Upgrading an Online Learning Brand

Speaking to Students and Educators

Coursello provides live, engaging online courses that put high schoolers in the driver’s seat of their education. As Coursello started selling to school districts, the fast-growing startup partnered with Social Driver to evolve its visual identity and website. They wanted to grow their brand alongside their business and speak to their customers: educators and students ages 16-18.

“At this stage of our growth, we needed something that looked more professional,” recalls Jamie Forrest, Coursello’s co-founder and CTO. “We chose Social Driver because we really liked their prior work and felt that their whole team, even their CEO, was invested in our success from the beginning.”

Building a Brand Identity with a Unique Point of View

Many online courses are utilitarian, transactional experiences—but Coursello wanted its audience to feel engaged and empowered. Our goal: create a space for students that feels different and exciting, and a brand that educators can trust.

After diving into brand personas and the industry landscape, we identified four brand pillars that set Coursello apart: engaging, authentic, dynamic and innovative. Then we proposed several visual directions, using our signature Visual Affirmation Process to keep our design process transparent, providing clients with concrete examples of what different design approaches could look like along the way. This creative alignment makes brand development as seamless as possible. Coursello chose a direction that’s bold and playful, with a touch of edgy–just right for a young, yet discerning audience.

Building on the foundation of a new visual identity, we designed and developed the website, which emphasizes Coursello’s live course offerings, spotlights key classes and creates social proof through testimonials. Our design team built and launched the site using Webflow. Webflow empowers us to build faster while achieving quality front-end design and clean code. With Webflow, we can easily implement clients' changes, decreasing revision time and expediting a new website launch.

An Energetic Brand that Resonates

Coursello’s new brand and website reflect its identity as an established, trusted course provider–and an authority in the online learning space. At the same time, the design direction is modern and energetic, so the brand appeals to both students and educators. 

“The brand and website are a huge upgrade from what we had before, and our audience is very impressed,” Jamie notes. “We’re really happy with the results.”

The website plays a key role in Coursello’s marketing and business development efforts. With an average of 1,700 users a month, an increase for Coursello, the site is reaching key decision-makers in school districts across the country.