The 2025 Chronicle

THE BRAND EVOLUTION

Written by Michael Cook (Farfield, 1994)

ect and discovered much during the research phase. As you know, Michaelhouse was founded in 1896 by a pas sionate young clergyman, James Cameron Todd. But what you may not know is that this was the height of the Arts and Crafts movement, a design movement influenced by medieval art, Gothic Revival architecture and a belief in the value of crafts manship, beauty and functionality in everyday life. William Mor ris was the design legend of the time, and his home, Red House (built in 1859), must have had a significant influence on Todd’s vision for the school. (Google it when you have a chance and be astounded by the similarities!) The original adorned logo from the early 20th century was clear ly inspired by that era. The evolution to the scales crest as the primary identity is less clear and, as often happens, somewhat haphazard. The “updates” were not well documented, and the arm and scales went through a number of changes – and it was only in 2007 that the wordmark “Michaelhouse” was added, in Times New Roman, nogal !

STAYING TRUE TO THE OLD WHILE EMBRACING THE NEW. Some projects you were born to do. For me, this is one of them. In 2024 we were commissioned by Murray Witherspoon and Nicky Kidgell from Michaelhouse’s marketing department to evolve the school’s identity for a digital world and implement a visual identity system (VIS) for the first time in the school’s history. No pressure! For those who don’t know, I’m the son of Michaelhouse teach ers and grew up on the school estate – mostly barefoot and with a ball in hand. Today, I lead a brand and integrated mar keting agency.

My team and I threw ourselves into this once-in-a-lifetime proj

A brief summary of our logo evolution

New Logo (Est. 2024-2025)

Scan the QR Code to watch our logo evolution

For our evolution we made a conscious decision to follow the principles of Modernism – the very philosophy that the Arts and Crafts movement helped usher in. Modernism distils forms down to their essential elements in pursuit of timelessness. That was our hope, too. The power of simplicity remains a timeless strategy for Michael house’s brand differentiation and recognition. We simplified the detail in the scales for better digital readability and sharper embroidery. We also balanced the scrollwork using established design principles.

For the wordmark we selected and modified a typeface called Or pheus to make it unique. Like Times New Roman, the typeface of the old wordmark, it’s a serif. But the new version has greater geo metric clarity, thicker weight and sharper angles that hold better in digital formats, while still retaining the character of the original.

One thing that will never change is the motto: Quis ut Deus.

I believe Todd chose the name Michael and his eternal war cry – “Who is like the Lord?” – not only out of deep reverence for Jesus Christ, but also as a call to form well-rounded men in the

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