Rebranding

Background

Slide Academy started app development in March 2025. About six months in, we made the call to commit fully to a new concept: “the Duolingo of deck building.”

The existing brand had been emphasizing “serious learning material,” and the gap between that and the new direction was wide enough to require a full overhaul — logo, color palette, typography, and the mascot usage guide.

Problem

• The old brand tone leaned toward “a serious B2B learning service,” which conflicted with the Duolingo direction’s “playful, low-friction” feel
• The app’s color palette was tied to the existing brand, so it couldn’t fully swing toward something bright and approachable
• The variety of expressions and on-screen moments for the mascot character (“Surapen”) hadn’t been formalized yet

Approach

1. Redefining the concept words: Started by updating internal wording — shifting the center of gravity from “learn” to “make usable”
2. Color and typography redesign: Made the app’s primary color more pop, and adjusted heading typography to a lighter, more readable weight
3. Surapen character usage guide: Defined expressions and poses by scene, and built an asset set we could use consistently across the app, LPs, and social
4. Phased rollout: Updated visuals in app → social → LP order so existing users wouldn’t get confused

Outcome

• Swapped every app screen’s components over to the new brand in a single sprint
• Once Surapen’s usage scenes were organized, the character naturally spread into internal docs and sales materials
• Decisions on subsequent work (the contest feature, LP renewal) got faster — because the brand baseline was now set

Takeaways

This project drove home that “changing the concept words alone doesn’t change anything; the brand only starts moving when UI and assets line up.”

The character usage guide turned out to work better than expected — team members started reaching for Surapen on their own across internal docs.