OPRF suspends rebranding effort after backlash

District 200 officials announced last week that they’re ditching a comprehensive effort to overhaul the high school’s brand. 

The rebranding process would have resulted in a school logo, an athletics logo, and a brand standards guide to ensure that Oak Park and River Forest High School’s branding material is used consistently.

In a July 30 email statement, D200 Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams stated that while “we still believe consistency needs to be brought to our visual identity, controversy over the project would simply be too much of a distraction from our primary focus: ensuring excellence and equity for all students.”

In a board presentation on May 14, Karin Sullivan, the district’s executive director of communications and community relations, and Jackie McGoey, the district’s communications specialist, said not since OPRF’s crest was designed by a manual arts teacher in 1908 has the district attempted to create a streamlined, identifiable and contemporary brand.

As Wednesday Journal previously reported, an informal survey administered by the district found that 91 percent of students and staff surveyed could not identify all of the elements on OPRF’s crest.

In May, Sullivan and McGoey said there are at least a “dozen other visuals randomly used by stakeholders on school communications. Without brand guidelines in place to inform the use of those disparate symbols, “the school is missing a huge opportunity to quickly and consistently communicate the OPRF identity and promise to stakeholders,” they explained. 

Much of the negative public reaction to the rebranding effort seemed to center on century-old staples of OPRF identity — including the iconic crest and the motto.  

In her July 30 statement, Pruitt-Adams explained in bold font that “it was never our intention to eliminate the crest that has been a symbol of OPRF pride for 110 years, the school colors, the Huskie mascot, or the motto ‘Those Things That Are Best.'” 

 The superintendent said stakeholder input “was first and foundational in our process,” and had planned to “hold multiple focus groups and a community-wide survey to gather input from faculty, staff, parents, alumni, community members and, most importantly, our students.” 

The district had planned on hiring Naperville-based Sikich Marketing and Design at a cost of $24,676 to conduct the focus groups and administer an online survey. The rebranding project would have taken approximately five months to finish, with the rollout of the new brand coming in early 2020, officials said in May. 

Pruitt-Adams said the district wanted to find out whether or not current OPRF students “see themselves and their stories adequately represented in the visual elements that symbolize OPRF. We really don’t know, and we wanted to listen deeply to find out.” 

But change, the superintendent added, “is hard and clearly we have hit a tender spot. As a result, we will not be proceeding with the branding project.” 

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com