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British School of Zanzibar

A new logo, slogan and brand guide for an international school.

Client

British School of Zanzibar

Sector

Education

Year

2019

Scope

Education rebrand, studio selection, board alignment, review control, brand guide and templates

British School of Zanzibar logo in white on red beside a smiling pupil in red

The British School of Zanzibar is an international nursery and primary school. Its identity needed to reflect the school more clearly for parents, leadership, staff and everyday communication.

The challenge

  • Replace a legacy symbol without losing the local community’s trust.
  • Align the Board of Directors on a refreshed slogan.
  • Turn the directors’ intentions into a clear brief for an external studio.
  • Stop the brand wearing down in daily school use.
  • Make the final assets simple enough for non-creative staff to use correctly.

My approach

  • Made the case for change, won leadership support and set the quality standards.
  • Researched and vetted several studios, then chose Yöy Agency as the partner.
  • Ran a session with the directors on positioning, strengths, gaps and plans for growth.
  • Wrote the creative inputs: reference brands, type preferences and visual expectations.
  • Managed the review rounds until the system became usable school assets.

Old badge, new logo

The change from the smiling-sun badge to the new logo, with meaning built in so every choice is easy to explain and repeat.

  • The previous badge and the new primary logo.
  • The slogan and the values, aligned.
  • What each part means: sun, book, waves and child.
Former British School of Zanzibar badge, a smiling cartoon sunflower with an Excellence in Education ribbon
British School of Zanzibar logo in white on red beside navy geometric shapes
British School of Zanzibar full-colour logo with a yellow sun, open book and blue waves
British School of Zanzibar symbol with the sun highlighted in yellow, labelled Sun
British School of Zanzibar symbol with the open book highlighted in navy, labelled Book
British School of Zanzibar symbol with the waves highlighted in teal, labelled Waves
British School of Zanzibar symbol with the sun and book in red, labelled Child

The guide

The technical standards that protect the new identity, from the school’s brand guide.

  • The values and vision pages.
  • The core and secondary colour palettes.
  • The typography standards.
British School of Zanzibar values spread with four black and white photos and value headings
British School of Zanzibar slogan page, a child in a graduation cap receiving a certificate
British School of Zanzibar brand book divider, 02 Colour Palette, with a girl reading
British School of Zanzibar core palette of midnight blue, fire brick red, gold and white
British School of Zanzibar secondary palette of six colours from warm grey to sunset orange
British School of Zanzibar brand book divider, 03 Typography, with a boy playing a string game
British School of Zanzibar fonts page showing Hurme Geometric Sans, Calibri and Lora
British School of Zanzibar font use example with headings, a pull quote and body text

In use

The system applied to the school’s everyday assets.

  • The letterhead.
  • Business cards.
  • The email signature.
British School of Zanzibar letterhead with the logo and a navy patterned footer
British School of Zanzibar business cards, white front with logo and navy back, on grey stone
British School of Zanzibar email signature, logo and navy contact panel, in a new email window

The result

Staff received a logo, a guide and templates they could use from the first day.

  • A logo with meaningSun, book, waves and child combine into a mark the school can explain.
  • A new sloganTransforming Through Education, agreed with the board and in use.
  • A guide that protects the brandThe brand guide keeps the identity consistent and reduces subjective use.
  • Templates for daily useLetterhead, business cards and the email signature, ready to use.
Smiling pupils in red school polo shirts, with the British School of Zanzibar logo

“The brand finally matches the school we have become. What helped most was having someone guide us through each stage so our decisions made sense. The final files are incredibly practical for our team to use every day.”

Director, British School of Zanzibar

Planning something like British School of Zanzibar?

Email me if your school or institution needs clearer rebrand direction and review control. I reply by email or WhatsApp.

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Editorial and publications direction

Hi, I'm Alan.

This site is my portfolio of art direction and creative project management. Today my main service is bespoke website design. Read the quick answers below, or tell me about your project on WhatsApp.

Quick answers

Bespoke website design is my main service today. I also take on:

  • Art direction for brand identity, logo, photo shoot and campaign projects
  • Creative project management, from the first brief to the final files
  • Care and updates for websites that are already live

A website planned and designed for your business only. We agree who it is for and what visitors should do, then every page is designed around your own words, photos and brand. Nothing is cut or cropped to fit a ready-made theme.

Every website is priced after a short brief, and I reply with your price within two business days. See the websites at alansuccess.com.

I set the look before anything is made: the references, the colours, the type and how the photos should feel. I direct brand identity and logo projects, photo shoots and campaigns. I write the brief, choose the designers and photographers, and review their work until you sign off.

For the Rivertrees festive season, I set the Emerald Green theme and directed the shoot with Sky Studios. See the project.

I turn your ideas into one clear brief, choose the right studio or designer, and run every review until sign-off. The work can be a rebrand, a brand rollout across menus, signs and documents, or marketing materials such as brochures, posters, ads and social media content.

You deal with one person, so you don’t have to follow every detail yourself. For Lairs Camps, I wrote the brief for Yöy Agency and managed the work through to handover. See the project.

Planet Lodges, ADINA Lodges, Good Earth Tours, the British School of Zanzibar, Nomad Tanzania, Rivertrees Country Inn, Lairs Camps, Love Boo and Seissense.

See every project

Yes, including websites someone else built:

  • A redesign, or new versions of the pages that are not working
  • Tunza Website Care every month
  • A paid website review: a written list of what to fix first
  • Copy polish, or new copy for your pages
  • An email signature, a Google Business Profile, analytics or an email signup

Send me the link and what you need, and I confirm the price before we start.

Tunza Website Care, each month: about 30 minutes of small changes, updates with a backup first, a security check, a test message through your form, broken links fixed and a visitor report from Google.

Bigger changes are quoted. You can stop with a month’s notice.

Every website is priced after a short brief, because the price depends on your pages, your content and where your business is.

Art direction and creative project management are quoted after I read your brief, because each project is a different size. Your budget sets the scope, and your written quote confirms the price and dates before anything is booked.

In Tanzania. I work with brands across East Africa and with clients in the UK, Europe, Dubai and the USA. Every meeting is online, on WhatsApp, Zoom or Google Meet, so we don’t need to meet in person.

Send me a WhatsApp with what you need, your budget and your date, or use the form here. For a website, you can also send your brief at alansuccess.com, and I reply with your price within two business days.

I take on a few projects at a time, so the sooner you write, the more start dates you can choose from.

WhatsApp me your project

Prefer a form? Send your project here.