Diamond Charter School

Built the brand, website, and marketing materials for a charter school launch that secured $5M in state grant approvals and reached over 20,000 families.

Overview

Establishing trust through design

Diamond Charter School was preparing its charter approval submission with the New York State Education Department but had no existing brand, website, or communication materials.

The founding team needed to present itself as established and trustworthy to state officials and local families while remaining approachable and engaging for children.

I designed the brand system, responsive website, and multilingual marketing materials that became part of the school’s official submission and launch.

$5M

in state grant

approvals

20K

families

reached

Goal

Create legitimacy for a brand-new school before its first day, balancing professionalism for state approval with warmth and accessibility for families.

Process

Translating the school’s mission into a visual system

Brand Identity Concept

The logo consists of two trapezoids and two triangles arranged to form an offset diamond, symbolizing thinking outside the box. Each shape represents one of the school’s four pillars, also called the 4 C's.

Red

Citizenship for College and Career Readiness

Yellow

Creativity through Classroom Collaboration

Blue

Critical Thinking for Cognitive Growth

Teal

Cultural Appreciation

The configuration suggests movement and interaction, reflecting active learning and continuous growth. The geometric shapes are simple and easy for children to recognize or draw, making the logo educational as well as memorable.

The wordmark, set in Proxima Nova, is customized so the “M” forms two figures holding hands to represent unity, collaboration, and community. Together, the logo and type system express Diamond’s mission to cultivate informed, adaptable, and compassionate leaders.

Proxima Nova Regular

Proxima Nova Bold

Website Design

The responsive website outlined the school’s mission, leadership, and enrollment process with a focus on clarity and bilingual accessibility. Families could reach key pages in two to three clicks, improving usability and transparency during the approval and enrollment phases.

Marketing and Collateral

I designed flyers, brochures, banners, digital ads, and stationery in both English and Spanish to reach a broader audience. Each piece reused shapes and colors from the logo to create a unified look across every channel. Reusable templates were also created for staff to maintain consistent branding beyond launch.

Reflection

What I Learned

This project showed how strategic design can influence trust and recognition for a new institution. The focus was on building a system that could represent both professionalism and warmth, and that would last beyond the launch.

Designing everything from brand identity to website and marketing materials helped me think about how to balance structure and flexibility while also making sure the school could continue applying the system independently over time.

Thank you for reading!

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or to connect.

Ralph Dela Cruz

Product Designer · UX/UI · Web Design

Available for freelance & full-time opportunities