Skillshare is an online learning community focused on creative skills, offering thousands of classes in areas such as illustration, design, photography, and writing. The company underwent a major brand relaunch in January 2020, replacing its previous joined-hands symbol with a new typographic wordmark and tagline, “Explore your creativity.” [1]
Design and History
Skillshare’s original logo featured a symbol of two hands coming together, arranged to form the letter “s,” which depicted information being exchanged. [2] The company decided in 2019 to “focus on our strength,” leading to a “brand relaunch” in January 2020 to emphasize the richness of its creativity-themed content. [3]
The new identity dropped the joined-hands symbol entirely in favor of a wordmark. The logo plays with upper and lowercase letterforms, creating an “odd family of character pairings” as a tribute to experimentation and the desire to keep the brand strange. [4] The wordmark is available in both single-line and two-line versions. [5]
The identity also introduced a distinctive use of squiggly lines, intended to express the winding creative journey. [1] These lines animate as a path in motion graphics, with the dots in the logo coloring in as the path travels. [6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The two dots in the logo represent key points along a journey, highlighting important moments in a process and illustrating the idea that there is no defined beginning or end. [4] The brand’s new primary color, called Wander Green, takes inspiration from the traffic light and “gives permission to start, go,” while urging members to “be your authentic self.” [2]
Typography and Design
The primary typeface for the new identity is GT Walsheim, a geometric sans-serif. [5] The brand also uses the serif typeface Kumlien Pro as a complement to the primary font, providing contrast to the logotype. [5] According to the brand guidelines, the logo appears in full color on white, black, or navy backgrounds, while a single-color black version is used on the brand’s green background. [6]
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