For over 25 years, EF Education First has been working to change the way people see the world in China and how Chinese children learn English. With a unique teaching approach focused on developing soft skills, the aim is to produce confident English-speaking children and teenagers who have the tools to succeed academically and in life.

During this quarter-century, EF Kids & Teens has become the biggest and fastest-growing product for EF in China. For over 12 months between 2018 and 2019, the Global Creative Studio spearheaded a holistic creative overhaul to create a new brand identity for the product; one that would act as an umbrella to 4 age-group specific sub-brands already in place (aimed at children), while communicating the overall product offer to parents.

EF's English teaching approach is based on understanding elements of the language bit by bit, over time (ages 3–18). Intertwined with aspects of fun learning, the visual language is based on 'building blocks' that are used as brand signifiers through the distinct use of shape and colour.

One of the differentiators for EF in China is its European heritage. We were keen to draw from that. In doing so, we were inspired by mid-century Scandinavian children's toys — often wooden in form and simple in construction. Combined with the building block visual, an art direction quickly formed that helped communicate the idea of learning bit by bit.

In contrary to a popular Chinese cultural belief of having maximum information on every canvas, we purposefully introduced a sophisticated, reductive aesthetic to the identity. Specifically in the logo, where it's intention was to 'show' that it's a kid's product, rather than 'tell' anything specific (the characters translate to EF Education — the company name).

There was a need to pull from some sector conventions however, for customers to understand the product via other means. We did this through colour.

There was a clear need for a system that is flexible across a plethora of touchpoints (across traditional print, digital, application, in-schools and for events). The design of each block follows rules (from the block design itself, to the order of colours, and to how many blocks can be used) however the placement of each block on the canvas can be applied anywhere.

There are multiple teams between Switzerland, UK and China that now have a single source of truth for every touch point that needs be designed across the EF Kids & Teens universe. This means that there is a new found quality in design executions, as well as consistency and improved speed in output.

Brand perception has improved in China, with school franchise owners requesting new materials and school designs to be implemented to have a fresh appeal to parents.

There is a much stronger ownership in terms of identity for the product compared to its previous look, as well as amongst competitors.

The new brand identity boosted the visual integrity of the product, which has since been going through the process of being sold in what is estimated at a $1.5–2billion sale (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-23/hillhouse-permira-are-said-to-vie-for-ef-education-first-china).