Our Challenge
VELA was growing quickly as a national force in education innovation, but its brand needed to better reflect the scale, energy, and ambition of the movement it was helping lead.

As the Indie Education movement continued to grow, VELA needed a more cohesive brand system that could strengthen visibility, improve consistency, and clearly communicate its role across every audience touchpoint. The challenge was to create an identity that felt credible to donors and institutional partners, approachable to families, and energizing to the founders building new education models.

The brand needed to support a more polished digital experience, provide flexibility across web, social, motion, and campaign materials, and express the optimism, curiosity, collaboration, and forward momentum behind VELA’s work.

Our Approach
We began by identifying the core idea at the heart of VELA’s work: helping people imagine and build new possibilities for education.

From there, we developed a brand direction rooted in optimism, curiosity, connection, and forward momentum. The goal was to create a system that could feel both visionary and accessible—speaking to national partners and donors while still feeling human, welcoming, and useful to founders and families.

The brand needed to do more than look polished. It needed to clarify VELA’s role within the growing Indie Education movement, strengthen consistency across platforms, and create a flexible toolkit that could support storytelling across website, social, video, collateral, and campaign materials.

Our Solution
We created a redesigned brand identity system that positioned VELA as a trusted, optimistic, and ambitious leader in education innovation.

The redesigned logo communicated ambition, adventure, curiosity, and possibility, while friendly typography and a vibrant color palette made the brand feel approachable, energetic, and distinct. Supporting graphics and iconography added a sense of collaboration, movement, and connection—reflecting VELA’s role as both a funder and a national network for education founders.

The identity was extended across a full visual toolkit, including social media graphics, branded collateral, website design, photography direction, motion graphics, and an explainer video. Together, these assets created a more cohesive and flexible brand experience across digital, social, awareness channels, and a brand new website.

The redesigned brand helped support VELA’s continued growth as a national leader in Indie Education, contributing to stronger visibility, clearer storytelling, and a more consistent experience across key audience touchpoints.

The broader organizational momentum included:

• Large increase in investment donations, reaching $50M+ invested

• Supported founder network growth to 5,000+ founders

• Learners served reached 5.5 million

• Supported increased audience engagement across digital and social channels

• Helped strengthen visibility and brand consistency across the organization

• Contributed to a more polished, accessible, and inspiring experience for founders, families, and donors

The brand refresh did more than update VELA’s identity. It helped give shape, clarity, and energy to a growing national movement—making the future of education feel more connected, more visible, and more possible.