Revamping an education organization's brand and voice
Role
Designer
Involvement
Product design
User research
Graphic design
Collaborators
Individual
Background
York Regional Educational Services (YRES) is an NPO dedicated to providing free and affordable educational services. Their sister organization is Vancouver Regional Educational Services (VRES).
Overview
At U+ Education, I got to wear many different hats. Whether it be creating curriculum materials, designing print materials, revamping a website, or even teaching a class, everyday offered something new.
During my time at U+ Education, I worked on revamping the brand for its sister organizations: York Regional Educational Services (YRES) and Vancouver Regional Educational Services (VRES).
I worked on the following design-related projects:
VRES website revamp
Various print designs: stand-up banners, photo walls flyers
Digital marketing materials: slide templates, social posts
This case study showcases some of the design work I did during my first internship at U+ Education.
Highlights
Some highlights of the project.
General overview
Print designs
The challenge
The goal of VRES and YRES is to clearly showcase all of their program offerings:
Free learning programs (languages, STEAM, personal development)
Volunteering opportunities
Camp programs
The existing branding and design of the organizations lacked in consistency. Some of the problems included the following:
Inconsistent fonts
Little contrast of colours
Lack of padding and margins on elements
Inconsistent graphic style
Confusing navigation (on website)
Previous design for VRES homepage
Problem statement
How can we transform the current brand to be more visually appealing, readable, and easy to use?
The solution
Redesigning the VRES website
I re-designed the VRES website to align with the organization's mission and audience.
Building an asset repository
To promote consistency across the organization's digital and physical marketing materials, I created an asset repository and design system.
This asset repository was stored on Figma, which included instructions on the following:
Typography guidelines
Colours
Assets
Examples of designs
Asset repository
Print designs
Design process
Low-fidelity sketches
Following the requirements from the existing VRES website's design, I created low-fidelity sketches to determine which placements of elements would be the best.
I also created a quick flow diagram to model the potential paths a user may take on the website.
Wireframing
After creating the sketches, I created the wireframes for the pages.
Visual elements
Revamping the design system
I iterated upon VRES's existing branding to give the brand a more playful and welcoming feel.
Creating graphics
Using the keywords, I created graphics to match the bright, playful atmosphere I was envisioning for the site.
Reflections
Design systems
This project taught me a lot about brand maintenance and design systems. Design systems need to be accessible, readable and understood by others.
From my experiences here, I aim to build and document clearer design systems in future projects.
Visual design
Throughout this internship, I gained a lot more experience with visual design. I learned more about how to construct visual design flows to create a path for the audience's eyes to follow and read.
Special thanks
A special thanks to all my fellow interns for your support and fun times during our term at U+ Education!
