Remember that big announcement we promised earlier this week? Here it is: Maker Ed has got a brand new brand!
Why rebrand?
In the nearly three years since Maker Ed was founded, our organization has grown immensely. We’ve established three programs (Maker Corps, Maker VISTA, Young Makers), started the Open Portfolio Project, launched a Resource Library, and established an online community for those interested in maker education. We’ve also held a number of in-person gatherings and professional development workshops for educators, including the Making Possibilities Workshop.
Maker Ed is now looking to the future of our organization. In the next few years, we intend to harness this progress, and really emphasize what matters to us — our values — and focus our strategy to support educational communities, particularly those in underserved areas, to realize our vision of Every Child a Maker..
Read more about our values and strategy on our updated about page.
New Logo
To better reflect this new emphasis and focus, we created a new logo. While working with us to craft it, our design firm (LLOBE Designs) was inspired by the concept and process of making – taking raw materials and bringing them together to bring into being something larger than the sum of its parts – and the endless creative possibilities that can arise from it.
Our redesigned logo represents the union of the most basic shapes and colors. In particular, it is inspired by the colors in the CMYK system: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (or black — which is the color you get when you combine the others in equal parts). Just as raw materials can come together to create endless possibilities when you make, in this system the basic colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow can be brought together to create any color in the world.
New(ish) Name
In keeping with these efforts, we’ve also decided to focus the name of our organization and emphasize what is really important: Making and Education. Moving forward, we will refer to our organization by our colloquial name: Maker Ed.
(Our legal name will remain Maker Education Initiative, but will only be used in certain contexts.)
With this renewed emphasis on our values and focus on our core work, our new branding grounds us firmly in our passion for maker education, and orients us to the future. We hope you will continue to follow us as we work towards our vision of Every Child a Maker.
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