A new logo has been chosen to represent what will become Midtown High School on June 1.

After reviewing three final logo designs, principal Dr. Betsy Bockman sent a letter to the Grady community on May 4, communicating the thought process behind the decision of the final design. 

“After reviewing these concepts with hundreds of individuals, it was clear that there were pros and cons associated with each,” Dr. Bockman said. “However, one concept was elevated to be the strongest based on several important criteria. The logo chosen is  (1) distinctive (2) functional in a variety of different formats and configurations (3) recognizable and (4) flexible to work well with different parts of the school.”

The visual rebrand was led by a team of community members, marketing professionals and students who have been working to develop a new logo since January. After conducting listening sessions with stakeholders, and through the development of a creative brief, the team was able to land on a new academic and athletic logo. 

Karri Hobson-Pape, a volunteer and marketing professional who has been working on the visual identity rebrand, said she thinks the new rebrand will allow the school to stand out. 

“I hope the new visual identity system will help the school remain distinct, within the broader Atlanta and Georgia marketplace, but also nationally, as students are looking at employers and universities across the country,” Hobson-Pape said. 

The academic logo was created with the idea of expressing “centrality,” a concept that emerged through the listening sessions. Senior Beyonce McCarary, who was involved assisting with the design of the new logo through her AP art class, believes the academic logo accurately represents this theme. 

“Midtown is about centrality; it’s about coming together and really like the crossing of paths,” McCarary said. “We were trying to bring attention to that aspect because Midtown is of course in the center of Atlanta. That big ‘X’ in the middle of the ‘M’ is supposed to symbolize that centrality [and] how we’re kind of in the center of things and all the communities that we’re a part of.” 

However, even with the new changes, the advisory team decided to keep the Knight as the school’s mascot and red and grey as the school’s colors.

Hobson-Pape said that getting students involved was one of her main goals going into the logo design process.

“I was incredibly impressed with how engaged the Grady High School community has been,” Hobson-Pape said. “It has been wonderful to see how many students have been involved in this process to learn what’s involved, and that learning will only continue as it’s rolled out with the trademark program and licensing program and continued development of the brand guidelines.”

Junior Becca Bates joined one of the final student listening sessions in April and gave her opinion on the final designs. Being on the Varsity soccer team, Bates wanted to make sure the athletic logo made her feel proud and represented Midtown High well.  

“If it’s something I’m going to have to wear to practices and games throughout the whole season, I would like to feel confident wearing it,” Bates said. “I like how it actually shows a knight and represents us. I feel like the logo showing the knight uplifts and motivates us,” she said.

Dr. Bockman scheduled Zoom training sessions for community members to explain guidelines for logo usage. She expressed the importance of using the exact files when replicating the logos and released a public Google Drive that contains all acceptable variations of each logo. The training sessions will also explain how to navigate the Google Drive.

Hobson-Pape stressed the importance of maintaining uniformity within the various academic and athletic departments through these pre-designed logos.

“A big part of the process was listening closely to all of the various needs, and I believe that this concept will be very flexible across all of the different academic units and teams and organizations as the school continues to evolve,” she said.