Teaching for success.
The British Council approached us to refresh its Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework — a vital resource supporting teachers and educators worldwide. The goal was to modernise its design, improve clarity, and create a more engaging visual experience that better reflected the organisation’s global reach and educational values.
Case Study:
Approach:
Client:
British Council
Role:
Lead Creative Graphic+Motion Designer — Concept, Design, Animation, and Delivery
Objective / Challenge:
The British Council’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework — a core resource supporting teachers and educators worldwide — needed a complete visual and structural refresh.
The existing framework had grown complex over time, making it harder for users to navigate and engage with. The British Council approached us to help reimagine how the framework could communicate progression, clarity, and inspiration through design.
The project began with a deep dive into the existing materials and educator feedback to understand how the framework was being used in practice. Working closely with the British Council’s education and communications teams, I helped define the core goals:
Simplify how information is presented, making the framework clearer and easier to navigate.
Create a visual hierarchy and flow that reflects professional growth and development.
Modernise the overall look and feel, ensuring the design reflects the British Council’s global, inclusive, and professional brand identity.
I developed several styles that demonstrate how the framework can come to life through color and visuals that engage the viewer, allowing for exploration to take place. Interconnectedness was a key factor in the design framework as well as a fully accessible format, allowing colleagues to drop it into presentations, documents, etc.
Discussion:
Solution:
While the initial concept explored several ways to represent professional practices, the direction evolved. Key elements from the earlier designs were refined and integrated into a new, unified framework that better aligned with the British Council’s updated vision.
The redesigned CPD Framework combined existing elements, but now felt more updated with a clearer understanding of the design principles, whilst being able to be used across formats when needed for documents and presentations.
By aligning brand elements with graphic design principles, the new system not only communicated the CPD stages more effectively but also made the material feel more dynamic, professional, and inspiring to its global educator audience.
