Waterford Educate Together National School
Giving a values-led school the clarity, confidence and consistency to show up like the thoughtful, ambitious community it already was.
Sector:
Type of Organisation:
Deliverables:
Education
Primary school
Refined identity, logo development, brand guide, templates, enrolment campaign assets, social assets.
Timeline:
Collaboration:
2024
Waterford Educate Together National School, nmcDesign
A more coherent school identity that improved consistency, supported enrolment communications and gave the wider community something to rally around.
Waterford Educate Together already had a strong ethos. The school stood for inclusion, respect, diversity and innovation, and that sense of purpose was not in question. What was missing was a clear visual system that could carry those values confidently across communications, enrolment materials and everyday school life. This was not a school looking for decoration. It was a community looking for alignment, and there is a world of difference between the two.
The issue was bigger than the logo. The school needed an identity that the board could support, staff could use, parents could recognise and the wider community could connect with. It had to feel distinctive without becoming exclusive, and warm without becoming vague. If the system stayed inconsistent, the school would keep underselling what made it different and doing itself no favours in the process.
The project shifted from improving appearance to building trust through consistency. Rather than treating the logo as the finished job, we focused on creating a practical identity system that could support enrolment, communications and day-to-day use. The most important decision was to make the school’s values legible through design rather than simply naming them.
We explored routes that either reworked the existing equity or leaned more heavily into the idea of “togetherness” as a central device. Some options offered continuity but lacked distinction. Others felt visually fresh but risked drifting away from the school’s existing character. The strongest direction balanced both: recognisable enough to carry existing trust, refined enough to signal confidence and progress.
The final identity refined the logo, clarified typography and strengthened the overall visual language. At the centre of the mark are four children gathered around a table, representing the school’s four pillars and its culture of shared learning. Crucially, they are not identical or overly symmetrical, which helps the identity express individuality within togetherness. Clearer type, stronger structure and a brighter, more consistent palette helped the brand work across printed materials, signage, social media and school communications. It feels less like a one-off logo and more like a proper school identity.
The system was built for use in the real world. That meant templates, social assets, enrolment materials and practical guidance alongside the core identity. The rollout had to work for leadership, school staff and future campaigns without relying on specialist design support every time something needed to be made.
Waterford Educate Together now presents itself with far greater clarity. The board backed the work, the enrolment campaign had a stronger platform to stand on, and the school gained a more unified way to show up in the world. The real win is not just visual consistency. It is that the school now looks as considered, welcoming and ambitious as it actually is.