BMA is the original ski racing factory. The ultimate alpine proving ground. A place that started with one coach and one student back in 1970 and has been sending shockwaves through the sport ever since. BMA regularly churns out some of America’s—no, scratch that—some of ski racing’s greatest athletes.

In the process, they’ve spawned no shortage of copycat ski academies too. But it’s not for the faint of heart. This place is about adversity—all day every day. Insane physical challenges. Inner resilience. To make it here, you’ve gotta really—and I mean, reeeeaaallly—want it. If you don’t, you’ll be back doing daffys on your home mountain in no time.

Design Challenge

Ok, so BMA is an icon. But come time for the school’s 50th anniversary, they weren’t feeling too iconic. The brand was… a conundrum, frankly. The school has long nursed its decidedly homemade aesthetic. This place has DIY in its DNA. It’s a brand that could easily be made too slick. Too pro. Too designy. Which would alienate its diehard fanbase of alums, donors, admirers and wannabes.

Head of School, Willy Booker (BMA Class of 94), knew he had to tighten up the brand—but he was laser focused on keeping it real, too. Keeping the funk. So we mapped and defined the Burke experience and made sure to never lose sight of it.

Process + Workshops

That meant keeping the Burkies, the students themselves, involved. Interviews. Workshops. Presentations. Brainstorming sessions… We did it all. Our creative team even did the dreaded Timed Hike physical test with the Burkies (which was not fun at all, not even in retrospect). We sort of did, anyway.

Conclusion

In the end, like all things Burke, the experience was deeply gratifying. It’s not every day that you get to work with a brand that’s made the Hero’s Journey: from outsider threat to challenger to champion to hero to icon. So few have. (The Grateful Dead comes to mind, but we missed them.) But Burke Mountain Academy has made that journey. Full-on Joseph Campbell style. They did it their way, every step of the way, and they made it to the top.

When you put your hands on a brand like that, you do so carefully. You measure twice and cut once. You include people. You check again. You lose sleep. You throw it away and start again. You worry. It’s just the nature of it.

But amidst all that, somehow you also have to be fearless. If you’re not fearless, all is lost anyway. And somehow, thanks to Willy’s leadership, early indications are that we found that balance between respectful and fearless. Which is a giant relief, because our Executive Creative Director is also a BMA alumni and he would’ve never heard the end of it had we not.