Striking Brilliance

GLOWING FORWARD AND UNVEILING THE NEXT ERA FOR ARCHER

Words and Layout by Design Bridge and Partners

For over 25 years, Archer has been focused on creating a stellar educational experience for girls, observing the outside world’s demands on girls and leaders to design and evolve its curriculum, process, and space to offer its students an opportunity unlike any other.

A key tenet of Archer’s story to date has been the promise of “Ambitious. Joyful. Archer.”—a defining and unifying mantra for Archer students, parents, teachers, and leadership, these words have served as a reminder on welcome folders and in the hallways of what the school values and nurtures in its students.

While joy and ambition will forever be true about Archer, there was an opportunity to evolve Archer’s narrative in a way that amplifies its unique capacity to demonstrate the way that joy fuels ambition— which further fuels joy—and how this balancing act creates a “glow” that can be better expressed and expanded upon as we tell the world beyond the gates of the school who Archer truly is.

On an unusually gloomy Monday in February, our team drove up Sunset Boulevard to begin our immersion into all things Archer. Los Angeles began to feel brighter the moment we stepped foot on campus and experienced the Archer glow we’d heard so much about.

We were there to absorb the lore—facilitate conversations with students, teachers, and staff, take tours, observe classrooms and school events, explore truths about Archer and education with current and prospective parents—and to uncover the most unique, ownable, and relevant parts of Archer to amplify in its marketing, communications, events, and other ways of bringing the brand to life. Our job was to lay the critical foundation for their next 25 years of growth by getting to the heart of what it is that girls, their families, and the greater world gain because of Archer and to codify the inherent nature of Archer in a way that it can be seen as it truly is: a school in a category of one.

While distinction and relevance are crucial to future-proofing the Archer brand, it’s just as important that we honor the core of Archer by breathing new life into the most captivating elements of its founding legacy rather than replacing them with arbitrary ideas or aesthetics. In the moment that three mothers came together to build a school for their girls unlike any other, they found inspiration in the story of Artemis as a fierce protector of girls:

"A classical scholar described an event several thousand years old; young girls sent into the woods to build their own shelters, forage for food, and study history, poetry, and dance. No one would harm them, for they were under the aegis of the goddess. She who had various titles, including the Protector of Girls, the Archer." -Dr. Diana Meehan

In this story, we found fresh fodder for Archer’s strategy and visual expression—a modern and compelling way to carry forward this classical legacy, giving it a colorful, charismatic, and contemporary edge.

Archer, like Artemis, creates a safe, intentional space that gives girls the protection and the social, emotional, and intellectual capacities they need to push their limits and feel prepared to live in empowered and vibrant ways when venturing out of Archer’s aegis into the greater world.

In Archer’s aegis, we saw parents beam with pride and joy as they described how their daughters have developed unshakeable confidence in themselves and an assured sense of agency over their decisions, sharing amazement at the way their girls take charge of their schedules, making the most of the free time Archer’s learning structure provides them and carving out time for passions, friends, service, sports, and more to supplement their studies.

Teachers clued us in on the way Archer’s leadership empowers them to take ownership over their curriculum and design their process, classrooms, and content in ways that yield deeper learning for students in the classroom, freeing them to invest in self-driven exploration and pursue other ambitions outside of class.

We debriefed with the administration about the leading-edge presentation they’d given at a recent education conference, and the insights top of mind for them as they reflect on what is working well and what could work even better for the girls. They shared that this research-driven mindset is core to the way leadership and teachers view education, and it’s what enables them to design the most enriching and engaging curriculum for their students.

The students invited us into their classrooms, shared their projects, showed us the vibrance of their friendships and school spirit, and articulated some of their hopes and dreams. They told us about how much their teachers mean to them, explaining how teachers’ guidance through their mentorship groups have helped them navigate the challenges of growing up and made them feel seen, heard, and supported alongside their peers, expressing their gratitude for the sisterhood they’ve built with their friends at school.

Underlying these observations, and countless others, is the fact that Archer is unlike any other school and therefore shouldn’t look or sound like any other school. So, we built it a brand story and identity that communicates how Archer cultivates rare and invaluable balance and synergy between joy and ambition, traditional and progressive education, the art of being a trusted cushion and an inspiring catalyst for students. A brand that looks classical at first glance, then reveals vibrancy and modernity. Like Archer’s curriculum and approach, the brand system is iterative and individualized, and can change and grow alongside the school and its students. And grounding it all in Archer’s heritage is The Archer— a representative of the student body— alongside a constellation of icons that represent the goals and the opportunities that lie ahead for Archer girls. We see clearly inside Archer’s gates that brilliance looks different for every Archer student, but they share a common aim, a common ambition to become authors of their own excellence confidently aimed at the future they each want for themselves.

Building on the intent of its origin, The Archer School for Girls is determined to perpetually, iteratively, intentionally create the space and conditions that nurture the fearless inquiry, compassion, and resilience girls need to pursue their brilliance. And it’s this— Striking Brilliance—that Archer is so uniquely equipped to unearth in its students and give them the tools to uncover.