Queens College - The University of Melbourne Storytelling & Copywriting / Print & Collateral Design

A strategic framework that turns more than a century of purpose into a plan Queen’s can carry forward.

Queen’s College has been a residential community at the University of Melbourne since 1887, guided by its motto, Aedificamus in aeternum: we build for eternity. As it looked towards 2030, the College needed to set its direction and say clearly what makes Queen’s distinctive.

The qualities that set Queen’s apart had long been “experienced more easily than explained.” Visitors feel the energy of the place the moment they arrive, but the educational purpose beneath it was harder to see. The brief was to turn a working document into a strategic framework that could bring Council, staff, students and alumni behind one clear vision.

We began with a strategic discovery workshop, drawing out the College’s vision, aligning its leadership and mapping the audiences the framework needed to reach. From there we refined the narrative, anchoring it in a simple belief: Queen’s believes in excellence with purpose, and asks what achievement is for.

The design carries the same character. An editorial layout, a confident pairing of serif and sans serif type, College gold and candid photography of student life give the framework the feel of Queen’s itself, serious about purpose and still full of life.

The Queen’s College Strategic Framework 2026 to 2030 sets out three priorities and the test every major decision must pass. It gives the College a clear, confident account of who it is, what it stands for and where it is heading, in a voice that is unmistakably its own.

The project has since grown into an ongoing partnership. Principle Design now works as an extension of the Queen’s team, with dedicated studio time, regular planning and the flexibility to prioritise the work that matters most each month, bringing greater consistency, momentum and clarity to the College’s brand and marketing.

Read our article on what it was like to experience Queen’s first-hand: An Evening at High Table with Queen’s College.