Montessori is a system of education for young children that seek to develop natural interests and activities rather than use formal teaching methods. This methodology is now implemented in formal learning centres called Montessori(s).
Most centres and schools have failed to build a recognisable brand that parents can trust and identify. The focus of this branding project was to build a branding system that would speak to those challenges, albeit this is still a startup brand, currently raising funding. The purpose of this model is to build a franchise of high-end premium schools.
The logo and brand has been designed to feel luxurious and have a resemblance to a high-end children's clothing line- as opposed to a look and feel of a traditional Montessori Centre. This was super critical, like all detail in a briefing, but mostly because it would need to be applied to signage, clothing and a series of digital products.
The Steiner Rainbow- a stacking toy, used in Montessori, has been a leading source of inspiration and representation. The stacking toy is designed to encourage open-ended play and Emily Floyd Steiner's interest is in its modular character- a child can use the coloured components as building blocks, or to model worlds of their own invention. Like the toy, this sculpture comes with an instruction that is suggestive rather than didactic: the work can be 'played with' (exhibited) in a variety or ways. Floyd suggests this is similar to the way artists work, to imaginatively envision the world as a different place.
The Rainbow aspect of the logo has been drawn freehand to represent an independent way of thinking that is open-minded and that no "right" or "one" way exists in life- and more specifically Montessori.
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