Project Overview
Mater Christi College is a vibrant and innovative Catholic girls secondary school located in Melbourne’s picturesque Dandenong Ranges, and proudly for us, a ten year client with TANK. To coincide with their 50 year celebrations, we collaborated in the creation of an ambitious wayfinding system to enliven the college grounds and user experience. In doing this, we also had to achieve a number of critical aims – to embrace the College’s values, acknowledge and celebrate its past, and inspire the people at the centre of its community – students, staff and parents.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Jim Antonopoulos - Executive Creative Director
Michelle Jeavons - Senior Account Manager
Chris Butcher – Associate Creative Director
Richard Foster - Head of Writing
Justin Mansfield - Operations Manager
Huw James - Senior Finished Artist
Consolidated Graphics - Signage Manufacture and Installation
Best Group - Signage Manufacture and Installation
Project Brief
After reaffirming their brand strategy with TANK in 2011, the College set about refreshing their wayfinding including opportunities to express their values and ideals throughout the school. Following an audit of the site and interviews with the College’s leadership team around the future growth of the College, we worked hand-in-hand with Mater Christi to develop a holistic wayfinding strategy. This strategy aimed to resolve navigation issues around the campus; enhance the user experience for staff, students and visitors; bring the College’s values to life; be sympathetic to the natural surrounds; instil a greater sense of professionalism and pride; and create a future-proof solution to inspire the next generation of students and staff.
Project Innovation/Need
Our approach looked to challenge what a wayfinding system could be, beyond the standard aluminium modules used in the majority of college signage. We sought a solution that reflected the stunning environment that frames the College, and importantly, the creative and innovative nature of Mater Christi. This led to the use of bright greens and earthy materials such as rough sawn timber to create a system that complimented the leafy college grounds.
Alongside the navigational messaging throughout the College, our wayfinding solution also embedded College values and inspirational quotes reflecting a school that embraces and empowers ‘Global Thinkers’. These appear on pillars at the main entrance, on the side of signs, and on walls throughout the College.
The visual system also included a memorial installation to remember students and community members; an illustrated hall mural; and a series of totems commemorating the 50 year anniversary engraved with names of the Sisters instrumental in the College’s history.
Design Challenge
The challenge with this project was to create a wayfinding system that not only worked to navigate people around a complex layout, but was also sympathetic to the aesthetics of the College’s leafy surrounds.
With the College positioned across a large hill, with multiple entry points and no clear levels, we had to create a simple signage system that could be followed easily from various points. We also wanted to de-clutter the current signage to once again make the user experience as effortless as possible – at the same time providing a system that was contemporary and unified the many different types of architecture that has formed the College’s development.
Within the grounds, rough sawn timber was used for stunning effect, creating a solid structure for the hero and directional signage, as well as a dramatic statement.
Within the interiors, we removed the signs off the walls, and replaced them with a simple yet stylised hanging corflute signage system at key wayfinding points to make it easier to navigate.
We also incorporated a straightforward naming system for the buildings to further simplify the navigation.
Sustainability
We worked tirelessly with the College and our signage contractors to develop a solution that was visually sympathetic with the surrounding environment whilst using materials that would be inherently recyclable in the future. In choosing the rough sawn timber, we undertook months of testing to ensure the wood would achieve the desired colour palette as well as cope with the harsh climate.
Wayfinding
This award celebrates creative and innovative design in the ways people orient themselves in physical space, and navigate from place to place. Consideration given to signage and other graphic communication, clues in the building's spatial grammar, logical space planning, audible communication, tactile elements and provision for special-needs users.
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