BEC aims for higher grade with Taxi

Taxi Studio has created a brand identity for Brislington Enterprise College, as the Bristol secondary school moves to challenge its reputation for academic underperformance.

The branding initiative,worth a five-figure fee, is set to launch this week. Taxi won the project, which encompasses internal and external signage, a yet-to-launch website at www.because.org.co.uk and print materials including stationery, a prospectus and a brochure, without a pitch in June.

According to Taxi Studio creative director Spencer Buck, the group was briefed to help eliminate perceptions of the school as being a poor-performing institution.

‘We decided to take drastic measures with the identity, because we didn’t think a logo would do it in this instance,’ he says.

The new-look branding incorporates the acronym BEC into the word ‘because’, to posit statements about the school and education. ‘There’s “because knowledge is power”, “because a little too late is much too late”, and “because if you don’t ask, you’ll never know”,’ Buck says.

‘All these statements are running around the school. We wanted to give BEC an organic branding structure that will evolve with the school, as well as a talking point [for the students]. Hopefully, they’ll put their own spin on it,’ he adds.

Buck and design director Ryan Wills were creative leads on the project.