Visual Identity and Web Design for an Innovative Virtual High School

Sora, a virtual high school startup run by a team of Atlanta entrepreneurs, is a private school replacement with a project-based curriculum best fitted for educationally gifted students who feel held back by traditional institutions. Sora’s programming allows students to choose how they tackle their education using student-driven, project-based learning. Students have the power to follow their interests and make school exciting for themselves.

With the goal to accelerate students to achieve their wildest dreams, Sora does this by working with students to start projects and complete learning challenges within their field of interest.

Sora’s co-founders, Garett Smiley, Indra Sofian, and Wasley Samples, approached Wunderdogs looking to overhaul their brand and website after a $2.7M raise. Our challenge was to create a brand that appeals to the variety of students (and parents) that Sora Schools serves, whilst looking credible yet innovative and unique.

In line with the Sora team redefining what it means to be a high school student from a student perspective, Wunderdogs worked to redefine what a new, student-centric visual approach to Sora’s brand should look like.

Conceptually, Sora’s branding is based on breaking free from ‘the norm’ and celebrating divergent thinking. Doodles and spontaneous gestures were visual nods to project-based learning, a way to celebrate student discovery. Graphic boundaries being broken is symbolic of thinking “outside of the box”. Stylistically it is bold, colorful, and fun. An antidote to elite private school branding.

The Sora logo is a union of two elements: the bird which inspired the name, and rounded and friendly typography. The texture of the bird resembles a marker, illustrating the human side of the school and the creative and academic freedom it provides its students.

This bold and colorful identity is translated to Sora’s website by creatively using design elements without disrupting and overwhelming users. This includes the mixture of colors and secondary graphics, micro-animations and distinct, yet consistent CTAs.

Our scalable and bold branding kit covering print and digital media, collateral, and merchandise will serve the Sora schools in the next stages of their growth and for years to come.