Harold Ramis Film School
Beginning the first few weeks in my role as a designer at The Second City, I’ve been the point designer on all things Harold Ramis Film School. Since its first day open in 2016, we’ve been exploring the perfect way of following in Harold’s footsteps as a filmmaker. I’ve taken notes on how he used his background at Second City to propel him as an director, writer and comedian and infused it into the brand.
the logo • Art direction/production/concept design/illustration
One of the my interesting challenges was developing the brand for the Harold Ramis Film School. The idea of Second City starting a film school with Harold’s namesake had been tossed around prior to me being hired. A few weeks in I was directed to come up with logo concepts for the school. One catch. They wanted to include his face. I spent the next couple of days trying out portraits and testing my hand at different styles. We ended up landing on something simple and striking. Something straightforward. Limited frills. Something that’s happy and heartwarming without trying too hard. It works. It’s Harold.
Harold ramis film school • Preview book • Art direction/print/production/concept design
We found the need for a solidified brand. There was a logo, and we were kind of leaning into the general Second City brand, but it wasn’t working. The film school needed to stand own it’s on and we needed to define why it was a selling point. Myself and the marketing manager at the time spent hours researching Harold, asking Trevor Albert (Chair of the Film School), Jack Newell (Program Director) and Andrew Alexander (CEO of Second City) about how Harold’s approach to film was different and guided the curriculum. We pulled in copywriters, our creative director, the president and vice president of the training center, we came up with variations on tagline after tagline. We discovered our mission statement. We found our ideal student, and then we built a brand that spoke directly to them. All while honoring Harold’s work and values. This was a huge challenge, but it’s good to look back on and know that it’s well done. See the entire book here.