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Note from Head of School Dr. Ari M. Betof
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Dear BUA Community,
We are thrilled to share Boston University Academy’s updated branding – including logo, motto, and tagline – with you today! I want to thank everyone who worked to bring this to fruition, including: Elisha Meyer, BUA’s Associate Director of Institutional Advancement for Marketing and Communications, for capably leading this project; Assistant Head of School for Institutional Advancement Katie Kozin ‘00; Boston University’s Office of Marketing and Communications, for their guidance; all the students, faculty, parents, alumni, and Advisory Board members who provided invaluable feedback and input into this process; and the team at the marketing firm Corey McPherson Nash.
It was an exciting challenge to evolve our brand to reflect the dynamic school we are today. My mandate to the group was not simple. We wanted to emphasize our affiliation with BU, but still retain our independence; to be aspirational, but also to be accurate; to be contemporary, but not trendy; to be witty, but not snarky; and to be intellectual without being snobby. The adjectives we chose to incorporate into our brand personality – “smart,” “straightforward,” “informal,” “warm,” and “approachable” – reflect how we think of ourselves as a school.
We want BUA to be a serious academic institution that does not take itself too seriously; a school that lifts up and affirms the joyful pursuit of knowledge that all BUA students share. We embarked upon this rebranding effort so that the image we project to our community and to the broader public conveys the vibrancy of being a high school on an urban campus and all that is exceptional about Boston University Academy.
Schools do not change their motto lightly and without serious forethought and reflection. Brands evolve over time, but mottos are intended to have a much longer arc, and to span generations of students. A school should only revise its motto if the motto is no longer serving the school well – which, in our case, it wasn’t. Applicants to BUA loved the aspirational sense of our motto – Nil Doctis Arduum, or “Nothing Daunts a Scholar.” But many current students and alumni objected to that phrase on the grounds that they did, at times, feel daunted. As one student wrote in a fall 2014 article for BU Academy Press, “We should be allowed to admit apprehension. We should be allowed to admit that we are not all, in fact, undaunted.”
Moving away from our original motto will be disappointing for some in our community: we acknowledge and respect that. But now, in BUA’s milestone 25th year, it is right and appropriate that we evolve our motto and brand to better represent the school we are today and the school we aspire to be in the future: intellectually passionate, inclusive, rigorous, friendly, and supportive.
We believe our new logo, motto, and tagline accomplish this well. Moreover, they help us to leverage the identity of Boston University while still allowing us to maintain our own identity as an independent school.
Read on to discover BUA’s new logo, motto, and tagline, and to learn a bit about the process behind our rebranding effort: I hope you’ll be pleased as I am with the results!
Best,
Dr. Ari M. Betof
Head of School
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Dear BUA Community,
I am proud and excited to introduce you to the new BUA brand!
The history of the BUA brand is somewhat murky. Our crest’s provenance was unclear. Our motto, “Nothing Daunts a Scholar,” was beloved by some but left others feeling deflated. “Nothing Daunts a Scholar” was also deployed as our de facto tagline, although a motto and tagline serve distinct purposes.
We felt we needed a logo that visually represented our relationship to Boston University, and yet set us apart. We wanted a motto that was descriptive and ambitious; that represented the core values of our school; and that stood the test of time. And we wanted a separate tagline that communicated, in six words or fewer, exactly what BUA is, and what differentiates us from peer schools within our market.
Over the course of eight months, a core team of BUA staff and administrators, working with the firm Corey McPherson Nash and in close collaboration with BU’s Office of Marketing and Communications, reviewed dozens of iterations of logos, pored over pages of proposed verbiage, and made many rounds of revisions.
The new logo, tagline, and motto encapsulate the spirit, purpose, and singularity of BUA, and define our relationship with Boston University as closely affiliated but still autonomous.
Our new logo is:
Our logo is comprised of two elements: the monogram (the red graphic “BUA”), and the logotype (the black text). The monogram symbolizes the relationship between BUA and Boston University as both integrated and distinct. The upward sloping edge of the solid shape symbolizes the dynamic spirit of BUA. The color is “BU Red.” The font is Whitney Black, which is BU’s signature font.
Our new motto is: Learning Without Limits
This motto expresses the essence of our school in a short phrase that is both aspirational and authentic.
And our tagline is: High School with a College Education
The tagline communicates BUA’s key point of differentiation from our peer schools in a single, succinct phrase. It also says what we are – a high school – which is still a point of confusion in the marketplace, and reinforces our brand position as the only high school in New England that is part of a major research university.
The rollout of the new brand starts today and will continue over the course of the academic year. You will begin to see our new branding on school communications, forms, handouts, BUA apparel, and everywhere else it appears. We’re excited to launch a new and improved website later this month – stay tuned for an announcement about the launch before Winter Break!
If you are so inclined to flaunt your BUA pride, please stop by the front desk next week to pick up a new car magnet – our gift to you! Newly-branded BUA apparel and gear, including hoodies, long- and short-sleeve T-shirts, hats, totes, fleece blankets, and more, are now available in our online school store – just in time for the holidays!
Best,
Elisha Meyer
Associate Director of Institutional Advancement for Marketing and Communications
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