Outlier.org:
College Writing II Course Graphics
Opportunity
Outlier.org, an online education platform, was creating the second course in its College Writing series, and needed a visual identity to support the course. I worked alongside lead designer Stine to create a cohesive graphic system that would integrate seamlessly with the course's video content. Given the volume of graphics required, we needed a set of templates to ensure consistency across various media formats.
Action
To start, I identified the graphic elements needed for the course. In designing the visuals for this course, we opted for a softer aesthetic. Paper textures were used alongside clean black lines to give life to the literary focus, while maintaining a sophisticated and consistent appearance.
These textual and visual elements were weaved alongside instructor video. After creating a style guide for the course, the designs were put in motion. As the graphics were plugged into each rough cut of footage, we revised those that weren’t working and shifted the overall style as needed.
Challenge
Analog feels in a digital format
For this course, there were regular references to texts, both old and new. To bring that literary flair to the course required a harkening to classical and scholarly aesthetics, while giving room for modern accents. This synthesis was both challenging and exciting. We balanced rough paper textures with cleanly-cropped edges. Modernized typewriter fonts animated on the page with the voiceover the instructor, imitating the human experience of being present at a live reading. The designs enabled students interested in literature and writing to feel at ease amongst a familiar aesthetic.
Solution
The final course featured a diverse set of cohesive graphics that balanced old and new, lending familiar, warm vibes to each key word and passage. It highlighted works from a diverse range of writers and creators, evenly balancing attention to onscreen instruction with analyzing textual references.
A key takeaway from this project was the importance of finding ways to levy the style of the course in a direction which would appeal to a learner of that material and honor the individual personality of the content. This personality shone through this course and maintained a clarity in content, engaging students along the path to improved writing and textual analysis.