1991 was a very busy year. As well as developing curriculum, organising teachers, planning for the first student intake and purchasing equipment, parents and staff committees were set up to organise the school uniform and a school logo. The uniform committee looked at samples of materials, visited manufacturers, had sample uniforms made up for incoming students and the parents to consider and finally decided on the current uniform worn by everyone today.
The logo was chosen in a different way.
The committee asked parents and students to submit ideas and designs. Chris Tiouslos, the architect who designed the school, sketched some ideas based on the architecture of the school. A professional designer, Alexei Mazin from Mazmedia, was approached. He came up with some exciting ideas and the committee decided to go with Mazmedia. Over some weeks designs and concepts were gradually developed and refined until our school logo was accepted at a full P&C meeting.
The final logo presents a modern, direct visual statement. It doesn’t look back, as many school badges do, to traditional themes or heraldic symbols nor does it contain Latin or English mottos. This is a new school, different in every aspect of planning, construction and establishment, and the committee felt that it needed an appropriate logo. The finished result is closer in concept to such logos as those of the Commonwealth Bank, BHP, Turbosoft (computer engineers) or State Rail. There is much symbolism contained within our logo:
- The square represents the shape of a computer chip. The wheel, traditionally the accepted technology symbol, was rejected because it represented older technologies such as the cog or the engine. Computers however are an integral part of our society and this school was established to maximise technology use in learning and in preparation for the future, The square chip was then turned sideways to form a diamond. This is a more dynamic shape and one where the C sits comfortably across the diagonal.
- The red C stands for Cherrybrook and mirrors the layout of the buildings, the shape of the roof and the curves of the serpentine walls in the playground.
- The red, white, grey and black of our logo reflect the colours of the school.
- A striped pattern fills in the chip shape behind the C. This represents computer screens, TV sets or camera lenses which are used in many modern work and leisure situations.
- The stripes have been given a moire effect formed by interference or optical combinations between patterns. A good description of a moire effect is the shimmering pattern you see when someone wears a herringbone shirt on television.
- Finally, the grey shadow makes the logo appear to be floating and flexible rather than flat or anchored permanently.
The committee also asked people to come up with ideas for a school motto. Some suggestions included: 'Achieving Together', 'Think Develop and Grow', 'Learning for the Future', 'Learning for Life' and 'Strive to Achieve'.
None of those were widely accepted at the time and so the decision was put on hold until early 2000, when 'Achieving Together' was officially adopted as the Cherrybrook Technology High School motto.