With a Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication, extensive experience both visiting and living abroad, and 3 globe-trekking children of her own, Melissa Manassee knows a little something about traveling with kids. On a family trip to Paris, Melissa had the idea of helping her children keep track of their unique thoughts and experiences through journaling. After years of hearing, “What a great idea!” and “Tell me how you did it!”, she decided to develop and share her methods with other adventurous families and school groups through her own brand: Curiocity.  

Part guidebook, part conversation starter, part cultural educator, part journal, and part sketchbook, Curiocity’s travel guides provide interactive experiences in the world’s great cities and inspire children 10 and up to learn, connect, and vividly remember their travel adventures. 

Melissa came to YellowDog as she prepared for her upcoming launch party. She was looking for help building her brand identity, developing an e-commerce site, and preparing her kits for the big day. She needed an expert design, web, and print team to bring them to life. Plus, what party is complete without swag?

Logo & Identity

First up was Curiocity’s look. Considering their audience of adventurous kids, we kept the colors bright and modern and incorporated a compass into a passport stamp-reminiscent shape. Since their logo is quite literally “going places”, a simple and versatile design allows for resizing and single-color options on a wide variety of merchandise, stationery, and graphics. 

Design & Layout

Our next challenge was presenting over 100 pages of information and activities in a journal format that’s functional, easy to navigate, visually fun, and engaging for children. Challenging doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun, though! Our designers especially enjoyed creating the icons, from jumping fish to pizzas, curious dogs to snails. 

These kits are more than just journals, so we carried that fun and versatile branding to the boxes, stickers, backpacks, pencil cases, and luggage tags, as well as Curiocity’s business cards, letterhead, note pads, and note cards. 

Website

Next up was the website.  Specifically, we designed and built an e-commerce website to showcase and sell their kits and keep customers up to date on upcoming projects through a simple mailing list sign-up. An online presence doesn’t end with a website, though, so we also offered guidance on building and managing branded Facebook and Instagram accounts that let Curiocity post updates and interact with its online community from anywhere! 

Print

At a convenient 7” x 9.5” size, with thick UV-coated covers and durable interior pages, we made sure these journals would be both portable and tough. The Wire-o binding allows them to lie flat, which is important for jotting down notes on the go. 

Matching stationery, stickers, and luggage tags were also printed to ensure their vibrant colors were consistent across materials.

Swag

Important for both the travel kits and the launch party, we researched, designed, and sourced tote bags, drawstring backpacks, pencil cases, and colored-pencil boxes to work together and support Curiocity’s new brand and vision.

The launch party was a success! While we can’t take credit for the delicious (and on-brand) cake, attendees were engaged and delighted by the books, stickers, notecards, and swag.  With the goal of building momentum and securing placement in bookstores (they’re already available with a 5-star Rating on Amazon), this launch party was an exciting unveiling of an ambitious vision and a creative new resource for anyone traveling with children. 

What are Curiocity’s next steps? Plans are underway to grow the brand with new guides for Barcelona, Berlin, Florence, London, New York, Rome, Tokyo, and Washington, DC, and YellowDog is eager and grateful to be along for the ride, jumping fish icons and all!