Introduction
Beginning in March 2024, our internal design team at GoGuardian/Pear Deck Learning set out to completely re-imagine the GoGuardian visual identity. This work is still in progress, but I will walk you through where we are at up until this stage in the game as of July 2024.
What is GoGuardian?
GoGuardian empowers K-12 leaders with effective digital tools to create safe and engaging learning environments for every student. Admin allows school and district administrators to manage filtering policies across all users, regardless of device type, operating system, or browser—from one interface. Beacon identifies, reports, and protects students in need of help by flagging dangerous keywords on their school-issued devices. Teacher is used to create smart and effective digital learning environments that can be customized to meet the needs of the day, or individual student.
Art Direction + Design: Katie Krull, Remy Usman
Copywriting: Emily Ciccariello, Courtney Petersen, Edward Babaian
Creative Direction: James King
Copywriting: Emily Ciccariello, Courtney Petersen, Edward Babaian
Creative Direction: James King
Prior State of the GoGuardian Brand
Color: The color palette has been in flux for over two years. It has drawn upon colors from the legacy Curriculum and Instruction brand, Pear Deck Learning, that was partially drafted by our agency partner at the time, Instrument.
Typography: The flux state applied to the typographic choices employed across the brand as well. Many of the new marketing campaigns utilized typefaces, TT Commons and Ivar Text, from our new Pear Deck Learning design system. This means any work created prior to September 2022 was created with the open-source font, Inter. This font is largely seen on the web and in collateral.
Illustration: The dated illustration style used on the website hints at the concept of digital exploration to varying degrees of success. Mostly it looks like every other SaaS platform out there with little to no personality that doesn't reflect our users — teachers — and primary buying audience — administrators.
Competitive Analysis
Color Audit: The safety and productivity EdTech space is saturated with products that live exclusively in the blue and green area of the color palette. This is one key area where we can differentiate ourselves in a market that is a sea of sameness.
Type Audit: There was also an opportunity to differentiate ourselves with our typography. Over 90% of our competition exclusively use san-serifs in their marketing material. Only two competitors use a san-serif for headings and emphasis text.
Web Audit: We completed a full visual audit of our competitors websites and for each products individual competitors across the product suite: Admin, Beacon, and Teacher.
Our Approach
While exploring new creative treatments for the GoGuardian brand, we kept the following insights and priorities front and center:
• Represent the value we bring to schools and innovation across the GoGuardian product portfolio
• Convey the trust and transparency that customers value about GoGuardian
• Create cohesion with Pear Deck Learning's brand expression (chart below)
• Bring humanity into a category that often feels cold or too tech-y
• Center customer stories in every opportunity
• Speak directly to our audiences in their voice
• Be. Different.
• Convey the trust and transparency that customers value about GoGuardian
• Create cohesion with Pear Deck Learning's brand expression (chart below)
• Bring humanity into a category that often feels cold or too tech-y
• Center customer stories in every opportunity
• Speak directly to our audiences in their voice
• Be. Different.
As mentioned, the brands in this category of EdTech are largely similar across their visual treatments. We were most excited to take this opportunity to break from the pack and create significant impact through a distinct look and voice.
Territory #1: Jewel Tones
This regal jewel toned approach tweaks colors commonly found in the market — like blue and green — to reflect our placement as a premium product that is well-worth the price. Deep colors evoke a sense of seriousness surrounding the important work we do, while lighter shades allow us to remain approachable and flexible with our creative.
Telling the Customer Story
One of our primary photo treatments is using a gaussian blur to focus on a subject or block out distractions. This visual metaphor is really effective when the copy completes the story. Simple line work frames these blurred photo elements to add a layer of intentionality and focus on the subject.
Customer Voice: Central to our approach is lifting up our customers, whether it's their unique stories and quotes or adopting the straightforward language they use to describe their work and GoGuardian's impact. By pairing buyer quotes with vignettes of students in the visual context of a school, we set the scene for a more compelling, heartfelt story.
Ripples: A Visual Metaphor
Building off the framing elements of the photography treatment, we use line work to enhance our impactful copy. Many of these examples use a ripple effect to describe GoGuardian's ability to cast a wider safety net and amplify learning.
Territory #2: Warmly Academic
In a sea of clinical blues and sterile whites comes a "warmly academic" approach that elegantly cuts through the clutter while reminding users that GoGuardian is a customer-centric brand. It's SaaS for schools, not Silicon Valley.
Earth Tones
In this territory we took an 180-degree approach and explored warm and neutral colors. Warm colors can signify danger, warnings or caution — which is a core reason why our software exists. However, these warm and comforting earth tones can help ground us in our mission and goals: to help teachers reach their goals, to help students learn, and to keep schools safe for students to grow.
Typography
The rounded serif typeface Grenette from Colophon Foundry has a human-centric, editorial feel that lends itself well in telling customer stories. It also softens the warm and neutral tones.
Intricate Line Work
Soft lines and rounded shapes thoughtfully lead viewers through content, gently drawing their eye to key copy points, while subtle grid patterns reinforce educational themes and structured learning.
These lines and patterns create a visual metaphors for each of our different products. The sun burst motif signifies a bright future, while the grid pattern maintains an air of structure inherent in keeping students on task.
Territory #3: Splashy Neutrals
Building on a base of familiar neutrals, youthful pops of color reflect our vision of a brighter future for all students. We're serious about what we do — protecting student privacy and keeping schools safe — but we're also a reflection of the audiences we serve.
Schools should be a place for learning, of course, but also for curiosity, exploration, laughter — and joy. In this territory, we pair upbeat photography with splashes of fresh, energizing colors to remind our audience (and ourselves) that there's always room for something positive.
Color
We have pared back the colors to allow for the copy to shine. We've maintained many of the primary colors from the original GoGuardian palette that our agency partner presented like Cream, Navy, and Blue Skies, and have evolved the product-specific colors into fresher hues. We've also created an energetic thru-line to Pear Deck Learning by adding the highlighter color for CTA's and emphasis text.
Typography
In keeping with our simple design approach for this territory, we kept TT Commons as our primary font while using a monospaced font, Space Mono, for emphasis. Using a monospaced font creates a challenge for the design and copy team, namely to keep headlines short and sweet so we can make a big statement with few words.
Photography
This photographic approach employs a sense of place in our digital landscape, using various audiences like administrators in hallways, students at lockers, or teachers standing in front of a classroom. This collaged style creates a sense of immersion, like when you're absorbed in a good book or when students are 100% engaged in a lesson they love.
UI Elements
This approach uses simplified UI elements that pair well with intriguing headline copy to provide context for use cases and to reinforce GoGuardian's value in the classroom.
Social
Our curated social media rotates between customer stories, tech tips, feature updates and more. Ultimately, we want this space to be a noteworthy resource highlighting our exceptional users and compelling thought leadership.
Web Mockup
This gestural web mock-up defines a foundation for a highly navigable website based on color. We keep our product offerings above the fold and allow for users to navigate based on their persona so they can access content related to their expertise.
Next Steps
As mentioned, this project is currently in progress as of July 2024. Leadership is in the midst of deciding how to move forward with the three territories. Based on early feedback, we anticipate a blended version of design elements from all three territories.