Parent Lab
Brand Identity Refresh, Brand Guidelines, App Design
Brand Identity for a high-end parenting educational app, helping parents raise happy, resilient kids without the burnout.
Role:
Creative Director, DEPT® Agency
DEPT® Team:
Marc Weiss, Ben Harwood, Sierra Clar, Nathan Jackson, Adriana Tudela, Chloe Tanchip, Molly Posser, Florence Obert, Charlie Hunt, Alicja Lloyd, Ephraim Joseph
Parent Lab is the leading source for evidence-based parenting education. They work with the best in child development and psychology and their app helps thousands of parents (it’s helped me a bunch as a father). My team and I at DEPT® helped Parent Lab with their rebrand and new app design. We started with a comprehensive brand and app audit to learn about their brand/product and identify the areas where we can improve the overall brand experience. After the Parent Lab brand audit, we audited their competitors and strategized on how to best position the new Parent Lab brand to stand out as the best choice for parents. We created brand guidelines (Parent Lab Brand Playbook) for them, a large set of brand illustrations, and finally helped them with the UX and UI of their new app by engaging on many UX and design sprints in collaboration with their in-house designers and engineers.
The new logo:
At first glance, this logo update helps people understand what industry the company serves.
The Brand Playbook
We created brand guidelines that are very comprehensive and easy to navigate. We wanted to create a powerful brand resource we wish we had. After working in the industry for many years, I’ve noticed most brand guidelines fail to give users examples and instruction on “less sexy” creative executions like: lifecycle email designs, display ads, landing page content guidance, “how to” guidance for brand elements (i.e. illustration application, hand-drawn marks usage), and tone of voice “dos & don’ts” for copywriters—just to name a few. This Brand Playbook doesn’t miss a thing which helps their content makers and shapers stay on-brand to make the brand shine in every marketing channel.
Brand Guidelines
Covering logo, type, color (accessibility), photography, illustration, hand-drawn marks, iconography, content guidance, tone of voice, motion design, and more.
Illustration Process
Celebrating diverse parents and caregivers. Showing different genders, ages, ethnicities, and disabled people. Covering fun moments, challenging moments, and everything in between in Parent Lab’s unique style.
Brand Expression
Here are some examples of how the brand elements (logo, photography, typography, illustration, tone of voice, hand-drawn marks, and motion design) can come together to create a rich brand expression that resonates with the target audience beautifully.
Social media ad example
Instagram stories examples
Social media ad example
Client Testimonial:
I smile every time I see the icon on my phone. I’m incredibly proud of how you were able to capture the essence of our brand and build such a helpful playbook. Thanks again for your partnership and congrats!
Bill De Groot
Chief Marketing Officer, Parent Lab