A design language built one project at a time, then written down.

Leanlab Education partners with school communities to research and co-design edtech. When I first started working with them they had a wordmark, a basic color palette, and a CEO with a very clear voice. None of it was written down anywhere.

Everything else came together over several years of projects: reports, decks, studies, the Codesign Framework. I kept extending the brand to cover whatever the next piece needed, until there was a full design language that only existed in my files. The brand book was the job of documenting it and turning it into templates other people could use.

The brand book needed to cover all the ways that a brand shows up. It’s more than a logo and a color palette. A brand is, of course, the visual language, but it’s also web copy, editorial writing, advertising, grant writing, pitch decks, and informal conversations at conferences. This brand book had to cover all of it and create a consistent story throughout about an organization filled with diligent and passionate people that cared about rigor and research as deeply as they do about teachers and students.

The brand book was divided into three distinct sections.

The design volume documents the palette, typography, layout, and image treatment. Most of the rules are written as formulas rather than examples, so following them doesn't depend on having a good eye.

The writing volume turns the CEO's voice into directions anyone on staff can follow, then settles the vocabulary and grammar questions that kept coming up.

The messaging volume profiles their four audiences: edtech companies, educators, administrators, and funders. Each one gets a primary message and a three-stage path from awareness to expansion, with a specific action to close on. That's the part that let them hand work around, since anyone writing to funders can look up what funders care about instead of guessing.

A resources page collects the logo files, approved photography, fonts, and vector libraries in one place. The book is also set in the brand it documents.

As the organization has grown, Leanlab has been able to seamlessly onboard new employees and quickly give them the confidence to represent the brand. Additionally, they’ve been able to offload more work to contractors, allowing them to do more without compromising the brand standards they’ve worked so hard to build.