LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Over 30 years ago, my husband and I spent months trying to think up a name for our daughter and I can distinctly remember the many conversations, debates and worry and wondering that went into this process – Would she look like her name? Should she have a family name? What will people call her for short? What will her name make people think of? And on and on! We settled on a name that means ‘life’ and the name of a person I admired. We wanted her to have a powerful name, a confident name and a name that reminded us of our brilliant and passionate friend.
Cow Hollow School, my second daughter (my third is my dog Talullah – whose name I spent nearly as much time coming up with!), was named by the women that founded Cow Hollow School, IN the Cow Hollow neighborhood in 2000. The school, at the time, was nested in and attended by the people who lived mostly in the neighborhood of Cow Hollow.
When we moved into the Presidio in 2005, we did not change our name, for fear that our identity would change along with that, but did change our logo to the beautiful, majestic, local cypress tree that was planted outside of our new school and the cypress trees that surrounded our main entrance. Interestingly enough, our new location, our new logo, only amplified our mission, our vision and our values. Simultaneously, not changing our name or our programming at the time, also kept us tied to an image of a neighborhood we were no longer in and an identity as a part day school.
About 4 years ago, while deeply immersed in our Strategic Plan, we outlined the barriers to diversity. Along with our small building and part day programming, we listed our school name as a barrier to our diversity goals.
And now here we are, over a year into our new home and even more deeply rooted in the Presidio and our full day/full year programming. We’ve ensured that the same underlying principles continue to guide us, while realizing our dream of welcoming more families from throughout San Francisco and expanding our programming. We feel confident that the magic of CHS will continue to be felt and are ready to have a name that wonderfully reflects our history while reaching towards to our future.
I LOVE our new name and new look and am so thankful to the team that spent countless hours mulling over meaning, identity, and our mission to land on a name that feels so US!
Darcy Campbell
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
LETTER FROM THE MARKETING COMMITTEE
In October, Ellen Keith Shaw from Means for Making (also the Brand Strategist and Designer behind our Opening Doors campaign!) facilitated a Branding Strategy and Naming workshop at the school – an opportunity to consider in unison the perspectives of administration, teachers, parents, and Board members around this important moment of change in the school’s 20-plus year history. Following the workshop, several themes emerged for the school’s new name and tagline, where we hoped to incorporate:
- A deep connection to nature
- A place to gather and the importance of community
- Early childhood education thought leadership and master faculty
- Recognition of the growth that happens for children in their time at school
Taking all of this into account, as the form of the brand took shape we found ourselves returning to our (literal) roots. Following the strategic sessions we aligned on the name Cypress School of San Francisco, with the tagline “Growing in Wonder, Rooted in Community.”
The symbolism of the Cypress tree – which has been part of our school’s visual mark since our move to the Presidio in 2005 – resonated strongly with our committee. Trees are symbols of strength, individuality, and expression, calmness, growth, and the interconnectedness of everything. Cypress trees in particular carry a gravitas that encourages us to see the natural transitions within the cycle of life, both firmly rooted and always branching towards the sky.
After selecting our new name, we moved into the development of our brand system. Below is the logo we are excited to share with you today.
HORIZONTAL LOGO
VERTICAL LOGO
The graphic nature of our tree-like symbol represents scaffolding and community. It’s a strong structure/foundation upon which we are helping to nurture each of the kids who come through our school.
Within the circular structure, the stacking and emerging shapes represent tree branches that are also connected to growth.
The negative space that the branches create and simple shapes echo our young students and the shapes they play with in the classroom to build on their understanding of the world around them.
The constellation of shapes and colors in both the logo and the iconography designed to accompany it also reminds us of the fact that people from many different places make a community complete.
Our color palette is inspired by the nature and joy inherent in childhood. It was designed to feel warm and welcoming while simultaneously communicating the exuberance of our community.
Being a school rooted in nature, the greens represent the earth and the foundation upon which our kids grow at school. As a nod to our long history, the lighter green from our original palette holds space for our previous Cow Hollow School logo. The orange and yellow represent life and growth along with new beginnings. Finally, the blue represents the open sky and possibilities.
Seeing is believing – and we hope the following examples help reveal the beauty and spirit of our new Cypress School brand
Over the course of the next few months we will be rolling out the new brand with the official change over date of December 20th, a process that begins today with you.
While our name is changing, our spirit remains the same. We hope you are as excited as we are for this next evolution of our school.
To great things,
Gaby Snyder
Liz Faralli
