Shaping a brand that helps parents grow.

Howto group
Product & Graphic Design Lead
Mar 2022 – Present

Background

Howtotalk is a Dutch parenting brand that helps parents strengthen the bond with their children by teaching them gentle and respectful communication methods.

After delivering over 50k in-person training courses to parents and educators and selling over 110k books, they decided to expand the brand to the Howto Group.

The group consists of the following interlinked businesses:

• Howtotalk – parenting communication books and training resources

• Howtoplay – affordable, developmentally beneficial toys and furniture for babies and children

• Howtogrow – parenting courses and strategies app

The brief

• Develop the Howtotalk brand with:

  • A refreshed brand identity that feels modern and inspiring

  • A suite of new icons

  • Marketing assets including social media and email templates

  • A set of brand guidelines to help improve content consistency

• Shape the branding of the Howto Group

• Design new website for the Howto Group that encompasses all three businesses

Audience

Our primary audience consists of busy, well-educated mothers (25 to 45 years old) who are heavily invested in the physical and emotional development of their children (0 to 12 years old). They actively explore positive parenting techniques and often seek advice from trusted parenting experts on social media, such as Howtotalk, Hey Sleepy Baby and Big Little Feelings.

Many face the challenge of balancing work, parenting responsibilities, relationships and household tasks, which often leaves them feeling overwhelmed, especially when navigating difficult parenting phases like toddler boundary-testing.

They are motivated by a desire to create a nurturing home environment and to foster strong family bonds through practical parenting strategies and developmentally beneficial activities.

Brand identity

The Howto Group branding builds upon the legacy Howtotalk identity. The new and enhanced brand uses a more refined colour palette and has a modern, fresh feel.

Typography

As a team, we chose to continue using the Poppins font due to its clean, easy-to-read style that resonates well with our audience.

Icon set 2

To be used for illustrative purposes on the website and the Howtogrow app. This set uses an expanded colour palette taken from the original Howtotalk brand guidelines.

Website

I designed the Howto Group website which includes the following key features:

• An online store, checkout and search functionality that allow users to discover and purchase Howtoplay’s affordable, developmentally beneficial toys and furniture

• A log in area to manage account details and Play Box subscriptions

• A baby calendar tool in which parents can understand more about their child’s development by age

• A baby name tool that inspires expectant parents with potential baby names

• A help centre that supports users with account and product queries

• An articles area that features all the latest news and updates from the Howto Group

• A footer that clearly categorises Howtotalk, Howtoplay and Howtogrow products and allows users to sign up to latest news

Social media library

I created a comprehensive social media asset library for both Howtotalk and Howtoplay, featuring editable, auto-layout templates in Figma.

I designed posts, stories, banners and display images for Instagram and LinkedIn. A selection of the Instagram posts are show below.

Email template library

Furthermore, I designed a suite of editable, auto-layout email templates tailored to our parenting community – one example of which is shown below.

Each Howtoplay play box includes a guide that provides parents with insights and tips to support their baby’s development at every stage. So far, I’ve designed eight play guides as we continue to develop more play boxes.