Skill Studio
Logo & Brand Design
After years of experience in TV media, Jillian Mele decided she wanted to use her knowledge to help others find their purpose. Through what will be many online courses, Jillian plans to create an environment that helps others tell their story, navigate the professional workforce and more. Skill Studio already had its face, but it needed the brand. She came with a sketched logo but wanted us to help give the brand its visual direction.
Jillian asked for something professional with style. Skill Studio needed to be sophisticated and powerful but she wasn’t afraid of a little color and personality as well. Inspired by the literal screen the courses would be taught through, the logo and brand pattern emulate the outline of the very familiar video window with rounded corners.
We put together two directions for Skill Studio, the first was Vibrant Edge, drawn from that powerful but playful side that Jillian asked for. The second direction was Polished Play, with softer designs that leaned into the more sophisticated side of the company.
Jillian decided both directions spoke to her and the company so she asked for a combination of the two. While combining two drastically different directions was a challenge, keeping the brands target audience (university students and their parents) in mind played a role in deciding when we would lean into the Vibrant Edge side and when we would let the Professional Play take the lead. For many of the outward facing deliverables, we let the designs embrace the brands color and personality. For the workbooks and informational web pages, we stuck to a more professional look to avoid distractions and keep things easily digestible.
The website was made in Thinkific for its e-learning and e-commerce capabilities. Now that we have all the main styles and modules in, the website can be easily updated by someone on Jillian’s team. I also got the pleasure to work with an animator to bring these designs into the course videos with full screen transitions, on screen call outs, lower thirds, and more.