He Pounamu
He Pounamu is a beautiful peaceful nature based early nurture centre in the foothills of the Taurarua Ranges, that is founded upon Te Ao Maori and rich in aroha.
He Pounamu aims to strengthen hearts through a nurturing approach to teaching and learning and by putting whanau and Te Ao Maori at the heart of the curriculum in a supportive and culturally inclusive environment.
The logo visually represents the brand story and values through a pair of Huia, our sacred treasure. The Huia represent caring for our precious treasures, our tamariki. The Huia were also very social birds who mate for life. Also Huia feathers were given as token of friendship and respect which parallels He Pounamus values.
The twist or pikorua represents the path of life and symbolises the strong bond between two loved ones. This captures the love and aroma we have for each of our tamariki. The twist is an expression of loyalty as the twist has no end point, just like lifelong relationships. This represents the love and strong bonds they have at He Pounamu.
We cleverly integrated three koru into the negative space. These koru represent new beginnings, growth and regeneration, which perfectly captures the environment at He Pounamu. We also incorporated korus into the type in the round o and u’s. This flowed seamlessly into the rounded, friendly and soft curved ends of the letters.
Nature and the environment inspired the colour palette of fresh mint green and deep dark forest green. Mint green represents tranquility, health, good luck and can signify growth, wellness and fertility. Dark forest green is associated with freshness, growth, balance and the environment.
When designing the website we wanted to put children at the forefront and showcase how they are nurtured and loved in an engaging and playful way. We came up with the idea of photographing kids, clearcutting them and illustrating the scene around them. These illustrations showed the user how kids at He Poumanu interact with the environment, showing things like jumping in puddles, using a telescope outside to look at the mountains, playing with the animals like ducks, chickens and goats that are at the centre. We also wanted to show imagination and playfulness by having kids being superheros, dressing up as dragons, surfing and being astronauts. We also wanted to feature a child in a Waka as He Pounamu strategic vision is depicted as a Waka, representing their vision, goals and values and how they plan on progressing their business with purpose and unity.