Soho Parish CofE Primary School is fighting back against falling enrolment with a new identity and marketing campaign highlighting its special status in the community. The rebrand, created by Wonderhood Design, aims to boost awareness, attract prospective pupils and raise money to help keep the last remaining school in Soho open.

The ‘There’s Only One Soho School’ project marks the second iteration of Soho-based Wonderhood Design’s Neighbourly Fund; an annual pro-bono initiative aimed at supporting local businesses and organisations through branding and design.

The new logo takes the silhouette of the main school building and fills it with icons that both represent the school, but just as importantly its unique surroundings in Soho. The icons were designed in collaboration with the school’s pupils in a workshop where they shared what they loved most about the school and being in Soho. This highlighted that Soho Parish School has some very special relationships with its neighbours, meaning pupils can find themselves having music lessons at legendary jazz club Ronnie Scott’s, taking part in sports day in the Regent’s Park, and visiting the National Gallery for art lessons. The logo represents the idea that Soho Parish is the only school where the whole of Soho is their classroom.

A key part of the new identity is an interactive logo generation tool, which invites pupils to input their favourite subjects and Soho institutions to create a bespoke version of the logo that is personalised to them. This can then be exported as a sticker badge, animation and directly outputted as a customised bookmark for every pupil.

The wordmark which accompanies the logo icon is inspired by historical signage found throughout the school. This acknowledges the school’s rich heritage and historical context but is set with a modern cut to help future proof the school for the years ahead.

The new identity uses two colours: a deep blue which references the school’s past, and a contrasting sunshine-bright yellow as vibrant as the school’s neighbourhood which makes an unmissable mark at street level to help the school standout.

Wonderhood’s new tagline, ‘There’s Only One Soho School’, is a reminder not only of its uniqueness, but also of the fact that it is the last remaining primary school in the area, and that without continued support, it is at risk of closure.

The rollout includes updated signage, banners, flyers, wayfinding, notebooks, personalised sticker packs as well as prominent large format digital OOH advertising at Leicester Square and Carnaby Street, run in partnership with Ocean Outdoor.

The Soho Parish School rebrand follows the first Neighbourly Fund project, last year’s successful launch of the Sacred Grounds coffee shop on Dean Street, which is run by St Anne’s Parish Church next door.