First Nation School Board

How Yukon students helped draw their own school board’s logo

MBDC created a brand for the First Nation School Board rooted in Yukon First Nations values, land-based learning, growth, kinship and empowerment.

Challenge

The First Nation School Board is a new education authority in the Yukon, responsible for 11 public schools and building an education system rooted in Yukon First Nations worldviews. Its brand had to hold a lot at once: land-based learning, community wisdom, support for every student, and schools that work as community hubs. It also had to reflect First Nation values of respect, relationships, reciprocity, leadership and kinship with the land. Those are not things you can design at a desk.

Solution

So we didn’t. In the spring of 2023 we ran workshops with Yukon students across a range of grade levels and asked them what their school board should look like. They brought ideas and artwork, and their drawings became the foundation of the FNSB logo.

FNSB logos with bold letters in a horizontal layout and a simple, modern design.

First Nation School Board brand identity showing the official colour palette and primary typography used across the visual system.

Stylized illustration of a winding river and road flowing through a forested landscape at sunset, with rolling hills, evergreen trees and warm golden-orange tones inspired by northern landscapes.

Results

The brand belongs to the students because they helped make it. Eleven schools now share one identity that came out of their own classrooms, and the board has a visual language it can grow into as the system grows.

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