Heathfield School is a dynamic, exclusive boarding and day school for girls aged 11-18. Set in stunning grounds in Ascot, Berkshire, with outstanding facilities, they needed their identity to reflect this. After conceptualising and completing the design for the ‘Girls First’ marketing campaign it became increasingly apparent that their logo had not had an appropriate level of thought and skill that it deserved; to ensure its versatility and reflect the heritage and importance of the school.
The original shield of the logo appeared clumsy in construction, lacking finesse and grace. To kick-off the logo development, topright suggested a change in wording to help it work at smaller sizes and redrew the school shield in its entirety. Appropriate weight keylines, altered proportions, smoother outer-most points and the introduction of a white border ensured clarity when used on different backgrounds. The shield now works better as an elegant and simple version of what had been before. The logotype was appropriately proportioned and spaced alongside the shield in landscape and square variations of the combined logo. Each logotype and shield has two states of use (on a dark or white background). The shield can also be used on its own.
To accompany the many file formats required for every eventuality, topright produced a simple guide to help users apply the logo correctly and effectively. When producing new logo artworks for any business, a deep understanding of print processes and screen technology are required to ensure that the files supplied work and display correctly. Understanding how RGB and CMYK files will be used and if spot colours translate well into these breakdowns is key. Understanding file types and resolutions, knowing the difference between rasterised and vector files, ensuring that overprints are appropriately set on the artwork are essential. A curveball thrown by Adobe to add to the mix is that different applications within Adobe Creative Suite have different colour breakdowns for Pantone spot colours. In total this ‘light touch’ logo development culminated in the supply of twenty logo artwork files, to ensure unity and conformity of the new logo. This logo development, although small by comparison to many other completed by topright, has the same design preparation principles bestowed upon it that a major re-brand would have.
The logo is now being used on all new collateral and marketing material going forward.
A project such as this, really does amplify the phrase we use a lot here in the studio – ‘small changes – big difference!’. Sometimes it’s hard for everyone to see these small changes but they certainly can be ‘felt’ by all. Seeing the need for small changes and being compelled to implement them is what drives a designer. The devil is in the detail!