Periodically, organizations must reconsider their visual brand identity (that is, the way the organization presents itself through visual materials, including the logo, web site, and so on). This is usually for a few reasons. The first is that how an organization comes to think of itself and know itself tends to change over time, just as it does with one's own personal sense of identity. Typically, the core or essence remains the same, but over time there develops a refined understanding of who we are and how we present ourselves. It's important for the "who we are" and the "how we present ourselves" to align. Additionally, the cultural aesthetic evolves, so that what feels fresh, modern or sophisticated in 1980 feels old and outdated now (until we hit the retro phase, but even then, retro aesthetics are a modern interpretation of an older era). Colors and font preferences change. In other words, the visual cues that evoke certain thoughts and feelings change. It is important for an organization to allow its visual presentation to similarly evolve.

A few years ago, we began a complete strategic evaluation of our "brand"—how we appear visually, how we communicate, what our web site looks like, and so on. As part of this evaluation, we conducted myriad conversations with parents, faculty, students, trustees, prospective parents, alumni, alumni parents, and ourselves to identify what Sonoma Academy really stands for, what it does differently from other schools, what it feels like, what the experience of this education is like, and so on.

In doing that, we began to recognize that our visual identity no longer felt aligned with who we understand ourselves to be today. Similarly, we didn't feel that we were truly conveying what it feels like to be a student, parent or staff member here. So we set about to revise our imagery to align it with those feelings.

The new logo and colors, as well as visual style you are beginning to see (including in this newsletter) represent that.

The logo arose out of a year-long design process that involved members from every arena of our community. We looked for the words and images that best encapsulated what the Sonoma Academy culture and experience is. To that end, the logo, to us, represents a kind of beautiful multiplicity that is also represented within our community. The logo is sophisticated, yet simple; open, yet contained; it takes you inward, yet expands outward; it has a sense of movement and direction; is evocative without being prescriptive; feels both scientific and artistic; conveys a sense of balance and stability, while remaining flexible; it has a sense of community, circles, connection, and is actually directly related to a physical aspect of the campus itself. It is a representation of our central plaza (somewhat obscured at the moment by the construction project). That language, by the way, is not our language, but a compilation of words and associations that various groups of people saw in this particular icon.

And, what about the colors? Many people have asked us if our "school colors" are changing. We always respond, "that depends—what do you think our school colors are?" One of the color issues we sought to resolve with this brand refresh was that our school athletic colors (often thought of as the "school colors") did not align or complement the "brand" colors. So, the athletic colors will not change, though it is possible that over time, we may begin to incorporate a gold/yellow color as a secondary color. The forest green color will remain and has also been incorporated into the "brand" color palette. The logo and primary color we are using with the brand is this golden/yellow color that you see in the logo. Additionally, we have incorporated the complementary colors of forest green, rust red and slate gray. All of the colors we are utilizing with the brand are colors that relate to or reflect the physical space around us.

We hope that you are enjoying the change and that you will continue to be patient as we update all of our materials--you may expect this process to be complete over the next couple of months.