Identity Re-Design: Sunriver Preparatory School

Back in 1997, while doing work for the TriAd advertising agency my sister owned at the time, I was asked to re-design the identity of the Sunriver Preparatory School outside of Bend, OR. The previous identity (below left), made up of fairly abstract calligraphic letterforms, really didn't say much about the prep school itself.

The "grocery list" of possible items to be included in the new logo included the nearby geographic landmarks of the Three Sisters Mountains, the ski slopes of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top mountain and the Deschutes River. I was also asked to work in a reference to the school's wolf mascot if possible.

Once the graphic representation of the five mountains was created, it seemed natural to incorporate the river imagery as an "S" letter shape flowing through the design and to add the wolf silhouette viewing the scenery from atop a hill.

Although not a huge fan of the now over-used font Papyrus, the type seemed to work very well, over a decade ago, with the illustration style I had made use of in the logo design. However, I did smooth out the rough letterforms a bit to make them text seem a little less "bumpy."

The Sunriver Preparatory School logo received an American Corporate Identity 16 Award and, as a result, was published in the book American Corporate Identity 2001 (HBI, USA, 2000). It is also included in The New Big Book of Logos (HBI, USA, 2000) and Logo World (P.I.E. Books, Japan, 2001).

(Note: My book, Identity Crisis!: 50 Redesigns That Transformed Stale Identities Into Successful Brands, contains case studies from 35 designers and firms located around the world. Learn more about the book on the Identity Crisis! blog.)

© 2008 Jeff Fisher LogoMotives