Loyola Marymount University Rolls Out New Identity

Pentagram Austin completed a rebranding of Los Angeles based Loyola Marymount University (LMU) last spring and following the official unveiling of the school’s new identity in March, DJ Stout and team were given the opportunity to roll-out the new visual system in several significant and dramatic ways.

The first order of business was to develop and finalize a comprehensive set of online style guidelines establishing the rules for using the new identity tools and ensuring the proper, consistent application of the system moving forward. In addition to the online resource, the Pentagram team created a four-page, quick reference guide. The condensed set of printed guidelines is a convenient, handy manual that university designers and other frequent users of the identity system can keep near their workstations.

Pentagram also designed a set of posters extending the unveiling of the new identity system into public areas on campus. For the posters the design team decided that showing the new identity on apparel, proudly worn by LMU students and faculty, would be the most effective way to show the new identity in action and its acceptance by the LMU family. The posters, displayed in elevators, hallways and lobbies in buildings across campus, feature portraits by LMU’s talented staff-photographer Jon Rou of well-known students and faculty showing off their new digs. Included in the series are star athletes, beloved professors and coaches and Iggy, LMU’s beloved lion mascot.

The second task was for the Pentagram team to create a short animated video that LMU’s Marketing and Communications group (MarCom) could use to introduce the new identity tools and demonstrate in a lively, engaging way how those elements work together to make the identity system come alive. The new animation, the second of two created by Pentagram, was presented online and at the subsequent “dog-and-pony shows” following the new identity’s release. To their credit, LMU’s MarCom team lead by John Kiralla and Maureen Pacino conducted over forty internal and public forums to explain the identity system to the university’s diverse, opinionated constituency.

Pentagram’s next assignment was to design a series of banners touting the new identity system on campus. Double-hung from rows of street-side poles, the banner campaign stretches all the way across LMU’s expansive, well-groomed grounds.

The banners feature the school’s new spirit mark; a lion’s face framed in a starburst graphic inspired by a 500 year-old Jesuit icon, the new primary academic identity; a “coat-of-arms” style shield made up of symbols for the university’s two founding schools–Loyola and Marymount, a symbol for the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the new lion spirit mark. The banners also display LMU’s new logotypes, typographic lock-ups, and “arched LMU” athletic word-mark.

Once the rollout of the new branding was well underway at the main campus Pentagram turned its attention to LMU’s sister institution Loyola Law School. A set of wordmarks and brand guidelines were developed for the law school, which has a separate campus located in downtown Los Angeles, and a banner campaign showing off the new identity–the first refresh of the school’s visual brand in nearly two decades. Now the law school, which had its own logo and different colors, has been brought under the umbrella of Loyola Marymount’s new brand identity so the two institutions look like they are in the same family.

In August, prior to the start of the new school year, LMU’s Gersten Pavilion basketball court was repainted and updated with the school’s new color scheme and “arched” athletic mark and new uniforms for men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball were debuted. The uniforms, designed by Adidas, also feature the fresh new colors, spirit mark and athletic logotypes developed by the Pentagram team.

Pentagram Austin continues to work with LMU on several new projects including the design and development of permanent signage at the two primary entrances to the main campus. Lasting tributes to Pentagram's decade long partnership with the top-tier Jesuit university.