Tinderhøj Skole is a school that focuses heavily on being environmentally friendly and green. The logo was created in collaboration with co-designer Andreas Schenkel, who recreated the symbol while I focused on the logotype.
The client approached us with a request to recreate and redefine the logo seal and its colors originally designed by the famous Danish artist, Henry Heerup. Throughout the process, we moved towards a new contemporary logo that still pays homage to Mr. Heerup. The logotype is custom-designed, drawing inspiration from his shapes while incorporating a strong personal twist.
Tinderhøj Skole initially just wanted a vector version of the emblem with some clearly defined colors that could also be used in their identity. We could have stopped here, but for us, it was clear that this was not an optimal logo solution.
For a logo to work well in small sizes, it should not contain too many details and should have enough contrast. Even with the new colors and in vector format, this was not enough to solve the problem.
Another issue was that the logo/emblem still did not solve the communication problem of conveying that the school is a green school. The client provided a sketch where they added some leaves to the emblem, which we converted into a vector for them. Additionally, we added a logotype using Heerup’s letters, which was separated from the emblem for clearer readability.
The overall expression was not exactly what we were looking for, as we aimed for a more modern, green school aesthetic. However, we enjoyed experimenting with Heerup’s lettering.
The type we created from Heerup’s lettering did have some school chalkboard characteristics, but the expression we were looking for was more aligned with a corporate, modern-thinking school. Therefore, we had to go back to the drawing board again.
Seeing that the first direction was clearly not the right, we had to rethink the concept. How could we simplify it and incorporate the “green” aspect into it? The idea of the leaves brought by the client was not bad, but perhaps they were the not the right leaves. We found that we could recreate the silhouette from the emblem using a beech leaf and a linden leaf, and by placing them on each other, the new concept was born.
We went back to study Heerup’s lettering and created a more fitting logotype that still pays homage to the original idea but also aligns with the new concept of a modern green school.
Final Logo
