Generation Alpha.
Fringed by views of mountain rainforest and close to Cairns northern beaches, Newman Catholic College is Australia’s first secondary Catholic college to be co-located on James Cook University campus.
The compact site was one of the inspirations for college architects, TPG Architects, to design a multi-level school which will be an exemplar of world class, contemporary, twenty-first century education design.
Spread across four levels, the design concepts prioritise the balances between indoor/outdoor and active/passive learning areas as well as the immediacy of open spaces.
Students are young, enthusiastic members of Generation Alpha, students born from 2010 onwards. Generation Alpha young people will be global, digital, social, mobile and visual learners, used to multi modal ways of living and learning.
Working closely with Roger Mainwood and his team, the signage design seamlessly integrates with the architecture without compromising wayfinding functionality.
The visual communication responds with a clear design intent - Bright, bold and optimistic.
The primary colour palette, two typefaces, both legible, one expressive and one functional are designed to amplify the energy and purpose of the college environment.
The sign family adapts itself to integrate with the architecture at every opportunity with formed letters and numerals, paint direct to concrete, and vinyl applied to glazing, panels and doors, Simple level identification has been scaled to work with sight lines across the atrium.
The subtle use of the bookmark, as a graphic device, permeates several of the sign forms.
Photography – Andrew Watson
Type – New June/Monserrat
