Adversent

Adversent

Building a distinctive brand and digital learning experience for a new advertising education platform. From visual identity and creative direction to establishing an in-house production studio and directing video content, the ambition was to make online learning feel more like Netflix than a traditional course.

The brief

Adversent was a brand new e-learning platform built to help beginners and experienced marketers improve their skills in Facebook, Google and YouTube advertising. The market was crowded with generic course platforms — dry, formulaic and uninspiring. The brief was to build something that felt completely different.

I led everything: brand identity, website, platform UX, dashboard design, eBook production, and the video content itself — directing shoots with actors in a production studio and overseeing the editing, graphics and sound.

The brand

Most e-learning brands look the same — corporate blues, stock photography, badges and progress bars. Adversent needed to look like it was built by people who actually understood advertising, and who respected the intelligence of their audience.

The visual identity was built around a dark navy and coral palette — a deliberate break from the lighter, more academic look of competing platforms. Navy gave it authority and credibility. Coral gave it energy and warmth. The logo treatment — "ad" bold, "versent" lighter — called out the advertising focus immediately while the full stop gave it confidence and finality.

The brief was to build something that felt more like Netflix than an online course — content you'd want to watch, not content you felt obliged to complete.

Visual identity

Dark navy and coral — authoritative and energetic, deliberately different from the pale, academic look of competing platforms. The speech bubble campaign device made the brand immediately approachable and human without sacrificing professional credibility.

Digital experience

Netflix was the reference point throughout. Dark interface, content-first layout, binge-able structure. The platform was designed around the idea that learning should feel like something you choose to do, not something you're required to finish.

Production & art direction

Established an in-house production studio and directed video shoots, working with actors on performance and on-camera delivery. Oversaw the visual treatment, editing, motion graphics and sound design, developing a repeatable approach to content production.

Video Production & Creative Direction

Rather than relying on bought-in course material, we built a production studio and created the content ourselves. I directed the shoots, working with actors on performance and on-camera delivery, then oversaw the editing, motion graphics, lower thirds and sound design to ensure everything felt part of the same brand experience.

The creative brief was to make the content engaging and watchable, rather than feel like a recorded lecture. That meant considered camera work and lighting, dynamic editing and on-screen graphics that supported the learning points while reinforcing the visual identity.

Production direction, including casting, studio setup, on-camera direction and performance coaching.
Post-production oversight across editing, motion graphics, lower thirds and sound design.
On-screen graphic templates developed within the brand identity to support consistent production of new course content.
eBooks designed alongside each course, extending the learning with downloadable reference material in the same visual language.

The outcome

Adversent launched with a distinctive brand, a fully integrated learning platform and a library of video and eBook content. Brand, platform and production were developed as one experience, built around the idea that learning should feel worth returning to rather than resembling a conventional online course.

The platform achieved a 35% course completion rate.

The platform's longer-term development was later affected by funding constraints. However, the project established a production approach that brought brand, content and digital experience together, and gave me valuable experience in directing shoots, developing repeatable content templates and overseeing post-production.