EDvance College

The Stakes

EDvance College launched as a new national college for early childhood educators, many of them working adults, multilingual, and historically shut out of higher education. Its website had two jobs at once: prove institutional credibility to accreditors, and feel welcoming to students who had good reason to doubt higher ed was built for them.

The Constraints

• An existing logo, but no palette or visual system around it.
• Programs, partnerships, and content changing while the college itself was being built.
• Accreditation required policies, student handbooks, and compliance documents to be public and easy to find.
• A small staff with no in-house web team.

Key Decisions

• Brand before website. I started by simplifying the original logo, changing its colors, and building a palette and image treatments, so the website, annual report, and decks drew from one system instead of being reinvented each time.
• Warm, but clearly a college. Bright color and simple shapes nod to early childhood education, while real student photography keeps the site grounded in the adult learners it serves.
• Compliance content with its own structure. Policies, handbooks, and compliance resources are organized so accreditors and students can find them without digging.
• Built for staff to run. The site runs on a CMS, so staff publish events, curriculum updates, blog posts, and job listings themselves.

The Outcome

The site carried the policies and disclosures accreditors review, and EDvance earned national accreditation. EDvance kept bringing me back as the college grew: an annual report for funders, slide decks, a redesigned jobs page, and Quickbase form integration.