Dan O’Leary

Crofton House School Athletics

Established in 1898, Crofton House School is a private independent day school for girls from junior kindergarten to grade 12. Set on a beautiful ten-acre campus on the west side of Vancouver, Crofton House is an inclusive, nurturing community of dedicated teachers, involved parents, and enthusiastic students. Their ethos is reflected in their mission statement: “We educate girls for life.”

We were engaged to create a new identity for Crofton House Athletics, to be used primarily for the school’s teams competing in local and provincial leagues and competitions but also to identify and directly link them to the school’s athletics department. Up to this point, the CHS competing teams had a name (the Cougars), but no real ‘identity’ and visible recognition for the students to rally-around and inspire passion and strong support. Our strategic positioning ‘Sister at Your Side’ provided the opportunity to break convention; the resulting name, ‘Crofton House Brave’, intentionally avoids using an animal as a symbol or mascot. The girls are the ‘Brave’, like warriors going into contest for the school, themselves and one another. This enables CHS to be different, to set a new tone of empowerment without reliance on tired animal symbolism and to take a lead in the school athletics community.

(Note: original name and concept work shown here were unused in the final execution.)

Project collaboration with Spencer & Bloom.