Case Study: creative direction

Mini Brief:
“Create a brand system for Course Hero’s annual educator-focused event, Education Summit, with consideration for how the brand would extend across all digital marketing surfaces. Each year Education Summit attracts 20k+ attendees, both virtual and in-person.”

Role: Creative Director
Art Direction: Shirley Wong | Brand: Course Hero

Stage 1: Moodboarding

To kickoff creative exploration, we gathered fragments of visual inspiration. A GIF that caught our eye, a bright use of color that we hadn’t seen before, examples of modular design systems that show small pieces combining to form a larger whole. In this stage, we let our imaginations run as free as possible. It’s more valuable to associate the found inspiration with a specific mood - hence, moodboarding. 

As our shared Figma file filled up and concepts started to settle, we began bucketing visual references into shared thematic groups while applying the lens of our business goal - create an event brand that resonates with an audience of higher-education professionals.

Three strong paths emerged:

Stage 2: Adding Fidelity

This is my favorite part of the process. It’s the moment after you’ve done the research when you zoom out a little, choose a single path, and work to unravel why you found it interesting in the first place. What’s really happening? What is it that we found so unique or captivating?

As much as I love going through this process as an Individual Contributor, my role in this project was to direct Shirley Wong to identify those questions and guide her in answering them. For me this provides a different type of joy - prompting a designer to tease out a small idea into something much larger than maybe we both anticipated it could be.

Stage 3: Final Concept

After three rounds of stakeholder review, we happily arrived at a chosen path forward, one that checks all the boxes of our brief - “Amplified Voices.”

Authentic stories and shared experiences resonate with educators. We know this from years of engaging with this audience. So let’s hone in on that concept and translate those business learnings into visual ideas. Let’s scale up the type. Let’s add motion choreography that helps reveal deeper layers of text. Let’s add focus to speakers in a powerful way while maintaining authenticity and without removing their humanity.

Thoughtful modularity references education. Considered negative space adds focus to important moments like Featured Speakers and Keynotes, while social assets have a more playful, layered aesthetic.