My involvement with Kinma

My two beautiful children are students at Kinma school, and over the past 4 years I have donated my design services to help rebrand the school and improve their marketing materials. I have;

• Refreshed the school's logo and developed a consistent visual brand language
• Created a range of marketing materials, including brochures, adverts and the newsletter template
• Developed a new approach to presenting the nature of schools such as Kinma online and rebuilt the Kinma website

Kinma website

The brief

The nature of a school like Kinma is difficult to articulate and really needs to be seen and experienced to be understood. Kinma needed a new approach in presenting their philosophy and methods of teaching and learning online, and methods of communicating and engaging with the broader community. The school wanted to utilise the web more effectively to;

1. educate and inform a broader local audience about Kinma and it's unique approach to education
2. educate and inform a national and global audience about progressive education
3. connnect with potential students and their families to increase enrolments and interest in the school
4. use the school as a showcase model of successful progressive education in practice
5. extend the strong Kinma community into the online arena and provide additional information, support and collaborative tools and facilitate information sharing and community participation

The approach

To achieve this, Bea Pierce;

1. Developed a strategic approach and design philosophy specifically tailored to showcase progressive education at its best
2. Developed an information structure and navigation design that;
   1. made moving around the site and finding relevant information easy and intuitive
   2. emphasised the main aspects of the school
   3. clearly articulated the educational philosophy and practice of Kinma and progressive education
3. Created a visual design style that communicated the nature of the school, its environment and its approach through visually engaging media such as photography, colours and organic graphical elements
4. Undertook a series of photo shoots to capture the spirit of the school and the children, and establish the visual language 
5. Built the site in Joomla to;
   1. enable sophisticated content management capabilities, integrated functionality such as calendars, Google map and promotional slideshows
   2. develop a rich, interactive members-only community area
   3. allow easy news updates for teachers and parents
6. Tested the site thoroughly for standards-compliance and accessibility and ensured SEO metadata was in place throughout the site to increase ‘findability’ via Google search
7. Provided training in using the Joomla administration tools to staff and parent administrators

Marketing & branding

Kinma branding and print design

In developing the design system, it was important to provide a framework that;

• reflected the high standards of education within the school, without making it look like a private school institution
• differentiated the school from other alternative systems such as Steiner and Montessori
• presented a visually organic, natural colour palette to represent the school environment and the nature of learning / doing participated in by the children 
• used evocative words and imagery that captured the essence of Kinma and its philosophy, including kids work
• had invisible structure and organisation, in keeping with the approach of the school

The colour palette uses Australian bush colours - greens and sandstone ochres - to reflect Kinma's immersive natural environment. The arrangement of coloured letters was designed to reflect the three transitional stages of the school - playgroup, preschool, primary - and the nuturing adult community that envelopes all three, providing consistent support throughout the school journey.

Organic elements from the hand-drawn logo and inspired by the scribbly gums on the school grounds were introduced to the printed materials as playful, illustrative elements.

Photo book

Kinma. From the Heart.