Dear Fellow Patriots
After three years of work, beginning with highlighting who we are and our accomplishments, and moving into our “All Together Different” brand positioning, today we begin the next leg of our journey to overhaul and modernize George Mason University’s brand identity. We are unveiling a new logo system that will put the university on par with dozens of powerful university brands that are in our market competing for resources, faculty and staff talent, students, and public support. To get a look at the new logo, click hereor just take a look at the university’s home page.
Why change the logo? Why now?
On every level, George Mason University faces fierce competition for resources in order to deliver its mission in an increasingly volatile environment. The greater Washington, D.C., metro area represents not just the source of 84 percent of our student body, but is now the most intensely competitive higher education marketing in the nation. There are more than 140 other universities and counting with an academic presence within a 50-mile radius of George Mason’s campuses, including 75 from across the country in Washington, D.C., alone. We must stay current with competition or risk decline into irrelevance.
All brands change their look over time to keep pace with shifting demands. Ours is no exception. Our current logo system, with the “Quill M” design, has served us well, but has grown inadequate to maintain best-in-class presence in the community, especially given the separate logos used to represent our athletics program. Collectively, they cause us to compete against ourselves, and present a fractured profile of the university, with underwhelming popular or commercial appeal. Yet they must compete side-by-side with some of America’s most iconic university brands for students, faculty and staff, public support, and alumni and donor engagement.
All Together Different
Starting in 2021 the Office of University Branding held a series of extensive stakeholder engagements about updating our brand that ultimately involved nearly 1,500 students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, and community supporters. In those exercises, stakeholders articulated the new essence of our identity and what we are to the public: An unconventional university that has risen to national prominence often by going against the grain, guided by our diversity, inclusivity, grit, and audacity. That narrative represents us well as a university that is “All Together Different.”
Improvements
The new logo system unifies the university under a single look, which now includes athletics. It includes a standard logo structure for all internal units and departments that cleans up our current cluttered unit logo system. It maintains our historic green and gold colors, but in bolder, more confident hues. And its design tells the story of George Mason as it is now: a university with multiple entry points and pathways for student success; an streamlined institution without needless frills, and a diverse learning community whose members harmoniously coexist.
Budget-neutral transition
Starting tomorrow, the Office of University Branding will guide the university on a gradual, two-year transition into the new look. That extended time will be necessary to enable a more natural transition into the new logo usage, because this is designed as a budget-neutral project. University Branding staff will stay in touch with unit marketing and communications staff members to offer guidance and support throughout the transition. Over the course of this summer—some starting tomorrow—units will receive their own new logos and will be guided to start converting in three steps:
- First—Start with digital applications, which costs time but not money.
- Second—Branded materials that need periodic replenishment—printed collateral and promotional items, for instance—should be allowed to run out, not be thrown out, which will take time. New logos should be used to create replacement supplies.
- Finally—Logos of a more permanent nature will be replaced over time with funding supplied by the Office of University Branding, through reallocation of their existing budgets, which are not being augmented to allow for this transition.
Orientation and Compliance
Tomorrow, April 26, University Branding will release a comprehensive new online usage guide at brand.gmu.edu that gives guidance on how to use the new logo. Brand staff will immediately offer ongoing training and orientation, with outreach that began last week to unit staffers in communications, marketing, digital strategy, creative services, and events. In accordance with University Policy 1111, compliance with these brand guidelines is mandatory. Compliance decisions are the responsibility of the Office of University Branding, formerly the Office of Communications and Marketing. Questions on compliance should be directed to creative@gmu.edu.
Adjustment
New logos are often an acquired taste—it’s human nature to view changes like these with a certain amount of reluctance. I encourage everyone to give yourselves time to acclimate to this new look, and help integrate it into our operations by adopting it as soon as you practically can.
Sincerely,
Gregory Washington
President