George Mason on Thursday unveiled a new streamlined logo for the university and its athletics department, replacing a pair of separate marks the Fairfax County school had used for the past 20 years. The new logo features an interlocking “GM” in George Mason’s traditional green and gold colors, which were voted upon by the student body in 1965.
The open ends of the letters in the new logo symbolizes the “multiple entry points and pathways to success,” according to a school release. “An interior gold shape hugged by green on both sides depicts the university’s signature diversity and inclusivity. The clean lines represent the university’s efficiency and pragmatism.”
“This new look is our reintroduction to the community, and a symbol of our commitment to the fundamentals: outstanding and rigorous academics, pragmatic career preparation and internships, flexibility and value, and an atmosphere of belonging for everyone,” George Mason President Gregory Washington said in a statement.
Ologie, a Columbus, Ohio-based branding and marketing agency, provided market research, strategy and design for the project, which was supported by George Mason’s Office of University Branding and is the culmination of a three-year rebrand.
At the request of Paul Allvin, George Mason’s chief brand officer, Marvin Lewis, who began his tenure as George Mason’s athletic director in July, provided feedback over the past year as the university moved closer to finalizing its new look. Lewis had experience with redesigns at several of his previous stops, including Brown, where he led a brand and visual identity refresh in 2022.
“This is an opportunity to truly galvanize and unify the campus community,” Lewis said in a phone interview. “Instead of athletics having a separate identity, I felt like it was imperative for us to maintain the university’s identity.”
Indeed, the new logo, a black-and-white version of which was obtained by the student-operated Mason Cable Network earlier this week, will create a consistent look across George Mason’s academic and athletic programs. In the fall of 2004, the school unveiled an 'M' logo featuring a stylized quill pen for the university and a separate logo — a shooting star over an arced “MASON” wordmark — for the Patriots’ athletic programs.
George Mason is the only Division I school to use the ‘GM’ monogram in its logo, which Lewis said was an important factor when it came time to choose between an interlocking ‘GM’ and several stand-alone ’M’ options during the rebranding process.
“There are a lot of Ms out there, even locally, with the University of Maryland, Marshall, etc.,” Lewis said. “We would be the only ‘GM’ in Division I athletics, and I felt like that truly aligned with our university’s uniqueness and would set us apart as we go out in the community to recruit student-athletes.”
(George Mason’s brand portfolio has included an interlocking ’GM’ logo in a Tuscan typeface since 2017, but the school decided to go in a different direction with its new sans serif look.)
Lewis suggested a secondary mark, perhaps related to the school’s Patriot mascot, could be added in the future. In the meantime, the athletics department’s shooting star logo will be discontinued from regular use, though the legacy marks will be used in special circumstances.
While dated, the shooting star logo will always occupy a special place in school history. Two years after it was introduced, George Mason’s men’s basketball team, led by coach Jim Larranaga, made a memorable run to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. Tony Skinn, who just finished his first season as the Patriots’ coach, was a standout guard on that team.
“[The shooting star] is something that resonated during that period of time, but like anything else, our university is evolving, our athletic department is evolving, higher education is evolving,” said Lewis, who was captain of the Georgia Tech team that finished runner-up to Connecticut in the 2004 NCAA tournament. “We have to evolve as well. We want to honor 2006 and the run that we went on, but also look forward and chart a new path.”
