In the summer of 2014 I was approached by my friend Justin Mezzell about designing a new identity for Code School, a popular educational site that teaches people to write code. Code School’s visual identity involves a great deal of different characterful illustrations, themed courses on their website, and various diverse and ever—changing situations where a logo would be implemented. The old logotype, made from customized Avenir, had begun to show its short comings in these situations. Various ideas were tested, and we arrived at a custom drawn sans serif logotype, as well as a redrawn version of their previous 'brackets' mark.
About 6 months after the rebrand Code School was acquired for $36 Million dollars.
Art direction from Justin Mezzell.
“It's no small task to ask someone to join a conversation that's so close to our hearts, but Riley dug right in. We knew we wanted something that paid tribute to where we've been as a brand, but in a more memorable and original way. Riley took our collective vision, and got to work on making it a reality. Riley worked through a number of concepts as we tried to find the right fit. He was patient, but respectful of our desire to maintain the personality of our brand. I don't know if you’ve ever tried to brand yourself, but we'll just confirm that it doesn't get any easier the second time around (at least, not for us). Our previous logo had truly become part of a thriving community, and we wanted to be aware of that during the rebrand process. We asked for a logo that was uniquely and definitively our own, and that's exactly what Riley delivered.”
-Justin Mezzell (Art Director, Code School)