Branding & Graphic Design

Fort Worth ISD Family,

When I was tasked with creating a 125 Anniversary Logo, I wanted it to have a historical reference. I saw what was drawn for the 100th and I loved the John Peter Smith tree and set off to find out more. Ann Cotton educated me on how much work went into that logo and how it the tree is so vital to our District history. I wanted to somehow replicate a more modern version of it.

Color-wise, I did a lot of research and chose the blue because it is a distinct shade and represents stability and trustworthiness. Red is a more exciting color and is representative of a few things: courage, change, vitality. The gray is a new design trick: over time designers have moved away from the red/black combo if at all possible because market studies have found it to have a more negative feeling. At the same time, one needs an “anchor” shade, so people have been moving to a charcoal gray, another stable, trustworthy shade.

As for fonts, I combined the clean Interstate font with the serifed Lucida Bright Bold. Another designer trick: combine a sturdy, classic look with a more modern look.

The apple was the last decision. I asked around and many felt that the apple needs to make an appearance to give a nod to education and wisdom AND our books/apples logo. Although it was an oak tree, an apple was placed at the top of the tree to represent the fact that we want our students to truly achieve and our teachers to place that bar high.

Last summer, our intern Melissa Rawlins went through a good portion of Texas public school websites and collected their logos for me. She also looked at major urban districts across the nation. She separated the logos into common icons and we discovered that a goodly portion (almost 80%) contained an apple or a book (and sometimes a combination of the two). As a designer, you walk a fine line with logos: you want it to tap into the social consciousness and use symbols that have meaning already but, at the same time, you want to steer away from clichés. With this in mind, the tree serves a purpose: it represents wisdom and knowledge. The trunk of our tree is pretty thick— I wanted to make it look like an older tree with some roots, like us! It is a tree that has weathered a few storms and has come through, limbs still intact.

When I look at the books, I’m reminded of a lesson I learned when I first started designing at a firm in San Antonio. One of our clients was Dell and they were looking for a design for a new brand they were producing. Our job was to combine two looks: the iconic Dell look with a hip piece of art. I came up with what I thought was an awesome logo: a mouse (complete with cord) radiating energy. It was colorful and young. One problem: Dell was quickly heading wireless— the mouse of the future would be smaller and sans cord. The books are similar in my mind to the mouse with the cord: while books are still very important in our classrooms, technology is here and it’s everywhere. White boards. Blogging. Teacher websites.

Thus, I believe in the tree and I’m enthusiastic about our re-branding campaign. While the books and apple logo will be missed, I feel that the new logo will infuse our District brand with excitement. Our District is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our kids — the new logo compliments these changes and helps to re-energize our image not only in our community, parents, and students, but with dedicated employees as well.

Thanks for your support,
Amanda Gann Churchill