CourseraCopied

Coursera was founded in 2012 by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng with the mission of giving everyone, everywhere access to the world's best learning. By late 2020 it worked with more than 200 university and industry educators and had over 75 million learners, and it had expanded into serving enterprises, universities and governments. The company said its brand needed to reflect that growth, and that work begun before the pandemic took on new meaning during it.

Coursera introduced its new identity and homepage on 15 December 2020, the same day as edX, Class Central reported. The online education site judged Coursera's changes the more subtle of the two: the main one was that the wordmark no longer included an infinity symbol, and the logo was now a brighter blue, a colour also used to accent the new homepage.

Coursera described the C as an entry point into the full span of learning on the platform, from free courses and projects to professional certificates and degrees, spotlighting a world of possibility and a path from discovery to outcome. The new palette draws on the natural world to feel calm, uplifting and dynamic, and was chosen to sit in harmony with partner institutions. Source Sans Pro and Noto Sans were picked for their support of 582 languages and their speed across devices, including for offline learners. Photography features real learners from countries including Ghana, Brazil, Germany and Indonesia, and a new brand architecture was designed to show Coursera's relationship with each partner. Its guiding principles: clean points of entry, celebrating learners' journeys, and closer links between learners, institutions and employers.

The emphasis on language support and download speed is the most thoughtful part.

It is identity as infrastructure: modest, practical, global. The C-as-doorway story is a familiar one, and the infinity symbol will not be missed. A brand that politely steps back for its university partners is probably the right brand for Coursera.