I helped our sons’ school with some rebranding initiatives last year. A little back story… the school was started in 1996 in the director’s home. She wanted a safe, loving, and creative environment for her own children to learn and grow, and so it was born. Fast forward 24 years, and it’s now a full Montessori campus serving children from infant all the way through high school. 
It’s a truly beautiful, warm, close community. It reminds me a lot of our community here, actually. 
In the early years, it outgrew her home quite quickly and spread into other homes throughout the neighborhood. Somewhere in that time period, one of the parents created a logo for the school. It was darling. But it needed a fresh look to reflect where the school is present day. To give you an idea, it was written in Papyrus. 
I redesigned the logo and created little goodie boxes for all of the teachers for the day we unveiled it. I also did a presentation with projection mapping, but sadly, I don’t think we recorded it. I’ll have to see if I can dig up some photos of it! I projected it onto Ikea leaves that I had painted white.
Anywho, after redesigning the logo, I created a fun campus map as a surprise for the director. They have never had a campus map and I knew it was high on the “maybe someday” dream list. You know, that wishlist that never comes to fruition because there will always be something more pressing? Sometimes we just have to stop and do one of the fun things on the list!
I had an AMAZING local baker whip up some cookies for me. Bless her heart. She made and packaged SO many! Photos by me, cookies by Purdy Cookies.
In my presentation, I was teaching them the term “branding” is so much more than koozies and t-shirts. It’s a feeling. In the goodie boxes, I wanted them to really experience the brand – to feel it and to explore it. We handed every single person in the room a box and instructed them not to open it. Once everyone had one, we all opened them at the exact same moment. It was so fun to hear the room erupt into gasps and happiness!
Each boxed was sealed with a shimmer copper wax seal. I used these wax sticks in my glue gun, which was a huge life saver time-wise.
Each box contained a campus map, sparkling water, candle holder, small succulent or cactus candle (we’re in Arizona), mini notebook, pen, cookie & candy.
I got bundles of mini notebooks from the dollar store and customized them by cutting out the icon logo (a leaf) from shimmer copper contact paper. I attached the pens to the notebooks with teeny tiny clear rubberbands (intended for hair styling).
All in all, a super fun project. So happy I was finally able to give each staff member a gift, too. It’s something I had always wanted to do & this gave me the push to do it!
People must have loved them.