Grounded in a bold call to “Rethink High School,” XQ’s creative idea was to challenge the status quo and truly imagine what our future should look like.

Instead of a typical issue-based campaign, the central idea was a public design contest, open to all — drawing on competition-based TV programs, rather than conforming to a cliché “education” campaign.

Design, Experiential, Film, Print, OOH, Web and Social sparked action, gave communities new tools for innovation, curated the latest brain science, and shared examples of 21st century learning. The campaign became the fuel and inspiration for design teams to form, new ideas to be born and students, parents & educators to come together and rethink high school for themselves.

LOGO: The brand identity invokes stencils, which are democratic, “scrappy”, and ad-hoc. It employs modular shapes to convey collective “building” and ideating—it feels immediately constructed, and ever-evolving.

PRINT/OOH/EXPERIENTIAL: By using young faces that declare WE THINK, our out of home conveyed stark truths about education, shown from the perspective of students. The line RETHINK HIGH SCHOOL boldly and colorfully invites everyone to get involved and question the “givens” of the outmoded system.

FILMS: A spacesuit-clad Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) stood on a platform on the streets of New York. Visually, this created a civic conversation inside a sea of humanity. XQ identity elements seeded the idea of a movement in progress.

DIGITAL/SOCIAL: Unusually bold, simple design invited conversation and widespread engagement.

DESIGN KITS: Applicants were mailed engaging “design kits”, created to inspire and guide them through a rigorous process. They included posters, charts and other tools.

The results exceeded our wildest expectations. 40,000 people raised their hands to help RETHINK HIGH SCHOOL. 8,600 joined teams and submitted 696 original designs.

Our media engagement exceeded benchmarks. Our brand tracking study showed that 1 in 3 Americans remember seeing the campaign. And two thirds of those people took action as a result.

XQ spurred a wave of innovation that will transform public high school for the next century and beyond.