Pigeon Mountain Primary School

Pigeon Mountain Primary School is a full primary in the East Auckland suburb of Pigeon Mountain, serving a diverse and growing community being strongly embedded into the community.

The principal came to me through a connection built at another school. Phebe had been deputy principal at Cockle Bay School, where we had worked together on a full rebrand and new website. When she took on the role at Pigeon Mountain, she asked me to pitch for this project and I was very happy to take on this challenge.

The school she inherited had no real visual identity to speak of. The logo showed a pigeon, which most people associated with city pigeons rather than the native wood pigeon, the kererū, that the school's name actually refers to. There were various visual elements in use but nothing that worked together as a coherent identity. The brief was to change that and set a signal to the community a change towards a bright future of the school.

The colour scheme came from an unexpected moment. The afternoon we agreed to work together, I went for a walk in the regional park nearby and came across two herons sitting in the pūriri trees, completely unbothered by my presence. I photographed them, and those images, and the colours of that environment, became the foundation of the new identity. Sometimes the work finds you.

Part of the website development was a dedicated photoshoot to bring it to life. A second shoot followed about six months later, this time focused on Pigeon Mountain as a location for international students, showing the area, the community, the experience of being there. By then the school had already changed. The students were confident, in uniform, proud. It was lovely to see how quickly a school can lift when it starts to see itself clearly.

Visual Identity · Website · Photography · International Marketing