Michael Gilsinan
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  • Brand Experience
  • Visual Identity
  • Music Education

Fort Lee School of Music

A music school grown into a recognizable brand — one identity carried from the logo to the hallways to the concert stage.

Role
Founder
Founded
2010
Locations
Fort Lee, NJ · New York, NY
Team
30 teachers and staff
The Fort Lee School of Music front desk: a white-and-red desk beneath the school logo, green and white color-blocked walls, and a door marked with an oversized numeral 1, its caret, and translations. (open larger image)
Reception and Studio 1, Fort Lee.

Overview

I founded Fort Lee School of Music in 2010, during my second year as a conservatory student, and grew it into a school with locations in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and New York City.

Alongside teaching and operations, we built a consistent creative identity — visual branding, marketing materials, and physical spaces — that created a consistent experience across lessons, performances, and community events.

My role

  • Founded the school and led it from launch through growth to two locations
  • Co-developed the creative identity across visual branding, marketing materials, and physical environments
  • Produced student and faculty concerts at venues including the DiMenna Center for Classical Music and Baruch College
  • Built and led a team of 30 teachers and staff

Outcomes

Students served
1,400+
Classes every week
300+
Teachers and staff
30
Locations, NJ and NYC
2
Revenue growth, 2017–2019
+59%
Public concerts in NJ and NYC
50+

Identity

A mark rooted in place

The logo draws a suspension bridge out of beamed notes — Fort Lee sits at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. The mark and its blue-and-green palette carried across signage, banners, print, and the school's presence at community events.

The Fort Lee School of Music logo: a blue suspension bridge formed from beamed music notes over a green arc, above the school name. (open larger image)
The Fort Lee School of Music mark.
Staff stand in front of a Fort Lee School of Music booth with a large green-and-white logo banner at an outdoor street festival. (open larger image)
Fort Lee Street Art & Music Festival, 2016.

Environment

Rooms named for scale degrees

Every studio door carries an oversized numeral topped with a caret — the notation musicians use for scale degrees — along with its solfège syllable and the same number in Korean, Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish, and Russian. Bands of primary color frame the doors and lead students down the hall.

A bright hallway with a black grand piano, a yellow accent wall with children's tables, a wall of hanging folk instruments, and blue-framed doors marked with large numerals. (open larger image)
Main hallway, with Studio 6 at right.
An open studio door painted with a huge numeral 3 reveals a small room with a black baby grand piano, framed by red and blue trim. (open larger image)
Studio 3.
A large white studio with two grand pianos and a player seated at each, with blue trim outlining the doors and floor. (open larger image)
Two-piano studio.
A waiting area with a wall of mandolins and balalaikas, a mural, and child-size blue chairs. (open larger image)
Waiting area and instrument wall.

Performance

Giving every student a stage

Student recitals, faculty concerts, and visiting artists filled the calendar — in the school's own rooms and on stages like the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City. The school was also home to Fort Lee's first children's classical guitar orchestra.

A panoramic banner combining three photos of students and families gathered on wood-paneled concert stages. (open larger image)
Concert banner from the school's website.
Dozens of students in concert dress pose on a wood-paneled stage at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. (open larger image)
Spring Concert 2019, DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
A teacher conducts a children's classical guitar orchestra seated at music stands in a sunlit hall. (open larger image)
The children's classical guitar orchestra, 2018.
A classical guitarist performs in front of a studio door painted with the numeral 7, its solfège syllable 'si', and translations. (open larger image)
Guest artist Celil Refik Kaya in concert, 2016.
An audience in blue chairs watches a piano and violin performance in a studio with blue curtains and a grand piano. (open larger image)
SoundPlay concert series, Fort Lee, 2018.

Audience

Knowing who we served

Mapping enrollment showed where families traveled from and which instruments drew them: 1,419 students across the New York and New Jersey metro area, led by piano and guitar.

Map of the New York / New Jersey metro area with orange markers showing where 1,419 students came from, clustered densely around Fort Lee and upper Manhattan. (open larger image)
Where students came from.
The same metro map with markers colored by instrument — piano, guitar, and voice the most common — led by 461 piano and 322 guitar students. (open larger image)
Enrollment by instrument.
fortleemusicschool.com Events archive

Contact

Let’s talk about music, experience, and technology.

Always glad to talk about creative work, live music, and products worth building.

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