Overview

The College of New Caledonia (CNC) has been serving the educational needs of B.C.’s Central Interior since 1969, offering a comprehensive range of programs to over 5,000 students annually. CNC works with many Indigenous communities in the region to deliver programs with the goal of seeing Indigenous students thrive at CNC and at home. We were tasked with taking the 2024-2029 Indigenous Education Plan that was built in collaboration with communities in the region and highlight the interconnectedness of the college, people and the land. Further, we were asked to push the boundaries of the college’s brand guides to create a distinct design, but one that still felt like it belonged in a suite of college strategic plans being rolled out at the same time.

Deliverables

Based on a creative brief created in consultation with those responsible for building the plan, we delivered a carefully designed book that met our client’s needs. We challenged conventional design approaches to communicating a strategic plan by avoiding a traditional, hierarchical, and linear way of laying out a strategic plan.

It was important that the visuals communicate a wholistic approach to Indigenous education with balanced priorities for the college. Our design avoids a layout that communicates any sort of prioritization for initiatives and areas of focus. Additionally, we used a limited number of hard edges in the design. We favoured gradients, circles, and soft edges wherever possible. Our designer drew streams of water to flow through the book to connect the plan. This symbolizes the interconnectedness of the college, the people ,and the land. To contextualize the book to the region, we worked with the college to gather images of people, artwork, and any stories of significance to influence and integrate into the design. The college provided a story about “Dream Hunters” that came with illustrations that were integrated into the final design. These illustrations feature people and small communities that were placed along the stream of water flowing through the book.

Our Work