Authorable
/ Rebranding & Web Design UI
Logo, Illustration, Rebranding, Branding, Web Design
Client:
Authorable
Location:
USA, California
Year:
2021
Founded in 2020 by educator and speech therapist Susie Harder, Authorable is a California-based national school-based literacy program for Kindergarten to 6th-grade students that directly includes them in the book writing, creating, and publishing process. Each week the author communicates with the students via video messaging and through a voting process they decide on how the story develops, once the story is written and illustrated they move forward to the publishing stage and finalize with a book signing where all the proceeds are given back to the community. This program is designed to help strengthen positive character traits, create a unique bond with literacy, and build student involvement within the community. When we first met with Authorable we loved their project and immediately wanted to work with them! They already had a logo and a website but wanted to rebrand for the upcoming new academic school year.
Our brief was to design a logo that would be both professional and would also reflect the spirit of the students. We wanted to highlight “Author” and “Able” which is why we chose two different colors to make them stand out. For the typography, we wanted to reference woodblock printing from the first printing houses. That is why we chose a serif font. To make the typography more playful we played with the size, placement, and added curves. Our choice of color was to deliver positive feelings to Gen Z’s peace, growth, health, and environment.
After finalizing our logo, we moved forward to illustrating the pillars of Authorable; Vote, Publish, Give. They already had a microphone character called “Mike Tap” however he was a bit flat. We began by looking into different types of microphones and decided to make him a bit less flat but keep an illustrative character. For the word Publish, we created a book character to join the team, and finally forgiving we made a heart-shaped world character. By turning these pillars into characters, they became approachable and in line with the imagination of these students. We wanted to make it cool and also easygoing like it is not meant to be a commodity they can’t handle or get into.
Whilst the website is to attract principals and schools to join the program it also needs to reflect the brand. We carried our brand colors, typography, and characters to the site. We made sure that each bullet point highlighted the significance of the program as well as showing the excitement and pride/honor it brings to the children who have participated in it.
We would, later on, continue to work with Authorable in helping create their sell sheets and templates for their social media accounts.
"Elcin and her team are *exactly* who you hope to find when you are looking for art/branding/web design support! They are exceptionally talented, wonderfully collaborative and responsive, and a pleasure to work with. I wish I could hire her team full time! I already decided to have her do branding for my other company since I had such a positive experience with her."
- Susie Harder, Founder and CEO of Authorable