Bringing heart, dignity and charm to the early education workforce.

Given my past experience with Child360, it's only natural that I would happily develop the visual identity for TEACH-LA, an initiative designed to grow and provide a viable career path to the early childhood workforce of Los Angeles.

First up was the logo, and this was my thought process as I began my initial sketches:

All teachers were children once. As part of their everyday job, the best teachers empathize with their children, mentoring and showing these younger versions of themselves how to fly.

And there it was: two birds, the older one literally taking the younger one under their wing, with the both of them looking forward and upward at the sky. That's the TEACH-LA brand — care, tenderness, mentorship, and optimism distilled into a single logo icon:

TEACH-LA’s logo - the initial sketches and the finished logo / color palette / typography combo.

Then, after coming up with a color palette reminiscent of school apples and green chalkboards, as well as a typography combo that communicated youthful professionalism, it was time to build out the rest of TEACH-LA's visual identity.

It was yet another case where stock photography felt way too bland and cliché, so instead I opted for some custom illustrated characters to give the brand a bit more, well, character!

TEACH-LA’s Character Maker - the initial sketches, the template, and the finished illustrations.

I opted for a different illustration style than the Child360 Character Maker, however. Where Child360's illustrations had a slight kawaii aesthetic, the TEACH-LA illustrations were influenced by more retro / Western animation styles. Rhapsody in Blue from Fantasia 2000 was very much at the top of mind as these characters came to life!

And once they were ready, the final step was to design the homepage with TEACH-LA's web developer, launching the site and ensuring it functioned well on both desktop and mobile.

TEACH-LA’s website on desktop and mobile. Web development by Doug Dawirs.