Building a brand identity and a landing website for Groeispurt Workshops
Groeispurt Workshops
Groeispurt offers expert-led workshops for gymnasium and university students, focusing on career guidance, self-reflection, and personal motivation. Their sessions help students gain clarity, make informed decisions, and build essential skills for personal and professional growth.
Headquarters
Amsterdam, NL
Services
- Branding & Visual Identity
- UI Design
- Video & Static Content Creation
Industry
Education & Personal Development
The challenge
Groeispurt needed a digital presence that spoke to two audiences at once: university and gymnasium students seeking clarity in their career decisions, and the educational staff who would hire the service. The challenge was to design a landing page and brand identity that balanced professional credibility with an approachable, youthful energy.
Solution
I developed the brand logo and style guide to establish a clear visual identity, then carried that identity into a landing page with a clean, natural and friendly UI that communicates Groeispurt's services and values.
To make the offering tangible, I created mockups of the workbooks and workshops, and produced a promotional video in the same visual language — giving educational institutions a concrete, credible picture of what Groeispurt delivers.
Cultivating a Brand from the Ground Up
When Waldemar, Jasper, and Ruud approached me, they had no brand identity—just the concept of student workshops. After learning that "Groeispurt" means "growth spurt" in Dutch, I developed a logo that symbolized the nurturing of student potential. Initially considering a leaf design, I guided them toward a minimalist approach, selecting a font that subtly echoed nature. We decided against overly complex elements like their original request of a growing bean, focusing on simplicity for a versatile, adaptable logo.
Following the logo creation, we held a creative session to define the brand’s visual style, selecting colors and imagery that resonated with their mission. I then crafted mockups to showcase how the brand would look in action, ensuring consistency across their digital and physical presence.
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Final outcomes for the website
I created an initial design that closely adhered to the style guide and wireframes, ensuring a strong foundation for the website. After review, only minor content adjustments and layout rearrangements were needed. This streamlined approach allowed for a smooth handoff, with the website ready for content to be filled in and fine-tuned as needed, ensuring a polished and cohesive final product.
Crafting Personas that shape the site
After finalizing the brand’s visual identity, we sat down with the founders for a creative session to dive into the minds of their target audience. This helped us craft reader personas, giving us a clear picture of who we were designing for.
By understanding these users better, we could make smarter choices about the site’s copy and content, ensuring everything spoke directly to their needs and motivations. This step was key in making sure the website would truly connect with its readers.
From Ideation to Execution: A Structured Approach to Crafting an Effective Website
To begin the design process, we first facilitated a Future Workshop, where we asked the question, "What functionality and content would your perfect website have?" This collaborative brainstorming session generated a wide range of ideas, helping us understand the needs and desires of the target audience.
Next, we used the MoSCoW method to prioritize features from the Future Workshop output, identifying the “Must-Haves,” “Should-Haves,” and “Could-Haves.” This allowed us to focus on the essential elements for the MVP (minimum viable product) and ensure we weren’t overwhelmed by too many options.
With our core features decided, we moved on to visualizing the structure of the website through a sitemap. This step helped us establish the site’s flow and layout, providing clarity on the user journey and content organization.
Finally, we took it a step further by creating lo-fi wireframes for the homepage, visualizing the key elements in place. This provided a clear blueprint for the site’s design, setting the stage for a more detailed, user-focused experience moving forward.
A video advertisement representing the brand
As my final contribution to the project, I collaborated with the founders to script, record voice overs, and edit the Groeispurt promotional video.
This video became a powerful addition to the site, bringing the brand’s mission to life and adding a dynamic element to the overall design.
