ParentCorps is made up of lots of moving parts: some people facilitate our professional development to early childhood educators, others work one-on-one with school-based clinicians as they implement the Parenting Program, about half a dozen of us focus on how to get ParentCorps into more districts, and some of us collect and disseminate data about our programs and its impact. There’s lots of collaboration that happens, but only one person truly works across every team: our designer, Barbara Kaufman – B for short. Everything you see that comes from ParentCorps? She made it. The website, the fliers, the newsletter, the FEEL Poster, our new Parent Guide – I could go on. Her design work is beautiful, and it’s fundamental to ParentCorps working. This month we sat down with B to hear her thoughts on how design impacts experience, and the value in creating a brand that’s recognizable and inclusive.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Clarissa: How did you get into design?
B: I was always one of those kids who was into art and design, my whole life. Then I studied design at Cornell, and they had a different lens – it was called Design and Environmental Analysis. It was looking at using research to inform design, looking at how our daily experience is affected by our environment and the visuals surrounding us and the process and the people, so it was like a psychology-based design major, which I really loved.
From there, I worked in several studios in New York, and then moved to London, then to Chicago. It was all in design at different levels, some in the corporate realm, some in the purely creative realm. Then I took a few years off because I had two really young children. But, this was in 2012, then ParentCorps came up for me. They said they needed ‘just a logo,’ but I know it's never just a logo. There's so much more.
I started to redesign the workbook that the caregivers were using, and when I started to look at all the materials that were being turned out of the organization, I noticed that people were creating their own materials from their computers on, like, Word Documents. And so I realized, whoa, you guys need a whole brand.
When you’re making a brand, there are different levels you’re designing for. First, there's the level of the employees using the work within the organization, and then I'm thinking about the community we serve, which is the teachers, the families, the caregivers and other professionals using the materials. It was complex – it’s multi-language, multicultural, multi-race. I wanted to come in with a really equitable lens, and I wanted to engage the community, and I wanted to make sure the community related to the visuals. I wanted to make sure that the brand and the materials were easily recognizable, that it has inclusive imagery and an empathetic lens, that it’s consistent throughout mediums like digital and print, that the color contrast is well thought out for the viewers, that there’s readable typography.
It was complex – it’s multi-language, multicultural, multi-race. I wanted to come in with a really equitable lens, and I wanted to engage the community, and I wanted to make sure the community related to the visuals.”
Good design creates a safe and comfortable space. When you're looking at something that you can easily digest – you won't pick up an industrial brochure, for example, and understand it – it really makes a difference. The type, color, texture, space, all that stuff is so important.
Clarissa: When you started you said you had two young children. Did you feel like there were parts of your personal experience that played into some of the design choices or thinking about how things would work or not work?
B: Yes, definitely. I think my favorite age with children is definitely their early years, from baby to six years old. Then, both of my children were incredibly different people on their own – and now, for our work, imagine dealing with children with different financial means, different color skin, different cultural norms, different types of family systems. I think I came in with a really sensitive and empathetic lens and wanting to make sure that everyone saw themselves in the materials.
Clarissa: I'm wondering, how do you go about capturing the spirit of an organization in a design product? Because when I look at all of our materials, it just feels so aligned, and just feels like, oh, yeah, that's the energy that we want the manual or the Parent Guide to have. This is how we want it to make people feel. How do you go about doing that?
B: A lot of my design is directed by the content that the people that I work with at ParentCorps create. When you read that content, you as a designer understand what they really want. There's rounds of design phases and design changes over time, all that stuff, but I was blessed with people who could communicate well what they needed and wanted.
When I'm out and about, I'm always looking at things. I'm always looking at signage, typography, posters, brochures, anything that I can get my hands on no matter where I am. They don't have to be nice or pretty – I'm informed by stuff that isn't nice, and thinking what do we need to do to make it nice? Like, there’s a lot of school materials that just really don't feel right. They don't represent the people who we're working with. It's hard to follow, and it's almost silly and young and childish, but for adults. I felt it was important to develop a brand that children and adults can look at and feel represented.
There’s a lot of school materials that just really don't feel right. They don't represent the people who we're working with… I felt it was important to develop a brand that children and adults can look at and feel represented.
Also, keeping it simple was the key. A lot of the stuff is repetitive, I know, but that's because the community who's using this needs that repetition so they can feel more familiar with the brand, thereby feeling familiar with ParentCorps.
Clarissa: Oh interesting, it's like the predictability part of the “safe, nurturing, and predictable” [our framework for the kinds of environments children need to thrive] in a way?
B: Exactly. The key to a good brand is the predictability. Sometimes I fear everyone's going to be sick of seeing the same things over and over again, or the way I use the illustrations or type, but that's good – that means it's working.
We create all this content based on research and based on our community's feedback, and the way it's designed is treated the same way. Our goal is that we want people to pick up this manual on the table, or to grab one of the tools, and feel connected to it. So what can we do to make people want to stop and look? We want to make the children stop and look. Next week actually I’m going to some classrooms, because it’s so important to sit with the user to understand what makes them interested in the material and what makes it a successful tool. I love feedback because it's an opportunity for growth.
We create all this content based on research and based on our community's feedback, and the way it's designed is treated the same way.
Clarissa: Do you have a favorite item that you've created for ParentCorps?
B: Definitely – the Fun with Feelings cards and the Fun with Feelings playmat. Those were the two projects that they asked me to help develop that were really out of the box.
The Fun with Feelings cards used to be just a book, a book that flipped. Then I was like, Why don't we make this something that the children can use as a toy, too? Something they can have fun with? Teachers can use it and play with them, and same with the mat. I loved that we were dealing in 10 languages – there were so many cultural things to take into account with all the languages. We were using content from ParentCorps’ research and bringing it to life in these tools, which really are disguised as toys!
Clarissa: I'm curious if there's anything about the content area or the organization or the kinds of things that you design that has made you stay for so long?
B: I came from a lot of corporate work, and I was so happy to work for an organization and design with equitable design in mind for children, for underserved communities. Also, it brings me back to when I studied design and psychology. It's not just glitzy, glorified design – it's design for a reason, it’s something that's needed.
Clarissa Donnelly-DeRoven is the ParentCorps Communications Specialist.
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