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Web Design, Brand Identity Design and Design Support for EdShift

“We won’t go anywhere else, Grinning Graphics just get it, we view them as valued members of the EdShift family and we know they will continue to support us with our future growth.”

EdShift is an award-winning community interest company. Their mission is to protect the emotional health and wellbeing of young people and equip them with the skills and awareness to aspire to and achieve healthy, equal and fulfilling relationships. The charity runs counselling and performing arts based workshops to empower children and young people exposed to and affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence in all its forms.

EdShift equip children living with domestic abuse and violence with coping strategies and vital safety planning skills so they can deal with the demands of their home environment and reduce risk should a further incident take place. They provide specialised Arts Psychotherapy, giving children and young people dealing with complex trauma a greater chance to overcome their adverse experiences so they can journey towards healing and recovery. They Strive to prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence by engaging with young people, schools and the wider community to raise awareness and break the cycle of violence.

EdShift provide practical support and training to address the challenges and issues faced by our community, working with professionals and statutory agencies to share practice and ensure that the voices of the children and young people they support are the driving force for social change.

Industry:

Community Interest Company focusing on children dealing with domestic abuse through the performing arts

Location

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Website Redesign

EdShift wanted their new website to showcase their incredible projects, resources and services. They wanted their evolved brand identity to be incorporated and reflected throughout the site, and for the website to have a more sophisticated user experience.

To enable EdShift to increase their donations and memberships, they wanted e-commerce functionality to allow them to sell artwork and merchandise. They also required a members portal for their users to be able to log-in, allowing them access to children’s resources, courses, games and activities. They wanted the membership portal to be separated into two age groups with age restricted content.

The website needed to be multi-layered and optimised to service a number of key groups – funders, school bodies, councils, users (children) and young people looking for advice and guidance.

Brand Identity and Design Support

EdShift required a modern, bold logo design that appealed to children and young people, funders and care givers and would help them develop a brand strong enough to engage with young people on social media and within the performing arts.

They wanted the logo and branding to evoke a sense of hope and performance and specified that they wanted a “grungy” and “edgy” design that would look striking online and on  printed media resources.

EdShift’s educational ethos is centred around effecting a shift in thinking and perceptions in sensitive and difficult subjects.

What We Did

We’ve been working closely with EdShift since their inception. We created their brand identity and their initial website to get them started. Working with EdShift for many years has given us insight into their operations and the advantage of having a deep understanding of their brand and a very clear understanding of their needs. We have been fortunate to witness their growth and success and have been part of a number of their projects. The close relationship gave us the benefit of being able to ascertain what was needed to create their ideal website.

Brand Identity Design:

We began by sketching and exploring different ways to show movement, to represent a shift from previous thinking towards seeing things in a new light. Performance is a key element in spreading the message, so we incorporated a traditional stage costume mask into the logo. The mask also plays on the notion of masks representing transformation and a shift in perception in the performing arts. The icon is bold and flat. We decided to keep the logo monotone but to compliment the brand with a strong colour palette that would present well on merchandise, online, and on printed brochures. The font is intended to complement the bold icon by mirroring the soft lines and monotone style.

Web Design:

We began by planning out the content, the wireframe, page layouts and the different levels of functionality. We planned out the members section and the ecommerce sections. We collated all information and content from EdShift. This included team biographies, photographs, content about their projects, services and their mission. 

We added our unique artwork by creating graphics, diagrams, infographics and illustrations, to enhance the look and feel of the website. We designed the website to be responsive on all devices and screen sizes and created user permissions to separate content from members and non-members. We also added a safety-exit button so that young people can easily leave the website in a hurry if they need to.

Ongoing Support

The new EdShift site is now a multifunctional website that serves multiple functions for users, funders, members and regular visitors. The website now reflects EdShift’s brand identity more appropriately. It is now a great foundation for EdShift to build on and continue to add content to as they continue to develop and advance. Their e-commerce store allows them to raise more donations and to showcase the artwork the children have created on their programmes.

Their website is now more dynamic and responsive, allowing for children to log in and access important information, resources and activities. The team also feel that the site is much easier to edit and manage themselves now that the structure is simplified and more intuitive.

We work with EdShift long term on all of their projects to create unique and engaging artwork for their marketing campaigns. We provide marketing consultancy, web hosting, web maintenance and ongoing support to help EdShift on their growth journey.

Testimonial

“We approached Grinning Graphics at the very start of EdShift. We had a limited budget and a large vision. Grinning Graphics were so passionate about our goals and mission and really connected with our vision for EdShift. They produced an outstanding brand identity and website for us to get us started. Grinning Graphics have since developed the website into a membership website to allow children on our SpotLight programme to log in to a members area and access resources, upload their own posts and log their feelings. Grinning Graphics restructured our website to include additional functionality such as e-commerce and a resources area. We won’t go anywhere else, Grinning Graphics just get it, we view them as valued members of the EdShift family and we know they will continue to support us with our future growth.”

EdShift CIC

Ellie Brook - CEO and Founder EdShift CIC

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