Chancellor Andrew Martin announced that the University is changing its logo to“WashU,” alongside other new marketing. (Jacob Fisher | Student Life).

Washington University in St. Louis has released a new logo — rebranding as simply WashU — as part of a larger storytelling campaign that aims to raise the University’s profile, per an email from Chancellor Andrew Martin, Aug. 16. While the official name of the University itself is not changing, the new WashU logo is being used on all websites and is being rolled out in signage and merchandise on campus. 

Additionally, the WashU website now features a collection of stories in a series called “This is what WashU can do” — which includes law students working to right injustices in the legal system, undergraduate alums creating a new breakfast cereal, and engineers looking to create sustainable plastic. In his email, Martin wrote that these vignettes are the first push in the University’s plan to highlight WashU’s mission through similar storytelling campaigns. 

In an article from The Source, Martin claimed that despite WashU’s successes, it does not receive the same acclaim that peer universities do. 

Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, explained the decision in the same article, saying that the number of institutions with similar names can cause confusion. 

“[W]hile there are many ‘Washingtons,’ there is only one ‘WashU.’ This update allows us to lean into who we are and what distinguishes us from our academic peers,” Flory wrote. 

When WashU was first founded in 1853, it was initially meant to be named “Eliot Seminary,” after co-founder and minister William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr. After Eliot decided that he did not want the University to be named after him, he formed a subcommittee that landed on the name “Washington Institute,” named after George Washington. 

The name was officially changed to Washington University in 1857 and was amended to include the phrase “in St. Louis” in 1976 due to the fact that 20 colleges in the U.S. include the name Washington. 

The article states that a full transition to the new visual identity will take 2-3 years in both physical and digital spaces. The Marketing and Communications website also published an FAQ document to address other questions. 

“We’re working on a longer timeline to maximize resources and limit disruption to campus spaces and services,” Martin wrote in his email. “So don’t be surprised if you see a mash-up of ‘old’ and ‘new’ visual identities for awhile longer.”