Powerful School Logo & Brand Design for Harlington Upper School.
The new brand identity we designed for Harlington Upper School,showcases their traditional approach to how they operate but also how innovative and forward-thinking they are.
The brand rationale and story was guided by our creative concept.
The Balance of Sophistication.
We initially dissected our notes and creative brief from our Discovery Call session to ensure we approached the creative process correctly.
The existing Harlington Upper School logo and strapline no longer represent who they were and the students did not relate to or know what it meant.
The Core of Harlington
Harlington Upper School believes that every child can succeed in school if challenged and inspired appropriately. They provide a strong academic curriculum alongside outstanding personal development and extra-curricular provision to ensure Harlington students develop as individuals with the necessary skills to be successful in adult life.
There’s great pride in their traditional values and approach to how they operate but also the innovative and forward-thinking attitude to how technology can be utilised throughout their curriculum and school environment, traditional yet contemporary.
We had to approach the brand identity in the same way; it has to have the classic styling of a grammar school but with the delivery of contemporary design.
Classically Contemporary
A grammar school would usually use some form of a shield or crest to show that traditional style of education that provides a level of sophistication and prestige.
Shields and crests within a brand identity communicate stability, protection, longevity, tradition, boldness, confidence and authority.
This would provide us with that classic element to showcase the traditional side of Harlington Upper School, but the delivery would need to be executed in a contemporary fashion to align with the other side, the forward-thinking and innovative attitude to how technology can be utilised. The thought of pixels and defragmentation of the logo would do this quite cleverly.
Brand Overview.
Traditional
The shield delivers the side of Harlington Upper School that is traditional in its values and how they operate, but we have designed it in a more contemporary fashion.
Contemporary
The brand identity is contemporary in having the contents within the shield breaking through it like the aspirations provided to each student, not contained within it.
The pixelation and defragmentation of the H not only provide that forward-thinking and innovative attitude to how technology can be utilised within the curriculum and school environment, but it is also very suggestive that each pixel is a student guided by Harlington (pixels are formulated at the same angle as the H) and is all aligned to the same vision and values.
The colour palette showcases the diverse and multicultural community of Harlington.
Strapline & Pyramid
Creating ambitious, altruistic and accountable leaders
The newly developed strapline encompasses the three As provided to us on our Discovery Call and really pushes the overall core message of Harlington that they are ‘Creating ambitious, altruistic and accountable leaders of tomorrow.
We have also paid tribute to The Pyramid Schools Trust name with the use of the pyramid at the bottom of the brand mark.


Swipe to Unearth the Remarkable.
Feedback from Harlington Upper School.
“Just shared this with the senior team – we love it. Thank you to Dean and to you.”
Deputy Headteacher at Harlington Upper School