The Brand Agency’s Carly Moone helps Encourage the Wonder for early childhood educator Unicare

Unicare Early Childhood Education is a community-owned, parent-managed, educator-loved, beacon of light in early childhood, located on the beautiful University of Western Australia Crawley campus. Its magnificent gardens, nature play, enriching programs and sense of organic ‘messy wonderment’ are unique in the childcare space.

Originally founded 50 years ago to support the UWA Student Guild, Unicare was impacted by the market contractions of COVID-19 and the shift to working from home with fewer UWA students and staff requiring full-time childcare. Unicare is now entering a new stage of growth, it is advertising for the first time and needed a new brand to effectively communicate the wonderful experience it provides for children. Step forward, The Brand Agency’s Senior Designer, Carly Moone.

At the centre of the new brand are the Unicare ‘Guardians’ characters. Each has been lovingly handmade by Moone with help from her son and uses native WA flora collected from around the Centre’s grounds.

Inspired by natural Australian tones and the whimsical ‘Guardians’ that embody the wonderful educators that care for and educate children at the centre, ‘encourage the wonder’ reflects the values and ethos that underpins Unicare’s vision.

“With traditional illustration methods being a commonly used tool in the market, we needed to do something different. One of the main goals with this brand was to create an identity that resonated as much with the children as it did with their parents,” says Moone. “A brand that can come to life and truly ‘encourage the wonder’, capturing the world through the eyes of little people and highlighting all the wonderful things they can accomplish.”

Unicare Board member, Lauren Pemberton, said: “our mission is to support Unicare’s growth strategy by reaching the wider Perth parent community, who are typically beholden to childcare waiting lists. Unicare’s new brand now reflects and celebrates the excellent care of the educators, the sustainability-based academic curriculum and commitment to inclusivity that sets it apart.”