CANDYLAND FOR THE CURIOUS MIND

THE WHY SCHOOL

CLIENT

The WHY School

DOMAIN

Education, Pre-School

SCOPE OF WORK

Identity, Branding, Brand Environment, Environmental Graphics, Spatial Installations, Promotion, Brand Voice, Communication Strategy

www.whyschool.in

The WHY School started with the vision to turn around the image and concept of a preschool in India. To build a place the children excitedly look forward to each day. The design, layout and activities have been customised from the ground up, keeping the tender age and requirements of children. This play school opens up children's minds to endless possibilities, and not just endless facts. It never questions the Question. In fact, it is the starting point to all explorations, play and learning. With years of experience in successfully running their first venture - The Mindgym, the founders worked closely with December to integrate Design in every aspect of creating this unique starting point for children’s life explorations. From its architecture to its curriculum, the WHY School is built on the values of opening children’s minds to endless possibilities—by building, playing and learning.

December designed a series of custom illustrations that shed light on the values, interests and activities at The Why School. The illustrations are a vibrant , wonderful and playful reflection of the children’s interests in the spaces, both indoors and outdoors. This formed the basis of the visual language across the school and its visual, physical, digital as well as print environment. These illustrations were then taken to the third dimension to create interior spaces where the children felt comfortable, could relate to and be excited about coming to daily. The interior public and play areas were conceived in this engaging manner.The school’s promotional collateral carry forward the same playful tone and use the surface as a playground with illustrations, icons and imagery highlighting the indoor-outdoor experience and a fun place for learning.

The studio worked on the core concept of ‘the curious mind’ to reimagine the preschool around the ideas of curiosity, exploration and creation. Children’s playing blocks was the central visual metaphor for the brand.The blocks became the ideal template—‘malleable’ in a sense to become, accommodate and represent a diverse set of information. The visuals of blocks were equally conducive to texts, graphics and photography alike, allowing a more interactive display of information about the school. December deliberately gave the blocks a dynamic appeal by presenting them in a state of motion. Throughout the branding the blocks are playfully arranged, serving as interactive and relatable templates for presenting vital information. This subtle depth in the brand’s visual vocabulary created a way for the audience to see and feel the conceptual notions of creativity and exploration in the context of a play school.

A crucial aspect of the WHY School lies in its architecture and spaces. With an emphasis on learning from real-life experiences and active play, a larger portion of the school is built as an outdoor space. This process of learning from activity and experience is reflected in the dynamic utilisation of the blocks and graphics throughout the school’s branding and artwork. Additionally, the interiors of the school are also informed by the architecture of the open spaces. The engaged and interactive learning process flows seamlessly as the children move between the indoors and the open grounds of the school. The graphics and displays inside the building keep the doors open to the core concept of learning with curiosity, experimentation and fun.