If you're thinking about a school re-brand here are some things to expect and look for from the designer you pick for this project. Remember that your brand is very much part of your wider parental engagement strategy.

Firstly let me explain some of the school branding issues and how to work with your designer to solve this.

After working with schools for a couple of years now I've found the same problems with school branding that keep popping up time and time again.

I have seen schools with multiple logos that are completely different styles. This can create confusion with your audience (parents!). When they're searching for your school and your school is using different logos, it can make the parents think 'if they're not consistent in their branding, what else are they not consistent with?'. This is not a good first impression and can be off-putting to prospective parents.

Your school branding should encompass your values and mission as an organisation. Therefore, choosing the right designer is important; they should include these in your new brand design. The most important thing about your brand is your logo; your logo encompasses everything you brand will need such as your colour and font. Let's go through the process of designing your logo:

The Brief 

This is the most important stage between you and your designer. Before the re-designing of your school brand, your designer should ask you a series of questions to get to know what you want for your new brand. This saves time and will ensure a smoother design process.

Concepts (with mockups)

Once you have discussed the brief, the designer should go away and start designing.

The designer should give you at least 3 different logo concepts for you to choose from. This is where you decide what you like and don't like and you can add any suggestions or edits you will like to the design. The designer will input and may advise against some of your suggestions, but don't be offended if this happens! They should suggest alternatives that might work better. Allow the designer to give you some creative direction because after all this what they are trained to do and they know what will work well for your brand and also what looks good.

Then depending on what is agreed, and when you have narrowed the logo to one design, the designer should produce different variations of the logo such as vertical, horizontal, black & white. They should also show some mockups of what the logo could look like on different mediums. You should be completely happy with your logo before it is finalised.

Finalised logo with logo files and brand-guidelines

Once you have agreed on a final logo with your designer, the designer should then go away and create all the necessary logo files that you will need. Here is a list:

Logo Files 

JPEG- format of the logo with a white background 

PNG - format of the logo with no background to be ideally used on the website.

AI - Original File

EPS - To be sent to printers

PDF - To use internally or sent to printers

You should have horizontal, vertical and black & white versions in all these file types.

You should also get a logo brand guidelines of the colour codes and font used. This is so you can apply it to the rest of your school brand.

All of the colours and branding elements for your school should reflect your new school logo. Your brand will help your organisation be recognised and look professional. See here "What a great brand can do for your school"

After reading this blog you may think it's time that your school needs a re-brand. Luckily, we have a logo design and branding packages for you to choose from. Why don't you book a call and we can give a quote?