For the last 19 years, Stratford Hall has provided students in the Lower Mainland with world-class university preparatory and IB education. When leaders from the school approached us, they knew they needed an updated brand identity to better reflect the school and its goal to be a global leader in the International Baccalaureate community.
Stratford Hall hired Red Rocket Creative Strategies to refresh the school’s identity, establish a graphic standard and then apply the new identity to a number of marketing and collateral materials, including a prospectus, street signage, internal documentation, and a fundraising video.
Stratford Hall emphasizes multilingual ability with a global perspective, and its IB diploma is recognized by universities worldwide. The school’s leaders wanted the significance of these offerings to come through via a bolder and more substantial identity, and also resonate with children of any school age. Following our investigations with management, our creative team went to work.
- Branding
- Brand Strategy
- Design
Stratford Hall’s new brand identity expresses the school’s growth, success, confidence, and continual evolution.
Its bold new colour palette is in sync with Stratford Hall’s red, blue and yellow buildings, and provides appropriate weighting to the school’s name and IB World School positioning statement.
The new colours also represent four elements that underpin the school’s work and values:
- Blue = wisdom
- Red = courage
- Teal = protection
- Yellow = intelligence
The crest within the logo mark represents Stratford Hall’s original identity. The book symbolizes knowledge and pays homage to Stratford-upon-Avon, the place of Shakespeare’s birth.
We also introduced a new logo element—the four-squared window pane. This element symbolizes three distinct and important ideas:
- An invitation to look inside:
Stratford Hall has long been known for its approachability. - A source of fresh air:
An open window is a fitting analogy for Stratford’s pluralistic school culture. The window also provides an allusion to their outdoor experiential education program—one of the many things that make a Stratford Hall education unique. - A source of light:
Perhaps most importantly, the window is a source of light—the same light that lives in the eyes of Stratford Hall’s students and teachers every day. Light is eternally positive and represents the power of the positive: knowledge over ignorance, love versus hate, good conquering evil, and progress outpacing stagnation.
The Stratford Hall Prospectus is a key tool in helping the school attract and recruit students.
We designed the Prospectus to demonstrate what is unique about the school’s curriculum, culture, staff, buildings and location in order to differentiate it from other IB schools, and attract the families that can benefit the most from what it offers.
The Prospectus is full of engaging photography of happy students and staff in their element, living up to their full potential, and participating in the activities they love. Testimonials from current students, parents, and staff offer a view of what it’s like to attend the school.
Stratford Hall is located in the heart of the vibrant, multicultural community of East Vancouver. Positioned on busy Commercial Drive, the school wanted signage that reminded drivers that there is a school in the vicinity and to watch out for kids crossing the street.
Red Rocket used the opportunity to accomplish not only that, but to also demonstrate the creative and transdisciplinary nature of Stratford Hall’s program. Artistic brush strokes frame the phrase “WATCH FOR KIDS” in different languages and at a second glance, the silhouette of a child becomes apparent.
Stratford Hall is a private school funded through tuition. In addition to tuition, the school depends on fundraising donations from parents and families in order to provide top-tier education in every category. But the need for fundraising wasn’t always understood by parents, many of whom felt that their tuition should cover everything.
So Stratford Hall needed a video that would better communicate the importance of donations to families, and how they directly correlate to higher quality education and outcomes.
The goal of the video was to promote fundraising efforts for the Stratford Annual Fund. We structured it like an ‘explainer video’, so we could convey complex ideas through illustration.
The video features consistent use of Stratford’s brand colours throughout and an illustration style and script that is whimsical, light-hearted, and playful.
“After two decades in marketing, I can say with confidence that Red Rocket has proven to be an exceedingly rare combination of creative, collaborative and responsive.”
Samantha Gayfer
Director of Advancement and Communications,
Stratford Hall IB World School
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