A brand identity and wayfinding system for a new urban academy
UDA needed to stand out within a large public district while staying welcoming and credible, delivered through a scalable identity and branded environment.

CLIENT

Urban Discovery Academy (UDA)

SECTOR

Education

ROLE

Brand & Environmental Graphic Designer (EGD)

CREATIVE SERVICES

Brand Identity, Illustration, Environmental Graphics & Wayfinding

INSIGHT

Educational organizations in urban districts often struggle to express a sense of community empowerment and creativity within institutional constraints. Their brand identities can appear overly formal, missing the opportunity to connect emotionally with young learners and local families.

CHALLENGE

Urban Discovery Academy (UDA), a newly founded educational institution, sought to distinguish itself within the San Diego Unified School District. The school needed a brand identity that would reflect its mission; to motivate children to become active, creative problem solvers, and resonate with a diverse urban community. The challenge lay in designing environmental graphics that felt both academically credible and playfully inspiring, fostering pride and participation among students, parents, and educators alike.

OUTCOME

As Brand Designer and Environmental Graphic Designer, I led the development of Urban Discovery Academy's brand identity and helped translate it into the school's physical spaces. Working closely with UDA's founders, I defined the typography, color, illustration, and tone, then applied that system across the building to create a welcoming, human-centered environment that reflects the school's mission and fosters belonging for students, families, and educators. While the wayfinding strategy grew from the school's spatial context, the visual language I created shaped its signage hierarchy and graphic standards, giving the school a flexible foundation for intuitive navigation in an active educational setting.

MY CONTRIBUTIONS

• Led brand identity development and supported its application across environmental graphic touchpoints

• Supported the design and application of wayfinding and spatial graphics to improve navigation and clarity

• Collaborated with the Art Director to prepare visual mockups and layouts that guided environmental tone and graphic placement

• Partnered with founders and project stakeholders to align brand values with the spatial experience

WAY-FINDING, ENVIRONMENTAL GRAPHICS (Applied across classrooms, corridors, and shared spaces)

LANDING PAGE

SOCIALS

RESULTS

UDA launched with a distinctive identity and branded environment that strengthened recognition and pride across students, families, and educators. The combined brand + EGD system helped the academy stand out within the district while reinforcing a sense of belonging, creativity, and community ownership throughout the space.

Adoption: The brand identity and environmental graphic system were implemented across the campus and continue to serve as the foundation for signage and visual communication.

Usage: Environmental graphics and identity elements support daily navigation and wayfinding for students, families, and educators throughout the school.

Longevity: The system was designed to scale with the academy’s growth, providing a flexible foundation for future environmental and wayfinding applications.

REFLECTION

This project showed me that a brand identity is most powerful when people can move through it and feel it, not just see it as a mark. Designing for a school meant balancing credibility with warmth and building systems that work across diverse users, budgets, and real-world constraints. It strengthened my ability to turn mission-driven values into scalable environmental graphics, and to use wayfinding and spatial storytelling to support both navigation and emotional connection. Most of all, it showed me how thoughtful environmental design can help learning spaces feel inclusive, engaging, and community-centered.