Contact us
overview
One Schoolhouse re-envisions and delivers online learning and professional development by partnering with independent schools. The nonprofit embarked on a major rebrand to better stand out amid growing competition–and support the upcoming launch of its new membership community.
Social Driver worked with One Schoolhouse to develop a cohesive visual identity and strategic messaging that reinforced its role as a credible, modern leader in its space. This bold, digital-first brand has brought the nonprofit’s aspirational moment to life.
Challenge
A Bold, Digital-First Identity
One Schoolhouse partners with independent schools to re-envision and deliver education, online learning and professional development. The nonprofit had seen steady growth for a decade-plus–and a rapid rise in remote learning during the pandemic further boosted its customer base, student enrollment and industry profile.
With growing competition in the online learning sector, One Schoolhouse saw an opportunity to better tell its story through a major rebrand. They also planned to launch a professional membership program, the Association for Academic Leaders, leveraging the new brand identity.
Elizabeth Katz, Assistant Head for School Partnership, recalls: “One Schoolhouse was a very different organization than we had been two years before. We knew where we were headed, and we needed a brand identity to grow with us. We hired Social Driver to create a bold, digital-first brand that would capture this energy and the dynamic moment we were in.”
Solution
Standing Out in a Sea of Startups
One Schoolhouse is a proven expert in online education, but it needed a cohesive identity to stand out in a sea of startups entering the space. We worked with One Schoolhouse to develop a brand infrastructure that unifies all of its offerings under a parent brand. This structure reinforces the nonprofit’s credibility across verticals–from elementary school courses to professional development for academic leaders.
“Social Driver fit our vision of a partner that understood our industry, but didn’t replicate the things they saw there,” Elizabeth says. “The team did their homework and delivered fresh insights that differentiated us. They helped us put our aspirational moment into practice.”
Results
Putting the New Identity into Practice
Partnering with Social Driver launched One Schoolhouse’s brand into a new era–generating a complete redesign of the organization’s website and marketing materials. One Schoolhouse continues to tap Social Driver for design guidance to put its identity into practice. The organization has achieved:
10%
increase in open rate of its email newsletter
120
memberships in the Association for Academic Leaders in its first 6 months
Putting the New Identity into Practice
How We helped
Branding & Identity
Brand Development
Content Strategy & Production
From Buttoned Up to Business Casual
We used Social Driver’s signature Visual Affirmation Process, which keeps our design process transparent, providing clients with concrete examples of what different design approaches could look like along the way to ensure we’re all on the same page throughout the process. This creative alignment makes brand development as seamless as possible.
“We were so excited by the range of options Social Driver presented–each of them was different, but they all felt good,” Elizabeth shares. “The team really saw who we were and what we were trying to do, and they imagined all kinds of possibilities to achieve those goals.”
An Innovative, Inclusive Logo
Refreshing the logo was a key focus of the rebrand from “buttoned up” to “business casual.” The original logo’s analog feel didn’t speak to One Schoolhouse’s role as a modern leader in online education. Our team designed a monogram logo that honors the brand’s history, while feeling flexible and fluid. The looping lines with repeating circles reflect One Schoolhouse’s spirit of innovation and inclusivity.
“When designing for the education industry, it’s easy to rely on iconography that skews too young, like alphabet blocks, or too college-focused, like diplomas,” Elizabeth notes. “Social Driver created something different and fresh that captures both our expertise and our approachability.”
Building Community through Authentic Brand Messaging
One Schoolhouse needed strategic brand messaging to achieve its vision of launching an engaged community of academic leaders. Notably, they wanted to define those messages through ongoing collaboration with our team–an element they’d previously lacked in creative partnerships.
Our solution: crafting the messaging alongside them in real time, through online workshopping sessions. A senior Social Driver team member guided the One Schoolhouse team through these co-writing intensives. This approach helped the organization concretize its brand promise, generate authentic messaging and convert website visitors into advocates.
Resources for the Rebrand Rollout
After wrapping up the creative process, Social Driver developed a style guide and delivered team training sessions for One Schoolhouse. These efforts helped One Schoolhouse launch the new brand strategically and cohesively as possible–cementing their credibility as a leader in the field.
Experience
digital with us.
