background
For fifteen years CourseMonster has been a leading integrated training management service. They maintain a comprehensive IT business training and certification course directory of over 6,000 courses, created by more than 60 internationally regarded IT product suppliers, including Microsoft, Prince2, VMware, ITIL, BCS, Citrix and Cisco. Their clients include prestigious organisations such as Oxford University Press, multi-national private corporations such as JP Morgan, and public sector institutions such as Transport for London and the UK Ministry of Defence.
project
CourseMonster, although a leader in providing training services had a very outdated website and the brandmark did not portray a leader in the field of training solutions.
solution
The new brandmark we created for CourseMonster combines the C and M in a light hearted way, reminiscent of a friendly monster mouth with teeth. The letters were redrawn to make the positive and negative spaces equal, and the corners of the font rounded for a more approachable feel. The brandmark is bold and graphic, ensuring it adapts for use across all electronic and print media. Prior to the rebrand, CourseMonster had used a more corporate blue colourway. We made a decision to keep the blue for continuity, but modernise the application by adding a colour gradation. The gradation and the two blues from which it was created, were then utilised throughout the design. We selected an orange/yellow for highlights.
The typeface chosen for CourseMonster corporate collateral is 'DIN round'. It adds a more human feel to the brand and differentiates it from other companies in the sector, who have a more traditional and technical approach. DIN round is a slightly condensed font, a plus for a copy heavy website. (It allows more text per page and less pages overall.) The typeface is also an 'Open Type' font. The main benefit of the ‘OpenType’ format is its cross-platform compatibility. (Meaning, the same font file works on Macintosh and Windows computers.) In addition, the typeface is available in many different weights, making it perfect for headings, subheads and text.
challenges
The main challenge in designing a website for CourseMonster was that all course data was provided through their CRM. This meant great restrictions on the amount of design that could be imposed upon the interface of website and CRM.
