Building independence in top-tier education
Client
Red House School
Project
The Red House School rebrand
Services
Sector
The Brief
Red House needed to evolve their identity and elevate its execution to match the status of their pedigree. Much of the existing style felt inconsistent and fairly generic, however there was some attachment to the spirit and heritage of the crest, if not its execution.
Red House is an Independent School currently based in Norton, Teesside. Red House delivers academic excellence by nurturing the curiosity of each and every child. Their small class size and unwavering focus on the unique requirements of the individual, allows them to craft a uniquely bespoke education with a genuine warmth.
The Solution
Taking onboard the sensitivities around the crest we evolved it by returning it to its former glory, albeit with a few modern flourishes. Alongside this came a reinvented brand world, typography balanced traditional serifs with modern sans to reflect the schools blend of traditional values and modern approach. Elsewhere the crest was deconstructed and into four symbols that were enlarged and used as distinctive framing elements, revealing slices of colour and photography.
Building independence in top-tier education
The Brief
Red House needed to evolve their identity and elevate its execution to match the status of their pedigree. Much of the existing style felt inconsistent and fairly generic, however there was some attachment to the spirit and heritage of the crest, if not its execution.
Red House is an Independent School currently based in Norton, Teesside. Red House delivers academic excellence by nurturing the curiosity of each and every child. Their small class size and unwavering focus on the unique requirements of the individual, allows them to craft a uniquely bespoke education with a genuine warmth.
Red House needed to evolve their identity and elevate its execution to match the status of their pedigree. Much of the existing style felt inconsistent and fairly generic, however there was some attachment to the spirit and heritage of the crest, if not its execution.
Taking onboard the sensitivities around the crest we evolved it by returning it to its former glory, albeit with a few modern flourishes. Alongside this came a reinvented brand world, typography balanced traditional serifs with modern sans to reflect the schools blend of traditional values and modern approach. Elsewhere the crest was deconstructed and into four symbols that were enlarged and used as distinctive framing elements, revealing slices of colour and photography.
Deerly beloved
The first and most sensitive stylistic change was to completely redraw the crest, creating versions with both positive and negative shadows, for use on light and dark backgrounds. The previous incarnation of the crest had lost all the character of the original hand drawn version. In its place was a poorly executed vector trace, one which did not hold up to scrutiny. We worked with an illustrator to re-draw the crest, retaining crucial symbolic elements and giving them the craft and status they so richly deserve. These drawings were then taken into the studio and meticulously re-traced and digitised into a new, richly detailed and finely crafted Red House crest. A modern interpretation, built for modern use but retaining all the character and heritage of the original.
Symbolic gesture
To create dynamic, recognisable graphic elements to support the design system we looked to the crest once again. To help emphasise the modernity of the school and its new design system, we abstracted key symbolic elements. Taking the heraldic symbols from the crest and simplifying into a modern, clean visual language provided us with four bold graphic shapes. These shapes were then integrated into the design system, used as graphic overlays or at times slices that provided a window into Red House, allowing energetic photography to burst out.
