Upwards
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Launched this past September, Up For School is call to action "on behalf of 58 million children currently excluded from school because they are child labourers, married too young, discriminated against because they are girls, exploited or living in war-torn regions where their schools are under attack." It's an initiative spearheaded by A World at School, an organization established by UN Special Envoy for Global Education Sarah Brown in 2013 working to get all children into school and learning. To help create this message that "no governments, no politicians or leaders can ignore", A World at School worked with The Partners to launch #UpForSchool with a new identity.
First came the name: Up for School. Chosen for its affirmative, positive connotations, which fitted with the proactive, passionate ethos of Sarah Brown's charities, its simplicity also meant that it could be easily used in a variety of contexts as a call to action (e.g. 'Stand Up for School', 'Rise Up for School', 'Sign Up for School'.)
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Initiative explanation.Following on from the name, The Partners devised a vibrant, colourful, bold brand identity, inspired by the colour of children's schoolbooks. The identity is focused around an illustration of a schoolbook in the shape of an upward arrow to support the forceful personality of the movement. The campaign launched in New York on 22 September with a youth rally in Washington Square Park, and saw The Partners' work rolled out across a film, T-shirts, badges, stickers, posters and banners all used to inspire and motivate the 500 youth ambassadors in 100 countries who will take the petition around the globe.
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It would be fairly easy to rhapsodize extensively about this logo but its smart simplicity doesn't warrant over-thinking it: it's an open book laying upside down to form the shape of an upwards arrow. It's clever, appropriate, and graphically strong. It's the kind of visual connection that seems so obvious once someone points it out but so elusive when you are the one trying to look for it. Such a simple solution, so cleanly executed.
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In application there isn't much to see and, well, this isn't the kind of expansive identity that would need hundreds of applications. (I'm actually kind of glad we were spared the prototype images of the logo on a tote bag or that recurring billboard against the red building of an ad most organizations can't afford to place.) The logo simply gets big or small depending on whether it's on a button or t-shirt — both of which I'd totally sport — and a lot of ITC Lubalin Graph for the messaging. Nothing more, nothing less… all riding on the very precise logo that points the only way forward: Up.
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