Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 Understands the Mission: Design to Build Trust Through Recognition
Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 (FFC8) is located in Colorado near the Fort Carson military post and serves just over 8,000 military families and students. While the district is honored to reflect the military community in its boundaries, the constant mobility of families and staff challenges building trust, developing relationships, and retaining high-quality staff. FFC8 and CEL worked together to develop lasting strategies, build brand awareness and lay the foundation for relationships across the country.
Branding Beyond the Logo
Many people in the community have an affinity or affiliation with the U.S. military and are familiar with its branding, vocabulary, and values. Therefore, FFC8 and CEL wanted to build an association and trust by incorporating certain military brand elements within the current brand. The brand enhancement was accomplished by using camouflage patterns and texture in the color palette to appeal to the community.
The mountain element of the FFC8 brand was also made more prominent and the focal point of designs for the website, events and marketing campaigns. Complementary graphics helped to have programs and resources throughout the district stand out in a memorable way, from Safe in FFC8 t-shirts to electric bus decals and an education guide sure to inspire interest in the district.
"Working with the CEL team feels like you are simply adding capability and bandwidth in-house! They work hard to understand your needs, goals, demographics, and desired outcomes. They are a true partner in every sense of the word. Everyone on the team, from account management to design to copywriting truly gets me and my district and they produce high-quality, award-winning work that showcases that. CEL makes work effortless and fun!"
~CHRISTY MCGEE, APR
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Designing Event Awareness
One such event is the annual Community 5K charity run with students, families, and staff. The event – which provides an opportunity for the district to engage with families and positively impact the community – was also an opportunity to showcase some of its new brand elements by creating a new Foster the Future Community 5K logo from CEL. The logo featured a hand-drawn font created solely for the event and incorporated the existing mountain element into the design, giving the mountains a more prominent placement. Those features within the outline of a footprint, along with the pops of color, grabbed attention.
The Foster the Future Community 5K event brand was used on various materials in conjunction with the FFC8 brand to ensure a vibrant and cohesive identity. Materials included:
• Tshirts
• Decals
• Stickers
• Posters
• Banners
• Digital advertisements
• Social media graphics
Today’s Mission: Love Your Job
Facing nationwide staffing shortages and a highly mobile military community, Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8 (FFC8) sought to compete for high-quality employees in a competitive environment. They understood their community and the importance of resonating with the hearts and minds of potential employees, which is why they chose to work with CEL to create the career recruitment campaign, ‘Today’s Mission: Love Your Job’’. The campaign also challenged potential employees only to apply if they were ready to accept the mission — a challenge familiar to many military affiliates.
The campaign exceeded expectations by receiving an NSPRA Award for Publications & Digital Media, a COSPRA Award of Excellence for Marketing Materials and helped to fill positions that were otherwise struggling to find qualified, excited candidates who have now accepted the mission of Loving the Job!
