Northwestern University maintains a layered visual identity system built around three distinct elements: the Northwestern N, the official University wordmark, and the University seal. The university’s brand guidelines describe the Northwestern N, the official wordmark, and school lockups as the core components of its logo and lockup system.[1]
Design and History
The Northwestern wordmark serves as the primary way to identify the University, connecting the entities within the institution. The preferred version displays simply “Northwestern,” while a longer “Northwestern University” version is reserved for audiences that may be unfamiliar with the institution, such as in admissions materials.[2]
In the formal lockup, the wordmark is paired with the official University seal. The seal is reserved for formal, high-profile, and sophisticated communications, including diplomas, commencement and convocation, formal events, and engravings and architectural etchings.[2]
The University seal carries the Latin motto “Quaecumque Sunt Vera,” meaning “Whatsoever things are true,” which the trustees adopted in June 1890 from Philippians 4:8.[3] The motto remains featured on the seal today.[4]
In 2001, Northwestern officials created a new logo to step up marketing efforts and combat a decline in applicants. The new logo was designed to replace the university’s seal, a purple-and-white circle containing the university’s motto, on most university documents. At the time, administrators said the seal had become “bastardized” and overused, and they planned to use it much less frequently while continuing to use the athletic “N” logo.[5]
The athletic “N” mark has its own distinct history. The Wildcats’ logo has undergone three modifications since 1959. The earliest logo, used from 1959 to 1967, featured a cartoon-style anthropomorphic wildcat wearing a helmet and holding a football. In 1981, the logo was replaced with a large stylized purple letter N with a snarling wildcat head emerging from a lower opening. In 2012, the logo was updated again to a more simplified design that retained only the letter N.[6] The 2012 athletic update coincided with Northwestern’s move from Adidas to Under Armour, which produced a new base logo for the athletic department.[7]
Meaning and Symbolism
Northwestern’s visual branding relies almost exclusively on a proprietary Northwestern Purple (Purple 100) and its tints and shades. The university describes this color as a heritage color, and the range of tones runs from Northwestern Purple 160 (darkest) to Northwestern Purple 10 (lightest). The official HEX code for Northwestern Purple is #4E2A84.[8]
The university states that leading with purple creates a striking and noticeable visual style that sets it apart from competitors, and its repeated and predominant use helps make Northwestern communications instantly recognizable.[1]
Typography and Design
Northwestern’s brand typography uses Campton and Akkurat Pro as its sans-serif fonts, with Periodico Display and Text as its serif font.[1] Campton works best for headlines and subheads at 17 points or larger, while Akkurat Pro serves as a typographic workhorse suitable for headlines, body copy, captions, and data display at sizes from 5 to 19 points. Periodico Text is meant for longer chunks of copy at smaller sizes.[9]
The university also created small-scale versions of its wordmark specifically for digital applications, in which the t and y in “University” are joined and letter spacing is adjusted for better readability. If the wordmark needs to appear smaller than the permitted minimum, the Academic N is used instead.[10]
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