By Jamie M. Dobbs
The Bryant School District adopted a new seal Tuesday, Aug. 3 at a special meeting of the Board of Education. The meeting was called specifically to vote on adopting the new District seal that was being proposed. Jessica Bollen, Communications Director of the District, has been working on producing a new seal for several months now.
“This has been one of my favorite projects thus far and I'm thrilled with the results,” she said.
The District seal was designed to brand the District so that when anyone sees the seal, they will know that Bryant School District is being represented. Branding is how the District plans to communicate their identity with continuity and consistency.[more]
“When people see our seal or mascots, we want them to recognize the publication or advertisement as coming from their District, which is a strong, progressive educational institution that cares about students, their families, and their success in every area of life,” Bollen said.
The idea of revamping the seal came from a Communication Audit conducted by Craig Douglass Communications in the spring of 2008. The results stated that the audit sought "to better determine how the District communicates … both externally and internally.” As a result of the audit, focus groups were formed in the District to brainstorm ideas to better communicate. Among the ideas were updates and reconstruction to the District website and a new seal.
According to Bolin, the branding idea started with the school’s website when the District Technology Department reported that during a normal school day last February, the site logged over 92,000 hits from almost 75,500 individual visitors. This was even more reason for Bollen and the District to improve the District communication with updated information and attractive brandings.
Changes to the seal include taking the District name higher and making it more prominent, moving the motto into a scroll along the bottom and adding a wreath of leaves to the center background. One of the most important changes to the seal is that it is now in a vector graphic form. This form is designed to expand as big as a billboard or shrink down to a business card without losing its clarity and definition.
As for the significance of the seal, each individual design aspect of the seal stands for something of meaning. The traditional Bryant blue color symbolizes the loyalty of the students, staff, community, and alumni to the success of each student and the ongoing prosperity of the schools. The pillars displayed in the middle of the circle stand for strength and character, while the wreath of leaves illustrate growth in knowledge. The two small stars symbolize the pride in the students of yesterday and the hope that is held for the students of tomorrow. Lastly, the scrolling motto, "Motivate, Educate, Challenge", represents the District’s mission for each student in Bryant schools today.
Since the seal has been approved, the District will begin to use it on everything that is produced through its communications office. This will include newsletters, websites and login screens. Next, a set of the seal files will be sent to all school principal and administrative offices for the staff to begin using on all external and internal documents. Eventually, a District manual will be created to explain how the brand and all District symbols are to be used.
“This is no overnight process, of course, but I'm confident that, in time, everyone will take pride in the new symbols and incorporate them easily and consistently. We've already had a great response,” Bollen said.
