Branding & Website Support for Chicago’s First Italian International School

Scuola Italiana Enrico Fermi partnered with eGuide to unify branding, user experience and design for the school’s website.

Overview

Scuola Italiana Enrico Fermi mission is to Inspire, develop, create, and support children through early childhood education by incorporating full-immersion Italian learning based on the Reggio Emilia Approach. With strong ties to resources in Italy, it was no surprise that the school used an Italian based web designer for their website launch in 2016. As the school continued to grow, the executive leadership team and board found it hard to maintain the site and make updates that reflected some of the growth happening at the school. In 2020 the School made the decision to build their own website in Squarespace so that they could have a site that would allow them more control. 

Over the course of the School’s Summer Break, eGuide partnered with Amy Ewaldt, Executive director of SIEF, and the SIEF board to navigate an update to both the school’s brand standards and the website. By taking a compounded approach eGuide was able to align the vision of the project and publish the website by the start of the school year. 

Approach

Discovery: Since SIEF had assets from not only one, but two websites, eGuide used a combined meeting with both the school’s leadership team and board to review archived assets from websites and marketing materials to learn more about what had been accomplished in the past. Through a guided conversation eGuide gained an understanding of what elements of the designs were still important to the brand, and what goals the executive leadership would like to achieve with the website redesign. Following the meeting eGuide had a clear understanding of what assets to use and what direction to take.

Branding: To allow for input and feedback, eGuide created two brand books that explored the application of the color scheme, use of imagery, and other design elements. Having two versions of the same concepts allowed the School’s executive leadership team to easily identify what elements and versions resonated with them most. eGuide allowed for a round of revisions to finalize the brand book to ensure that the end product would be something the school could use for years to come.

Site Map & Working Wireframes: Using a tool called LucidSpark, eGuide was able to build a collaborative work environment that allowed for a workshop on both the site map and a wireframe of the home page. Through a guided conversation with Amy, eGuide was able to solidify the core navigation of the site, and discuss some key page layouts. 

Development: Since SIEF was committed to remaining with Squarespace as the website host, eGuide was able to work with-in the existing site structure to start to make each page behind-the-scenes. To begin, eGuide developed the top 5 pages of the site, and allowed for one round of review and feedback to ensure that the design elements were reflective of the brand book and matched the board’s expectations. With the feedback from the board incorporated it was easy to move through the remainder of the site matching the design elements from the approved pages. 

Refinement + SEO: Quality review for the site was done both by the eGuide Team and the SIEF Executive Leadership Team to ensure that all links, navigation, and pages were accurate before going live. This allowed for one last round of “polishing” audits that gave the school full confidence in the design. While completing final refinement updates, eGuide also ensured that all elements of SEO were created including page titles, meta descriptions, and Alt Image Text. Once the site was ready to launch, eGuide circulated the new pages into the live site and resubmitted the sitemap to Google Search Console for indexing.

Words From Our Partner

"eGuide’s understanding of how a growing non-profit operates allowed my Board and I to be a part of the process and highly satisfied with the finished products. eGuide brings a calm, kindly organizational structure to our projects and allows for logical time management with check-ins along the way; we are thankful to have found a community partner in eGuide, and are excited to continue to collaborate with Gregory and the team."

Amy M. Ewaldt, MAT Director of Scuola Italiana Enrico Fermi (SIEF) International School

Conclusion

Creating a partnership with SIEF through the design process allowed for transparent and collaborative communication. Using a compounding approach, eGuide was able to solicit feedback and review from key stakeholders and decision makers throughout the process, which kept the project in order and running smoothly. The finished product is a site that is energetic, easy to navigate, and reflective of the ethos and teaching philosophies of the school. 

Tools

• Google Drive:.google.com/drive Asset Storage and Sharing

• Canva: Brandbook Design

• Adobe Creative Suite: Design Element Creation

• LucidSpark: Site Map and Wireframe

• Squarespace: Development & Hosting