A new school building might look modern and smart, but to students who walk the corridors every day it can feel rather featureless and uninspiring. Large expanses of plain wall say little about a school’s values or do much to create a sense of belonging.
That’s where transforming your school building will really help. They add character to atriums, libraries and canteens, for example, and create an environment that really sings a school’s ethos.
Harris Falconwood was facing a challenge familiar to many new schools. Built in 2008, the site was sparse in terms of visual interest, so the brief was to add colour and vibrancy throughout the buildings – to inject life into the classroom and corridor spaces, at the same time as reinforcing the school’s values of ‘Serve, Support, Success’.
Kicking off with a Brief
The project kicked off with an online briefing session with Falconwood’s Head of Academy, Tom Street, and Media and Building Aesthetics Manager, Andrew Owen, during which they
Providing a Visual Fee Proposal
After the site visit, we agreed that four areas particularly needed an injection of colour and imagination – the entrance lobby, library, computer suite and canteen. These key communal areas of the school were all felt to be lacking in inspiration but with potential for transformation.
The next step was to create a fully costed proposal that showed recommendations in terms of design theme, signage materials, along with the areas to be covered so everything was transparent from the offset.
Once Falconwood agreed the proposal, our design team got to work creating ideas and options to present back to the school. We wanted to create something visually stunning but which also said something meaningful to students, and added to the learning environment.
“At this initial stage we shared Clerverbox’s signage inspiration guide, which includes photos of other projects to show the types of signs that we could potentially install. After discussing the options and ideas, we felt that it was beneficial for us to visit the school in person to view the areas and discuss the brief in detail.”
Dan Meeks – Client Partnership Manager
The School Values
The school’s powerful values of ‘Serve, Support, Success’ now stand proudly at the entrance, welcoming students, staff and visitors alike. The values also appear again in communal areas, accompanied by memorable geometric design.
The same bright, geometric design brings warmth and colour to otherwise bland, functional stairwells – integrating them with the ‘values’ messaging elsewhere in the school.
The ICT Suite
Before
After
For the ICT suite we created a giant Brazilian rainforest wall wrap – inspired by the idea that, in this technologically intense age, we need to keep in mind our impact on the wider world.
The photography creates a calm, natural feel which balances nicely the more structured and focused technological environment of the lab.
“At Harris Academy Falconwood we really wanted to inspire our students and staff with art work, murals and aesthetics that truly reflect our values of “serve, support, success”. We love the work Cleverbox has done in bringing this concept to life.”
Mr Street – Head of Academy
The Canteen
The canteen, with its vast amount of wall space, was a perfect area to create something memorable. Modern, stylised images of inspiring figures, including Maya Angelou, Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, feature prominently alongside thought-provoking quotes that relate back to the school’s values.
The designs brought the whole area to life in a way that was visually arresting and also educational – since all the historical figures directly related back to Falconwood’s values.
For the canteen we also created informative acrylic discs with ‘fun facts’ about food, nutrition and healthy eating, to reinforce healthy eating habits. This contributed hugely to transforming the school building.
“It was amazing to see all of the design work come together, I found Cleverbox very easy to work with and the creative ideas were amazing. The new graphical displays around our school are stunning and have really brought our buildings to life.”
Andrew Owen – Media & Building Aesthetics
The Library
Before
After
Previously being used as the academy Gym, the area was quickly transformed into the new Library. The creative brief for the library was to show the link between the digital world, literacy and learning.
Our design team created an unmissable new sign running the length of the library’s windows, in which large letters are complemented by a graphic suggesting how literacy helps you take wing and access a whole network of wider opportunities.
If you are looking to update your signage in school, get in touch with the Cleverbox team to see how we might be able to work together.
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