brand & storytelling

A brand is more than a visual logo; it is an organization’s identity, DNA, and culture. It’s what other people think of the organization based on what they hear, see, and experience. A good brand should tell a story of who the organization is and where the organization is headed. It’s why businesses, churches, and schools have asked me to help with brand development and rebrands.

Experience GAINED

  • reseaRCH

  • content & storytelling

  • presentation

  • BRAND DEVELOPMENT

The need: College View Middle School VIKINGS WANTS TO REFRESH ITS BRAND

The challenge: WHAT MAKES A SCHOOL DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER SCHOOL?

RESEARCH

I met with the leadership of CVMS to discuss their needs. I listened to their hopes and asked about their strengths and weaknesses—what they want to achieve and what is achievable. I reviewed four different qualitative studies from the state, county, and local levels that asked questions to leadership, teachers, students and parents. I then grouped the common themes in an effort to understand the positive and negative views that were felt by the different audiences.

content & storytelling

After realizing the need, I examined what sets this school apart from others. It’s not just the mascot; I took two weeks to study the history of Vikings. I found that their longships enabled them to travel far distances and advance quickly in shallow waters, using wind to sail or paddles to work together. This led me to see parallels between the Vikings and the needs of teachers, students, and parents. I then created a story about what it means to be a Viking to help shape the CVMS brand.

COPY + visuals bring understanding

presentation

After the content and storyline were developed, I focused on creating visuals to represent the story for both the brand and the presentation. Presentations are essential for effectively communicating ideas to stakeholders. To achieve this, the content must be clear and guide the audience from the introduction to the call-to-action. For College View Middle School, I created a presentation targeting the leadership first, followed by one for the entire staff. The main objective was to demonstrate how the brand met their needs for a new vision and mission. The vision serves as a starting point toward a clear goal, while the mission outlines how CVMS will achieve it. The call-to-action involved getting leadership and staff to accept the brand proposal. My aim in developing the brand was to illustrate how the vision, mission, values, character, and tone work together cohesively. When people grasp how the brand is interconnected, it becomes easier to implement. I designed visuals resembling Viking treasure maps, showing how each part connected. I used imagery relatable to middle school students, such as 3D video game graphics. Finally, I presented the brand as a single sentence to demonstrate its coherence from beginning to end.

The CVMS brand

For every journey to be successful, we must learn together, upholding excellence, acceptance and safety, passionately educating and respecting everyone, being supportive and encouraging along the way.

Brand development

Brand development is only the starting point for achieving a goal. It sets up leaders and staff to begin working together towards a common good. It is the culture that will carry the brand, so as I work with leaders I always encourage them to continually communicate the brand while staying positive in the process. I have learned firsthand that a positive culture with an effective brand will bring incredible growth to all audiences involved.