Brief
The innovators at OpenStax have built their name on making quality online education accessible to all. While their free digital textbooks have helped millions of students across the world learn college-level concepts at a fraction of the cost, there was just one problem — not enough is known about how students learn online, and one-size-fits-all tools don’t work for everyone.
The challenge
To help students maximize their potential in the increasingly online world of higher education, OpenStax set out to create a new platform that would both help learners understand how their minds work, and empower educators to craft online learning environments suited to the needs of modern students. The concept and the material were there — they just needed a name, a message, and a visual identity to help it reach the masses.
How we did it
1. Capturing a brand in motion
Early in our exploration of this new brand, we latched on to the idea of potential, and of a product rooted in maximizing its users’ full capabilities. We experimented with a variety of names before landing on Kinetic – a neologism combining the expression “ken” referring to one’s range of knowledge, and “kinetic,” the energy that an item possesses due to its motion. Eventually, the name was simplified to the real word Kinetic.
Waves styled in the pattern of a fingerprint imply both the motion invoked by the name and the personalization at the heart of the platform.
2. Color palette and typography
The new platform needed to feel distinct while still fitting neatly within the existing OpenStax brand framework. To maintain brand consistency, we used Helvetica Neue from the original OpenStax branding, pairing it with a color palette meant to evoke knowledge, clarity, and exploration.
3. Putting it all together
With agreement on the brand identity, we moved on to developing a messaging system crafted to carefully and persuasively communicate Kinetic’s value in a variety of settings, including emails, social media posts, and a landing page built within the existing Kinetic website.
