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New Year, New Us: Becoming The M.AD School of Ideas

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A Good Idea Should Scare You

For 40 years, our work has been rooted in one idea—that true creativity must be bold and fearless to make a mark. We’ve trained some of the most accomplished creative minds in the industry to view challenges and setbacks as opportunities to grow and change. 

Now, we’re taking that on ourselves. Over the next few months, we’ll be transitioning to a new moniker, and a new brand: the M.AD School of Ideas.

It’s a change that declares what we’ve become: more than an “ad school”—a proving ground for the future of creativity. A melting pot for creative imagination, where design and strategy, media and methods, collide to form brilliant futures.

We’ll also be revamping our brand and our presence online. To that end, we’ve worked with the world-renowned creative company COLLINS to rethink our identity and its expression in light of our increasingly global (and increasingly broad) education mandate.  

COLLINS helped us re-imagine our brand, our ethos, our playfulness and genuineness, our foundation of discovery and evolving ourselves—and though we haven’t officially launched yet, the work is already winning recognition.

The changes will play out over the next few months, as we transition from the challenges and surprises of 2020 into the renewed excitement and hope of a new year. And it all begins today, with a teaser of what’s to come:

COLLINS Goes M.AD

Our partnership with COLLINS began more than a year ago. It’s colored much of our thinking and work behind the scenes over the past months—even while the effects of COVID-19 have further emphasized the need for us all to adapt and evolve. 

Within COLLINS, the project has been pushed forward by an innovative, all-female team of young designers and strategists:

  • Zuzanna Rogatty, Designer

  • Christine Takaichi, Senior Strategist

  • Dashiell Alison, Strategy Director

  • Niamh Walsh, Business Manager

The results they’ve achieved in a short time are nothing short of extraordinary. As a team, they’ve pushed the boundaries of what we expected or even thought possible. 

Early on, the COLLINS team spared no expense in researching every aspect of our work, our culture and our values—to better understand what our brand should reflect. They interviewed stakeholders from across our many campuses, and dug deep into what’s made our reputation.

What they came up with is a mark that embodies change. Like the creative process itself, it’s an identity constantly re-imagined—fluid and unpredictable. The individual elements highlight different pieces of our identity. The “M” is fluid and dynamic, while the “dot” is forever present, steady and steadfast. Always together, they represent the interplay of the creative process. The push and the pull. 

Along with the mark itself comes a bold color strategy that expands on the iconic and vibrant pink we’ve become known for. True to our origins in Miami, it speaks to our roots—while the new shades of purple, yellow, green, and blue express the diverse range of ideas and cultures that come together in our campuses all across the world.

Like we encourage our students to do, we’ve worked to create a brand that thrives with change, rather than working against it. And we couldn’t be happier with the results.

What’s Next

This is a work in progress. As you read this, work effort continues behind the scenes to revamp our website, overhaul our presence on social media, and reinvigorate our physical branding around the world. Naturally, when you have more than a dozen campuses worldwide, things can get a little complicated. But as of this writing, our transition to the M.AD School of Ideas is well underway.

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