BrainAhead is a fun curriculum and science-based learning tool designed to maximize academic achievement and improve mental health in students. The program guides kindergarten to grade 5 students through a compilation of brain-activating videos, exercises, and activities.
Context
I got involved at an early stage of brand development at the end of 2018 when the company was called Brain 1st Program. You can see the first phase of the brand here: https://tinyurl.com/yckkenv2. In mid-2020, the name changed to BrainAhead. As their product has evolved to meet the changing needs of their customers, the brand has also grown, so we did a brand refresh. The first steps were to create a new logo, brand guide, colour palette and typography system for the new website.
Problem & Objective
BrainAhead was a new concept, so having people know the significance and potentially massive benefits for their students was a challenge. It takes a good amount of science-based information to get districts and schools on board. The brand needed to be educative, comprehensive, and engaging for students and educators. The objective was to show BrainAhead as an essential part of learning.
How did you arrive at your solution?
Their old brand wasn't working for them; it felt generic and wasn't reflecting who they wanted to be as a company. I worked closely with the founder to position their brand identity and ensured that the new logo stood out among others. In the redesigned logo concept, the letters "R" and "H" created a path, like a neurotransmitter in the brain, and also by creating an extension of the "H," we emphasized the idea of growing.
Poppins became the new primary brand typeface for BrainAhead. The modern sans-serif font prioritizes legibility and balance. Poppins typeface has a range of weights based on pure geometry, particularly circles, a significant brand element of BrainAhead's identity. We introduced some scale rules to keep the typography system from feeling disjointed to keep the font weights, space tracking, and leading consistent.
For the colours, we kept the previous palette with some additions so it wouldn't clash with the sections of the website that would be updated later. And finally, to inspire trust as a new concept, the infographics for this project were essential to making the BrainAhead foundations easier to understand.
Collaboration
Founder & Director: Cally Bailey and Laura Dieleman
CEO and Head Marketing: Rondi Shouse
Social Media Content: Harleen Gill & Haley Estrada
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Brain 1st is a fun curriculum and science-based social-emotional learning tool designed to maximize academic achievement and improve mental health in students.
Problem & Objectives
Brain 1st is a new concept, so having people know the significance and potentially massive benefits for their students is a challenge. It takes a generous amount of science-based information to get districts and schools on board. The brand must be educative, comprehensive, and engaging for both students and teachers.
The objective is to show Brain 1st as an essential part of learning and a brand that changes the way we look at education. We want the brand to be serious, but provide fun and inspiration to kids.
I got on board at an early stage of brand development to create a scalable and approachable brand identity system that can be translated easily in the Brain 1st marketing and social media communication. My work included the website as well as the user interface of the platform. Through constant exploration of typography, and a series of colourful and uplifting illustrations, we continually worked on evolving and increasing engagement.
What I learned
We created a story of how raising awareness among Brain 1st audiences leads them to become raving fans. We identified specific problems encountered during each step of the process and created a branded solution for each of those problems. Having a system like this in place makes it easier to make smart and targeted decisions that make sense from every point of view.
Ananda is a startup Vancouver-based collective residing on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ / sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. The collective's mission is to create wholesome healing experiences that care for your entire mind, body, and soul, with lots of medicinal giggles! To do this, Ananda partnered with artists, healers, and wisdom-keepers of traditional and ancestral ways of healing, making their sacred knowledge accessible to more people. With Ananda's experiences, you will learn how to radiate more self-love. You will feel more connected to other people in your community and Mother Earth.
My role was to further develop Ananda's visual identity. We started by clarifying Ravi-Shay's vision and transforming it into something tangible. The website was the first step to concretizing his primary concepts. The main goals were to rouse brand awareness, promote the three care kits, and get email sign-ups for people to register their interest. The brand imageries needed to reflect safety, security, comfort, and a vibe that connected body sensitivity to what Ananda offers.
The biggest challenge was visually representing Ananda's ideas without having any physical products. We thought that having simple line-art illustrations of the care kit items would help viewers soak up the concept. And we hoped that curating some joyful and inclusive images would create an emotional impression on the audience. This gave us a visually dynamic suite of ideas to use across the web, communications and social media.
At this stage, the logos, colour palette, illustrations, typography, and imageries were all set to guide us to a cohesive brand. Then came along the Breath Wheel Journal, the first product offering. This is a 192-page book that integrates ancient Indigenous and yogic healing wisdom to help you find balance across all areas of your life. The journal offers some dotted pages for free-form journaling and some games, poems, and self-reflection activities. I worked on the two-colour layout, some of the infographics, and the web page. We also did mockups to simulate the journal cover and the inside pages until the journal is printed. We sold $1500 worth of journals in the first month.
Within this first phase of the Ananda project, it was great to see all the elements coming together to form a cohesive visual identity. Sometimes we need to see it in action to feel more connected, and I think this is what my client needed to kick start Ananda's journey. In my experience, taking the time to ask big questions to create an accurate understanding of the target audience and the competition will level up the impact of the design on the world. Nailing down the values, mission, and goals makes a huge difference in the results, as everything becomes more focused.
Collaboration:
Founder & Creative Director: Ravi-Shay (They)
Copywriter: Jacqueline Salomé (Her) and Ravi-Shay (They)
Notable illustrations in the Breath Wheel Journal: Tajliya Jama (They)
Cover & end-sheets artworks: Syilx Okanagan and David Wilson Sookinakin
Logo: Sierra Holmes (Her)
Front-end development: Sara-Jane (She)
Tags:
Brand development, website design, web components, typography system, products illustrations, presentation deck, social media templates, print layout, book design
Petit Tembo is a Vancouver-based project/boutique whose focus is on social impact. The store caters to parents, with a meticulously edited selection of the best sustainable products for babies and children.
I developed their logo and visual branding elements. PETIT[P(Ə)TI/, /IT] is French for small/little and
TEMBO[TEM-BO, TE-MBO] is Swahili for elephants. It was very important for them to not be literal and show the elephant itself, but only the essence of it. The challenge was to get the feel of it without any direct visual representation of the elephant. They also wanted to have a unique script font for their logotype.
Petit Tembo’s branding is continually evolving with a series of t-shirts, colouring books, and other design items to spread kind words to the world.
Logo design, animation, illustration, colouring book, branding guidelines, banner
CLIENT: Ivana Grubisic and Carla Morales – Owners
Credit: Photo – Ivana Grubisic
Toronto-based Korey Robyn is the creator behind K Star’s Universe. She carefully hand picks a collection of gorgeous previously owned designer fashion for her online shop. With the tagline “Fashion in Motion,” Korey is gearing up to take K Star’s virtual presence to the street and sell her high-end vintage pieces directly from a specially designed truck featuring the K Star brand identity.
Working closely with the client, I helped to bring K Star to the market with a full marketing and communications campaign that included the initial branding work, logo design, and naming strategy. The logo includes the sub-brands “K Star Closet” and “K Star Truck,” and seamlessly translates to various marketing assets for her social media, Shopify website, truck design, and print material.
We really had fun creating and expressing the brand’s “Fashion in Motion” philosophy for all her marketing tools, using the dot patterns in reverse colours and symbols of stars that are in constant expansion.
Branding & naming strategy, logo design, branding guidelines, website, shop online, vehicle wrapping, business card, sandwich board, social media, campaign design, gif animation
CLIENT: Korey Robyn – Owner & model
CREDITS: Kate Erickson – Initial sketch of the logo
Tom Smith – Photo & Copywriting
Each season K Star creates a unique creative campaign for her new collection of clothing and accessories. I helped her by adding some magic to enhance the photography she supplies and integrating them into her Shopify shop and other communication, in line with her marketing strategy. For her 2019 campaign, Korey picked a lot of tie-dye and colourful items, so we decided to light up this aspect by adding some splashes of colours to the background. I love how a simple touch goes a long way.
E-commerce, social media, postcard, photo editing
CLIENT: Korey Robyn – Owner & model
CREDITS: Tom Smith – Photo & copywriting
Tissus Delorme is a well-known family business founded by my parents 50 years ago in Quebec. It is a shop that specializes in sewing, fabrics, decoration, and confection. The goal was to actualize and rejuvenate their brand identity and online presence to expand their clientele, as well as motivate younger generations in creating homemade things.
To achieve their goal, we ultimately needed to develop an online presence, by making a new website with an SEO strategy and by developing their social media with a focus on Facebook ads. The basis is on conceptualizing low-cost but high-impact marketing assets to consistently reach new clientele.
In recognition of the store’s longevity in the textile industry, we wanted to keep the logo essence recognizable. We kept the original graphic idea of the needle and thread interlacing the fabric sample and highlighted the colours.
logo design, branding guidelines, graphic element, social media, digital advertising
CLIENT: Lucie Beaudoin – Owners
SOHTOH created Path 92 in 2019 with the help of Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Dyspatch, Startup Slam, Battlesnake and Shopify to bring together emerging leaders and business owners in tech, who can contribute and start their own path down economic reconciliation in the tech sector.
The conference PATH 92 is a great launchpad for the non-Indigenous business leaders and owners who have not yet participated in reconciliation but want to learn more. If you’re interested in networking with Canadian companies that have already taken the plunge, this is a safe space to ask questions and get ideas for activating the call in practice.
SOHTOH is placing diversity, inclusion, and economic reconciliation at the heart of our approach to supporting corporate Canada in their efforts with Indigenous communities.
I helped develop the brand identity for the conference. I created the logo family and the brand guide with layouts and collaterals for the event. The initial brand words were: vibrant, non-conventional, Pop Arts, modern and open space. Placing forms and shapes in the unexpected was to challenge established models.
Angela Inglis is a charming and talented singer, musician, and composer. Folk mingles with chamber music, Canadian, and hints of jazz on Angela's October 2014 release, Echo. I had the great pleasure of capturing her image, to reflect the intimacy, felinity, and romance that characterize the content of her album, Echo.
My role was to visually create the mood and feel of the album in the accompanying graphics for CD and Vinyl packaging and inserts, including photographing Angela for the cover image.
Album cover, photography, typography, layout
CLIENT: Angela Inglis – Singer, Musician & Composer
CREDIT: Marco Chaparro - Moon photography
Iron Open Mind was a triathlon event, which took place in the Old Port of Montreal. It involved movement, yoga, and meditation. The participants of all ages were looking for a non-competitive physical and mental challenge that contained a spiritual dimension.
My role was to create the logo and identity for the event. The focus was not just on sports or yoga; the intent of the design was also to reflect the harmonious and memorable challenge for the soul. To achieve this, we explored some clean sans-serif typography options to clearly demonstrate in the logo itself the three disciplines, and a multicolour gradient to represent the diversity. The triangle-shaped logo represents the three disciplines of the triathlon linked together as a wholly unique experience.
CLIENT: Sophie Gingras – President
TAGS: Branding, Logo Design, Business Card, Poster, Flyer, Banners, Signage, Social Media
Carole Bessette is a veteran yoga teacher who has been practicing and teaching yoga for more than 20 years. Her beautiful and rustic yoga studio is in a heritage building in Old Montreal. What differentiates her from other studios is the attention she gives to everyone in her practice as well as the family spirit she creates between students.
Her goal is to attract people working or living in Old Montreal, a hip district well-populated with media and design professionals. Her brand identity, created by Louise Marois, reflects that character with the unconventional and playful typography created with the word YO GA split in two. My role was to adapt and implement the original style to all her collaterals and marketing tools.
Website, Poster, Flyer, Social Media
CLIENT: Carole Bessette - Yoga Teacher & Owner
CREDITS: Charle Demers – Web Development
Valérie Paquette – Photos
Sarah Elola - Copy Writing
7Geese Software is one of the world’s largest performance management companies. Specializing in OKRs, continuous feedback, coaching, performance reviews, and career growth plans, the brand continues to attract a vast array of organizations that wish to enhance their workforce with the newest human resources trends and tools. I got on board at an early stage of brand development and was assigned to enlarge the visual identity, and build templates to communicate how companies, managers, and CEOs can benefit from using the product. At first, this meant creating infographics, vector illustrations, icons, and diagrams to help consumers understand complex theories like objectives and key results creation, and the magic behind all the features. We developed standard guides and templates for improving employee efficiency and helping them to accomplish their day-to-day work with a branded and consistent approach.
We wanted to ensure that the brand identity reflects a solid entity to help lift off your shoulders an obsolete way of managing employees in organizations. To do that, we developed a series of friendly illustrations to enhance the values of each feature of the products. Website pages were carefully crafted to be practical. Design choices were highly driven through science-based words and images, with conversion-focused, responsive, and mobile-friendly layout and prototype.
To spice it up, we also worked in developing brand awareness internally in a more playful way, by creating a series of fun avatars to represent the 7 Geese. We also came up with a series of memes to add a bit of fun to our weekly meetings and Instagram account.
Website, videos, animation, illustration, infographics, icons, layout, brochure, typography
CLIENT: 7Geese