Dreams for Schools
Transforming STEAM education in the classroom
THE CHALLENGE
Dreams for Schools was struggling to differentiate between other STEAM education programs.
Dreams for Schools is an after-school program that provides an approachable and accessible education to children, by giving them the right tools and level of mentorship they need to succeed.
Their primary educational program, AppJam+, didn’t relate visually to the Dreams for Schools logo, but was a more recognized program.
How might we create a flexibile and scalable brand identity that represents youth education and technology?
My Role & Responsibilities
Design Strategy
Competitive Research
Brand Identity Design
UX/UI
The Process
Industry Research
Logo Development
Website Redesign
THE PROCESS
Dreams for Schools offers core development programs to 3 key audiences.
AppJam+ : An after-school program designed to teach programming technology and engineering principles to middle school students.
Summercamps: A short-term session designed to educate parents in STEM education
Professional Development : A program for educators interested in bringing and teaching AppJam+ at their schools
I led a team of 7 junior designers through the process of design research, identifying key marketing deliverables and assets.
From stakeholder surveys and competitive research to visual identity development, I guided a small team through each step of the process, articulating to the strategy, copywriting, social media, and engineering teams our findings and recommendations.
Initial brand survey results from the Dreams for Schools leadership committee
SOLUTION
A unified design approach to sub-branding their portfolio of programs.
Through this research, we developed a new visual identity system that allowed Dreams for Schools to communicate a variety of programs and resources to their target audiences.
Leveraging the success of their primary after-school program, AppJam+, we reverse-engineered their primary logo to encompass AppJam+ as a subset of the parent brand.
Final logo redesign
We now had a consistent approach for branding their current sub-programs and future program opportunities.
Sub-branding approach for Dreams for Schools programs
Once the visual design was in place, I worked closely with the development team to create a new landing page with a clear call-to-action.
This involved a current site audit, with an emphasis on restructuring their information architecture. A few of the biggest UX opportunities we identified to align with the strategic goals of Dreams for Schools were:
E-Learning Platform
A video-based student platform for launching new curriculum and tracking educational progress.E-Commerce Integration for Summer Camps
Scheduling, booking, and payment portal for parents and teachers to book educational after-school Summer Camp openings.Donation Management
An easy way for board members, parents and educational institutions to partner and donate to the Dreams for Schools campaign.
In-progress snapshot of the sitemap redesign
Me, intensely outlining the proposed structure for the redesigned homepage
We were able to launch a new-and-improved website, simplifying the user experience and focusing on the key benefits that brought to their customers:
A unified and flexible visual identity
A personal, approachable, kid-friendly logo design
Brand messaging
Want to learn more about this project?
Contact me at lucy@darbydesignco.com to schedule a conversation.