Exploring school branding through a cultural lens.
Branding + Mascot Development
Local Silver ADDY 2022
THE MISSION:
To design a culturally inclusive brand and mascot for the new dual immersion bilingual school coming to Oklahoma City, Western Gateway Elementary.
THE OUTCOME:
A cheerful and welcoming Oso (bear) that helps students explore various cultures and travel within their school walls.
WHO
Western Gateway Elementary is a new dual immersion school opening in Fall 2021 in the heart of Oklahoma City. The new school will provide half of its curriculum in Spanish and the other half in English, giving its students a fully immersed environment to learn both languages and from multiple cultures.
THE PROBLEM
Western Gateway's school district encompasses a wide variety of socio-economic statuses, languages, and cultures. When designing the brand for Western Gateway we wanted to be thoughtful of all these parents who would potentially send their children to Western Gateway and wanted them all to feel welcome and comfortable voicing opinions, concerns, and thoughts in the continued growth of the school and area. Western Gateway approached Nuevo Studio with these concerns first hand and showcased a need for the mascot to be a symbol that every parent and student could get behind without feeling left out.
HOW
Thinking back to our travels and our time in school we realized that students will have an opportunity to travel and explore other cultures without leaving the safety of their school building. Being exposed to various cultures at a young age we gave Western Gateway a visual identity that focused on exploring. Exploring cultures, languages, as well as studies. The mark represents a compass, noting the school as a place for exploratory direction. The three points at the top of the compass make the "W" of Western Gateway.
When thinking of the mascot, the Western Gateway team knew that their location was where the first Oklahoma City Zoo had been in the early 1900's. They wanted a strong animal, like the bear, to represent their school. Nuevo Studio created El Oso as their mascot yet we made him very colorful and approachable. Taking inspiration from the colors and the geometric design that can be found in the school’s architecture, we developed El Oso.
IMPACT
Color is found easily amongst hispanic cultures as well as this geometric usage. We took inspiration from various cultures and created a modern take on colors and graphics to make this school feel vibrant and like a true creative hub for the whole community to enjoy and for children to come and learn to love seeking out knowledge and understanding of various cultures, languages, and fields of study. Western Gateway will be opening in the Fall of 2021.
