New branding by Free the Birds reflects Girls’ Day School Trust’s values

Carrying 125 years of heritage, the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) has built a name for itself, being considered as a revolutionary organisation for girls. Its pioneering nature has been highlighted for the past two years under the direction of Cheryl Giovannoni, a daring supporter of gender equality.

Following its own recent rebrand and name change, brand communication and design agency Free the Birds (formerly known as DewGibbons+Partners) has renovated GDST’s brand identity. The new identity aims to create consistency and unify GDST’s brand, while incorporating and respecting every school’s individual identity. The new branding will be applied on Trust’s 23 independent schools and two academies this summer.

Giovannoni says, “The incredibly smart people at Free the Birds got us from the get-go. In a short space of time, they have changed the way we look, the way we talk and the way we tell our story. They have played an instrumental role in helping us to inspire our 3,500 staff, the 19,000 girls in our schools, their parents and the nearly 70,000 alumnae of our family of schools with the GDST spirit. We now have a powerful shared language around our purpose.”

GDST’s new look portrays the brand in a minimalist, bold and modern light that is communicated across all of the brand’s touchpoints. As part of the rebrand, Free the Birds also produced a film, which features a girl from every GDST school in the UK, spreading the message of unity across the GDST family, which lies at the core of GDST’s values.

Free the Birds also collaborated with the GDST to update its public platform. Sara Jones, client services director at Free the Birds, says, “The GDST had a real story behind it, a real truth. We really wanted to dramatise that truth and give the organisation a flag to rally round.”

Understanding Giovannoni’s vision for an education that will ensure a bright future for GDST’s girls in an organisation that is both forward-thinking and open-minded, played a key role in Free the Birds’ success when creating the new brand identity. With this in mind, Free the Birds used its imagination to design a branding that manages to reflect what the organisation stands for, while making it visually appealing to GDST’s audience.

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