The Mastery School of Hawken is on a mission to be a new kind of high school—one built around mastery not grades. The education model favors creative, transferable, deep learning—an environment where students can build their own path around their unique passions and interests.

To reflect their individuality, we built a bold brand that instantly set them apart from other educators and represented their mission and beliefs. By using the vibrant colors from the Hawken School brand book and adding hand drawn elements, we were able to create consistency with the parent brand while ensuring the school has its own unique stamp.

Part of the collaboration with the Mastery School was building a new website that would act as an information hub for parents and students alike. And so, it needed to effortlessly balance fun and creativity with trust.

We took the concept of a red thread (a common theme), and created interactive animations using augmented reality to allow the user to build images as they scroll. It reflects the school’s narrative—that each student weaves their own thread when choosing their own journey.

The motif is also an extension of the logo, an ‘m’ handwritten by the educator and visionary, James Hawken, back in the 1920s. It seemed a fitting tribute as the Mastery School is inspired by a school Hawken established—one that rejected the assembly line of teaching in favor of a more personal approach.

The Mastery School opened for its first intake in 2020-21, with our branding helping to tell the school’s story and catch parents and students’ attention in the lead-up to the sign-up process.