Brand & UX Redesign for an Education Platform
Hello Edu had outgrown its original identity as a tutoring service. I redesigned the brand system and digital experience to better communicate its expanded offerings, create clearer pathways for families and educators, and establish a stronger foundation for future growth.
Project Snapshot
Solo Brand & Digital Designer
6 Weeks
Brand Strategy, Visual Identity, Website Redesign, Design System, Marketing Assets
Figma, Figjam, Adobe Illustrator, Notion
Transformed Hello Edu from a tutoring service into a scalable education brand.
Brand System: Created a cohesive identity across web, print, and marketing touchpoints.
User Experience: Restructured navigation around three distinct audiences.
Accessibility: Validated color pairings against WCAG standards.
Scalability: Built a reusable system for future growth and new offerings.
Business Growth: Supported expansion into professional photography and press opportunities.
Hello Edu had outgrown its original identity. While the brand felt approachable for tutoring, it no longer reflected the clients broader vision as an educational authority offering tutoring, literacy programs, professional development, and educational resources.
Key Challenges:
X Fragmented visual identity
X Limited authority positioning
X Unclear audience pathways
X No clear hierarchy for flagship offerings
Project Goals:
✓ Clarify Hello Edu's expanded positioning.
✓ Create distinct pathways for families and educators.
✓ Build a scalable visual identity.
✓ Improve accessibility and consistency.
✓ Support future marketing and growth.
Brand Audit & Discovery
Before designing anything, I focused on three questions: What isn't working with the current brand, where does the client want Hello Edu to go, and how will we measure success. I audited the full brand ecosystem, including the website, navigation, social media, marketing materials, and client communications, using an accessibility checker for WCAG 2.1 compliance and AI tools to analyze brand voice consistency. The findings were clear: Hello Edu's visual identity was fragmented and no longer reflected the quality or scope the client's work.
Brand audit snapshot revealing inconsistencies across Hello Edu's web, social, and marketing touchpoints.
Client Vision & Competitor Analysis
Through discovery conversations, the client and I clarified her expanded vision: Hello Edu Tutoring, a new 90-Day Reading Course, Professional Development Workshops, Educational Resources, and Thought Leadership Content. She shared an inspirational site she admired for its clarity and authority. Comparing Hello Edu revealed exactly where the brand was falling short in authority signals, content depth, and overall polish. The comparison became the strategic foundation for every design decision that followed.
Side-by-side comparison of Hello Edu and the inspiration site, identifying gaps in authority signals, content depth, and visual polish.
Strategy & Information Architecture
Based on discovery findings, I built a strategic framework mapping Hello Edu's identified gaps directly to proposed solutions. For information architecture, I explored two sitemap options. Sitemap A housed the 90-Day Course within the Services dropdown to keep navigation clean. Sitemap B elevated it to top-level navigation, giving the course equal prominence alongside core services. While Option A was my initial recommendation for a cleaner user flow, discovery made it clear that Option B better served the client's goals; the course needed to be impossible to miss.
Strategic framework mapping audit findings to solutions, and sitemap exploration showing the decision to elevate the 90-Day Course to primary navigation.
Concept Exploration
Early exploration focused on translating Hello Edu's values into a visual identity that balanced educational credibility with warmth and approachability. Through sketching and concept development, I explored symbols that could communicate growth, achievement, creativity, and personalized learning.
Two directions emerged as the strongest concepts:
Graduation Cap
Representing achievement, progress, and forward momentum through a familiar academic symbol.
Pencil with Heart
Representing creativity, care, and a student-centered approach to education.
Both directions were developed beyond a standalone logo, allowing each concept to be evaluated as a complete visual language across digital, print, and marketing applications.
Early logo exploration translating Hello Edu's values into visual concepts.
Final Identity System
Both concepts were developed into complete brand systems, including a primary logo, secondary logo, circular submark, and standalone icon. This allowed the client to evaluate each direction not only as a mark, but as a flexible identity system.
The circular submark was intentionally designed to reference the emblem style often associated with colleges and established educational institutions, reinforcing credibility while creating a versatile asset for merchandise, social avatars, and print applications.
Ultimately, the Pencil concept was selected for its warmer, more personal expression of clients's mission. While the Graduation Cap direction leaned into traditional academic symbolism, the Pencil identity better reflected the client's focus on creativity, support, and individualized learning.
The selected direction evolved into a cohesive brand system designed for clarity, consistency, and long-term scalability. The existing navy and pink palette was refined to improve contrast, accessibility, and visual energy, with all color pairings validated against WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
Typography was built on three levels:
Together, these elements created a repeatable design system that could be confidently applied across web, marketing materials, social media, print collateral, and future offerings.
Two complete brand systems developed in parallel — graduation cap concept and pencil-and-heart alternative (primary direction) — each with full logo suite, color palette, and typography hierarchy.
Website Wireframing
Wireframes focused on layout and structure before visual styling, establishing how each page would flow and how each expanding offerings would be organized. An interactive Figma prototype let the client experience the navigation and user flow firsthand. The homepage was designed as an all in one showcase: showcase the clients credentials in the hero as a trust signal, clear paths for each audience, Google reviews, and thought leadership content integrated naturally, and a free preview of the 90-Day Course to capture email leads while reducing commitment friction.
Side-by-side of the original homepage and redesigned wireframe, plus the full 7-page site architecture supporting tutoring, course, and professional development paths.
Scalable Brand System
The final identity gave Hello Edu a cohesive visual foundation designed to grow alongside the business. By refining the logo system, typography, and color palette—and validating accessibility against WCAG 2.1 standards—the brand became more modern, consistent, and adaptable across every touchpoint.
More than a visual refresh, the project established a repeatable design system the client could confidently apply across her website, social content, print materials, and future offerings. The result was a stronger brand presence that could support Hello Edu's continued growth while maintaining clarity and recognition across platforms.
Website Experience Redesign
Using competitive research across 13 education brands as a lens, I refined the homepage experience to better balance approachability with authority. The redesign introduced more intentional brand imagery, clearer content hierarchy, and a stronger flow that helped users quickly understand Hello Edu's offerings.
The updated experience highlighted key services more effectively while creating stronger trust signals through professional photography, testimonials, and thought leadership content. The result was a digital experience that better reflected Hello Edu's expanded vision and supported clearer pathways for families and educators.
This project reinforced that brand design begins long before the visual layer, it starts with understanding the client's goals, audience, and the experience the brand needs to create. Strategy and structure provide the foundation, but the strongest brands also create an emotional connection from the first interaction.
Revisiting the project challenged me to explore stronger creative directions earlier in the process and trust the balance between strategy and expression. Competitive research across 13 education brands confirmed that the most effective brands in this space do not choose between playfulness and authority, they build systems that allow both to work together.
Project Takeaways
Accessibility
Validated color choices and contrast ratios against WCAG 2.1 AA standards to improve readability and inclusive design.
Brand Strategy
Defined a clearer brand direction that aligned Hello Edu's identity with its expanded educational offerings and long-term vision.
Design Systems
Built a scalable framework that could be consistently applied across web, print, social media, and future brand applications.
Digital Experience
Designed a website experience that balanced trust, approachability, and clarity across key user journeys.
Information Architecture
Restructured content pathways to help families, educators, and future audiences navigate Hello Edu's growing services.
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