Logo Usage and Request Form

The Johnston Dragon is stylistically designed to represent integrity, pride, and community. With an intense stare portraying a feeling of passion, the Dragon is a symbol of strength and honor, rising up to defend the school’s legacy and the community at large. The Johnston brand system consists of unifying marks that boldly embody Johnston students, faculty, and the community. 

For the Johnston Community School District to maintain brand integrity and maximize each logo’s effectiveness as an identifier, all logos must be applied — without modification — according to the style guide below, which can also be found on the JCSD website. 

Johnston Community Schools Brand System — Official Usage and Style Guide

Using the logo to create T-shirts and other merchandise

Both the dragon and fire J are trademarked logos of the Johnston Community School District. This means:

• When using any of the JCSD logos in a design, permission and approval is required from the district’s communications director, Lynn Meadows, who can be reached at lynn.meadows@johnston.k12.ia.us, 515-254-3394 office, 515-988-1392 cell. You may be provided feedback on making the design compliant with brand guidelines. Please indicate what your deadline is, and allow as much time for approval as possible. 
• The communications department can provide internal groups — Johnston schools, staff, teams, groups and graphic designers with these groups — with the logo that you need. Each logo comes in several different formats (JPG, PDF, EPS, PNG, TIF), and in both color and black and white. 
• Permission is not required for designs that do not use the trademarked logo. However, no alternative logo should be created for JCSD entities that replaces the official, trademarked logo. 
• Any external group using the logo for profit is required to sign a trademark license agreement with JCSD, and to pay a 10% royalty on all money received for the sale of goods offered under the licensed marks, paid quarterly. Please reach out if you would like to enter into an agreement to use the logo for for-profit merchandise.

Using the JCSD logo “without modification” means that the logo’s color and typography cannot be changed. The logo can’t be distorted, elements can’t be flipped or resized, and shapes can’t be added. It’s also required that there be some “breathing room” or clear space around the logo so it’s not crashing into or on top of another design element. See pages 27-28 of the style guide for examples of misuse and violations. 

You’ll see that the main Johnston Dragon does not have a version without a swoop at the bottom, or without words — and those words (Johnston, Dragons, Johnston Dragons) cannot be pulled off the head. There are two other versions (Dragon Head, Dragon Swoop) that provide the head only. In addition, while other fonts/typography can be used in your overall design, the lettering that’s attached to the logo is Geared Slab and cannot be changed.     

While a number of vendors have been used to produce Johnston clothing and other items, Broken Arrow in Des Moines is the official vendor of the Johnston Community School District. It sells Johnston gear via an online store that is available year-round from the front page of the JCSD website: https://www.shopjcsd.org/collections

Using the logo on your website or social media page

Use of the trademarked Johnston Community School District logo, including the Fire J, on your social media page or website also requires approval by the district. Such use must be in compliance with all state and federal laws governing the district and must not be in conflict with the district’s mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, policies, or regulations.