The Loyola Marymount Lions are the athletic teams of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, competing in NCAA Division I as members of the West Coast Conference. The university’s athletics nickname is the Lions, with the mascot named Iggy, a reference to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order. The current athletics identity is part of a comprehensive university-wide visual identity system adopted in 2019.
Design and History
In December 2018, LMU President Timothy Law Snyder announced the approval of a new university identity system, which was officially unveiled in March 2019. The redesign was led by Pentagram’s Austin office, under partner DJ Stout, following a comprehensive brand initiative that began in 2017. The new system included four integrated marks: a redrawn university seal, a shield extracted from the seal, a lion “spirit mark,” and a redeveloped LMU “arch” logo for Athletics. [1]
The athletics mark, described as an “arched LMU” athletic wordmark, replaced the previous athletics logo that had been in use since 2008. That earlier mark featured arched custom initials “LMU” in crimson red with grey and dark blue trim. [2] [3]
Pentagram’s work for LMU was not its first for the university. The firm’s San Francisco office had designed LMU’s previous identity in 2003, a type-based system composed of the delicate Roman typeface Bodoni. That system became dated and less useful as digital platforms demanded smaller applications, prompting the university to seek a new direction. [4]
The redesign process was notably community-centered. LMU’s Division of Marketing and Communications organized nearly forty meetings and town hall forums to present the proposed identity to students, faculty, alumni and the public. Feedback collected through these forums and an online survey directly inspired a series of graphic refinements before the final system was adopted. [1] [4]
Meaning and Symbolism
The lion has been associated with Loyola since 1923, when the Loyolan student newspaper advocated adopting the lion as mascot after a fan remarked that Loyola’s football players were “as fierce as lions.” By the 1930s, Loyola’s athletes were known as the Lions. [5]
Within the 2019 identity system, the lion spirit mark combines the lion mascot with a distinctive “sunburst” mane based on the ancient Jesuit symbol for Jesus, often seen as a halo in Catholic art. Pentagram noted the mark also hints at a fiery sun, referencing “Sunny Southern California.” The spirit mark replaced the dated, “cartoony” lion logo athletics had been using. [4]
The university’s colors trace to its founding institutions. Loyola’s adopted school color was a dark maroon and Marymount’s was a pale blue. When Loyola merged with Marymount in 1973 to form Loyola Marymount University, the two colors were “uneasy bedfellows,” and over time the university developed two separate palettes, one for athletics and one for the academic institution. Pentagram looked back at the original colors of the two founding institutions, brightening the maroon toward a sportier crimson and finding a blue midway between Marymount’s original light blue and the darker blue it had evolved into. [4]
Today, LMU Crimson (PMS 207) represents the Jesuit tradition, and LMU Blue (PMS 2185) represents the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and Marymount traditions. [6]
Typography and Design
The 2019 identity system introduced a typographic palette of three typefaces. Metric, a sans serif designed by the Klim Type Foundry of New Zealand, serves as the primary LMU identity typeface, used in logo lock-ups, headlines and signage. Lyon, a serif developed by German designer Kai Bernau for Commercial Type in 2009, serves as the secondary typeface for body copy and longer text. Lyon Display, a more refined cut of Lyon Text, is used for oversized text areas such as headlines and pull quotes. [7] [4]
Pentagram noted that Lyon’s name coincidentally echoes the university’s “Lion” mascot. When Metric and Lyon are unavailable, Arial and Georgia are used as replacement fonts in the LMU visual identity system. [4] [7]
The athletics mark is reserved strictly for use by LMU Athletics programs and approved retail settings, appearing on team uniforms, official team gear and bookstore merchandise. It should never be used in place of the University Logo by academic or administrative units. [8] [9]
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