Watch and Learn — Evolving and Expanding Mastery For the Modern Age
MasterClass is a community of members and instructors connected by the same thing – the desire to learn, grow and be inspired.
Working closely with internal teams at MasterClass on creative strategy, visual identity and motion behavior, the result is a redesigned brand that helps to inspire a learning lifestyle in everyone. The design language reflects the brand’s sophistication and best-in-class offering while allowing the spectrum of instructors’ unique personalities to come through.
The logo is an evolution inspired by the original form. A modern take on a classical serif, it purposely leaves room for interpretation – a subtle nod to critical thinking. The implied underscore reinforced throughout the platform conveys a blank space to be filled, a new skill to be learned, the potential and possibility of today.
Masterclass’ new identity is tailored to the offering: a cinematic, unified platform that opens up to a colorful variety of top-tier instruction within.
Client: MasterClass
Agency: Gretel
Year: 2020
Collaborators: Greg Hahn, Ryan Moore, Isabelle Allard-Gendron, Andrea Trabucco-Campos, Andrew Stubbs Johnson, Kerry Griner, Lea Loo, Colin Kinsley, Nicholas Samendinger, Adam Lowe, Cyrus Cumming, John Choi, Chieh Yeh
Agency: Gretel
Year: 2020
Collaborators: Greg Hahn, Ryan Moore, Isabelle Allard-Gendron, Andrea Trabucco-Campos, Andrew Stubbs Johnson, Kerry Griner, Lea Loo, Colin Kinsley, Nicholas Samendinger, Adam Lowe, Cyrus Cumming, John Choi, Chieh Yeh
Colorful Characters
Brand-level expressions are confident and consistent: a single typeface and a signature color. But MasterClass itself is a portfolio of individual classes taught by a diverse set of instructors. To amplify this, each instructor now has their own, distinct visual identity: a unique nameplate, font, and colorway to complement their personal style within the MasterClass brand.
A secondary color palette and just two type superfamilies: Sohne from Klim and Ivar from Letters From Sweden provide an extensive variety of combinations to support the growing roster of experts and expertise.
The Class Open
Playing at the beginning of each lesson, the Class Open is a cinematic journey through vignettes of Masters preparing to share their craft. We worked closely with Antfood to develop a sonic branding layered with foley, an orchestra tuning up, and the flicker of a film projector — all accumulating into an inspiring, uplifting cello gesture.