Transforming your school’s visual brand

Simon Hepburn, founder of Marketing Advice for Schools, shares his ideas on how you can innovate and develop your school’s branding

Read the full article below on page 20 in our January magazine

The idea of branding in schools brings up a range of reactions – it’s not hard to find people in schools who think logos on every item of uniform, controls on how teaching materials are designed, and a mandatory school font are a waste of time and money that restricts freedom and creativity. However, this should be set against a long, and highly successful, history of schools in the UK using creative visual design to share their distinctive values and ethos – from the distinctive uniforms of schools such as Christ’s Hospital or Eton College to the internationally famous (and admittedly fictional) houses of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. 

Helen West, director at WDC Creative in Manchester, has worked with many schools on design projects, including Burnage Academy for Boys (see below). She argues that, “Over time, there is often a need to change your visual identity to ensure it works effectively to engage with the target audience – indeed, most major brands have evolved their look and feel as they have matured, and it’s no different for schools. For instance, a faith school located in an area of changing demographics may seek to ‘play up’ its core value-set, and ‘play down’ any overtly religious associations, to attract local families.”

Craig Burton runs School Branding Matters in New Zealand and has been at the forefront of creating inspiring new logos for schools that reflect the wider heritage of the country. He highlights the importance of asking the right questions from the start of the process. “This might include questions relating to the school’s history, personality, location, audience and type.”

How do you start a ‘rebranding’? 

Here are five ideas to get things going.

• Work from the existing history of the school if there is one – schools will often have deep community roots; one of the major reasons rebranding goes wrong is that these are ignored.
• For a similar reason, it is important to involve representatives from across the school’s stakeholder groups. Craig Burton suggests carrying out a school-wide community survey to understand current perceptions of the school at this point.
• Use expert design input, especially at the final stage – it’s important to be able to use the resulting designs in a range of media and situations.
• Don’t just think about a logo in isolation – also consider which colours work well across the school, and other design elements – even the colour of the outside of the school can reinforce the perception people take away.
• Given the pressure on school and family budgets, take a longer-term approach to any change – for example, uniform can be changed gradually, so that no-one has to pay for new branded items, and a site can adopt the new colours as part of ongoing repainting. 

Case study: Burnage Academy for Boys

Burnage Academy for Boys in Manchester was founded in 1932 and has changed name several times over the years – most recently in 2014 when it became an academy and changed its name from ‘Burnage Media Arts College’. 

At that time the school logo included media symbols such as ‘play’ and ‘pause’, which weren’t suited to the new name. A new logo was created internally which was inspired by the worker bee symbol of Manchester and the distinctive design of the new school building. 

However, the colours didn’t reflect the school uniform or include the key values or history of the school, and it wasn’t easily recognisable, so the school decided to use its 90^th anniversary this year to ‘test the water’ with a new logo that would more effectively represent the school.

A team of design experts from WDC Creative worked with GCSE art students and members of the pupil media team at Burnage to develop a new concept, working to a brief set by the school leadership team. This involved historical research, an understanding of branding and marketing theory and a site tour to pick up ideas and references including the original stone crest which still sits within the school grounds. 

WDC then set the students a creative challenge to visually represent the key strengths of the school and to suggest ways to improve the current branding. The design team reviewed the input and presented several potential creative routes, as well as showing how their ideas might work on the school’s uniform. 

The students involved felt honoured to be taking part and creating a legacy for the school, according to Greg Morrison, associate assistant head at the school. They also picked up some real business skills; ‘For example, the need to compromise and work as a team’.

The new logo was rolled out across the school as part of the 90^th anniversary celebrations (you can see the explanatory video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvBlOukEX-o) and is now being used across the school’s digital communications. 

Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive from staff according to Greg – and ideas are being developed to continue to use the new brand once the 90^th year is over, taking into account the need to keep costs to an absolute minimum.