How would you describe your school? What are staff, parents and other stakeholders seeing and experiencing when they walk through the front gates? Describe what that is and why they feel it.
Any school marketing material must have a consistent visual style and feel about it along with targeted brand messages that convey your school's story, culture and beliefs in clear and concise ways. Why? So that, over time, your school community can build up a familiarity with your brand image and what it stands for. The more consistent that image and message is the stronger that recognition will become.
Deciding on the look and message isn't like choosing a colour because we personally like it. It is about being able to accurately describe the culture of the school and then designing a look and message to support that description.
What is an 'Inspiring Journey in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ'?
Every school has a unique and compelling story that can be harnessed to develop a dynamic and inspiring school brand.
A thoughtfully designed brand captures the essence of what your school stands for and combines it with your unique school story. This combination helps develop a positive energy and a focal point for creating an exciting and engaging school culture.
I call the process IÌýuse to help schools discover and tell their story anÌý'Inspiring Journey in Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ'.
An Inspiring School Brand Will Help You:
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Energise staff, students and parents and encourage them to have pride in their school.
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Create positive perceptions in the community that attracts and retains staff and students.
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Build a culture that your school will be proud of.
Knowing 'who you are' is central to the development of any successful school brand. This involves working from the inside out to clearly understand the core beliefs and practices that underpin your school culture. The next step is to portray this honestly and authentically.
A Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Journey Will Help:
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Clarify your school's ethos and communicate your vision, mission and values in a meaningful and memorable way.
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Capture your school's unique story and create symbols and themes to tell it.
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Develop ongoing strategies to enhance brand awareness and community engagement.
For inspiration read some of the school branding journeys below.
From My School Client Friends
Craig was recommended to us by another new school that had just opened. When we explored Craig's website, we really enjoyed reading other school's stories and the experience and service Craig provided.
Our face to face meeting with Craig was very valuable as he was genuinely interested in finding out about us and our story behind the development of our new school. There were many aspects that we wanted represented and valued in our logo design and the challenge was to make that all happen but to still make it look cohesive. Craig achieved exactly that. Ìý
Craig is passionate about what he does and he ensured he would do the best for us. He listened carefully and we felt he cared about us as clients. As the logo has such significance, Craig's pride in his work ensured he would get the best possible representation for us. Craig was very good at consulting with us along the way and kept us up to date right the way through the whole process.
We just love our logo. We are so very proud of it and feel Craig 'got it so right!'
Jodie Howard
Principal/Tumuaki
Te Kura O Take Kārara, Wanaka
Really impressed with the design process, and the time taken to understand the local context and priorities in what we wanted our logo redesign to capture.ÌýThe communication was great throughout, and the professional approach enabled us to achieve our goals and refine the concept really effectively. I would highly recommend the service as a positive and creative design project that helped us move forward to define a fresh new look.
Alan Jackson
Principal/Tumuaki
Mt Eden Normal Primary School, Auckland
Our school engaged Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Matters to help us re-discover our vision and what it meant. We got Craig to visit us for a day to get a sense of what our school felt like and what learning looked like. From there we identified some key features - both physical and conceptual - that gave us our own unique identity and Craig came up with a range of visuals and catchphrases that attempted to capture that essence. With community input and cultural reflection we eventually finalised a logo and catchphrase that gives a strong representation of who we are and where we come from. It connects beautifully with our key principles and practices and our school has its center back! We couldn't have done it without Craig's patience and tenacity to get our visual right for us!
Tim Lovelock
Principal/Tumuaki
Waipahihi School, Taupo
Craig from Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Matters has been involved in the school to develop a number of resources to promote the school. He initially met with our Board of Trustees to show a range of material he had developed with other schools. He then met with myself to develop a new school logo, school certificates and values chart to align with the schools vision. At all times I have found Craig listened to my ideas and he was able to produce a range of drafts for feedback. I would recommend him to anyone considering wanting to develop promotional material.
Margaret Trotter
Principal/Tumuaki
Oaklands School, Christchurch
Are you interested in taking a school branding journey with me?
Contact me with any questions you might have.
