Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools presents brand story to Rotary

The new Visual Identity and the elements it is composed of presented by GSACS Superintendent David Keohane. – Lucie Roy Photo

by Lucie Roy

The new Brand Story at Greater St Albert Catholic Schools is a living embodiment of what they think, say and do.

On Wednesday morning Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools Superintendent David Keohane and Assistant Superintendent of Learning Services Dr. Rhonda Nixon made a presentation to the Rotary Club of Morinville on the new branding, Accountability Pillar, academic learning and the six steps of Practice Progression.

Keohane said the last visual identity for GSACS was reflecting on regionalization so it was very crest like and the Morinville Thibault School District was one of the Districts that got regionalized into GSACS in 1994.

Keohane said more and more people are part of the public service organization or businesses and we really have to very intentionally demonstrate who we are through visual stories and a brand that is about that and anchoring an experience for people into what that visual story is, and that is what he shared in his presentation.

When we put this out we want to make sure that people follow the experience. It is one way of saying who we are and the more we articulate our story to others the better we get at it.

Keohane said it is the idea of not only walking the talk but talking the walk. The visual identity is already visible on their maintenance trucks.

Keohane said he does not use the word logo when talking about the idea of what their identity is.

The brand came about with a community focus group of close to 40 people from within and out of the District.

Together the three basic questions that were posed was what defines you, for example our vast experience with others so that you cannot envision Morinville without MCHS, what connects us most meaningfully to our communities and the dark side of what does not represent who we are or what you do not like about GSACS or what you do not understand about GSACS.

The elements of the visual identity that came out resonate with these questions. The elements include a cross for Faith, Butterfly for Transformation, Heart for Love,icon for Celebration, three overlapping multifaceted coloured circles for Diversity and Community and the symbolic Location icon.

For Faith the cross is positioned in the centre at the core.

The Butterfly is transformational, to want to make a difference with others. The icon indicates that we are growing and changing and emerging as a school district in the question of who we are and who people think we are.

“What we don’t want to be would be the traditional view of Catholics as being isolated from the community, being no part of it, private schooling and all those things. That is not who we are.

“We want our faith story to be about how we enable everyone to be the best version of who they can possibly be- that is part of the journey.

“We want to be innovative and engaged in the best kind of learning and understanding of learning and the best teachers and all the rest of it to be at our best.

“Love is the core to the Christian story and Celebration is a key part of who we are.
Community- that was the element we wanted to put into the whole shaping of this because we embrace diversity.”

Keohane says he likes the location marker. “It is the idea that we always situationally in every conversation, in every skinned knee or in every high level talk we can bring out faith story to the moment to that place.”

Each wing shares a likeness on location and points to the center and that is how it all connects.

Dr. Rhonda Nixon presenting on academic learning.

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