Expeditionary Learning partners with schools, districts and charter boards to open new schools and transform existing ones. Faced with ever-increasing competition for grants along with the business decision to become an independent organization, Thinkso completely redesigned the EL brand identity. A nod to the company’s origins as a collaboration between Outward Bound and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the new symbol represents a forward-pointing signpost, with a bold new color — crimson.
Principals and administrators received a launch package that included a school flag, in the shape of the EL signpost symbol, to telegraph their school’s affiliation with Expeditionary Learning.
Facility signage was installed at EL offices in New York City and Amherst, MA.
A new website spoke to prospective schools and districts, parents, policy makers, and the media about the company’s work in education reform. It included a secure section where members of its network could collaborate on projects; tap into existing resources and documentation; and share teaching tools and ideas.
To emphasize EL’s dedication to experiential learning, we introduced a high quality, and well-branded, field journal that became a signature item of the organization.
We designed an announcement modeled after a school newspaper—printed on recycled paper—featuring EL’s central promise that teachers could hang in their classrooms.
Intensive, focused learning projects—or “expeditions”—are a key part of Expeditionary Learning’s curriculum, so we designed a system of brochures to showcase them. Each brochure takes a deep dive into one student expedition, giving interested parties an in-depth view of how the program works and insight into the kind of work students undertake.
Reports quantify and summarize Expeditionary Learning’s impact on student achievement and strengthen the school’s marketing efforts.
We developed a simple but effective image brochure to outline the organization’s strengths to parents and prospective member schools alike. The brochure used notable quotes from parents and policy makers—including US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama.