Brand Design & UI/UX Design
Overview
Every year in Alberta, more than 20 million dollars in scholarship money goes completely unclaimed and through our research at SAIT, we found that 50% of students feel almost completely in the dark about where to find financial help. This gap shows that the current system is failing to connect life changing opportunities with the students who need them most.
Client:
SAIT Capstone
Timeline:
Sep 2025 - Apr 2026
Category:
Brand Design & UI/UX Design
Core problem
The current scholarship landscape is a visual and navigational mess. Outdated portals look untrustworthy, information is overwhelming, and students give up before they even begin. The challenge was not just to build a better platform. It was to replace chaos with clarity through brand and design.
Solution
The Grantline is the bridge between a student's current financial struggle and their future academic success. Designed to be minimalist yet authoritative, it functions as a navigational guide connecting every stage of the scholarship journey into a single, clear trajectory. When the brand is right, the platform feels trustworthy before a student even reads a word.
The logo
The "G" (The Engine): Represents the name Granted and the technical precision of the search-matching engine.
The Graduation Cap (The Goal): A universal symbol of academic success, showing that every data point leads toward graduation.
The Tick Check (The Verification): Hidden within the geometry signals that every scholarship is verified and the search is complete.
The Grantline (The Trajectory): All elements connect into a singular path, ensuring students never feel in the dark.
The Grantline system.
The Grantline is a navigational metaphor built into the brand's DNA. Most scholarship platforms overwhelm students with information going in every direction. The Grantline does the opposite: it creates a single, forward-moving path from uncertainty to outcome.
Visually, it anchors every screen. The line is tied to the UI grid, providing a constant north star that guides the eye directly to what matters: deadlines, eligibility, and next steps. When a student opens GRANTED, they never feel lost because the brand itself is telling them where to go.
The event date
On April 22, 2026, GRANTED launched at SAIT's Capstone Convention. For the first time, the brand system lived outside a screen
After months of designing, testing, and refining, the brand finally existed in the real world. A poster. Bookmarks on the table. Business cards in people's hands. Industry guests, faculty, and fellow graduates stopped, asked questions, and stayed longer than expected. Six people, one vision, one day to show what we built.
The result
Most students stop looking for scholarships because the process feels like a second job they didn't ask for. By using the Grantline, we turn that messy search into a clear, guided path. The impact is simple: when a student feels less overwhelmed, they are more likely to finish what they started.
Team Credit
Kevin Mai: Graphic Lead, Brand Strategy, Visual Development, Motion Graphic, UI/UX Support
Ivy Porras: Product Management, UI/UX Lead, Web Design support, Brand Support
Michelle Babani: Marketing Lead, Brand Development, Video Concept Planning, Video Editor
Mharvic Inocentes: Web Design and Development, Technical Lead,Data Management
Diane Schultze: Front-end Development, UI support, Databse Support
Chris Nordrum: Back-end Development, Database Lead