Freedom to Choose Schools (Choose Schools) champions greater access to quality school options for families across the country, with a particular focus on Black and Latino communities. But after half decade of growth, the organization found that their original name — Freedom Coalition for Charter Schools — and visual identity no longer captured their full mission. Choose Schools engaged Additive to help create a more expressive name and visual identity.
Key Deliverables
First, our team led strategic conversations with key stakeholders to align on challenges and goals for a potential new name and visual system. While Choose Schools hoped to retain the recognition they’d earned to date, they sought a more energizing name that could be shortened without an acronym. Most importantly, they wanted their evolved name and identity to better reflect their full mission: supporting access to all quality school options, not just charters.
The logo and visual identity had to be user-friendly and easy to apply across print and digital contexts. It was also important for Choose Schools to establish a distinctive presence among partners and peers, with the ability to flex across a tonal range from passionate to professional.
With this strategy in mind, Additive presented a naming point-of-view, assessing the opportunities and considerations that came with retaining, evolving and reimagining their name. Once the new name — Freedom to Choose Schools — was finalized, Additive brought it to life in the visual identity.
We designed visual directions that exude the energy and dynamic spirit of Choose Schools’ work elevating voices and expanding choices. That looked like logo options and graphic elements that convey upward momentum, as well as bold approaches to typography, invigorating color palettes and more.
Choose Schools used their new core identity to expand their digital visibility and partnerships. They have seen improvements in SEO performance and increased audience engagement, with their newsletter consistently averaging a 40% open rate. The rebrand also gave Choose Schools clarity — stakeholders better understand that their mission centers on expanding access, amplifying community voices and ensuring families have meaningful choices in education.
