Littleton Public Schools
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
I lead creative direction for one of Colorado’s most highly awarded school districts, overseeing brand development and integrated marketing. The mission is always the same – seeking to better engage our entire taxpayer base, building loyalty and human connection.
Logo & rebrand
Led an award-winning rebrand, dramatically strengthening the connection between the organization and our community stakeholders.
A unique challenge: The brand was exceptionally dated with an increasing need to engage our younger audience members. However, due to longstanding academic acclaim and community support, the brand was well-known throughout the state and country. The question: how can the brand be updated and overhauled without losing brand recognition or causing confusion? The answer: update everything except for the original logomark and incorporate it into the new logo. The result: success. (And a few awards…but that was just icing on the cake.)
“Education gets the reputation for being dated and stuffy. So we changed that. Instead of focusing on how education is perceived and maintaining the status quo, we shifted our focus to who our community is and how we could be more relatable to them. So we pivoted our brand to be modern, accessible and humanity-driven, just like they are.”
— Anna Ziverts
custom web platform
We didn’t just built a website. We built a custom web platform that could be used for the district website - and for all 30+ subsidiary schools and organizations.
How do you build a platform that works for dozens of schools, all with their own branding and individual needs? Well, it’s not easy. But with an amazing team of creative thinkers and structural masters - and a lifetime’s worth of sticky notes - we developed something that is flexible enough to satisfy the most inflexible users, and rigid enough to convey visual and functional unity across all of our sites. So whether you access an elementary school website, the district website, or the foundation’s website – you know its all LPS. And you intuitively know where to go to find what you came for.
custom icons
The development of custom icons allowed us to create another set of visual cues between all of our sites, aiding usability and increasing recognition of the parent-brand, Littleton Public Schools.
annual magazine
Hitting nearly 50,000 mailboxes each summer, this publication includes information about every school and program in Littleton Public Schools, as well as important news and events. In a modern and beautiful way.
Mission & Vision publication
To create systemic change, we must not only educate the future generation, but inspire the current generation. This publication sought to do exactly that; asking our readers to “Just Imagine” the possibilities, backed by the district’s strategic vision and plan for the future.
I oversaw the creative direction and development of this key document, working closely with the writer to seamlessly blend voice and visuals.
election marketing
From logos, to PR, to print and digital advertising, to social media campaigns, to in-person informational events, election marketing is a full-fledged integrated marketing campaign. All with the added challenge of adhering to fair campaign practice laws.
I have overseen the creative marketing initiatives and brand campaigns for the passage of multiple bond elections and a mill-levy override. The biggest win: passage of a $280 million bond that has allowed Littleton Public Schools to continue growing and adapting, even as the state of Colorado continues to egregiously underfund its public schools.
When you ask your taxpayers for $280 million and to raise their property taxes, you can be damned sure they’re asking the tough questions - and expect a little more than a flimsy flyer.
Marketing materials
Community surveys show that while our digital efforts are a success, our community also still likes print materials. (Yay! Print is not a lost art!) So we give the people what they want. Between things like quarterly mailers and custom e-newsletters, we like to stay in their inbox and in their mailbox.
ads
New to Colorado? Or attend school in a different district? Well then maybe you haven’t seen our awesome website. But that’s okay, because we do a lot of print and digital advertising for this very reason.
From local newspapers like The Denver Post and The Littleton Independent, to the Denver Relocation Guide, to the leading online source for school information – Niche.com – you’ve likely seen our ads.
But do they work? Our data says they do! With 20% of our students coming to us from outside district boundaries, a healthy reputation combined with some well-placed advertising seems to do the trick.
Logos
Littleton Public Schools is a big organization with varying schools, departments and programs that all need their own logos and visual presence. The goal is always to develop something that fits the need of that specific community, while clearly indicating that it still falls under the Littleton Public Schools umbrella. Here are a few examples of highly-visible, internal logos.
