Firebrand creates ‘feminine’ eagle marque for Bedford independent girls’ school

June 10, 2010

Article from Design Week

Ipswich-based group Firebrand Creative has created an identity for the new Bedford Girls’ School.

The independent Bedford Girls’ School is launching in September, and is being formed from a merger between Bedford High School for Girls and Dame Alice Harpur School.

Firebrand was appointed to the work around three months ago after being brought on to a six way creative pitch at a late stage, according to the consultancy’s creative director Stefan Musgrove.

Musgrove says an eagle had been stipulated by the client as part of the identity. The eagle is used in the coat of arms for the borough of Bedford, as well as in the identity for the Bedford High School for Girls’. Musgrove says, ‘It was the thread of logic that linked everything together’.

Musgrove says the other short listed consultancies had presented ‘quite masculine eagles’, while Firebrand took inspiration from a tapestry style to create a more feminine identity.

Musgrove says the new brand ‘had to look like a completely new identity, and be sympathetic to the identities of the previous schools’.

The new identity will start to come into use ahead of the launch of the new school in September. Firebrand is working on an ‘aspiration’ document for the school, and will also work on advertising, guidelines and an interim website, says Musgrove.

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