A Logo is Worth a Thousand Words

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The Breakwater shield is the logo used for all pillars of our organization - our School, Enrichment Center, and Parent Education and Professional Development program.

The Breakwater shield is the logo used for all pillars of our organization - our School, Enrichment Center, and Parent Education and Professional Development program.

“Breakwater’s belief is that learning not only takes place within the boundaries of school buildings, learning also happens when you venture forth and explore beyond the classroom.”
— David Sullivan, Executive Director

Perhaps logos are like Rorschach tests—we all bring some meaning to them. What we see in an ink blot supposedly reveals something about who we are. I really appreciate the Breakwater logo and am constantly seeing new dimensions of meaning in it.

  • The colors, for example, are representative of sky, earth, and water which all intersect together in a coastal city like Portland.

  • The “swirls” imply motion and dynamic change to me—much like the hive of activity, learning, and growth at Breakwater.

  • The three “swirls” make up a shield, a reference to a long history of academic institutions like Harvard, or Hogwarts, of which Breakwater is a part. Of course being Breakwater, we are not completely traditional, and there is a twist (ok maybe like a tie dye). If you look closely, the shield actually has no outline and the space surrounding the “swirls” also permeates within the shape.

  • There is really no inside or outside. This always suggested to me that Breakwater is not separate from the community, or the environment, but has seamless boarders between the two. It also refers to Breakwater’s belief that learning not only takes place within the boundaries of school buildings, but is much about venturing forth and exploring beyond. Or if you think of the shield as a person, it is a person who is clearly defined, yet has unlimited possibilities.

I had an epiphany a number of years ago when I discovered that the shape of the Breakwater shield is the same shape you would find in the center of a perfectly aligned Venn diagram (called the intersection if you remember your elementary school set theory). I like to think of Breakwater as an intersection, a coalescence, an integration of people, ideas, activity, and learning. I will leave it up to professionals to discern what my interpretations above says about me. It is clear what it says about Breakwater: that it is a very special place. What do you see when you look at the Breakwater logo?