Native Ed

Interviews surfaced a split I had to design around. Teachers arrived with intent: find a vetted, classroom-ready lesson on a specific topic, fast, then leave. Lifelong learners arrived with curiosity and no fixed goal, wanting to follow a thread and discover. One search bar couldn't serve both. So I gave the platform two front doors: fast faceted search for teachers, and an exploratory map for everyone browsing.

For teachers, I built a faceted catalog. Resources filter by topic, person, tribe, location, time period, and age group, so a teacher can narrow hundreds of resources to the right lesson in a few clicks.

For everyone else, I designed and illustrated an interactive map. The decision that mattered: it lets you explore by historical cultural regions, not only modern state borders. State lines are a colonial overlay on this material. Navigating by the regions that actually existed was both a better browse experience and a more honest representation of the subject.

The brand had to feel rooted in the cultures it represents without lifting sacred or specific imagery out of context. A few choices:

I drew every illustration by hand, from dwellings and foods to instruments and landscapes, instead of stock or generic motifs. Custom work let me stay specific and accurate.

The palette comes from natural materials: turquoise, yellow ochre, earth tones, and botanical color.

The logo is built from turtle petroglyph forms, chosen with input from subject matter experts rather than for looks alone.

The full platform shipped in two months: faceted catalog, illustrated interactive map, and a complete brand system, built in Webflow and handed to the client to run. The design is built around the two users it serves. A teacher can go from landing to a vetted, classroom-ready lesson in a few clicks. A curious learner can move through the map by cultural region and follow whatever catches them. Subject matter experts shaped both the content structure and the visual choices.