On October 12, Albuquerque Academy Head of School Julianne Puente unveiled the school’s new logo. The announcement was immediately met with backlash from the community, with many saying that it caught them off-guard and has left some wondering why the school’s administration never asked for student input when creating the logo. In addition, there have been claims that the logo isn’t necessarily visually appealing and doesn’t reflect the Academy community. Some have commented that the new administration is changing too many things too quickly, referring to the new schoolwide schedule implemented this year. This criticism came to a head with a petition created by two anonymous community members, hoping that the school’s administration may listen to their concerns and change the logo back to its original version.

Last spring, the school’s leadership team, which included Head of School Julianne Puente, Associate Head of School Stephanie Lipkowitz, Chief Financial Officer Bruce Orem, and Director of Communications, Becky Richards, began working on creating a new logo. The logo was created by an outside ad firm, K2MD. The school’s official announcement states, “Throughout the process, it came up again and again that Academy is Albuquerque. The new mark…represents our commitment to bold education in New Mexico. The design echoes the Southwest…[and] the open spaces honor those who have yet to join our community.”

However, the design has rubbed many the wrong way. One anonymous student said, “Nothing about it feels like Academy. The new logo was unnecessary.” Another anonymous student said, “Though it seems like it incorporates traditional New Mexican art and pays homage to our culture, I don’t necessarily agree with the entire message. The logo could’ve been more simplistic in my opinion, or at least should’ve had some community contribution and input before making a final decision.” Some in our community went a step further and created a petition to revert back to the original logo. One anonymous community member commented on the petition, “…it feels like a betrayal by the school to the student community. [Administration] spends a lot of time preaching about Charger pride, but when they do something that greatly impacts the student body they don’t tell us, keeping it under wraps and then revealing it through an abrupt and unexpected email. Not to mention that if they wanted to design a new logo they should have taken advantage of the fantastic student artists we have at our school.”

To get to the bottom of this controversy, The Advocate went straight to the source: Ms. Puente. She stressed that she wanted to create a “cohesive aesthetic,” saying that she counted 8 different “As” being used around campus. She remains adamant that the logo wasn’t changed, rather something was merely added to it that enhances the nameplate and doesn’t replace the school seal, the Charger, or the varsity A. She says that the old logo wasn’t scalable, meaning that it couldn’t be used in many places, like shirts and bumper stickers. Ms. Puente believes that the new logo can be used in a variety of applications. Asked about those who would’ve liked some community input in the decision, she said, “Not every decision is made by the community. This isn’t a contest. To say that we were thoughtless [or] uncaring doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.” When pressed on criticism that the symbolism behind the new design is unclear, she said, “I don’t have to explain every move. This wasn’t done haphazardly,” but also emphasized that she wrote up an announcement to the community when the new logo was launched. However, she remains open to “changing, altering, or discontinuing” the logo if it stops serving its purpose.

The first place you can expect to see the logo is in the campus’ directional signage, “a project driven by the need for improved usability.” As for now, it seems that the logo won’t be changed unless the community can drum up more support to force the administration to reverse its decision. Ms. Puente believes that “If people took the time to learn about it, they’d feel better about the change.”