A Lifetime of Education

It’s no surprise that many of our clients are schools, colleges, and educational institutions. As a former director of publications and teacher at two different schools, I’ve seen first-hand the special needs that schools have and know the challenges involved.

Schools and colleges have to address the needs of very different audiences, for example. They need to appeal to 16-year-old high school students applying to colleges, to alumni that may not have stepped foot on campus in 50 years, to professionals and businesses that may hire graduates, to potential educators and staff, and to funding sources for projects, research grants, and scholarships. Then there are the internal brand conflicts that can arise between different divisions with wildly different needs—athletics, academics, financial, to name a few. How can you address the needs of these different audiences while maintaining a consistent brand? How can you speak with a consistent voice while maintaining uniqueness within subdivisions?

Too much variation from a core brand and an institution appears disconnected, losing brand identity. Too little variation compromises the messaging for target groups. An email targeting high school students should share the core DNA with a planned giving brochure for alumni, but the two have very different parameters. Promotional material for the athletics department should share the same DNA as a brochure attracting potential graduate students, but, again, the two target very different audiences.

One of the first goals in designing for education is understanding what the core brand is and what core elements form the identity with the goal of understanding how these elements can be used, manipulated, flexed, so that the resulting designs can be instantly recognizable as connected to the school, but remain fresh and appropriate for the target audience.

Design is a Melody, The Brand is the Symphony

An analogy to this approach can be found is music. Listen to the score of a symphony or even a movie soundtrack. Within this, you’ll often hear a core melody which changes, becomes clearer, more obscured, which is passed between instruments, changed again, returning to its original form over and over. This playfulness is key to keeping the listener entertained and engaged. Periodically, the composer will introduce unexpected elements, quiet passages, loud crashes, syncopated rhythms, minor keys, while keeping within an overall melodic structure. In the end, the work tells a story, completes a picture. In much the same way, designing for an educational institution is like writing that symphony. Individual elements are created that address specific communication needs within an overall structure that is the brand.

Knowing how flexible or how inflexible to be is our expertise. The look and language of a Shapchat filter that targets high school students is different than a dinner invitation that targets your board of trustees. But whether that’s a 1080-by-1920 pixel .PNG file uploaded to a remote server or a 130# uncoated vellum, ivory white, 100% cotton sheet that’s been letterpressed using soy inks, we’ve done it all. We look forward to working with our education clients in the future. As they grow, so will we.

What’s in a Name?

The Wikipedia entry says it right there: John Jay High School is a public high school located in Cross River, New York. It is the only high school in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District. The school, which opened in 1956, is named after John Jay, a Founding father of the United States, and first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who lived nearby. Over the years, the school has been heavily criticized for its mascot, the Indians.

At several times over the past 30 years, the question has been raised whether the school should change its mascot yet, although a 1989 vote by student congress revealed it should, nothing has changed. A recent poll of students revealed a majority of students voting were reluctant to abandon the Indian although there was considerable discussion at the school about the issue. As members of the community, we at Studio 23 had some thoughts.

At the time of the school’s founding, there was much less cultural sensitivity. The “Indian” was chosen, no doubt, as a symbol because it was white affluent society’s interpretation of a kind of fierceness. But recently, the student congress reached out to a native American cultural organization which pointed out that the term “indian” is a racial construct, and is offensive to many in their culture. Clearly, the mascot needs to go.

John Jay Indian Logos
Current John Jay High School iconography.

There are many reasons people are uncomfortable with change, particularly for symbols which hold special meaning to them. Tribal loyalties are questioned, emotions get stirred. But sometimes the issue can be as simple as not being able to see the possibilities beyond what they currently have. To that end, Studio 23 created a series of alternate identities as talking points, not as finished designs. For inspiration we looked at meaningful fauna that were native to the area in the time of John Jay—ravens, wolves, wildcats, hawks—as well as more intangible concepts such as patriot, pioneer, and American.

Below is a result of one of those explorations—the John Jay Revolution, inspired by the fact that John Jay was a prominent figure during the American revolution. The concept uses a tattered “revolutionary flag” as a core part of the identity. The new name implies rebellion and uprising but also implies a sense of speed and motion. The primary typeface used is Franklin Gothic (which would have made Ben Franklin proud) and the color is retained from the existing identity. The modular identity, shown in various possible configurations, includes the name, flag, stylized “JJ”, and is flexible enough to accommodate not only sports teams but clubs and organizations affiliated with the school.

While this is only a concept intended to spark a discussion, we urge the folks at John Jay to move the project forward and hope that our efforts can help in some small way to make that happen. We’d love to come to a game and see the crowd proudly waving their flags. That would be, ahem, revolutionary.

John Jay Indian Alternatives

The University of the Arts Design Posters Revived

Between 1990 and 1992, a series of posters was created to announce lectures by famous designers and creative thinkers including Dan Friedman, M&Co., Matthew Carter, and Muriel Cooper. These simple diazo-process posters were never meant to last more than a week or so. Recently, we opened our archive and resurrected the series, or the ones we could find, rebuilding them in high-resolution.

We don’t have any plans to reissue these but we’ll keep that in mind if there’s interest. But for now, enjoy this blast from the past.

Muriel Cooper: Computers and Design
Victor Margolin: The Russian Revolution
Matthew Carter: Type and Technology
Tibor Kalman: M&Co.
Dan Friedman
Robert Koehl: Greek Myths
Doug Scott: Graphic Design in America

Official Sports Kicks Off a New, Secure Store

Official Sports e-commerce website design by Lee Willett / Studio 23

official_sports_webHow important is security to your company? Official Sports hired a developer to create a secure e-commerce store for their soccer referee gear store. Unfortunately, they found that the site had been compromised and credit card data was stolen. That’s when they called Studio 23.We reviewed the situation and developed a game plan. We were able to access the store files, scrub any user data and get the site back quickly as a brochure. We assessed existing e-commerce options and knew that whatever system we would recommend would be very secure but also be recognized as a secure brand by customers. Ultimately, we recommended using Amazon’s webstore platform. We developed a new look and feel to the store to reassure visitors that the store was, in fact, new. We worked with the client in porting catalog records and images into the new platform, creating promotions and a special holiday shop just in time for their annual sale.

By the time the holiday sale concluded, the company saw an increase in sales of 11% over the previous year—an impressive increase considering the circumstances. We’d call that a big win but you be the referee and visit the site at OfficialSports.com.

Studio 23 Launches New Coffee Site

National Coffee Association Website by Lee Willett / Studio 23

ncausa_web2The National Coffee Association of USA hired Studio 23 to redevelop its website that serves the coffee trade as a resource of timely information, events and governmental affair initiatives. The site uses a proprietary content management system with components for member accounts, registrations and store. The original site contained considerable archived articles but distinguishing the archives from the current articles was a challenge to visitors. Also, the original site had limited navigational items and poor organization that inhibited access.

We evaluated the current structure and recommended that we continue to use the existing CMS. While not ideal, changing to a new platform would have been prohibitively expensive and would have required retraining by the organization’s support staff resulting in a loss of time. What we did was to re-architect the site, creating a clear two-tier navigation structure based on areas of expertise. Further, to promote these areas, we developed a rotating masthead that greets visitors with the most important news or events that the organization has to offer. Since the site was performing well with regard to search engine optimization, we made sure that the most visited pages gained in accessibility and older pages moved into archive areas where content was accessible but not primary.

Further, to make the site easily managed, we developed robust style sheets and an image module that is a standard size throughout the site. As a result, one size can be used everywhere thus limiting time creating multiple sizes of graphics.

Since the launch, we’ve watched the site’s visitors grow by 30% and retention increase as well. Check it out at ncausa.org.

Studio 23 Wins Core77 Poster Contest

Conservation Poster by Lee Willett / Studio 23

ConservePosterStudio 23 is proud to announce its poster submission to Core77.com’s Sustainable Refrainables competition has been awarded a jury prize by the Core77 design community. Over 400 entries were submitted and ours was voted fourth most popular meaning the poster will be produced as transit shelters that will be displayed in San Francisco for one week prior and during Design Week in San Francisco, June 13-19, 2011. If you’re in the city in mid June, keep an eye out for our poster.

Project
Create a poster with the phrases that move people toward sustainable design and business solutions.

Background Info
Core77 collaborated with the San Francisco chapter of AIGA to support their fourth biennial Compostmodern conference. The conference, dedicated to promoting and inspiring sustainable design solutions, is geared to established design firms and advertising agencies, emerging designers, design students and strategists who are interested in cultivating sustainable design by becoming catalysts for cultural, social and ecological transformation. Compostmodern 2011 will explore the current and future potential for ecologically sustainable growth and responsible design, focusing on real world solutions and practical applications of design thinking.

Task Definition
“Sustainable Refrainables” is a poster design competition celebrating words of persuasion. Designers tell stories. We use those stories to convey complex ideas in an engaging and meaningful way. One of those most complex ideas we deal with is about sustainable design—how to do it creatively, and how to garner support from our clients to do it effectively. Frameworks can get dry very quickly. Case studies can only take you so far. Often times, what we really need is a powerful opening salvo to jumpstart the dialogue.

The Compostmodern Core77 Design Competition invites designers to share those mantric phrases they find most powerful in communicating positive action. Maybe the phrase is something as simple as “I never use the word ‘sustainability.'” or “The first rule is listen. The second rule is to ignore what you heard and do it better.” or “There is no silver bullet, just silver buckshot.” Whatever your magic phrase, design it up in poster form, upload it to the competition site, and comment on your favorites. We’re looking for your most graphic, persuasive quotables!

All five winners will have their posters produced as transit shelters that will be displayed in San Francisco for one week prior and during Design Week in San Francisco, June 13-19, 2011. Posters will also be produced and awarded to the winning designers.

Studio 23 Launches Disfluency.com

Disfluency Web Magazine Design by Lee Willett / Studio 23
DisfluencyToday, Studio 23 launched a new site called Disfluency.com which contains bits and pieces of design postings from around the web loosely tied together on the theme of disfluency—the art of making things difficult. Disfluency is a break or interruption in a visual flow of elements. It implies a disjointed nature of elements which can lead to effective or disastrous communications as a result. On the one hand, creating messages that challenge the reader can make those messages more effective and memorable. However, too little structure leads to chaos and anarchy. The right balance is the goal of any good designer. Stay tuned.

A Styleworks Upgrade

After two years of being in service, StyleWorks of Union Square wanted a fresh look to their website design. The old site, while still functioning, used older photos and a richer color scheme than the fresher look the client wanted to portray. That gave Studio 23 the ability to make some upgrades to the back end as well and promote the client’s social media links more prominently. The first thing we did was to install the latest version of Joomla content management system and port much of the content from the existing site.

Next, we designed a lighter and more open look and feel to the website while keeping accents in the client’s signature red. Once the framework was created, the client asked that we add new functions to promote her Skype consultations, her new blog, and new image training products. We also added more robust analytics and are working on an ongoing basis on optimizing page rank and search engine performance. Because we know that no matter how nice the website design is, what’s important is what the design does—builds clients.

So far, our client is thrilled with her stylish new look that just happens to fit perfectly.

A New Site for Aino Education

Aino Education Website Design by Lee Willett / Studio 23

news_ainoStudio 23 is excited to be working with Aino Education on the launch of their company and the development of their identity, website design and collateral materials. Owner Colin Greene knew he wanted an identity that was clean and simple and a website that was flexible enough that it could be changed and updated quarterly has his programs expanded. Studio 23 responded by creating a simple identity and a site that uese bold colors and lots of white space to highlight the client’s text. But creating a great design is only the start.

Once launced, Studio 23 is working to tweak the site’s keywords and meta data to improve search engine optimization. By following the traffic and trends of the site, we’re able to optimize search results and drive visitors. Since the site’s launch, we’ve been tracking the data, changing the website design to improve performance, adding and changing pages as necessary. To that end, we can say that building this site has been an education.

A New Mark for Lewisboro Library

Lewisboro Library Identity

LewisboroLibraryThe Lewisboro Library is perceived as a local resource by the community it serves. The Library, in fact, is a vibrant hub of activity offering programs, internet connection, books, videos and music from any of the libraries in the Westchester Library System. In addition, the Library was embarking on a new fundraising campaign and wanted a fresh identity to communicate a sense of tradition and a preparedness for the future.

Studio 23 created a logo that combines traditional and electronic elements to convey both a sense of past and future.