“Ambitious, Joyful Learning” — a signature phrase spoken at school assemblies, events and quoted frequently in lighthearted banter between students. From the iconic purple and green polos to the square logo, The Archer School for Girls had a consistent trademark since 2010 — until now.

Archer rolled out their new branding Sept. 6. Prior to that date, the administration informed the student body that they were making changes to Archer’s branding, including their logo, tagline and website.

Director of Communications and Strategic Marketing Rachel Uriarte said when she first started working at Archer, it came to her attention that the school would benefit from being rebranded. A significant adjustment was Archer’s tagline, “Ambitious, Joyful,” which later changed to “Striking Brilliance.”

“The ‘Ambitious, Joyful’ was our tagline. The notion of joy in the students’ setting and school space had been co-opted by other schools,” Uriarte said. “Other schools that once never said, ‘We’re a joyful place,’ started using the word joy because that’s what students and parents were looking for on top of it being academically rigorous.” 

Uriarte said the main goal for rebranding Archer was to give the school a stronger sense of identity. She said it was a priority to ensure others outside of the community had an accurate perception of Archer’s core values. 

“The benefit of being a younger school is that you still have the opportunity to define yourself, and people don’t have perceived notions,” Uriarte said. “People said they just had ‘heard of Archer,’ but what do we want them to hear?” 

Archer’s administration collaborated with Design Bridge and Partners on ideas for the rebrand, as well as conducted focus group discussions with students and faculty on their opinions about Archer’s rebranding, before the rollout and after. The rebranding process started in the summer of 2022, and students were involved later that school year to discuss changes to the archer.org website, merchandise and uniform. The Archer website and merchandise have already been changed to fit Archer’s new brand, but the redesign of the uniforms is still in progress. 

The Uniform Redesign Focus Group committee met after learning more about the rebrand to weigh in on what the new uniform should look like. Archer’s administration created this group after the rebrand was announced. Freshman Pasha Selig is a member of the Uniform Redesign Focus Group and said she finds it important that the school takes student voices into consideration when designing new uniforms. 

“I really wanted to share my opinion because I think rebranding is a really big deal with Archer, especially because we’re bringing in a lot more students, and I want to be able to help others feel comfortable in their uniform,” Selig said. “I really want to be a part of this committee to show what I believe and what I feel.”

Uriarte expressed the importance of keeping the community informed on what changes were being made as well as opening a space for them to give feedback. She said this process of giving information and receiving feedback was crucial to the rebranding process. 

“Our current sets of visual identity and how we talk about ourselves came from what was informed from [focus groups],” Uriarte said. “Everything that students, teachers, faculty and staff talked to us about informed how we moved forward.” 

Sophomore Finley Vincent participated in the initial general rebranding focus group. They said discussing Archer’s messaging and outside perception was eye-opening.

“I feel like before the focus group, I wasn’t really focused on [Archer’s branding], but thanks to the focus group, it definitely brought it to light, and I realized how important our branding is,” Vincent said.

Archer publicly announced their rebrand via social media, sending newsletters and putting up billboards in Los Angeles and in Times Square in Manhattan, New York. The decision to advertise Archer in New York with this billboard caused some controversy among students.

Uriarte said the purpose of the Times Square billboard was to pay homage to Archer’s alumni network in New York.

“The alumni are an important part of our community,” Uriarte said. “Once you graduate, you’re still an Archer girl.”

Uriarte said a key aspect of Archer’s new brand was applying feedback given from those outside of the Archer community in addition to those at Archer by asking how those viewed what student life was like. Another important factor was building an identity to further highlight Archer’s academics.

Vincent said they think the rebrand should have focused more on students currently enrolled at Archer, rather than prospective families or other people outside of the community.

“I feel like the rebranding doesn’t really affect students — it more affects others’ point of views of Archer, ” Vincent said. “I feel like we could’ve focused more on bettering the experience of people currently at Archer.”

Instead of focusing on one main logo, Archer’s rebranding now includes five different logos, including the Archer herself. The “A” in the Archer logo represents an arrowhead, which is a nod to Archer’s original Artemis theme. The other four logos are a palm tree, a fountain, a Maypole and Archer’s unofficial mascot, Alfie the dog. Uriarte said those five logos can be used differently but all share a purpose.

“These [are the] gravitational elements,” Uriarte said. “These are the five elements that we are at our core.” 

Vincent said the focus groups are a testament to Archer’s commitment to providing opportunities for student feedback. They said they were grateful to have her perspective included in the rebranding.

“I’m super grateful to be a part of the focus group. It feels so great to have a lot of things I’d said in the focus group to be represented in the new rebranding,” Vincent said. “It shows that Archer really cares about students’ input.”

Uriarte said although Archer’s rebranding is still a work in progress, the administration is confident the rollout demonstrates the new message Archer is trying to convey to its students and observers. She said she hopes the rebranding will inspire Archer students to take new risks. 

“We teach girls really well. We educate girls really well, but the modern approach is that we’re not afraid to take risks,” Uriarte said. “We encourage our girls to take risks, and we’re always reinventing, trying to get better and progressing forward.”