Samuel Gompers Brochure
Lauren Ervin, Katie Gehris, Julianna Kissinger, Casey Wood
Fellow, Marcy Carini
Community Partner
Samuel Gompers School is a kindergarten through eighth grade public elementary school located in the Philadelphia School District. Their mission is to provide their students with an education focused on the whole child which focuses on character, scholarship and leadership. Their goal is to serve their students. They do this in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, excelling in math and science, partnering with local organizations, and offering an abundance of extracurriculars.
Challenge
Our design question was shaped around the fact that Gompers lacked a brochure. This seems to be crucial in order to draw prospective students, since the competitors had successful enrollment as well as brochures at their front doors. Our Design Question was “How can we display Gompers’ strengths and values through a brochure?” Before pinpointing this question we discussed what problem needed to be solved through making a brochure, was to have the intention of increasing enrollment by highlighting all that Gompers’ has to offer. We strived to find a way that best represented the schools best qualities, not only in a useful but effective way that sets them apart from competition. We also wanted to target Gompers ideal audience, which would be parents of prospective students. A lot of people who come to look at Gompers lack the knowledge of why this school is so great, so our goal is to inform them through the brochure.
Strategic Thinking
When approaching our partnership project with Gompers, we did various forms of research, whether that was familiarizing ourselves with their social media presence, examining other schools and what they have to offer their students, or storytelling and design research. We first began by examining their social media appearance across multiple platforms. We discussed that Gompers has an active social media presence that just needs a little improvement with their branding. By creating this brochure, we are creating and displaying a brand in order to highlight Gompers’ values and everything great they have to offer. When discussing their values, we turned to the Golden Circle theory. While examining and analyzing the Golden Circle with Gompers, our collaborating ideas have come to the conclusion that Gompers’ mission is for students to be prepared for a successful future through building character, scholarship, and leadership. The brochure will highlight these core values through our organized and strategic design. To prepare for this project, we also researched and discussed storytelling methods. The story Gompers needed to tell involves their highly prioritized ideal of community. Gompers is a community school and interacts with various, diverse partners within the Philadelphia community. The brochure will successfully tell a story of community and the great outcomes of it. The collaborative process with Gompers was challenging due to many busy schedules, but overall Gompers was a great partner that quickly responded to our needs and questions, which benefited the process greatly.
Results
In order to formulate the brochure, we needed to gather information about Gompers, their curriculum, programs, extracurricular activities, and ideals/values that make their education stand out from the competitor schools. Each panel (pictured below) highlights a different aspect of Gompers education that we felt was important to highlight as well as our partners at Gompers.
The first panel includes information about the academic statistics and programs that Gompers provides for a top-notch education. We wanted this on the first panel because we think that prospective families would find this information most important. The second panel shows their mission statement and pictures of the students. The third panel shows Gompers partnerships with SJU, the school district of Philadelphia, and other local organizations. The fourth panel shows faculty and staff, and links to Gompers’s socials and their website. The fifth panel is testimonials from past students and parents. The last panel, when folded, is the front of the brochure and serves as a cover page.
Final product