ASCD Rebrand

ASCD is a membership-based education nonprofit that boasts over 100,000 members. ASCD exists to support and elevate educators from the moment they decide to pursue education as a profession, to the moment they retire (and beyond), and they’ve been doing this for 80 years! With a legacy like that, it’s no wonder that they have become one of the most trusted brands in professional development.

Moving into the post-pandemic future of education, ASCD identified a clear need to update its brand to reinvigorate its stature in the market. With this in mind, we set out to co-create a new brand identity system with the guidance of Appnovation.

A new direction

Before moving forward with logo design, we spent three months experimenting with messaging, color, typography, and imagery to find a tone that matched our brand. This wasn’t easy to do, however, because our audience ranges from college students to college professors; new teachers and teachers on the brink of retirement; administrative personnel and board of education staff; emerging leaders and authors. How do we embody that audience while also addressing the growing pains of the education system in the face of a pandemic?

Logo exploration

During the logo exploration process, I was intent on finding a logo mark solution that helped to describe who or what ASCD was. Formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ASCD dropped the words behind the acronym decades ago because they evolved into an organization whose work went beyond supervision and curriculum development. Was there a way for us to create a logo mark that could help describe who ASCD was at a glance?

The ASCD of the 2020s is a passionate community of life-changing educators. They are empowered to be equity and instructional warriors who transform vision into practice, working side by side with all educators in 50 states and more than 200 countries. Today’s ASCD provides professional learning services that allow educators to chart their own learning journey so that they and their students can flourish.

In these sketches, you will see me exploring ways of showing two entities coming together to support each other. You will see attempts at using hand-written letterforms to allude to approachability, personalization, and passion.

The new ASCD logo now includes an apple logo mark. The apple is a universal symbol that represents knowledge and education. This logo mark doubles as a stylized depiction of the letter ‘a,’ meaning alpha, beginning, first—all of which apply to ASCD’s role in their members’ lives. Design-wise, the new logo mark is split up into varying geometric shapes that form a support system and are a subtle allusion to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Above the support system is a leaf, which symbolizes growth. We use dual shades of green and red as yet another nod to the duality that is ASCD and the educator.

A new brand is born

Launching the new ASCD meant that every product, platform, and piece of collateral needed an update, including: Educational Leadership (EL)—ASCD’s award-winning magazine; our website, complete with award-winning UX design; our letterhead, business cards, catalogs, emails, swag, and comprehensive new branding guidelines.

Narrative illustration

ASCD rarely has the budget to commission new illustration, so when we were brainstorming a campaign to launch the new brand, I knew immediately that illustration was the best way to go. This exquisitely illustrated campaign depicts our members as a community of passionate thinkers with ASCD at the center. In our community, educators come together around a shared vision to amplify their voices and become equity and instructional warriors. ASCD provides guidance, support and an entry point into new areas of learning and exploration.