Firstclass Writing | Case Study

the following is a detailed case study of the project process. if you only want to take a quick look, click here.

Resurrecting the penman – Brand Identity Design for a neighbourhood calligraphy & handwriting class that went national

Client: Alphabet Education Institutes

Location: Pune

Year: 2019

Work Type: Freelance

Services: Logo Design, Logo Reveal Animation, Brand Collateral & Brand Manual

a brief background

In the earlier quarter of 2017, I closely worked with Alphabet Education Institutes to create a custom typeface designed for print use that allowed them to publish a series of self-learning books on handwriting improvement. These books have continuously been in demand and have been on the Amazon Bestseller list on multiple occasions. After this success, they approached me again, this time with the intent of creating the Brand Identity for their new initiative called Firstclass Writing.

Firstclass Writing was the next step in the journey of the company. The Institute was able to successfully franchise their business to 20+ franchisees across town, and under the new brand, they planned on expanding into national territory and diversifying into different states through franchisees.

preface

When I was first approached with this project, the client had initially already attempted to get a logo made for the concept. But I drew their attention to the fact that the logo that they had created wouldn’t serve them the best in various scenarios that they planned to utilise it in. There on, we began the process of creating an entirely new identity for them right from scratch.

Old logo. Image courtesy of the client
challenges
  • The existing logo was extremely complex and was not was not designed with its usability in mind.
  • The logogram showed no continuity in visual language because of the use of multiple fonts and colours.
  • The primary audience that would be utilising these services of the client was roughly in between the ages of 5-16 years. The overall sentiment of the identity was not inline with the aesthetic that would appeal to this audience.
  • A brief survey indicated that the consumer’s interpretation of the product price based on just the visual identity was much lower than the actual value that the client proposed.
New Logo
the concept

After multiple rounds of to-and-fro and hundreds of ideas over the span of eight-nine weeks, we finally came to a satisfactory decision.

Firstclass Writing was a well-researched scientifically accurate approach to using handwriting as a medium for brain development. But this ideology seemed extremely complex to be understood or explained. Therefore, the new logo was created as a self-explanatory mark by breaking down this complex ideology.

The logo mark was broken down into 3 major elements—the pen, the upwards arrow and the graduate cap.
The mark was drawn and tested on various sizes before it was finalised.
A detailed set of brand guidelines were created to make sure the brand could be consistently reproduced across medias.