Atlantic Montessori School
Identity and web design for Atlantic Montessori School (AMS), a new business in Halifax, NS owned by Andrea Cavicchi and Analia Lowe. Beginning operations in January, 2013, AMS is a two classroom school for children ages 18 months to six years old.
Throughout the whole process, Chris remained positive and maintained good humour, even when I had a million questions, and, as a fine artist, was very particular about making the aesthetics “just right”. He worked to make changes according to our needs and, when necessary, respectfully explained when things had to be done a little differently than we had originally planned.
— Andrea Cavicchi, Co-owner and Head Montessori Directress
Overview
The brief for AMS was to create an identity that is professional, warm and welcoming and also communicates education and a nurturing environment. The accompanying website needs to be those same things while providing information clearly for potential and current clients and to help generate enrolment.
Details & Process
Through iteration, the logo developed into a leafy plant and pot comprised of simple geometric shapes. The shapes reference the wooden materials common in Montessori classrooms as well as the concepts of environmentalism, nurturing and growth. The typography is a combination of hand lettering and PT Sans which conveys warmth and friendliness with professionalism.
The website took shape through primarily focusing on the clear and efficient presentation content. Stock imagery was used initially since the school wasn’t open when the site was launched. As the school has been running the site has developed through us of candid photography of daily life at the school, giving visitors a greater sense of the personality of the students and the environment.
To assist with initial interest and applications, we ran a Google Adwords campaign to generate more traffic on the website. Text ads, appearing in Google search results, generated significant quality traffic throughout the year contributing to the enrolment of the school.
Outcomes
One year after opening their doors Analia and Andrea have created a beautiful school that I’m privileged to have my children attend. The owners are busy and continue to received great feedback from happy parents and children.
The Google Adwords campaign converted on average 7.95% of visitors on the contact form, bringing in 98 new leads. Through management of the campaign I was able to keep costs low and generate enrolment for the school.
A Facebook page was maintained initially for a few moths but the owners decided it wasn’t providing significant value to the school and efforts could be allocated elsewhere. Through Google Analytics I can see that though Facebook brought in a significant amount of traffic, less than 2% of them converted on the contact form. The time spent managing the page was costing more than the potential business they were gaining.
Analia and Andrea are great clients to work with; engaged and hard working, they are dedicated to their school and its success and frequently reevaluate and are open to ongoing iteration and modern approaches to web design and marketing.
