ailé

CURATED TO UNLOCK YOUR CHILD'S POTENTIAL

TIME FRAME— 
8 weeks

MY ROLE— 
Art Direction
Layout Design
Visual Design

COLLABORATORS— 
Individually worked on this end-to-end

TOOLS— 
Illustrator
Photoshop
Indesign

CHALLENGE
While there are plenty of wonderful mom blogs with great developmental activities and thousands of terribly long and boring scientific articles about child development, there isn’t a neat and tidy resource for moms that combine both. And seriously, what mom has time to research all that? Moms are superhumans that have higher priorities and endless to-do lists like holding down the fort, getting the laundry done, the dishes washed, putting out fires and most importantly, keeping little humans alive and carving out quality time with them. Needless to say, they’re busy and need an inspirational and hopeful resource that provides fun, easy educational activities to do with their kids.

GOAL
ailé makes educational bonding opportunities easy by compiling developmental articles from different health fields and pairs it with activities moms can put into practice with their kids into one comprehensive and digestible resource. Keeping the clutter out with a clean and modern layout, curated articles and activities are easily found with distinct sections sorted by age group (toddler, preschool, mid-childhood) so busy moms can find relevant materials to them. Materials include a monthly calendar of activities in Seattle, mom-to-mom advice, seasonal home-activities based on age group, disability spotlights and more — creating fun inside and outside the home.

MISSION
ailé /ɛle/ is a monthly, Seattle-based, magazine for moms. ailé means ‘wing’ in French and Latin, and that is the hope for what this magazine will be; A resource that provides material to guide moms in being the helping hand in their child’s development, and ultimately nurturing their relationship with their little peanut! This magazine prides itself in being a trusted source that educates its readers on child development and empowers them to promote healthy development of their child’s cognitive, language, sensory and motor skills.

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an inspirational and hopeful resource that provides fun, easy educational activities to do with kids 

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comprehensive, digestible and easy to apply

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One of the important aspects about this magazine is that the information is credible. Building around real and meaningful content was at the forefront of my design decisions. Some examples of this are the two images on the last row above. To the left, I asked my amazing friend, Elaine, who is a Speech-Language Pathologist, and her collegues (a Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist) to answer common questions that are asked by parents concerning speech, fine motor and gross motor functions. The image on the right is a feature article where I interviewed Tracy, a beautiful stay-at-home mom, about what her experience is like being a mom, the beauty she's gained from it and the struggles she's had to overcome.

Moms are constantly on a time crunch, long reads aren't reasonable with screaming kids in the house

After receiving feedback that the information was great, but there was a ton of it, I designed two navigation systems within the magazine. On the top left hand corner of each page, it distinguishes the section by age—toddler, preschool, or middle childhood—and along the right hand edge of the right page the sections are distinguished between 4 skills—cognitive, language, sensory and motor skills.

An important aspect I found that moms wanted was to engage in their children's growth. Every section is organized with an article respective to the 4 skills on the right nav and follows with a "Practice It!" section that details an activity parents can do with their kids to help promote that skill they just read about. 

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I want to understand the developmental growth my little one is going through and be able to actively help her practice it.

NEXT STEPS
The big struggle I had when designing this magazine was the sheer content. THERE WAS SO MUCH. Well, for starters, my biggest mistake was having an overambitious idea! BUT I WAS SO EXCITED. After letting a couple of (real) moms (with real kids) read my magazine in a "sitting", I realized moms don't really get that: a peaceful sitting. When I go back for revisions, I want to break up the longform articles so the reader doesn't get so overwhelmed or can understand big ideas just by skimming. I also want to create tearables for the kids to play with (be distracted by, duh!) so moms can have, maybe, a higher chance of a peaceful sitting.