:: History

University Logo

The University logo was designed in 2004 by an outside company called Grafik. The company worked with the University to develop a new visual image for the institution. Before starting design, Grafik conducted a lot of research, including reviewing the logos of competitors, interviewing a number of people, taking a campus tour, and reviewing the University's publications and web site. The company also reviewed student and alumni surveys for more information about student views about the university. Grafik then developed a number of designs, which were reviewed by four focus groups representative of various university constituencies--alumni, faculty, staff, and students. The designers listened to their comments and incorporated these responses into the final design, which was then selected by the president.

The design challenge, as they saw it, was to capture the distinctive dual nature of George Mason--that of a university committed to the kind of educational excellence found at the best traditional universities, but within an extraordinary culture of innovation and diversity. They selected George Mason himself as the best embodiment of that dual nature. George Mason was strongly committed to traditional values, but at the same time he was a revolutionary, and was the author of one of the most innovative documents ever written--the Virginia Declaration of Rights. To symbolize George Mason, they selected as the logo graphic the quill, which is also used on the university's seal. But they transformed it into something contemporary, harder-edged, that also represents a flame and a sense of movement and energy that truly represent the university. And for the university's name, they used a combination of typefaces that suggests the diversity of Mason's campuses.