Epic! Brand Strategy & Design
Epic! is the leading digital media brand for kids reaching over 10 Million children across the globe with high-quality books and videos in a safe, kid-first environment. Epic! is also free for educators to use in classrooms, giving millions of kids access to books and videos that they might not otherwise have access too.
We worked closely with the executive team to create a brand that connects with their audience, communicates Epic!’s unique offering, and was set up to grow and evolve with the company.
This extensive rebranding project included brand positioning, brand guidelines, social guidelines, photography, stickers, merchandise, product design updates, marketing content and design templates, educational materials, and a responsive website design.
SCOPE OF WORK
• Brand Strategy & Positioning
• Logo Design
• Brand Development
• Brand Book
• Design Style Guide
• Content Guidelines
Logo Design & Brand Development
Photography Creative Direction
Branded photography is important in establishing your brand across all visual platforms. It helps tell your story and clarifies your offering — what it is, who it’s for and why they should care. Using your own photos also helps differentiate you from your competitors. To work within Epic!’s budget, we created a foundational library of branded photography from a 1-day shoot, supplementing with additional stock photos that we edited to fit the brand.
Adding Surprise & Delight
We created a unique set of characters to add surprise and delight inside the Epic! platform and create unique brand differentiators. These characters are used in various animations and notifications in the product, and as design elements for classroom reading challenges.
Brand Guidelines and Documentation
After refining the positioning, brand promise, and mission, we wrote and designed the comprehensive brand book and design style guide which was a culmination of all of the groundwork we did as a team and the visual brand development.
“Danielle was key in helping us develop our brand and overall brand strategy early on. She does great work and has extensive design and brand development experience. It was a pleasure working with her and I’d definitely work with her again!”
— KEVIN DONAHUE, CO-FOUNDER AT EPIC!
Carrying the Brand Through the Experience
Danielle played a significant role in elevating the product experience, including updating the look and feel of the product to be more modern and creating age parameters so that the platform leveled up with the kids.
During my time at Epic!, the subscriber base grew from 1,000 in the U.S.A to over a million world-wide.
Epic! was featured in multiple high-profile magazines including Real Simple, Parents, and People, as well as winning several awards.
Epic! was acquired for $500 million dollars by Biju in 2021.
Before the brand update:
Aside from aesthetics, parents were confused by the product, thinking it was a $5.99 a month game, versus the rich platform full of delightful kids book and educational videos.
Project Lead, Creative Direction, Brand Strategy & Design - Danielle Gutherie
Illustrator - Ryan Hungerford ; Logo Design - Jeff Caldwell ; Photographer - Stephanie Todaro