Elementary School Branding

[charger77]

I attended St.Lawrence Elementary in Utica Michigan for 1st -6th grade. For the sake of nostalgia I took a look at their web site and found a page about their logos and branding. I have never seen anything like this before on a school site. 

Has anybody here seen anything like this?

 

St.Lawrence Elementary

[panthers_2012]

I haven't, but it looks like that's specially designed for them. Most elementary schools use stock logos for their mascot or just use a word mark as their school logo. 

[smzimbabwe]

When I was in elementary school, we had a school wide vote to determine our mascot. The choice was between Huskies and Hornets. The students voted nearly unanimously for Huskies, the principal said Huskies was too violent  and changed the outcome to Hornets. Never figured that out, assume he was just a Wazzu fan and didn't like Huskies.

 

Never been attacked by a husky, but been stung many times by hornets.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

35 minutes ago, smzimbabwe said:

When I was in elementary school, we had a school wide vote to determine our mascot. The choice was between Huskies and Hornets. The students voted nearly unanimously for Huskies, the principal said Huskies was too violent  and changed the outcome to Hornets. Never figured that out, assume he was just a Wazzu fan and didn't like Huskies.

 

Never been attacked by a husky, but been stung many times by hornets.

 

Just look at this monster.

 

 

[(probably)notabandwagonfan]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

 

Just look at this monster.

 

 

Great, thanks a lot. I had just gotten over wanting a husky and now I have to go through it all again

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

I went to St. Alexander and we were the Crusaders. Colors were navy and gold (essentially yellow). It closed about 4 years ago, so no website or anything, but I remember when I was in Kindergarten (1990) until grade 6, there was a logo of a Crusader on a horse similar to that of the old Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA. Then in 1996, after the Pistons rebranded, they went with a similar flaming horse head but the bottom was squared off to sort of look like a knight chess piece. I thought it was cool because I was a Pistons fan.

[greyraven8]

Went to Westmount Junior High (Grade 7&8) back in the early 80's and teams were known as the Warriors.

Couple years after I was gone it became a JK-8 school.  Teams they have now are known as the Wolves.

Current logo and old pic of me wearing a school shirt.

 

 

[bwburke94]

Do elementary schools need branding, is the real question.

[Cosmic]

1 hour ago, bwburke94 said:

Do elementary schools need branding, is the real question.

That school especially needs a brand for the same reason that all companies need brands-- to help sell their products. It's some kind of Christian private school; they won't just automatically get the neighborhood kids.

[dont care]

7 hours ago, Cosmic said:

That school especially needs a brand for the same reason that all companies need brands-- to help sell their products. It's some kind of Christian private school; they won't just automatically get the neighborhood kids.

Do they need anything outside of a school seal though. I doubt many parents are selecting which school to send their children to based off of a logo and not things like, enrollment, teachers, extracurricular, and many many more. A logo would fall somewhere close to the bottom of any list if at all.

[BrandMooreArt]

could be a great topic for @GFB

[Gothamite]

17 minutes ago, dont care said:

Do they need anything outside of a school seal though. I doubt many parents are selecting which school to send their children to based off of a logo and not things like, enrollment, teachers, extracurricular, and many many more. A logo would fall somewhere close to the bottom of any list if at all.

 

For public schools, that is certainly true.  

 

For private schools, looking to recruit students, it's a much higher priority.  Even the non-profits need tuition dollars.  And for Catholic schools in particular, which have been facing steeply declining enrollment for decades, branding could seem critical to their survival.

[dont care]

6 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

For public schools, that is certainly true.  

 

For private schools, looking to recruit students, it's a much higher priority.  Even the non-profits need tuition dollars.  And for Catholic schools in particular, which have been facing steeply declining enrollment for decades, branding could seem critical to their survival.

But an elementary school though? I could see high school maybe investing in this, but for an elementary school it just seems like a waste with much less return than what they paid to have a professional do their logo.

[Gothamite]

49 minutes ago, dont care said:

But an elementary school though? I could see high school maybe investing in this, but for an elementary school it just seems like a waste with much less return than what they paid to have a professional do their logo.

 

Why do you say that?  Elementary schools typically have students for what, six or seven years including kindergarten?  That's a lot of money to be made in tuition, more than from the four years of high school.

 

In NYC, for example, Catholic school elementary school tuition is lower than high school but they have more years there.

 

K-8: $4K per year, or $36,000 total per student.

9-12: $7,500 per year, or $30,000 total per student.

 

Given that, I think it's certainly worth paying a designer to try and claw back some of the students they're hemorrhaging.

[dont care]

4 hours ago, Gothamite said:

 

Why do you say that?  Elementary schools typically have students for what, six or seven years including kindergarten?  That's a lot of money to be made in tuition, more than from the four years of high school.

 

In NYC, for example, Catholic school elementary school tuition is lower than high school but they have more years there.

 

K-8: $4K per year, or $36,000 total per student.

9-12: $7,500 per year, or $30,000 total per student.

 

Given that, I think it's certainly worth paying a designer to try and claw back some of the students they're hemorrhaging.

unless you can show me that a significant amount of students started going to the school because of the logo and not some other thing that actually matters to parents i don't see the ROI being worth it at all.

[Gothamite]

17 minutes ago, dont care said:

unless you can show me that a significant amount of students started going to the school because of the logo and not some other thing that actually matters to parents i don't see the ROI being worth it at all.

 

I'm sorry, that's just not how branding works. 

 

Parents who spend thousands of dollars (or tens of thousand) every year send their children to private schools do so for a number of reasons.  Among those are the sense they have of the school, the emotions that school stirs within them.  Which can be everything from the color of the wood trim to the cleanliness to the uniforms to, yes, the logo.  

 

Just like the emotional response we have to a soda can influences which brand we buy.  Or our emotional response to the distinctive stitching on a pair of jeans.  Or the chrome badge on the hood of a car.  Brand identification drives so many of our financial decisions, big and small, why would it shock you to think that some schools feel it gives them a leg up?

 

The indoor soccer league I coach in rents gym space in some very exclusive and very expensive schools.  And from the way they are decorated, it's obvious that someone has thought about their brand identity.  I joke with my son that more expensive the school, the darker the wood paneling in the hallways. 

 

You admitted you can see why a high school can find it valuable to have a logo.  So why does it seem so odd that an elementary school might as well?

[Cosmic]

4 hours ago, dont care said:

unless you can show me that a significant amount of students started going to the school because of the logo and not some other thing that actually matters to parents i don't see the ROI being worth it at all.

You don't know what the I is, so how can you know what the ROI is?

 

I don't think it's crazy for a school to be professional-looking in it's outward dealings. It doesn't mean it was a $5M branding campaign.

[panthers_2012]

8 hours ago, Cosmic said:

You don't know what the I is, so how can you know what the ROI is?

 

I don't think it's crazy for a school to be professional-looking in it's outward dealings. It doesn't mean it was a $5M branding campaign.

Agreed. Most schools can have a good design without having to pay a high price.

[charger77]

13 hours ago, dont care said:

unless you can show me that a significant amount of students started going to the school because of the logo and not some other thing that actually matters to parents i don't see the ROI being worth it at all.

 

They may not start because of a logo but "professionalism", "exclusive" and "high society-ness" of it my be a draw for parents to keep them around. Most kids don't choose private school, their parents choose it for them. 

[charger77]

Just now, charger77 said:

 

They may not start because of a logo but "professionalism", "exclusive" and "high society-ness" of it my be a draw for parents to keep them around. Most kids don't choose private school, their parents choose it for them. 

 

Also as a point of clarification...

 

I wasn't surprised that they have a graphics package, I was just surprised that they intentionally presented it on their website.