Moving CapoForward with Branding

With private and charter schools on the rise, it’s a tough proposition to help parents see the great things that are happening in public elementary schools.  Capistrano Unified School District (“CUSD”) is no exception.  Due to an open district that allows the flexibility of School of Choice, select elementary schools have suffered from poor attendance and support in recent years.

CUSD hired Album to help reverse this trend, by branding the district movement (CapoForward) and rebranding seven targeted elementary schools. Our job was to properly represent the great enthusiasm coming from the district, school staff, and the community, and re-educate parents on the unique offerings of each school.

Our first task was to design the CapoForward logo.  We emphasized the grassroots, social support by making the hashtag the defining element.

Next up was defining the unique qualities of each school, with the intent of giving them a secondary name that would serve as a “school title”, without the need to change the underlying name of the school.  Once these were determined, we pressed forward with new logos, cards, brochures and website redesigns to elevate the identity of each.  Each with unique illustrations and colors, but all fitting within a cohesive family of brands that share a similar purpose.