Last week, Los Altos High School launched its new logo, replacing the old one used since 2017. The logo was designed for consistency throughout the school’s campus and online brand, according to a ParentSquare announcement from Principal Tracey Runare.
“This timing of the new design was motivated by the planned resurfacing of our main athletic field this summer,” Runare said in her announcement. “The current eagle on the field is a high visibility example of the existing inconsistent LAHS branding, so we were excited and eager to update and create a cohesive eagle to associate with our incredible school.”
Following the logo announcement, artificial intelligence speculations arose regarding the new logo among students. Los Altos High sophomore Tilly Burgart, junior Sonia Safa and junior Oscar Marek created a Google Form to gather student opinions and meet with admin to discuss and clear up the rumors regarding the logo, Safa said.
Safa also called graphic design company Left Hand Design — which partnered with Los Altos High to make the new logo — and spoke with the artist directly to get insight on if AI was used in the logo or not.
“[The logo] was drawn by hand,” Safa said. “It just had heavy inspiration from AI-generated logos.”
Despite the clarification, students still expressed discontent with the new logo’s look.
“We had a survey with over 200 responses asking for students’ opinions,” Burgart said. “97% of people said they did not like [the new logo].”
The rebrand cost around $12,000 of funding from the district, according to Burgart. Burgart said in the meeting with Los Altos High’s administration, admin clarified that the art department was heavily involved in the process of creating the new logo. However, Burgart said some art teachers reportedly were not aware of the new logo.
Burgart said they hope to collect more student responses alongside Safa and Marek and work with the community to generate alternative, student-made logo ideas.
“The rebrand is completely unnecessary,” Marek said. “The current logo was created in 2017. It’s less than a decade old. It’s a perfectly fine logo. … No one had any complaints about it.”
