Aldinga Payinthi College is one of South Australia’s new “super schools” — the state’s largest education facility with capacity for 1,675 students, 200+ staff, 100 inclusive places for students with disability and a 75-place children’s centre. New schools don’t inherit trust. They must earn it. Our task was to help leadership articulate a clear vision and build a brand system that would connect with a diverse community from day one and scale for decades.

Working closely with Principal Alison Colbeck, we aligned purpose, culture and communication so the brand could behave as well as it looks. The Kaurna name Payinthi — pronounced Bay-in-di — meaning “to seek, look for, examine, be thinking” informed the narrative and the school motto, “Seek Beyond”. The result is a strategic brand that shows up in uniforms, wayfinding, website and everyday language — not just on signage.

Department of Education

Education

Brand strategy and narrative
Vision, values and language framework
Brand identity system and guidelines
Verbal brand and messaging
Website design
Signage and wayfinding
Uniform design
Photography direction and rollout

Launching a new P–12 school at such an unprecedented scale required early support from a broad Aldinga community, with its diverse cultures, expectations, and needs. The brand had to authentically honor Country and language, while being embraced by students and staff. It also needed to support the daily operations of a vast campus.

We focused on making the experience clear and meaningful: uniforms that inspire pride, wayfinding that feels intuitive, and a verbal identity that’s not just for marketing, but something teachers and students can use in their everyday learning and pedagogy.

We partnered with leadership to define vision, values and a language framework that anchors behaviour and learning. From this evidence-based core, we developed a brand narrative and identity system. The signature “ribbon” monogram forms the school acronym while subtly referencing Indigenous artistic forms; the palette draws from ocean, land and sky, rooting the brand in place.

We translated strategy into operations: consistent verbal cues in classrooms and communications, a signage and wayfinding system connected to both architecture and environment, and an inclusive uniform suite students are proud to wear. The name Payinthi, provided by Kaurna Warra Pintyanthi and endorsed by community survey, shaped the motto “Seek Beyond” and the school’s everyday language. The website and collateral extend the system with clarity and accessibility, ensuring families can navigate information as easily as they navigate campus.

The brand has been widely embraced. Students and staff wear the uniform with pride; language and values are used within pedagogy and curriculum; and the school’s reputation has strengthened after early challenges. Enrolments have grown steadily year on year as community engagement deepened. The brand system functions as intended a foundation for clarity, inclusion and long-term performance.

For schools, brand is infrastructure. It must support learning, behaviour and navigation — not just look good in a prospectus. Three lessons stood out. First, community co-design and cultural protocol are non-negotiable; authentic naming and language build legitimacy that design alone cannot.

Second, verbal identity is operational — when values and phrases are simple and consistent, teachers and students will use them, increasing salience through everyday repetition.

Third, environmental cues matter: colours, symbols and wayfinding grounded in place improve recognition and orientation.

Marketing science tells us memory structures form through consistent, distinctive assets used over time. That’s especially true in education, where audiences interact daily but attention is scarce. Design for use, not campaigns, and the brand will do its quiet work.

Aldinga Payinthi College demonstrates how strategic branding can unite a new community, embed culture and make a complex environment feel intuitive. By aligning purpose, language, identity and experience, the brand now supports learning and belonging — every day, at every touchpoint.

Jonathan VDK
Matt Lobo

AADC Finalists
Large Branding