Due West
Due West ES is a Niche.com “Best Public Elementary School in Georgia.” The students, faculty, and community embrace the school’s nickname, the Pioneers, and use it to inspire high achievement and blaze new trails.
The Problem
When a school has such a rich and deep-rooted history, it is critical to honor the community in all changes to its brand and messaging. Significant changes to the brand could create an unnecessary backlash within the school community.
The Solution
Working side-by-side with the school’s principal, I set out to deeply understand the school and community’s history to create a unique brand that could take the school to new heights.
Logo Design
After looking through old yearbooks, photographs of the original school building, and various other historic items we decided the best option was to pay homage to the fact the school originally began in a farmhouse building. We symbolized this by creating a custom weathervane that displays a custom interlocking DW lettermark.
Sports Logo
The school’s biggest criticism of its previous logo was how the Pioneer looked unserious. The facial features of the old Due West logo were anatomically inaccurate and his facial expression did not reflect the tone they wanted to be set.
This was solved by creating a sports logo that is professional and serious.
Environmental Design
With a full rebrand of the school’s logo and sports logo complete, I set out to identify key areas within the school’s campus where investing in custom environmental design and signage would have the greatest impact. Our multiple walk-throughs and conversations led us to identify the following areas as having the greatest return on investment:
- School entrance and drop-off areas
- School cafeteria
- Main hallways and classroom signage
- School gymnasium and library
