A Name That Could Hold the Weight: Rebranding North Dakota's Out-of-School Time Network

A Name That Could Hold the Weight: Rebranding North Dakota’s Out-of-School Time Network

From afterschool to statewide.

For years, the organization known as the ND Afterschool Network quietly held together a statewide system most people never thought about. It connected programs, pushed for funding, and worked to make sure every kid in North Dakota had somewhere meaningful to go after the bell rang. The mission was real. The reach was real. The name, though, was becoming a problem.

“Afterschool” implied a single slice of the day. Summer programs didn’t fit the label, and neither did career and technical education for high schoolers. Many policymakers heard “daycare.” The people running programs knew exactly what ND Afterschool was, but the people controlling the funding often didn’t. As federal funding cycles shifted and state dollars stayed elusive, a narrow, misread identity carried real consequences.

What the Mark Had to Say

The new name, North Dakota Out-of-School Time Network, clarified the scope. The new brand had to make the mission legible at a glance.

Tellwell’s design team built the logo from four shapes: a child figure, a lightbulb, a diamond, and an arc. Ideas, strength, connection, collaboration; the mark is a visual argument for what the network does, and every decision in the identity system grew from it. The color palette runs warm and energetic without tipping into juvenile. Typography pairs Quicksand’s playful geometry with a hand-drawn specialty font — used sparingly — for a headline, a pull quote, two or three words at most. Graphic elements like squiggles, triangles, and geometric color blocks give the brand room to move across a printed policy brief and a Canva post made by a program coordinator in Grafton.

Built for the People Using It

The brand guide Tellwell delivered was a handoff designed for a small team without dedicated designers. Logo files covered every format a vendor, printer, or Canva user would ever ask for. The color system included hex, RGB, and CMYK codes. The typography guide explained how the fonts worked together and named an approved alternative for anyone stuck in Word.

The new website, ndostnetwork.org, brought the brand into motion. Built on WordPress, it serves policymakers, the business community, and program providers without losing the thread between them. Quality standards, policy work, technical assistance, and an interactive statewide map of out-of-school time programs live in a structure that works whether you’re a state legislator trying to understand the landscape or a program coordinator looking for training resources.

Student Stories: An Advocacy Film

As the primary advocate for high-quality out-of-school programming, the North Dakota Out-of-School Time Network (NDOSTN) ensures every young person has a safe place to thrive. Facing shifting funding cycles, NDOSTN needed to move beyond statistics to share the heartbeat of their mission with policymakers. We partnered with them to create a documentary that trades clinical reports for human-centered storytelling, illustrating how these programs serve as vital guides for student success.

Using an interview-based approach, the film weaves together lived experiences from students and educators to showcase the undeniable value of out-of-school programming. The final piece provides NDOSTN with a powerful advocacy tool, inviting viewers to move from observers to active champions. This project empowers NDOSTN to connect through authentic narratives, ensuring those who influence policy truly understand the life-changing impact of quality out-of-school time.