Custom Learning Atelier: Boldly Imagining New Shapes of Learning
Custom Learning Atelier is a study in how curious collaboration can lead us into unexpected and fruitful new terrain. Beth Salyers, CEO of what would become CLA, came to us needing a website. But as we began the process of getting to know each other, we found that the more we asked questions, the more Beth had questions of her own—questions much bigger than, “what color should my homepage be?” Tracing the lines of her deep philosophical curiosity, we decided to scrap just about everything and rebuild the whole thing from the ground up.
The core of the business remained the same: strategic learning design, aimed at helping socially- and environmentally-conscious organizations increase their capacity to do good in the world. But the brand was totally new, from its strategic foundations to the name itself, to every visual and verbal supporting element in between. The result was a rebellious, disruptive brand capable of living up to CLA’s daring aspirations and innovative methods for reshaping education.
SERVICES PROVIDED
INDUSTRY
Strategy
Naming
Branding
Web Design
Pitch Templates
Internal Collateral
Continuing Education
THE STRATEGY
THE WORK
The Logo
With a new name and revamped strategy, a new logo was a necessity. Informed by CLA’s determination to overturn assumptions and reshape expectations for what learning could or should look like, we eschewed any overt visual references to schools or traditional education. No pencils, books, or graduation caps here. Instead we called on abstract geometric shapes and colors to create a distinctive, ownable mark that gestures toward CLA’s more open and adaptable approach to learning.
Messaging
CLA faced several unique obstacles to effectively communicating the value of their services. The concepts involved were heady. The language, academic. And particularly vexing, the work itself often looked radically different from client to client.
With this in mind, we worked with CLA to build a messaging strategy around their most stable foundational elements: an inquisitive, human-centered process, and a bold aspiration to transform the ways we learn. At the core of the brand’s voice is the honest acknowledgement that CLA may not be for everyone, and that’s okay. By refusing to attempt to please everyone, they commit that much more fully to those with whom they do align.
Color System
CLA’s color system is a layered visual expression of their carefully considered strategy. With the full spectrum of primary and secondary colors represented, the pallet as a whole takes a stand for color in an organizational training context where it is all too often lacking. This colorful approach echoes CLA’s varied and adaptable methods for instructional design, as well as their firm belief that education works best when learners are able to bring their diverse needs and perspectives to the decision-making table.
The many colors serve a more practical function as well, with each individual color in the palette representing a stage in CLA’s process. These colors serve as wayfinding markers across applications, helping to organize complex information, and anchor clients in each stage of the process.
Illustration
Central to CLA’s philosophy is the understanding that organizations are complex organisms made up of many unique individuals, each of whom learns in their own way. Their brand imagery needed to reflect not only the diversity of learners themselves, but also the near endless variation in approaches to meeting their needs.
To meet this challenge, we created a set of custom illustrations featuring diverse human figures engaged in joyful, inquisitive action (though rarely action explicitly associated with education). We embraced abstraction, both in the figures themselves, and the actions they engage in, to allow for flexibility in interpretation and application.
“Andi, as a human being and as a designer and branding expert, is an integral part of our continued growth and success. What began as an unruly web of ideas and dreams in my head has become a legitimate, deeply aligned, purposeful, and beautiful reality. We dialogue, challenge each other, laugh, teach and listen with one another.
Andi provides and sustains a safe space to dream, question, reflect, and take aligned, meaningful risks towards the vision of our business. I cannot emphasize this enough: without Andi, my company would still be a series of fits and starts balled up in a cobweb of ideas in my head. And, she’s become a great friend. Best of all the worlds. So, hire her, but don’t take all of her time. I need her.”
Beth Salyers, Founder + CEO Custom Learning Atelier
