Estudodebom is a new startup in Rio de Janeiro, designed to give students between the ages of 11 and 15 a place to learn (and to choose whatever it is they want to learn) in an environment very different from their normal study space. You can even see it in the design of the space, that everything about Estudodebom is unconventional.
Which is why they needed an unconventional look and feel for their site, and one that would appeal to younger kids and more mature teens. This was probably one of the tougher challenges of this project, designing a visual language that’s both serious and fun, with appeal to kids and teens at both end of the age spectrum.
How I approached the problem was to talk to some of the teenagers, getting to know their online experiences. I was then able to design a look that is young but not childish. But it wasn’t just the kids we had to worry about either, another part of the challenge was that also make it look serious and respectable enough that parents would take it seriously. By keeping the content of the site serious, businesslike and to the point, we maintained a professional dignity that the parents would respect, while still adding a little edge to the look so that the kids would respect it too.