Case file 04 · Brand naming · Identity strategy · Brand manual

Sqillpad brand naming and identity manual case study

An e-learning platform for Uganda’s classrooms needed a name, a point of view and a rulebook. We gave it all three, then wrote them down in a 60-page manual.

Client: Sqillpad
Where: Kampala, Uganda
What we did: Brand naming · Identity strategy · Brand manual
When: 2022

Start the file

01The briefNaming · Strategy · Manual

An e-learning platform
for Uganda’s classrooms.

Sqillpad is a learner-centred platform for primary and secondary school learners following the Ugandan curriculum. It is Uganda’s first NCDC-approved e-learning community.

Learners can learn at their own pace. Teachers and parents need to trust it just as much. So the brand had to be easy to say, easy to remember and easy to apply, from a login screen to a school notebook.

Brand naming
Identity strategy
Brand manual

Learn it simple.

The line under the logo

It says what the platform does in three words, and it sits under the logo wherever the space allows.

Brand namingSqillpad, with a line that says what it does: Learn it simple.
Identity strategyMission, vision, positioning, three audiences and a tone of voice.
Brand manualSixty pages that carry the identity from the logo rules to a delivery truck.

60pages in the manual
4brand colours
3audiences to speak to
20branded items shown

02The nameNaming · The logo

Sqillpad.

One word, easy to say, with a logo that does two jobs: it shows learning growing, and it shows where that learning happens.

1 · Steady growth

The “i” and the double “l”s.

Letters rising in progression represent steady growth and development.

2 · The screen

The boxed rectangle.

It stands for a monitor, tablet or smartphone: technology and electronic communication.

3 · The wordmark

Minimal and sharp.

The logo has three elements: a word mark that is minimal and sharp, an icon for technology, and iconic letters that represent growth.

Diagram: the i and double l in progression, and the boxed rectangle as a screen — **Two hidden icons.** The manual’s own diagram of what the logo means.

Built on a grid. The logo is constructed proportionately, not drawn by eye.

03The strategyMission · Vision · Positioning

To. By. That.

The mission is written as a sentence with three jobs. Pick one to read it on its own.

To unlock the productive potential of Africa’s human capital by providing dynamic digital tools that channel the learners’ curiosity towards their intellectual growth.

Vision

Highly enlightened African talent providing world class solutions to humanity.

Brand positioning

By choosing to learn with Sqillpad, one becomes a member of Uganda’s first NCDC approved e-learning community for primary and secondary school learners.

The promise

Sqillpad is a learner-centred platform that allows you to learn at your own pace.

04The voiceAudience · Tone

Three audiences.
One simple voice.

A learner, a teacher and a parent all open the same page for different reasons. The tone has to work for all three: simple to understand, polite, appealing, enthusiastic, credible and respectful.

Primary and secondary school learners in schools running the Ugandan curriculum.

Primary and secondary school teachers in schools running the Ugandan curriculum.

Parents with children in primary and secondary schools running the Ugandan curriculum.

Tone of voice

Respectful, informative, optimistic.

The brand encourages consistency, transparency, quality and civility, and the essence of its alphabets must express who it is. Work is conveyed through presentations, plans, brochures, leaflets, the internet and social media.

PlayfulSerious
CasualFormal
CheekyRespectful
OptimisticSceptical
IrrelevantInformative

05The logoRules that survive a busy school week

Four grounds.
One line. No exceptions.

The logo is only permitted on four backgrounds, with or without its tagline. Try them. The tagline always uses Verbatim Regular at kerning 110.

Minimum size

35 px tall.
Never smaller.

Drag to shrink the main logo. Below the minimum the manual says no.

Logo height 60 px

Minimum size or larger

Room to breathe. The exclusion zone is the height of the “s” in Sqillpad, on every side. No artwork or type goes inside it.

Partners. The logo is always separated from partner logos by a 1 px line.

Pick a spot and keep it. No scattering the logo around the canvas. Press banners and backdrops are the exception.

Never this

06The colourFlame and Eerie Black, with a green and a gold

Sixty percent flame.
Never less.

Flame Orange and Eerie Black lead the identity. Dartmouth Green and Gamboge step in as substitutes for different backgrounds and design settings. Hover a block, tap it for the codes, click to copy.

Prime colour

Flame

#EB6432

RGB 235 · 100 · 50

CMYK 1 · 71 · 83 · 0

Secondary colour

Dartmouth Green

#057632

RGB 5 · 118 · 50

CMYK 96 · 0 · 58 · 54

Secondary colour

Gamboge

#E49600

RGB 228 · 150 · 0

CMYK 0 · 34 · 100 · 11

The one gradient

Gamboge into Flame.

Used only with a primary colour. Anything else is on the incorrect-usage list.

07The typeOne for slides, one for everywhere

Verbatim up front.
Arial everywhere else.

Verbatim is the main typeface, used in PowerPoint and Google Slides, and for the tagline, business cards and letterheads. Arial is the system font: clear, legible and already on every PC and Mac.

Primary
Verbatim
The brand’s main typeface for presentations, tagline and stationery.
System
Arial
Narrow, regular and bold. Chosen for continuity, simplicity and availability.

08The languageIcons · Pattern

A box, a line,
a pattern.

The logo’s screen shape repeats as a pattern for backgrounds. Try it on the brand colours. Filled icons cover communication and education; outlined icons are for the PowerPoint template only.

Ground

Strength

For any collateral that needs a visual texture behind it.

The black and flame versions of the Sqillpad pattern — **Patterns.** Black and Flame versions, for textured backgrounds across all collateral.

09The manualCorporate Identity Manual · Version 1.0

60 pages.
Six sections.

Introduction, brand logo, typography, colour, graphic language and brand application. “The Sqillpad logo serves as a representation of our company and everything we stand for. It must be accurately and consistently communicated.”