A Sea Change for Education

A Sea Change for Education

izzi web redesign

For almost 40 years, Izzi Early Education (formerly IHSD Inc.) has provided the highest-quality education and family services to ensure that all children in the San Matteo County, California community get the care they deserve.

Izzi believes that every child and every family deserve access to high-quality early child education. Their comprehensive early care, education, and family services ensure that all children, regardless of circumstances, get the care they need, where they need it.

Stitzlein Studio (founded by the creative team of Joe and Leslie Stitzlein) had recently led Izzi’s rebrand, and they approached Widgets & Stone about designing and building a website for the non-profit.

The new web design includes a revamp of their current content along with microsite news and information pages for 11 locations. Our design team built animated SVG files to help keep the site mobile friendly and  make use of the colorful vector shapes Stitzlein Studio created.

The new design showcases Izzi’s comprehensive program and service offerings, as well as the unique spirit that is behind Izzi’s approach— a surging confluence of culture and purpose, of hope and need, of talent and ambition, of will and willingness, of optimism and opportunity.

Visit the izzi web site here.

Creative Direction: Joe & Leslie Stitzlein, Stitzlein Studio; Design Direction: Liz Tapp; Design: Liz Tapp and John Le; Writing: Mark Gibson and Austin Howe; Photography: Joshua Chun and Izzi Staff.

Collective Action Drives Change

Collective Action Drives Change

Benwood Foundation Rebrand 

The Benwood Foundation has long been a “silent giant,” bringing a wealth of insight, knowledge, and generosity to the community it serves. With a new President and strategic plan in place, its Trustees decided that the time had come for the foundation to step out front, in a leadership role. Asking brave questions, funding Betas, and sharing risks.

Widgets & Stone, along with collaborators 26 Tools and Tubatomic, were asked to help position this shift, through messaging and a strategic web rollout of their new identity. Building upon a presentation of education research that we developed in 2013, we helped redesign the foundation as a convener of challenges, and the table around which people gather to move forward.

The new identity design was based on a straightforward, honest and plainspoken personality. Clean and simple typography based on a basic grid system, with hints of color applied sparingly to accentuate photo-journalistic black and white photography by Dotson Commercial.

When it came to the web site we thought: why not a new kind of homepage? Rather than just presenting projects and priorities, benwood.org is a living dialogue between 15 community members who represent all corners of the city – and are working in key areas. Engaged to point to real community needs as well as encouraging progress, these writers are sparking conversations about what is, and what’s possible. With new articles posted every 2-3 days, the home page is quickly becoming a hub not just of hope, but of connection and actionable insights.

See more images on Behance.

Creative Direction: Paul Rustand, Mandy Meredith, Caleb Ludwick, George Bairaktaris. Design Direction: Mandy Meredith, Paul Rustand; Design: Ben Dicks, Amy Trumbull, Nick Turner; Photography: Grant Dotson; Web Design: Alex Ogle, Brian Wleklinski.