Last Spring, the School of Graphic Design at the Academy of Art University (AAU) in San Francisco offered to dedicate the "ID2 Strategies for Branding" class to rebrand Five Keys. I was blown away by their presentations and their level of professionalism. The students really captured our essence. I had a visceral reaction to some of them—my eyes were almost tearing up at the powerful images they came up with. Their background knowledge, research and ability to transfer that to designs that communicate the work we do was pretty spectacular.
Team 24/7 design students: Celina Oh, Mia Jiang, Gloria Sukamto, Pat Opattarakui, Jerry Chiang,
Terry Hsu, and Xin Du
Team Eight Bees design students: Pauline Capote, Yvonne Anaya, Yijun Lin, Katarina Gentry, Apirat Norapong,
Jiaxin Xie, Dan He, and Louise Yang
Ultimately, we could only choose one. It was a difficult decision because we loved many. The original concept for our new logo began with Mia Jiang, and was finessed by team leader Celina Oh and the entire Team 24/7, especially by Pat Opattarakui and Jerry Chiang — a true collaborative effort. Today, I have versions of all the students’ design directions framed right outside my office to remind me of the incredible gift they gave to us and to all of our current and future students. Bold, hopeful, inspired, courageous, strong, powerful, driven, unique, innovative, renewed, fresh, imaginative, hard-working, smart and revitalized are just a few words to describe our new brand and reflect some of the attributes of our students and graduates.
Please let us know what you think of our new look and join me in thanking all the third-year AAU students who brought this new brand to fruition.
Team 24/7 leader Celina Oh at the final presentation
Five Keys’ team of teachers, programs staff, administrators and managers partner with dozens of community organizations to help our students become contributing members of their communities and continue their path of self-development beyond Five Keys.
The positive influence of our work extends beyond our students into their families and communities. Our students and clients include transitional aged youth (ages 16 and up) and adults, many of whom were failed by the traditional educational system. Some have involvement with the criminal justice system, but many others do not. It is incumbent upon us to reengage our students by delivering curriculum relevant to their experiences and providing comprehensive supports that address the challenges that previously hindered their ability to complete their education.
Since our inception as a charter high school in San Francisco’s jails in 2003, we have graduated
more than 2,000 students, and have shown that the state’s recidivism rate of 65 percent can be greatly improved upon with access to high-quality academic, vocational and therapeutic programs (a study found our graduates recidivated at 26 percent).
Our staff of 420 − delivering services in more than 80 locations in six California counties −
is reinventing the way adult education is delivered. Among our exciting innovations is a
state-of-the-art mobile classroom on a retired MUNI bus that travels into disenfranchised neighborhoods where students need educational access most; dual-immersion college
programs; and a first-in-the-nation college dormitory in a city jail.
With the support of our vast network of community and government partners we are redefining
the role of education in restoring communities.
We invite you to explore our new web site to learn more about Five Keys’ mission: to use Social and Restorative Justice principles to provide traditionally underserved communities the opportunity to restart their education with a focus on “Five Keys” to healthy lives: EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, RECOVERY, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY.
Your contribution to the Five Keys vision and mission is truly transformational.
On behalf of our staff and board of directors, welcome to the new Five Keys website.
Sincerely,
Steve Good
Executive Director
Dr. Elisa Stephens, President of AAU and Steve Good, Executive Director of Five Keys
And the winner is...it's a tie. The tie-breaker came a week later and Team 24/7's logo was selected, combined with many elements of the brand from Team Eight Bees.
Team Eight Bees ad campaign "#learningtolive" with Apirat Norapong
Apirat Norapong
Ovations...bravo!