Hemlock Public School District - Innovate, Collaborate, Educate

As Hemlock Public School District’s Communications Specialist, I spend a lot of my days thinking about how we tell the story of this school district.

What do we say? How do we say it? What does it look like? What do people see, hear, and feel when they interact with Hemlock?

And, perhaps somewhat unofficially, I have also appointed myself guardian of the navy.

If you know me at all, you know I love fonts. Probably more than any sensible person should. I notice colors, spacing, typography, logos, and all the little visual details that most people probably never think twice about.

I also notice when a logo has been stretched, squished, recolored, or subjected to some creative adventure it most certainly did not ask for.

I can't help myself. It’s an occupational hazard.

So, yes, I am going to encourage you to use our Brand Guide. Use the right logo. Use the right fonts. Respect the proportions of our marks. And, for the love of all things typographic, please don’t distort the Huskie.

But after spending a lot of time thinking about our brand, there is something I want to make sure we understand:

Our brand is about so much more than getting the logo right.

In fact, we can follow every rule in our Brand Guide perfectly and still completely miss our brand.

Because our brand isn’t our navy. It isn’t our Huskie. It isn’t a font or a logo.

Our brand is how people experience Hemlock.

It’s what someone feels when they walk through our doors, call our office, send an email, ride our buses, eat in our cafeterias, attend a game, sit in a classroom, or have a difficult conversation with us.

It’s the feeling that says, These people care.

It’s hard work and innovation. It’s being welcoming and ambitious. It’s high standards and a willingness to keep learning. It’s small-town people creating ridiculously big opportunities for kids.

It’s taking pride in the little things because little things have a funny way of becoming big things. It’s serving people well. It’s noticing something that needs to be done and doing it. (I see you, Keith.)

It’s Pull the Sled.

It’s Innovate. Collaborate. Educate.

And most importantly, it’s remembering why we do any of it in the first place:

Kids.

That’s our brand.

We all communicate the Hemlock brand.

Whether you work for Hemlock Public School District, have a child in our district, graduated from our schools, volunteer at an event, attend a game, have a creative side hustle and love creating Huskie swag, partner with us in the community, or simply call Hemlock home, you are part of the story we tell about this place.

Every interaction communicates something.

Every email. Every conversation. Every handshake. Every time someone walks onto our campus and wonders, What kind of place is this?

We answer that question.

Together.

A beautifully designed flyer can’t overcome a lousy experience. A perfect logo can’t make someone feel welcome. The exact shade of navy can’t make a child feel like they matter.

People do that.

But the visual pieces matter, too.

They help tell our story. They create recognition. They communicate that we are intentional about who we are and how we present ourselves to the community.

That’s why consistency matters.

When our signage, social media, apparel, printed materials, websites, uniforms, events, and other branded pieces look and feel like they belong to the same organization, people recognize us. They know us. And over time, those little details help build trust. Excellence speaks for itself.

That applies to the things we create inside our schools, but it also applies to the things created outside of them.

We love our community’s enthusiasm for Hemlock. We love seeing people wear their Huskie pride. We love creativity, and we love when people find new and fun ways to celebrate this school district.

But if you are creating something with the Hemlock name, Huskie logo, or Hemlock brand, please help us protect the identity we’ve worked hard to build.

Use the actual logo—not a variation that happens to look close. And please, don’t give ChatGPT too much creative liberty. We’re going for Huskie, not terrifying wolf, no matter how close we might be to Halloween. Give the Huskie some breathing room, use the approved fonts when appropriate, and, yes, know our colors.

Because we’ve come a long way from our '50 Shades of Blue' era.

A brief history of Hemlock's colorful history. Quite literally.

For much of our early history, Hemlock was Navy and White.

Then, beginning somewhere around the 1980s, we apparently discovered a really big box of crayons.

For about thirty years, we tried nearly every blue in it.

Royal blue. Lighter blue. Dark blue. Almost navy. Sort-of navy. Navy-ish.

Add in some red and black, and depending on the team, building, year, uniform, sign, or sweatshirt, we could occasionally look like distant relatives rather than members of the same family.

We affectionately refer to this as our 50 Shades of Blue era.

By the 2010s, Hemlock decided it was time to come home.

Back to Navy and White.

And for a while, we were intentionally a little boring about it.

Navy. White. Period.

We needed to rebuild a consistent identity, and we did.

Today, we’re secure enough in that identity to have some fun again.

You might see a pink shirt with our brand stamp, fun-colored socks with our Huskie head, or different colors connected to special events or causes.

Creativity is encouraged.

We don't want a sea of boring.

We want a brand that feels alive.

But there is a difference between being creative and being inconsistent. And there is something wonderfully powerful about knowing who you are well enough to have fun without losing your identity.

So when you’re creating something, communicating something, planning something, designing something, or simply interacting with someone, I’d love for us to ask a bigger question than, Did I use the right font?

Ask: Does this feel like Hemlock?

Does it feel thoughtful? Welcoming? Innovative? Ambitious? Proud? Excellent?

Does it feel like someone cared enough to pay attention to the details?

Would we be proud to put the Hemlock brand stamp on it?

That’s being on brand.

So be creative. Have fun. Try something new. Push the envelope a little.

Just make sure that when you’re finished, it feels unmistakably Hemlock.

And if it’s blue?

You know the answer.

#0C2340.

Yes, it has its own little address in the color world.

And after all these years, we finally know exactly where home is.

Hemlock Navy.