Everybody has been talking about the importance of early childhood education lately.
Our governor. The president. Seemingly everybody else.
For Day Nursery (now Early Learning Indiana; more on that in a minute), there’s nothing new about this conversation. They’ve been advocates for, and providers of, high-quality early education in central Indiana for more than a century.
But with early education finally getting its due attention, Day Nursery found itself in a prime position to become a leading voice in the discussion. First though, it needed to deal with a few pressing issues.
Like its name. “Day Nursery” made sense back in the early 1900s, when “day nursery” was what people called “daycare.” But it seems disconnected from the organization’s mission today.
Second was awareness. Though Day Nursery has a great reputation among parents and donors, there’s a broad swathe of people in Indy who don’t know anything about it.
Third was clarity about what it does. Day Nursery provides childcare and early education for infants and toddlers at several local centers. It also runs an outreach program that helps parents find childcare and helps other providers with training and licensing. And it has become an increasingly influential advocate for policies that improve early learning in Indiana. How to tell that complicated story in a concise, powerful way?
Answering that question—and many others—became our job when Day Nursery hired us as their marketing partner.
We started, as we always do, with research. We queried their employees, their board members, their teachers, the parents of children who attend their centers, and their donors. We wrote brand-new positioning and messaging, and we recommended a name change. After a few conversations with key stakeholders, Early Learning Indiana was born.
Next came a new identity. We worked hard to come up with a mark that paid homage to the Day Nursery’s long history while looking boldly to the future. The result was a bright, colorful mark that conveys rootedness (the tree), education (primary colors), and engagement (a child’s hand).
Finally, we revamped Early Learning Indiana’s most important communication tool: its website. The work Early Learning Indiana does is characterized by passion, determination, optimism, and, not least of all, fun. We feel this is all reflected in the look, feel, and functionality of its new website.
It really is a great honor to work with an organization like Early Learning Indiana. Our own mission is to work with people who challenge status quo in the name of doing good. That’s what Early Learning Indiana has done for a long time—and they are doing it now perhaps more than ever. We’re thrilled to be a small part of it.