visual • brand • identity

The Art of school

make your ethos and personality come to life

Brochure
Integrated Thinking

Capture the imagination of prospective parents

Your school is a unique and wonderful place to learn. But how do you make your ethos and personality really come to life and shine out from the pages of your prospectus?

The Art of School team will help you to successfully over come this challenge. We understand that it’s so important for all your traditional and digital marketing efforts to quickly capture the imagination of prospective parents.

We’re a team of specialists with well-honed skills in VisualBrand Identity, Photography, Video, Print, Marketing and Project Management. Independent schools, just like other commercial businesses we work with, need to have a brand that is clear and consistent at every point of contact.


Here you can see examples of our work for Bethany school. Their logo was already well established, but they needed a creative platform to highlight their core philosophy, ‘The Virtue of Learning’.

John McCarthy, our Creative Director, designed a circular visual language centred on the School’s core philosophy - a constellation of learning habits known as the ‘Virtue of Learning’, which is based upon the philosophies of Aristotle and Aquinas.

John produced a vision for the prospectuses and worked closely with Roddy Paine, our exceptional photographer, to produce an extremely detailed shoot list. He also consulted with Matt Bigwood our print expert.

Emma Pearce, as our Marketing Specialist, supported Bethanyby project managing the design, copywriting, approval process and printing of over 50 pieces of marketing collateral. This included school and sixth form prospectuses, bursaries and scholarships brochure, course information booklets, website animation video, pop up graphics, merchandise and a suite of press adverts for deadlines throughout the year.

Ginnie Corbett

Thank you so much to Emma and the Pearce Marketing team for all their support during the marathon roll out of our school rebranding. By working with Emma, it enabled John McCarthy, who developed our fantastic new brand, to focus on all the graphic design work that was needed.
Emma project managed the delivery of a huge amount of new marketing collateral -liaising with us, John, the printer and an external animation specialist. This was as well as coordinating and meeting deadlines for over 12months of printed adverts. Their communication was really good and we simply wouldn't have got everything done without them.

Ginnie Corbett
Marketing and Admissions Manager

essence & personality

The single most important element of your marketing is quality photography.

It simply underpins everything.

It takes incredible skill to be able to capture the character and qualities of your school, along with the spirit of your pupils and the activities they enjoy.

Roddy, on The Art of School team, has a remarkable ability to succeed in shooting just that.

He manages to express each school’s distinct differences with clarity. And deliver heartwarming pictures that any parents will love.

Not only that, his extensive experience enables him to also be working to a design brief. Roddy produces images that are the type, shape and colour to fit with all the marketing concepts.

I’ve used Roddy for over 10 years and he is a pleasure to work with. Just point him in the direction of a classroom and he’s off! I know his photographs will always be creative, full of energy and life; so important when the success of a prospectus or school website depends on inspirational photography.

Nicola Berry
Marketing & CommunicationsManager,
Old Palace of John Whitgift School

tim calvey

Roddy and John have been a great team to work with over a number of years. We were looking to refresh our website back in 2014 and Roddy visited as a photographer - we’ve not looked back ever since! Roddy introduced us to John who spent real-time getting to know us. As a result we looked to reshape our prospectus and other publications. They absolutely understood our messaging, ethos and vibe and we’re delighted with the results.

Tim Calvey
Headmaster, Orley Farm School

pride and passion

The Art of School team can deliver images that consistently communicate your messages across all mediums.

With over 30 years of experience working in education, Roddy understands how schools operate. He knows that your school is very different and this needs to be portrayed in the images and films we produce.

Roddy will create imagery that words just cannot convey. We'll help with the creative concept, right through to a finely tuned plan for the shoot.

Rest assured that you'll get maximum value from the time we're on site, with the least possible disruption to the school day.

I have worked with Roddy Paine on various education photography and film projects over the last ten years, and have never failed to be delighted with the results. Roddy and his fantastic team understand schools, and they produce imagery that is unique to us and in line with our marketing strategy and ethos. The team are always a delight to work with, professional, warm, and can’t do enough to help produce the results we need.

Samantha Loggie
Marketing Director,
The Study Preparatory School

Brochure
Specialist Delivery

Specialist Delivery

The Art of School team can deliver images that consistently communicate your messages across all mediums, including print, video and web animation. We’ll always take account of all the versions of your uniform, the gender and nationality of your pupils and the range of facilities you provide. With you, we’ll devise a detailed schedule and timetable to ensure we gather all the photographs and video required. John and Roddy’s storytelling abilities, through design and visuals, includes planning scripts, art direction, editing and all elements of post production.


We have been working with JohnMcCarthy since October 2018 and in that time John has designed a number of prestigious school prospectuses and direct marketing campaigns for our school. I couldn’t recommend John McCarthy more highly. He is incredibly creative, reliable, always a fast turn around and always very patient! One of the best agencies I have used in a very long time.

Wendy Owens,
Marketing Communications Director,
Radnor House Sevenoaks

integrated thinking
magic moments

Magic Moments

Giving parents an insight into your school can be portrayed beautifully with candid photographs like this one.
They are essential for stirring emotions and creating a meaningful prospectus that provides a positive perception of your environment.

The images do not have a posed appearance. They are authentic and effective in creating a sense of the atmosphere their child would experience at your school.
This type of reportage photography is pre-planned in terms of lighting, positions, angles and technical requirements. Yet the powerful results will appear like you are a fly on the wall, observing real events.

Roddy is a pleasure to work with. He understands exactly how to get the best out of his subjects for portraits and general people shots, achieving a very natural result. He has a discreet presence, and offers clear instructions, which allow the subject to relax and carry on as normal. If you want realistic images, not the standard cheesy stock library variety, he is just the person you need to call.

Nadia Needham
Senior Designer,
West Kent College

tim calvey

Roddy and John have been a great team to work with over a number of years. We were looking to refresh our website back in 2014 and Roddy visited as a photographer - we’ve not looked back ever since! Roddy introduced us to John who spent real time getting to know us. As a result we looked to reshape our we looked other publications. They absolutely understood our messaging, ethos and vibe and we’re delighted with the results.

Tim Calvey
Headmaster, Orley Farm School

essence & personality

Halstead Preparatory School for Girls

For Halstead Preparatory School for Girls, John created a completely new Visual Brand Identity. This included delivering a logo, fonts, colour palette, design elements for best portraying key messages and a proposal for the prospectus.

He went on to roll out the brand across all the school stationery, internal and external signage, press advertisements, elements for the web site, a poster campaign and more.

The process started with a highly collaborative exercise. The school articulated its distinct vision and everyone was open to,and really understood, the value of a well-defined brand.

John’s ideas for the prospectus required many ‘cut-outs’ of children within the design, which were all clearly briefed to Roddy for the photo shoot.


The outcome of the combined efforts of The Art of School and Halstead teams, is a highly effective and recognisable brand. Every element of the school’s marketing clearly communicates their individual messages to prospective parents.

John quickly tuned in to our needs in the development of a new visual brand identity for our school. His personal approach, thoughtfulness every step of the way and eye-catching designs stood out from other companies we had tried. JMC3 were so easy to work with and full of excellent ideas. We cannot thank them enough for the beautiful end result and the incredibly positive effect that the new brand identity has had. We highly recommend them.

Penny Austin
Headmistress, Halstead Preparatory School

the team

Start a conversation.

Would you like to have an initial conversation about your branding, photography and/or marketing requirements? We'd be delighted to talk to you. In the first instance, please make contact with Emma Pearce who can introduce you to the individual team members as required.

You can reach Emma on 01323 769130 and emma@theartofschool.co.uk. Thank you.

Emma Pearce

Marketing Specialist & Project Manager

  • T: 01323 769130
  • E: emma@theartofschool.co.uk
  • W: pearcemarketing.co.uk

  • Emma can assist you with parent research, brand workshops, project managing the roll out of your brand with all parties involved, marketing planning, negotiating advertisement fees, implementing a wide range of marketing activities and delivering marketing training for your team if required.

John McCarthy

Creative Director & Branding Specialist

  • T: 07943 047206
  • E: john@jmc3.com
  • W: jmc3.com

  • John will create your brand’s DNA and design all your brand assets. His graphic design work translates this brand onto business cards, brochures, exhibition materials, signage, websites, stationery and more. He works closely with Roddy providing art direction and consults with Matt about all printed collateral.

Roddy Paine

Photographer & Videographer

  • T: 01622 872626 / 871533
  • E: roddy@roddypaine.co.uk
  • W: roddypaine.co.uk

  • Roddy provides all the visuals for your marketing - including stills and video. He carefully plans for all shoots and brings all the technical, state-of-the-art equipment to create the exact styles and formats required for your designs. He undertakes all the editing and post production video work.

Ben London

Web Design Specialist

  • T: 01622 817481
  • E: ben@whatif.ws
  • W: whatif.co.uk

  • Ben is our internet specialist - he can take your Visual Brand Identity online. He can create a website or provide support to your web developer, along with hosting, domain and other digital marketing services.

Matt Bigwood

Print & Display Specialist

  • T: 01435 813044
  • E: matt@printmatters.co.uk
  • W: printmatters.co.uk

  • Matt is very experienced in print, display and signage. His 3,000 square feet facility houses high tech machinery catering for litho, digital and large format printing. He provides detailed advice on the weight and type of paper stocks you can use, along with the pros and cons of various paper finishes.