Challenge & Opportunity

Telling the story of a school – and its diverse community – through an updated brand identity.

Designed by the community, for the community, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) is a public charter school serving the south Seattle community. While the school originally opened as part of the Green Dot Charter Schools network, after several years they began to branch away from Green Dot to become a different type of charter school that could better serve their community.

Focused on providing an anti-racist, collaborative, and rigorous education to prepare students for leadership in college and beyond, the school needed an updated brand and visual identity that was truly reflective – and celebratory – of their mission, and their neighborhood’s energy, vibrancy, and diversity.

Solutions & Outcomes

Celebrating the community and leading the way through an exemplary mission – and branding and messaging to match.

Formative worked with RVLA and their partners to design an updated website, brand identity, and collateral that could help attract both current and prospective families in RVLA’s neighborhood to enroll. Our work began by providing a guiding vision for the RVLA team through sample collateral and a website mock-up to help determine messaging and the updated brand. Next, we developed messaging pillars and iconography that were reflective of the energy and vibrancy of the broader community, the historic building RVLA is housed in, and that promoted RVLA’s objective of being an inclusive, tuition-free charter school open to all scholars. We then created an updated brand guide, logo, and typography – including a panther logo that was a subtle reference to RVLA’s mascot.

After solidifying RVLA’s updated brand and messaging, it was time to create collateral to distribute throughout the neighborhood and encourage prospective families to enroll for the upcoming schoolyear – and design and develop a website to match. Our design team led the way to create and launch a new website, user experience, and print collateral – including banners, business cards, mailers, door hangers, posters, brochures, and more – to be used moving forward for enrollment, promotion, and school spirit. The privilege of working with RVLA is one example of Formative’s focus on education – and working with teachers, schools, educational boards, and others to advance K-12 initiatives throughout the United States.