A 360° campaign built to reimagine the future of education

XQ: The Super School Project is a national challenge inviting students, educators, and communities to rethink the future of American high school. Backed by Laurene Powell Jobs and Emerson Collective, the initiative funded ten bold ideas with $10M each to help bring new school models to life. At MAL\ForGood, I spent a year helping shape the XQ brand—evolving their identity, website, campaigns, and leading a nationwide bus tour that connected with communities across the U.S.

The Super School bus tour

The bus visited cities across the U.S., involving them in the challenge, and collecting local stories and perspectives on how to rethink high school. Our aim was to create the school bus of the future - complete with an iPad wall, voice recording booth, solar panels, and a fresh exterior illustration design by Craig & Karl. It was a rewarding process to use our point of view as advertisers for positive change, and it was even more interesting to hear the stories of the many people across the US who are passionate about designing the future of high school education.

xqsuperschool.org

The XQ Super School Movement website was a continuous evolution with the progress of the movement. It housed a wide array of content in an easy to browse, and responsive framework. Using simple copy and images, the website worked to constantly tell the story of the people involved and the milestones being made. 

XQ values print campaign

Our XQ Values print campaign aimed to convey the core XQ values through the lens of today’s high school students. Using provocative headlines, arresting portraits of students and bold colors, our ads remind the reader of what is really at stake within this issue. 

Copywriter: Paul Bootlis
Photographer: Martin Schoeller

The announcement of the Super Schools took place in Washington D.C., and included a lineup of speakers from Nancy Pelosi, to M.C. Hammer to Jill Biden, and Malala. Even President Obama streamed in a speech to the schools!