Branding efforts by an Ed-Tech startup across mediums

You might not know this person, but I am sure you would have seen one or more of his videos at some point. His name is

Later on, he started his own company called Nas Academy and Nas Studios for teaching budding creators how to make videos and market their stories uniquely. I recently got into his Nas Daily x GrabForGood program. After going through his entire Video Creator Master Course, I have learned a few essential things that the brand does right across various mediums. This article will dig into the details of Nas Daily branding.

Fact: Nuseir wears the same shirt every day. It has a percentage counter that increases every year. It shows the amount of life he has lived and how many more years are left. It compels him to do more, to be better for the remainder of his life.

Colors 🎲

The brand uses four colors: white [#fff], black [#000], grey [#303030], and yellow [#f3c84a]. This branding style is quite muted, and coming from India, it reminds me of the Kaali Peeli (Black Yellow) taxis seen everywhere in Mumbai. In Nas Daily’s case, it communicates a very simplistic brand where the actual color comes from the videos they create rather than the branding itself. I wonder what’s the story behind these color choices.

Logo Designs 👨‍💻

The Nas brand is currently sporting three different logo designs with the same design pattern. Everywhere except for the website-favicon, the company uses the word-based logotype. Notice that the word Nas and “.” (full stop) at the end-use yellow in the logo while Studio, Daily, and Academy uses grey/black.

Usage ✨

When using the logo on a video/photo medium, the words ‘Studios’, ‘Daily,’ and ‘Academy’ change to white and allows the multimedia component to take over. Office spaces (in Dubai & Singapore) have also colored in black and yellow. Meaning, the entire office has been painted with somewhat the same shade of black and yellow. It is different from the timeless office trend at companies like Google and Twitter but similar to office spaces like Shopee.

Typography 📰

The Nas branding uses a free Google sans-serif font called “Montserrat” across its website, logo, and digital/print media market.

It seems to be a no-brainer. Suppose I refer to Daniel Burka’s typography tweet. In that case, more designers should integrate any right product font family and get going with other important stuff required to make the website understood, like accessibility.

Beyond Branding 🟡 ⬛

“That’s 1 minute, see you tomorrow”

Now at the end of all his first thousand videos, he said this line — “That’s 1 minute, see you tomorrow”. It became a catchphrase that alerted the users that he has just communicated a story in only 60 seconds. During the master course that I attended, I noticed that the trainers frequently stuck to the one-minute video format, requested the students to do the same because of three reasons mainly:

1. It takes less time to script, edit and launch the video.
2. It is more straightforward for anyone to get started to create one-minute videos at the beginning rather than start trying for a 10 minute one.
3. It carries the Nas brand forward, and everyone who graduates from their courses automatically starts posting videos in the 60–90 second time range at the start of their journey.

Hiring 🧑‍🦱

What’s interesting to see is that the company applies the same one-minute video method for separate culturally fit and unfit candidates when hiring for a new position. Every candidate has to upload a one-minute video talking about themselves to apply for the job opening. I loved this part because,

1. This method automatically separates people who don’t believe or aren’t comfortable with creating videos. That means they either believe or don’t believe in the company mission.
2. When creating a 60-second video about yourself, you automatically learn a lot about strategically utilizing those 60 seconds (story scripting skills), editing the footage, and self-criticizing your work.
3. It forces you to create something new. It doesn’t matter if the end product is suitable. But it matters that you tried to do something you were uncomfortable with in the beginning.

Nit Picks 💭

• Although the company’s branding is excellent, it can be made simpler by getting rid of either the grey (#303030) or the black (#000000) color. The difference between the two colors as a user isn't apparent since the hues are very close. Ideally, for the digital medium, grey is more pleasing to the eyes than black. It is one reason designers avoid using pure black (#000) when designing for dark mode. Check out the article below 👇.

Dark gray surfaces reduce eye strain.

• On the website, the company should consider customizing the ::Selection CSS3 declaration (works on Safari, Firefox, Chrome). The selection of yellow background and grey/black text should do the trick. It is not a must (many brands don’t), but it takes the brand unification one step ahead.

Conclusion 👍

The Nas Daily brand was never the same as it is right now. It had a “D” logo at the beginning when Nas was cranking out one video per day. But the internet is a forgiving place; people move on quickly. There’s so much happening on the internet every day that you will be OK to rectify the mistake next time, even if you make a mistake somewhere.

If you get comfortable with applying the same method, styling, font, colors, micro-copy style again and again for everything you do, then that becomes a part of your brand whether you like it or not. But the best part about finding your branding style is that you are allowed to take it slow, make mistakes and grow the brand as you develop yourself.

Four things to borrow from this article for applying to brand:

1. Choose a color palette. Follow color theory to choose one if possible — not more than 3–4 colors with one highlight accent color (standout). Try to use colors that are unique yet pleasing to the eyes. Use these colors across the social and offline world to be perceived as an integral part of the brand.
2. Choose a clean San Serif or Serif font. If your brand evolves in the future, then you can change this.
3. Having a phrase or a simple line attached to your brand will help your brand stand out among the rest. For example — Finger licking good, Made with love in India, or sometimes even a tune or a sound that goes in all your audio and video campaign. But whatever it might be, it needs to be applied and used consistently.
4. Start using parts of your brand strategy beyond the digital space. Whatever you do in your offline world should also be tied to the brand.

This article is my observations on the Nas Daily brand and how they have been positioning themselves. The thoughts expressed in this article are my own, and none of what I have written is ill-intended. I was not paid or affiliated with Nas Daily for writing this article.

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