometry of close packing spheres as well as lectures on the evolution of geometrical systems through time, and how they were applied by cultures in the past. Burrows has also developed designs based on close packing circle arrangements generated by his geometry of spheres, including Images: The Ultimate Coloring Experience, and Hidden Images published by Running Press.^[14] Burrows redrew all of the original Altair designs for Wooden Books published in 2009. Altair Designs and Images designs are all based on unique geometrical structures – in the case of Altair Designs they are based on two arrangements of close packing circles and in the case of "Images" designs based on close packing circle arrangements of all sorts plus many other precise geometrical systems.

Other work

Burrows was an acquaintance, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, of Francis Huxley, (nephew of Aldous Huxley), author and teacher, who encouraged his early exploration of the cultural development of geometrical forms. He was also an acquaintance of quantum physicist David Bohm and Sufi writer Idries Shah. Whilst working at Price Stern Sloan Burrows worked with various celebrities, including Frank Zappa. Burrows is also a developer of interactive products for children, an inventor, and a technology developer, having developed and patented Questron, an electronic book system; Booktronics electronic books; Magnix, a print based system that makes paper, card, and plastic magnetically interactive; Photo Q, a means to print high resolution images on fabric; Trimensions, a technology that transforms books into three-dimensional experience; and many other technologies. Editions have been published in the UK, the US, and Hungary.^[15][16] Burrows has partnered with companies such as Disney and Ravensburger in creating educational products.^[17][18]

Partial bibliography

Images

front cover
Author	Roger Burrows
Illustrator	Roger Burrows
Cover artist	Roger Burrows
Subject	colouring book
Publisher	Running Press
Publication date	1992
ISBN	1-56138-109-8
OCLC	31500010

• Labyrinths Hidden Geometry: available as an ibook title.
• Altair Design Pattern Pad 1: ISBN 978-1-907155-00-0:
• Altair Design Pattern Pad 2: ISBN 978-1-907155-01-7:
• Hidden Images: Garden: ISBN 978-0-7624-3951-5:
• Hidden Images: Vehicles: ISBN 978-0-7624-3950-8:
• Hidden Images: Dinosaurs: ISBN 978-0-7624-3973-7:
• Hidden Images: Dinosaurs: ISBN 978-0-7624-3974-4:
• Images 1 (Jumbo Edition): ISBN 978-0-7624-3908-9:
• Images 2 (Jumbo Edition): ISBN 978-0-7624-3909-6:
• Images Travel Pack: ISBN 978-0-7624-2288-3:
• Images Coloring Kit: ISBN 978-0-7624-1449-9:
  • Original Images series:
• Images 1: ISBN 978-1-56138-109-8:
• Images 2: ISBN 978-1-56138-110-4:
• Images 3: ISBN 978-1-56138-192-0:
• Images 4: ISBN 978-0-7624-0695-1:
• Images 5: ISBN 978-0-7624-1448-2:

References

1. Octagonal house plan, retrieved from Boulder, CO gov't website june 2009
3. Mazes, Models & More (1988) Price Stern Sloan ISBN 978-0-8431-2281-7 ISBN 0843122811
4. Counting Farm, Roger Burrows and Eli Cantillon. School Zone Pub. Co, 2002. ISBN 978-1-58947-846-6 ISBN 1-58947-846-0
5. Gridesigns to Color Price Stern Sloan, 1992. ISBN 978-0-8431-0448-6 ISBN 0-8431-0448-1
6. "A new photo-electric spectrophotometer", F Campbell Smith and Ensor R. Holiday, Research Laboratories, The London Hospital. 1931, Trans. Opt. Soc.
7. On Creativity David Bohm &Lee Nichol, pg. 85
8. Nature, #143, 895–896 (27 May 1939) "Absorption Spectra of Proteins" Ensor Holiday
11. Questron titles at Alibris.com
12. Bourgoin: Le Trait des Entrelacs (Arabic Geometrical Pattern & Design) (1879) (reprinted, Dover Books, 1973) – source for some of the ideas for Altair Designs
13. Altair Design by Ensor Holiday. Random House (1973) ISBN 0-394-82548-9
14. Images: The Ultimate Coloring Experience." Philadelphia: Running Press, 1992 through to 2011
15. Szinvarazs (Images), Hungarian edition

External links

• Roger Burrows' official website
• Images at Google Books
• Burrows' account of his meeting with Ensor Holiday, at Wooden Books website