Emberly began as Colomba, a dance studio in Camden. When lockdown hit, the founder moved classes online as Colomba Online and began to see a bigger idea: a place where anyone could pick up a new skill, from ballet to qigong to public speaking, for the joy of it rather than for a qualification.
That idea needed a name, a brand and a platform that could carry it. It had to feel warm and unpretentious rather than like another wellness brand, speak to learners across a wide age range, and work as a business that could pay its tutors fairly and grow. In August 2021 Colomba brought Outfly in to take it from concept to launch, covering strategy and naming, a new brand, a video toolkit, the website and the launch marketing.
We started with a Brandscape workshop to map who Emberly was for and what it stood for. The audience ranged from people in busy careers looking for more balance, to people wanting to rediscover something of their own, to younger learners still working out what they enjoy, as well as companies and gift buyers looking for something more meaningful than a voucher. What united them was a wish to try something new without pressure or pretension. That became the brand promise: find what makes you glow.
Then came the naming. We tested the shortlist against domains, trademarks, social handles and similar brands, and Emberly won: a name built on the warmth of an ember, with room to grow into a flame. The fire metaphor runs through the whole brand, from spark to flame to ember, and is always about warmth, energy and potential. We organised the courses into four modes, Energise, Create, Grow and Relax, so learners could choose by how they want to feel.
Over two rounds of brand sprints we developed the identity. The logo is a rounded flame whose petals also read as an E tilted upward and forward, set in a warm-to-cool gradient with a fine grain that feels friendly across ages. A single-line illustration style gives each mode its own scenes, and a brand book pulls it all together. Alongside the brand we worked through the business model, recommending an affordable subscription rather than one-off course sales, with options for tutors to film with Emberly’s support or bring their own content.
The website had to sell courses, memberships and gifts, and host the learning itself. We researched the options, from off-the-shelf video course platforms to a fully bespoke build, and built a platform that handled site-wide memberships, single courses, bundles and gifting, with a learning area for members.
We designed and built emberly.co.uk page by page: a home page that led with the four modes, course pages with previews, lesson lists and tutor profiles, a membership offer, gifting and bundle pages, an Emberly for employees page for organisations, a page to recruit new course creators, and a blog. The fire gradients and line illustrations carried through every page, so the site felt like the brand rather than a template.
To keep every course on brand, we created a video production pack with title cards for each mode, lower thirds, an animated logo ident and transitions, and wrote a creator’s guide that sets out course structure, filming, lighting and branding standards for tutors.
For launch we built a steady stream of content for Instagram and LinkedIn. Mode-themed posts paired the gradients and line illustrations with short, questioning headlines; quote cards, tutor introductions and course spotlights showed the people behind the lessons; and video adverts and reels, from pasta making to focaccia, brought the courses to life. We also designed social headers and stationery, and showed how the brand could stretch to merchandise such as tote bags, notebooks, caps and bottles.
By early 2022 Emberly offered 70 video lessons across seven courses, including Ballet Basics, Qigong for Beginners, Wild Art Journaling and Public Speaking & Confidence. In February 2022 we followed launch by specifying a round of improvements, from sharper copy to a simpler basket and checkout, to help more visitors become members.
Outfly, a London brand, marketing and product agency, ran Emberly’s brand strategy and naming, designed its identity and brand book, created a video production pack for its courses, designed and built emberly.co.uk, and produced the launch social content and adverts.
Emberly was set up as an online learning platform of short video courses, from ballet and contemporary dance to yoga, qigong, wild art journaling and public speaking. It grew out of Colomba, a dance studio in Camden, and was built to help people learn something new for the joy of it.
The name came out of a naming exercise built on the idea of fire as warmth and potential: an ember glows quietly and can grow into a flame. The shortlisted names were checked against domains, trademarks, social handles and similar brands before Emberly was chosen.
Energise, Create, Grow and Relax. Every course sat in one of them, so learners could choose by how they wanted to feel, whether that meant getting moving, making something, building confidence or winding down.
