Firedog was commissioned to work collaboratively with Skills Online Group to create a young, vibrant, stimulating visual identity for the brand – to include a master brand and 9 sub brands, colour palette, typography, visual look and feel, illustrations, imagery, course iconography, website page template designs, broadcast collateral and offline print materials.

The solution

Firedog commenced the project with a selection of moodboards to establish the correct visual corridor. For the brand, the client requested strong, bright, bold colours alongside a simple, clever icon – thus the Skills Online Group modular brand mark was born, providing a sense of broad selection, much like a stack of data discs or books within a library.

The sub brands were differentiated through use of a solid multi-colour palette. The subsequent visual look and feel was developed using a light-hearted illustration style, coupled with imagery of the target audience. This was combined with a family of key value statements – the resulting visual language can be found peppered throughout the collateral and the website. A full offline and online stationery suite was completed, encompassing a user-friendly e-newsletter template ensuring consistency of the brand. The final design stages involved exhibition collateral development and front end digital design – whereby all approved logos, illustrations, imagery, graphic devices and hand-crafted course iconography were fully implemented across 5 core page templates. The page designs were passed through thorough accessibility and usability checks to ensure best practice in design. across all mediums.

The results

Skills Online Group launched August 2010 and has received a very positive reaction to it’s entry into the e-Learning community. The brand has been described as energetic, engaging, youthful and fresh – right on brief!