Keeping it local

Among the big news this week was the logo reveal for the new Adelaide University… and, of course, reactions have been mixed for the design “tilted forward to convey momentum and future focus” based on the angles of the Adelaide Festival Centre.

Most groans were for the need to make up and trademark “North Terrace Purple”. International marketing group Lippincott put the project together with input from local company Fuller and testing by Sydney company Fiftyfive5.

One of Adelaide’s most respected designers, Marco Cicchianni of micro creative agency Cul-de-sac, gave a design history class on LinkedIn about his lament the logo wasn’t a more local creation.

Others, particularly on social network Reddit, have remarked on the new logo’s striking similarity to Aarhus University in Denmark.

The new Adelaide University logo

Look familiar? The Aarhus University logo.

Given the Danish’s institution’s status as a “top 100 research-intensive university”, perhaps their branding isn’t such a bad thing to be associated with.

It’s worth noting that the vice-chancellors of the two merger universities, Peter Høj and David Lloyd, had anticipated well in advance that their new brand would be criticised.

In a joint opinion piece for Times Higher Education in May, the duo predicted the new brand would be met with “jubilation and judgement” in equal parts. They even correctly predicted which website would be the biggest source of criticism.

“Doubtless some will rush to dissect the logo’s colour and/or lament its design – we even expect to see a meme or two in multiple Reddit threads,” the vice-chancellors said, adding: “But that’s a good thing.”

Not all reviews of the new branding have been negative either.

Ethan Hsu, head of design at Sydney-based creative agency Today the Brave, told InSider that “rebranding anything is difficult and will undoubtedly be met with a lot of criticism – particularly the merging of two very well established institutions with their own histories, values and thousands of alumni”.

“I’m certain many pundits won’t be factoring in the hours of process, iterations and decision making taken with countless stakeholders to arrive at the solution,” Hsu said.

“The step away from the traditional “university crest” logo feels modern, and probably a right move given that this is a new institution, helping them stand out from other tertiary education providers.” (Presumably with the exception of Aarhus University).

New Magill campus idea

The local heritage listed Murray House on UniSA’s Magill campus. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

The new Adelaide University plans to, for now, keep teaching at UniSA’s campus in Magill when the doors fly open on the rebranded uni in January 2026.

UniSA sold the leafy eastern suburbs campus – the training ground of many South Australian journalists, including InSider – to the state government’s land agency, Renewal SA, for $64.5 million last year.

The government is leasing the land back to UniSA essentially for free while Renewal SA draws up plans to rezone the site for two- to five storey housing. The lease agreement signed in 2023 between UniSA and Renewal SA goes for 10-years.

Magill Campus features prominently on Adelaide University’s new website launched this week.

Railing against the prospect of “high density” housing being built in the middle of the eastern suburbs has been a fertile source of content for Liberal Party MPs.

State Liberal frontbenchers Vincent Tarzia and John Gardner have been particularly vocal about the site and residents’ concerns that it will lead to more traffic congestion.

But now federal Liberal Party MP James Stevens is getting in on the Magill campus act, suggesting an “exciting alternative option” for the site.

“Our local area is in desperate need of more recreational facilities to cater for the ongoing growth across the many sporting clubs in the eastern and north eastern suburbs,” he said in a statement this week.

“Selling off the land to developers for high-density housing will put further pressure on our overburdened infrastructure as well as seeing vital open space lost forever.

“There is an exciting alternative option for this land, particularly the empty parcel on the east side of St Bernards Road which is currently vacant and ready for immediate use.

“A number of local sporting clubs have approached me, with ideas to develop this land into a multi code recreational precinct. I strongly support this rare opportunity to protect open space for our community and provide much needed facilities for a number of local sporting clubs.”

With Stevens facing an election fight to hold onto his seat against Labor and the Greens, InSider tips this won’t be the last we hear about Magill campus.

It’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s your impulse buy

Google Wing’s drone delivery service was launched yesterday in Melbourne, which will allow residents surrounding Eastland Shopping Centre to order smaller goods via the DoorDash app.

InSider would have launched it at Westfield Fountain Gate, so it would have at least been “noice, different, unusual”.