When Sacajawea Middle School opens this fall, students will find that a lot has changed. The old 1950s-era building has been replaced by a modern space filled with natural light and open common areas. But what hasn’t changed is the heart and proud tradition of the school, reflected in its name and mascot. An enduring symbol of strength, resilience, and protection in Native American mythology, the thunderbird is a fitting mascot for a school named after Sacajawea, the resourceful guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In Hidatsa, her name translates to “bird-woman.”

Spokane Public Schools tasked helveticka with refreshing the school’s logo and mascot in keeping with its history and namesake. To reflect Sacajawea’s heritage more accurately, the existing thunderbird patterns were changed from Coastal to Great Basin tribal shapes. Our team worked with district representatives, administrators, and school staff, as well as a member of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe and eighth-generation descendant of Sacajawea. She informed our selection of native patterns found in tribal bead work, along with the use of fire colors, inspiring us to add yellow to the existing school colors of red and black. The finished work is a complete identity system that gives the school a suite of logos for use in a variety of applications.

View all the school logos here.