Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies School
Rebranding Resource Material for Parent Volunteers & External Vendors
October, 2019

Our brand is the outward representation of who we are as a school community. It visually and verbally represents what we do and how we act.

It is one of the most important assets we have.

In January of 2019, in partnership with Chicago branding and advertising agency 88 Brand Partners, Peirce began the process of assessing the health of the school brand and explore the ways that we could strengthen both the verbal and visual aspects of how we are represented. Following a proven and tailored Workflow, 88 led the new branding initiative that was launched in the spring at the school’s annual Move-A-Thon event. Details regarding this Workflow is available in a document prepared by 88 Brand Partners, called Peirce Branding Workflow Process.pdf.

Before any pen was put to paper, 88 met with over 150 stakeholders representing school administration, staff, students and parents. Through a series of discussions and exercises, groups explored where the Peirce brand was today and how it could evolve in the future. The findings from this exploratory phase were synthesized in a document prepared by 88 Brand Partners, called the Peirce POV.pdf.

After the discussion and approval to continue to the development of the Brand Strategy and Identity, 88 worked to develop concepts that were presented and refined. Understanding the importance of the logo to the overall brand, the decision was made to bring the concepts to the student population for a vote. On April 26, 2019, each classroom reviewed the logo options and students voted for their favorite logo. This process and survey results were outlined in a document prepared by 88 Brand Partners, called Peirce Logo Selection Process & Survey Results.pdf.

Upon review of the student votes, the brand was approved by school administration and parent organization leadership, and was launched on May 17, 2019, at Peirce’s Move-A-Thon.

The launch of a new brand was only the beginning. Now our challenge is to roll out the brand to all stakeholders responsible for representing the school in both written and verbal communications. To ensure that our brand remains consistent at all times and in all places, we have developed this site and the downloadable Peirce Brand Guidelines v2.pdf as reference tools for you to use. The Brand Guidelines document contains rules for the execution of all brand expression and identity. Additionally, we have provided you with key brand elements, including high-resolution logo files, to be used in all Peirce related communications. Should additional elements be needed, there is information provided below on how that material can be developed for your needs.

We invite you to take some time to learn about the new brand and to utilize these new elements in a way that helps us to ensure that the Peirce brand will always be uniformly represented, regardless of who has developed the communications.

For any questions or issues related to this material, please contact Michael McGuire at (312) 664-2500 or at mmcguire@88brandpartners.com.