Avenues
Logo & Identity System
Made at Mother Design
Creative Director: Matt van Leeuwen
Motion Designer: Yaya Xu
Bodily
Identity & Packaging
Made at Mother Design
with Jess Yan
Since its 2011 inception, Avenues: The World School has challenged the status quo and reimagined education for children 2-18 years old. Over the last 10 years, the school has grown into a globally connected network of campuses from New York, New York to Shenzhen, China, all bound by one shared mission: to develop future world-wise leaders uniquely equipped to understand and solve global-scale problems.
A school redefining the future of education requires a brand to match. Working hand-in-hand with a global team of leaders, we established the following brand truth: that Avenues transcends the ordinary to expand curious minds. And because the private-school category is dominated by seals and crests, navy blues and burgundies, our goal was to bring joy back to premium education and completely reimagine how it could look, feel, and behave in the world.
Our design aims to capture the distinct and vibrant energy within the walls of Avenues while simultaneously signalling its tier-one status. It was inspired by the simplicity and universality of primary colors and basic shapes and instruments, like Froebel Blocks; as from the most basic of elements, all means of expression, collaboration, and progress are possible. We also ensured our system had flexibility, so that each global campus would have the opportunity to express local nuance.
Franklin gives a bold yet welcoming typographic voice to the school, anchoring its communications in a timeless familiarity while allowing the messaging, graphic elements, and photography to shine. The logomark, at first glance, is simplistic, geometric, futuristic: a triangle cut from a circle that denotes the Avenues “A.” At second glance, one will find the “avenue” materialize in the triangular negative space, like a path leading to the horizon through a circle (the globe).
All in all, when a truly global, future-focused institution need not operate within the confines of legacy, its brand—like its students—can rethink possible.
Vanessa Hopkins 2022