B2Anywhere
The Challenge
With only 48% of children in Gwinnett County entering Kindergarten ready to learn, stakeholders in Gwinnett have been working toward finding ways to ensure children start school ready to thrive. After seeing how Gwinnett County Public Schools and key community leaders worked together to develop Building Babies’ Brains, an early learning initiative designed to help families find free resources to support a child’s earliest years of learning, the Gwinnett County Department of Community Services realized an opportunity to develop programming to help keep kids on track and engaged with learning outside of the classroom from birth to Kindergarten and beyond. The two groups worked together to develop a community-based early learning strategy offering enriching programs in and out of the classroom named Building Brains (B2) Anywhere.
The group was faced with a unique challenge of building a brand that matches the county’s brand while simultaneously coordinating with Building Babies’ Brains. They also needed to be sure the end result was a brand that connected with children and parents in a very culturally diverse county, and came to us for assistance in building a cohesive direction for this new initiative.
The Solution
In order to bring together so many audiences and brands, we started our process working with a group from Gwinnett County’s Early Learning Task Force and the Gwinnett County Communications department to receive guidance on how this program needed to fit into the county.
We also conducted focus groups with kids in a Be Active Gwinnett program to gather ideas on what is appealing to them. We hosted events outside and played games to find out what colors, games, and other programs they liked. (Surprise— these little ones HATED green! )
It became clear, we needed a brand that was friendly to make anyone interacting with B2 Anywhere feel safe and welcomed. I needed to showcase the belief that learning happens anywhere while keeping things playful to help children engage and simple to ensure communications are clear and concise for parents and partners.
With all the information at hand, we crafted a multi-dimensional piece that started with a logo with five key elements: the brain, the rounded square, the lowercase b, the 2 exponent, and the ‘anywhere’ text treatment.
As we collaborated with the B2 Anywhere team on the visual branding, we also developed language that would be attention-grabbing and chose “Unleash Knowledge” as the tagline. This serves as a base to be able to pull in more playful elements while remaining inline with the tone of the county’s brand.
The Results
With the new logo in place, we were able to create a brand that is playful and appealing without losing the connection to the overall brand of Gwinnett County. B2 Anywhere is a pilot sub-program that the county can use as a launchpad to start tackling early childhood education issues and help close gaps and give children the support they need to thrive throughout their entire education. The Gwinnett County Department of Community Services now has a better, more recognizable platform to work from and can serve as a resource for children, families, and educators for years to come.
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Our team enjoyed working with Rock, Paper, Scissors in the creation of the logo and branded materials for Building Brains Anywhere. The Rock Paper Scissors staff was knowledgeable, professional, and really helped translate the vision and mission for this critical program into a tangible, easily recognizable, and trusted brand.
- Jason West
Deputy Division Director, Gwinnett County’s Department of Community Services
About B2 Anywhere
Client Since 2020
Building Brains (B2) Anywhere: A Shirley Carver Miller Learning Initiative is a program developed in partnership between the Gwinnett County Department of Community Services, Gwinnett County Public Schools, and Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains designed to close the literacy and academic preparation gaps in the Gwinnett County community. The program provides mobile early learning programs throughout Gwinnett County and uses play to engage young minds and unleash knowledge, showing that learning is fun and can happen anywhere.
