The Whitfield School | St. Louis, MO
“Crane + Peters took the time to get to know us—who we are and who we want to be—and then came back with fresh ways of representing Whitfield to St. Louis and talking about the academic experience we provide our students.”
–Chris Cunningham, Head of School
background
The Whitfield School came to us at an exciting moment in its institutional history. The school was poised to build on longstanding curricular strengths in project-based instruction and to implement exciting new programmatic emphases. In this moment, Whitfield needed a way to reintroduce outside audiences to their active, engaged approach—and to give current families and educators a potent rallying point.
The framing mechanism was drawn from comments made across faculty focus groups, in which participants repeatedly cited the importance of seeing, hearing, doing, and making at Whitfield—with one teacher summarizing the school’s distinctive approach as offering students “a school of experiences.” Faculty and staff members also played a central role in the creation of all program content by supplying a wealth of very specific, very illuminating examples of teaching and learning, offering outside audiences an immediate, powerful sense of precisely how this school looks, sounds, succeeds, and makes children feel.
In lieu of a traditional bound viewbook, the C+P team created a deck of informational cards that arrive packaged in an embossed folder. Brightly colored and designed to be handled, shared, and shuffled through, this deck offers readers an active, sensory experience that echoes the program tagline. Each card contains an intriguing, easily digestible tidbit of information about curriculum, community, student life, or outcomes—which, taken together, tell the full, compelling story of this remarkable school.
“Every step of the process was both enlightening and unifying. Unanimously, our constituents—trustees, administrators, alumni, faculty, and staff—said that they felt seen and heard. The result was that we developed a trusting partnership with the C+P team, who, somehow, got to know us better than we knew ourselves. The framework Crane + Peters is provided gives us the ability to step into the marketplace as a school that we recognize, both today and tomorrow, with pride in our past and present, and with aspirations for our future.”
–Erin Walsh, The Whitfield school, Director of Communications + marketing
overview of our partnership
1. DISCOVERY + ANALYSIS
We began our engagement with a thorough review of Whitfield’s existing marketing and communications materials, as well as a deep dive into peer schools in St. Louis’ dynamic market. Our team visited campus and observed classes, then conducted focus groups and interviews both in person and via Zoom. In particular, the insights afforded by Whitfield’s teachers, staff members, and administrators shaped subsequent creative work and strategic decisions.
2. Insights + implications
Our findings report highlighted important areas of consensus and shared values, helping school leaders to understand how the Whitfield community sees itself as a place of rich engagement and brave experiences. Our team presented a list of emerging themes, building buy-in on initial concepts and working with the school to facilitate even more faculty and staff input into upcoming creative work.
3. BRANDING + MARKETING
Our team asked for concrete examples of experiential learning at Whitfield, and the school’s educators answered the call, contributing several dozen detailed project descriptions and lesson plans. These evocative examples became the building blocks of deliverables, unified under the umbrella of the “school of experience” framing mechanism. A two-day photoshoot, planned and art-directed by our team’s graphic designer, resulted in images that bring life, clarity, and energy to print materials and webpages.
4. FRAMING + Allignment
The Whitfield School was wrapping up a new strategic plan as they began branding work with C+P. To support the strategic plan rollout and strengthen communications alignment with new marketing materials, our team reviewed and revised the framing language for the plan. As a result, Whitfield ensured that each of these two important initiatives reinforced and invigorated the other.
5. Rollout + Support
Our team asked for concrete examples of experiential learning at Whitfield, and the school’s educators answered the call, contributing several dozen detailed project descriptions and lesson plans. These evocative examples became the building blocks of deliverables, unified under the umbrella of the “school of experience” framing mechanism. A two-day photoshoot, planned and art-directed by our team’s graphic designer, resulted in images that bring life, clarity, and energy to print materials and webpages.
