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A render of the Skills On Point tradeshow booth: a curved blue backdrop with the mark and the line Continuing education for healthcare professionals, a TV on a stand, and a podium wrapped in the brand pattern.
Work · Brand and web

One mark, and everywhere it had to go.

Skills On Point teaches nurse practitioners and other advanced practice clinicians the hands-on skills they need to get privileged. They needed to look like the place that does that: a mark, a system to carry it, a guide to keep it, and a site where a student finds a course and registers. Since then it has gone on their cards, their program guide, a van and a truck, the windows of a conference center and the walls of a new simulation center.

Skills On Point · Rockford, Illinois · Brand, print, web, environment
As we wrote it when the site went live

“Our task was to not only create a beautiful website, but re-design the experience so that visitors find it easier to search and register for classes.”

LuccaAM · from the write-up we published when the site went live
Brand

A mark you can cut in vinyl.

They had a name, a founder with a doctorate, a growing list of courses and a logo that had come with the first website. What they did not have was anything a sign shop, a printer or a web developer could pick up and use without a phone call.

We drew a mark that reads on a lapel pin and on a window: four points, a ring, and the space between them. Two blues and a gray, two typefaces, a pattern made from the mark, and a seven-page guide that says how they go together. Everything since has followed it, including the things we did not make.

The Skills On Point mark: a ring of four segments around four petal shapes, in two blues.
The mark · delivered SVG
The pattern · one period cut from the delivered file, tiled by the browser
  • Blue#4154A4The primary color: backgrounds, type, icons, anywhere the main color is needed.
  • Light blue#2CAAE2The blue inside the mark. For contrast and lift, never the lead.
  • Light gray#E5E5E5The neutral that balances the two blues.
The palette · the guide's values, in the guide's words
The brand guide page for the primary typeface, Porter Bold: the alphabet in capitals and the line Large heading, titles, call to actions.The brand guide page for the secondary typeface, Roboto: light, medium, bold and black weights.
Porter Bold for headings, Roboto for everything else · the guide's own page
Page one of the brand guide: the primary logo, the secondary logo and the mark on white.
Brand guide · page 1 · the three logos
Page two of the brand guide: how to use the logos, with allowed adjustments and misuses shown.
Page 2 · how to use them
Page five of the brand guide: the brand pattern and the icon on white, black and blue.
Page 5 · the pattern and the icon
Page seven of the brand guide: print samples, the letterhead and the business cards.
Page 7 · print samples
Print

The system, on paper.

The first thing a system has to survive is a printer, which does exactly what the file says. Cards, letterhead and an envelope came first, with the pattern down one edge, and then a name tag for the instructors.

Then the program guide: 32 pages, every course they ran, sorted into the four categories the website would use a few months later, with a course selection worksheet at the back for a school planning a private course. The four categories are still the ones on their site.

Skills On Point business cards laid out on a blue ground: the pattern side and the contact side.
Business cards · photographed mockup
The program guide cover and back cover on a light ground: blue, with the mark in a white tab and the words Program Guide.
Program guide · cover and back · photographed mockup
The program guide open to a spread on continuing education accreditation.
Program guide · a spread · photographed mockup
The letterhead: the logo top left, the pattern down the right edge, the contact line at the foot.
Letterhead · delivered file
The front of the business card: the logo, the address, the founder's name and credentials, email and phone.
Card, front · delivered file
The back of the business card: the logo reversed on blue, the pattern in a band.
Card, back
The envelope: the logo and return address at the top left.
Envelope · delivered file
The program guide table of contents: Travel to us, Public courses, Private courses, Online continuing education, Travel to you.
Program guide · contents
A program guide page, Travel to us, with an operating room photograph under blue and the simulation center overview.
Program guide · Travel to us
The course selection worksheet: numbered questions for a school planning a private course, with lines to fill in.
Course selection worksheet · delivered file
Web

Find a course, register, done.

Students come to the site for one thing: find the course, register. We rebuilt the site around that. The courses went into four categories, Public, Private, Online and Concierge, and the homepage became a way into each of them.

The hero is their own operating room photography under the brand blue, the pattern runs down the edge of the page, and the three course programs step down it in the guide's order. The site has been added to since, a portal, a newsletter, an affiliate program, on the same bones, and the four categories have not moved.

The full Skills On Point homepage as shipped: the hero, the about section, the three course programs, the map of courses held across the US, and the footer.
The homepage, as it is today · scroll inside the frame
The same homepage on a phone, top to bottom.
On a phone · scroll inside
Three phones side by side showing the homepage top to bottom: the hero, the numbers and photographs, and the first course program.
The homepage on a phone, in three screens
Environment

Then it went on the building.

A brand that lives only on a screen is a brand nobody sees on the drive in. Once the system existed the shop files came easily: a cargo van and a box truck, the conference center's windows, the sign on the building and the pylon by the road, and the graphics inside, on the wall between the TVs.

Then they took a simulation center at 6825 Weaver Road, and the dark panels are the signage designed for it: the same mark, the same guide, a new building.

Wrap artwork for a cargo van: side, front, top and rear views in blue with the logo and the pattern.
Cargo van · wrap artwork, to the shop's template
Wrap artwork for a box truck: side and rear views, a blue band with the logo.
Box truck · wrap artwork
A tall window graphic: the four course categories listed over a faded photograph, with the pattern below.
Conference center · window vinyl, left
The building sign: the logo reversed on blue, 120 by 50.
Building sign · artwork
The pylon sign panel: the logo reversed on blue.
Pylon sign · artwork
Interior wall graphic: the logo on a light ground over the pattern.
Interior wall · artwork
The mark alone, in two blues, for the window above the door.
Above the door · artwork
The simulation center TV wall design: the logo and Simulation Center in white over a dark operating room photograph.
Simulation center · TV wall, artwork
The simulation center street sign: the mark, Skills On Point, Simulation Center and 6825 Weaver Rd in gray on near black.
Simulation center · street sign, artwork

What was made.

Everything below is a file in the client's folder and can be checked against it. There is no figure for what any of it earned them, because we do not have a checked one, and a number on this page has to be one you could ask them about.

  • A mark and three logosPrimary, secondary and the mark alone, each in color, black and white.
  • Two blues and a grayAnd two typefaces, Porter Bold and Roboto, set out in a seven-page brand guide.
  • A pattern made from the markOn the cards, the guide, the podium and the windows.
  • Cards, letterhead, envelopeAnd a name tag for the instructors.
  • A 32-page program guideEvery course in four categories, with a course selection worksheet at the back.
  • The websiteRebuilt around finding a course and registering. Four categories, a portal for the online courses.
  • A tradeshow boothBackdrop, header, podium wrap, table throw and TV stand.
  • A van and a box truckWrap artwork for both, to the shop's templates.
  • Windows, a sign and a pylonThe conference center, inside and out.
  • The simulation centerStreet signage and interior graphics for the new building.
Their numbers, from their site
  • 40,000+students registered in 2024
  • 42universities worked with in 2024
  • 60+online courses

More work.

Visit skillsonpoint.com (opens in a new tab)
Color Transformations Painting. Web design and buildA painter's work, shown at full size.0.57s to draw the first screen, measured on the live siteRead the study Mission First Fundraising. Web design, a custom platform and searchEvery trip on the table, costed before the bidding.+1,450% searches ranking in Google's top ten, year over yearRead the study

All ten studies

Everything they have added since carries the same mark.That is what the guide was for.

Nobody buys a plan they haven't seen.

Nothing here starts with a quote. It starts with a conversation about where the business is and where you want it to get to, and what it takes to close that gap, written down and yours to keep.

Start with a planTell us about the business and where you want it to go. We build the plan for getting there.Or just call(815) 880-8676. We're in Rockford, and somebody who actually works on accounts picks up.