Helping to Launch a Wellbeing Movement for Well Schools

Children’s physical, social, and emotional wellbeing is in decline. To address this, Well Schools aim to put wellbeing at the heart of every school.

Working to a fixed deadline of the upcoming 20/21 academic year, we kicked off with a discovery workshop and delivered their full brand identity, guidelines, and suite of assets in just 4 weeks.

Rather than looking at the logo in isolation, we explored the brand holistically and proposed two clear directions; Calm: focusing on ideas around wellbeing and clarity of mind, and Energy: embracing the sport and activity heritage of YST. We presented both options to the client before selecting the energy route. Multiple approaches were then developed around this core theme, which we shared through mood boards.

For the project to be a success, it was important to ensure the brand appealed to the diverse Well Schools audience.

Students: Young people are now among the loneliest in society, with 1 in 3 having a diagnosable mental health condition. The most affected are boys, BAME, disabled students, and those from poor or underprivileged backgrounds.

Teachers:During the past 2 years, over half of education professionals have considered leaving their job due to stress and other related factors. This negativity has a ripple effect on students.

Senior Education Figures: Head Teachers and heads of departments are key decision-makers within schools. They can help to create real change and make a difference to both young minds and their staff.

A key consideration of the project was ensuring that the Well Schools identity sits comfortably alongside its parent brand. For this reason, we adopted the YST fonts. Avenir Next allows Well Schools and Youth Sport Trust to share a voice. A bright, vibrant colour palette was chosen, inspired by the YST core colours but exaggerating their tone. Together, these elements made for a natural evolution from a brand recognition perspective.

Confident and positive photography was chosen to represent the spirit of Well Schools and reinforce the brand's message. Models engage with the viewer through direct eye contact. From young boys to senior female leaders, we chose photography that resonates with all 3 audience groups.

Well Schools are built upon 3 pillars; Well Led, Well Prepared, Well Equipped. Iconography has been developed to represent each one, all with strong ties to education. A Grid texture was also introduced; a nod to students’ workbooks, and to a connected network of people, peers, and schools. Key messages were housed in playful speech bubbles.

We delivered a brand toolkit and a clear guidelines document, empowering the YST in-house design team to create their own marketing collateral going forward. To support the team further, we produced artwork style-setters such as posters, brochures, and billboards.

This project is still fairly new – check back in a couple of months to see some impressive stats!