We were delighted to be invited to The Campion School in response to our Graphics for Schools campaign. The Campion School in Hornchurch is a Roman Catholic boys school which was built and opened in 1962. As with many schools built in this era, the building was part of a nationwide expansion programme and was designed with low ceilings and over several floors. The school graphics were part of their exciting brand refresh pioneered by their new Headteacher. A new website was already well underway and the Governors and Teachers had been working hard to establish the School’s Values, Vision and Mission. As part of this project they had also developed a suite of School Virtues, encouraging students, through loving compassionate action, to become agents for social justice in society. This was a great platform on which to design our new school graphics.
We often find that many School Logos and branding have not been created using design software. Sometimes they’re designed in a Windows Office package or perhaps a student has drawn it as part of a competition. This format is unsuitable for high-definition printing or large graphics for schools. Our studio team can redraw old school logos in a vector format that can be used in large format graphics. This was the case for The Campion School. The logo was supplied as a vector format but wasn’t suitable for large format use, when it would be viewed at close range. Once redrawn, we supplied the updated design back to the school for them to use in the future, ensuring all school graphics were consistent and the best quality. The Campion School logo is a blazon featuring several distinct features. It is extremely important that all the components in the Coat of Arms are replicated in an accurate way. Elements within a coat of arms have historical relevance, even the colour or position can have a symbolic meaning.
The foundation of our design was the Seven Virtues that the school had chosen. We designed a graphics toolkit that paired the Virtues with some of the strong image resource provided. These virtue and image ‘lockups’ were designed to be flexible and versatile for most spaces such as stairwells, corridors and classrooms. Our in-house design team created a stylistic icon for each Virtue in the form of a Saint alongside a quote or verse. We developed a colour palette and style that closely followed the website design and offered longevity for future graphics for the school.
Another important part of the design was the entrance hallway. This space was home to some impressive historical displays including an honours list of previous school captains, several statues and many sporting trophies. Overlooking this space and greeting every visitor was a large curved wall. A small framed picture of the School’s namesake, Edmund Campion was displayed. We thought this space needed a little more wow-factor and wanted to really celebrate this important figure in the Roman Catholic faith. A full floor-to-ceiling graphic now greats every student alongside a short description of his life and martyrdom.
The Campion School’s dining hall was a fantastic space with high ceilings and a large bulkhead with yellowing foam tiles. The wall area was a great opportunity to promote the School’s virtues for all the students to see everyday. Our clever FabriGrab system is a fabric wall covering that is fitted over the top of existing wall surfaces. Poor quality surfaces and walls that need remedial work can be simply hidden with this tensioned fabric wall graphic. This system provided a cost-effective solution with maximum wow-factor. Our professional installation team fitted the fabric around the tricky pipework to deliver a fabulous finish.
This was possibly the largest space and has seen to most transformation. The Campion School use the Sports Hall for sporting events, PE lessons and also a school-wide Mass Service. A multi-use space such as this required some smart thinking. This area was already preparing for a fresh lick of paint, so we assisted the Facilites Manager in choosing a warm neutral grey that would complement the new school wall graphics. The graphics toolkit we had developed was again incorporated, using the lockup design and three large pennant flag shapes with the school’s Vision and Mission. The pennant shapes were printed to our high-tack wall vinyl. This design now provides an impressive feature wall and centre piece for school-based church services. On the opposite wall is a huge Tension PVC with a custom printed graphics of the school’s cross-country event. PVC is a great solution for this massive 12metre wide wall. It is hard-wearing, long-lasting, damp-resistant and the system covered the wall behind with lots of old pipes and wiring.
We always try to schedule our graphics for schools outside of term time or the regular school week. It keeps disruption to a minimum and gives us better access to walls and windows. As with The Campion School, we coordinated our team with their wonderful Facilities Manager who arranged for walls to be prepped and ready for our arrival during the six weeks holidays. We installed all the graphics in four days with a team of three professional fitters. The height of many of the wall graphics required specialist access equipment, particularly for the stairwell wall mural.
If you’d like us to design graphics for your school we’d love to hear from you. We can arrange a site survey of the space and design to your brief.
Call one of our team today on 01332 613 900 or email ideas@mxdisplay.co.uk
P LARNER – HEAD TEACHER