NLSD Adapts New Logo

After hearing positive feedback from the community, Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) has updated its logo. The new 20th Anniversary logo will be adapted across the Division and it won’t cost as much as the public may think, assures Nicole Garner, Communications Officer for NLSD.

“There was a lot of concern, especially from the public survey, on the cost of making the change,” Garner says the Board reviewed different strategies on how to keep costs low and update NLSD’s look. “For instance, one of the things we talked about was, we’re going to do this over a period of years. We’re not going to change the logo on certain things, until those items are in need of replacement, anyway.”

For example, NLSD has vehicles with logos on the doors. Instead of changing over the logo right away, the Board has decided to wait until the life of the vehicle is up and when new vehicles are purchased, the new logo will be put on the door. Or the big digital billboards in each community, there’s a wooden sign on top of the digital sign with the old logo, the Division will not change those logos until the sign is in need of replacement.

NLSD will start the process of changing over the logo immediately, with letterhead and digital imagery. Over the summer and into the new school year the Division will work on switching out a lot of the old logos for new ones.

The new logo was designed by a student in Lac La Biche, Tanisha Happner, whom graduated from J.A. Williams High School last year. Tanisha won a $250 prize for the design, which she in turn donated back to Grade 1 students at Vera Walsh Elementary in the form of a pizza party for the youngsters.

In the same survey, parents, staff and community members were asked what their thoughts were on adding the word “public” to the Northern Lights brand. Feedback was not overly positive on this, due to cost, explains Garner. “The Board looked at the cost and if they wanted to change the name and completely change the domain names, was a lot higher than just changing the logo.” Garner says the Board was given an estimate of $300,000 for a change over. “That was not an option that the Board really wanted to entertain.”

“The whole intent was to find a way to make it more clear that we are the public school division and our schools are the public schools.” Garner says that the Board has given direction to help people connect NLSD with being the public system, “whenever possible, we’re going to use the word ‘public’, whenever we’re marketing ourselves so people can make that link. But, we’re not going to go through any kind of name change or anything formal.”