A brand mark and website for mmvllen.
Richard Cooke
Brand builder, creative thinker, owner and creative director at Cooke Creative
Background
Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley LLEN (mmvllen) brings education, industry and community together to create positive futures for young people with barriers to employment. They offer a range of opportunities that inspire, give practical experience and foster?future thinking with the community. They are passionate about creating a lasting impact and believe a community thrives when it invests in its young people.
Project
To design and develop a new brand mark for all print and digital collateral; as well as constructing a new responsive website with simple, effective and intuitive navigation. The branding and website had to appeal to the main target audience: the young people that mmvllen assist after finishing high school, but it also needed to appeal to government and corporate businesses; who’s help mmvllen rely upon to develop new and exciting programs.
Branding - Design and Development
Mmvllen required a brand that would work on all digital media (their website being their main hub), printed collateral and promotional items. A simple, easily recognisable brand that depicted the caring and local knowledge of the organisation; a brand that included an 'icon' and ‘lock-up’ text. ‘Nunito’ and ‘Nunito Sans’ with their soft corners and simple form, were the fonts chosen for their casual friendliness, their simplicity and legibility. The typeface is an?'OpenType' font and benefits from its?cross-platform compatibility?(the same font file works on all systems.) The colour pallet was retained from the existing brand but reduced to three colours to make it simple to use and recognisable throughout all collateral. The icon was designed in multiple colours so it could contrast on all backgrounds.
Challenges
The main challenge in delivering the new brand mark for mmvllen was to develop a brand that could incorporate the letters of the organisation, works as a design lock-up, and would gain the boards approval.
Website design and development
When developing the new website for mmvllen, the language that would be used was of utmost importance. The website had to relate to mmvllen’s younger student audience and so Cooke Creative rewrote the website in a language that the target market could relate to. The images are sourced from the mmvllen library, but Cooke Creative cropped, optimised and colour enhanced the images to better highlight the various different programs offered. The navigation is simple and intuitive. The website is linked to mmvllen’s CRM ‘salesforce’ with all forms stored into the database and donations are accepted through a payment gateway.
Challenges
Copy (with numerous links to helpful external websites) and usable photographic assets were challenging to implement when developing the website. Connecting directly to salesforce was probably the toughest test but this was overcome by working in collaboration with the client, Salesforce, Zapier and Squarespace.
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Typography
We chose 'Nunito’ with it's soft corners and simple form as the primary typeface to be used in all mmvllen collateral. It’s a friendly, inclusive, modern and very legible font that creates a warmth throughout all digital and print mediums. ‘Nunito Sans’ (the same family) is used for body copy; being a light and legible font that spaces well in all media.
Photography
The imagery for mmvllen creates a sense of casual warmth and familiarity for the viewer. All photography was from the mmvllen archive, and with specific cropping, colour balancing and optimisation it gives all collateral a unique, personal look and feel.
Results
The website is still and will always be evolving. Initial feedback from the audience was very positive and a photographic shoot is planned to further enhance the look of mmvllen heading into the future.
And from the client:
“Cooke Creative delivered a?vibrant, modern, simple and intuitive site, which we are confident will help our brand awareness and community impact.”
To start a conversation about your brand, website, or creative project: call Richard at Cooke Creative on 03 9534 5070 www.cookecreative.com.au\