Creating a powerful employer brand + visual identity for an ed-tech company
Emeritus is a leader in ed-tech and their mission is to make high-quality education affordable and accessible to people all across the planet. We shaped how the world sees their impact — through conscious visual storytelling.
How do you help a unicorn spread its wings?
Emeritus has cemented their position in the ed-tech ecosystem — with thoughtfully designed programs, strong partnerships with reputed universities and an expansive learner base. Our challenge was to build an enduring employer brand as they moved forward.
OTHER KEY CHALLENGES
How do we give people a ‘big picture view’ of the sector?
How do we celebrate the journey of Emeritus?
How do we put people and their stories in the spotlight?
How do we bring out the scale and magnitude of the organisation?
How do we champion Emeritus as a workplace for transformative careers?
How do celebrate the wide impact of the organisation
How do we give people from the outside a view into the work life of Emeritians?
How do we collect and narrate stories spread across 4 countries and many time zones?
Mind map summarizing the organization
SOME KEY QUESTIONS THAT SHAPED OUR WORK
How to align the design language to the core philosophy of the EVP?
How do you depict a mission-driven team?
How do you visualise the legacy of individuals in a mission-driven organisation?
How do you showcase the global nature of Emeritus through design?
How do you capture the ever-changing, dynamic nature of edtech?
How do you showcase the impact of a game changing edtech company?
How do you showcase the knock-on effects of high-quality education?
How do you create a visual language that can be used across various mediums and media platforms?
How do we create a distinct identity for Emeritus as an employer while adhering to their brand guidelines?
What would be a simple and powerful pattern that can be scaled to all the assets?
How do you depict a mission-driven team?
How do you visualise the legacy of individuals in a mission-driven organisation?
How do you showcase the global nature of Emeritus through design?
How do you capture the ever-changing, dynamic nature of edtech?
How do you showcase the impact of a game changing edtech company?
How do you showcase the knock-on effects of high-quality education?
How do you create a visual language that can be used across various mediums and media platforms?
How do we create a distinct identity for Emeritus as an employer while adhering to their brand guidelines?
What would be a simple and powerful pattern that can be scaled to all the assets?
Further Brainstorming to help develop strategy
Research for Emeritus can be segregated into 2 parts- Benchmarking and User Surveys & Interviews
1. BENCHMARKING
Our research started with a deep dive in the domain to understand competition, communication and visual strategies. Our extensive benchmarking led us to understand the following:
- The most successful companies in the industry have repeatedly talked about the power of education to transform lives
- One of the biggest attractions of a career in the edtech industry is the ability to make a real difference and be a part of something new and exciting
- Edtech companies operating in India have been largely customer-focused and haven’t focused a lot of energy on building the employer brand
- There is an opportunity for Emeritus to be a trailblazer in the edtech sphere with a unique and powerful employer identity
- One of the biggest attractions of a career in the edtech industry is the ability to make a real difference and be a part of something new and exciting
- Edtech companies operating in India have been largely customer-focused and haven’t focused a lot of energy on building the employer brand
- There is an opportunity for Emeritus to be a trailblazer in the edtech sphere with a unique and powerful employer identity
2. USER SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS
Emeritus is a people-first company — so to build an enduring employer brand for the organisation, we needed to study the Emeritian, inside out. We conducted an extensive survey and a series of interviews.
650+ people and 65+ leaders across 7 different regions of the world participated in the survey; 150 Emeritus professionals from across the world were interviewed
The responses from the survey were compiled and studied. The exercise gave us a treasure trove of viewpoints, insights and experiences to take the project forward.
SOME KEY INSIGHTS
Emeritians have a strong sense of cultural identity
They take pride in their diversity and the global nature of their work
They are ambitious
They are ambitious and have the drive to advance their careers — just like the learners at the Emeritus platform
We received detailed inputs specific roles, functions of each team and their achievements
We gathered interesting personal anecdotes that bring out the highlights of the Emeritus culture
How the pandemic changed education and Emeritus rose to the occasion
People repeatedly emphasised the impact they are creating in their jobs — we realised that the theme of ‘impact’ has to be at the core of the employer branding
STRATEGY
Building a visual language that celebrates people and their legacy
A pact with ‘impact’
‘Build a legacy of impact’ was chosen as Emeritus’ EVP (Employee Value Proposition). The impact that Emeritians create and their legacy — both within and outside the organisation — became the central theme in all our assets.
Packing a punch "graphically"
We wanted to create a vibrant visual language for the employer brand that was powerful, bold and most importantly — in alignment with the theme. In the finalised visual motif, we decided to go with a pattern of reverberating and outwardly growing circles or waves.
We called it the Emeritus ripple effect.
Visual Elements from the existing brand identity
Ideation behind Ripple Effect
Final look of the Emeritus Ripple Effect
The pattern complemented the theme perfectly. We created an aesthetic that carried a lot of meaning for the brand. We built an identity with a two-fold meaning.
Every employee at Emeritus creates a ripple effect that impacts their team, their family and society.
Every learner at Emeritus creates a ripple effect that impacts their organisation, community etc.
Scaling the Emeritus Ripple Effect visually
Usage of the Ripple Effect in print (in Emeritus Culture book)
Usage of the Ripple Effect in icons via adding micro animations in icons so it has a sense of movement.
Usage of the Ripple Effect in motion graphics of the brand
Usage of the Ripple Effect on the Emeritus Career's Website
Usage of the Emeritus Ripple Effect across various videos for marketing
Usage of the Emeritus Ripple Effect on Social Media to create impact
Thank you for your time.
