New University identity unveiled with launch of new logo | Press Releases

Fairfield University has developed a logo for use by its six academic schools and all departments for stationery, advertisements and publications as a unifying visual identity for the university. The new look features the institution's name in New Baskerville typeface with a graphic of a shield that depicts a flowing white banner bearing a cross and a stag fording a stream.

The logo will be featured as a signature for ads and brochures while the University seal will continue in use for official documents such as diplomas, commencement programs and transcripts.

The graphic of the stag and banner was extracted from a section of the Fairfield seal created when the University was chartered in 1945. This section of the seal is a tribute to the Archdiocese of Hartford which assisted in the founding of the University since the stag or hart, another name for a male deer, is crossing a ford, a stream.

Fairfield's athletic teams are known as the Stags and the University's alma mater opens with the words: "Fairfield! See the stag with cross of gold rears once more its undefeated head. Fair our field, as any field of old, bids our banners, like our blood, be red."

According to the "Dictionary of Subjects of Symbols" by James Hall, the long flowing white flag bearing a red cross is the Christian symbol of victory over death, the banner of the Resurrection.

Until now, University departments have featured a variety of signatures and logos for advertisements and publications, including the seal. In the future, the seal will be restricted to official documents and the Athletic Department will continue to show the face of a stag that looks prepared for a fight.

Prior to developing this logo, Fairfield schools and departments relied on a variety of signatures and ad hoc logos for ads and brochures. The effort to create a unifying logo results in part from the need for an instantaneously recognized symbol as the recruiting of students and marketing of the University spread across the country.

The logo was unveiled at a special program held in the Barone Campus Center Lobby at which the Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., University President, spoke about Fairfield's achievements during the past decade, the Rev. Joseph MacDonnell, S.J., described the history of University seals dating back to 1945 when Fairfield was chartered by the state, and Associate Dean James Fitzpatrick served as master of ceremonies. As a highlight, Fr. Kelley pulled a cord rigged by the Maintenance Department and a 10-foot long banner with the new logo unrolled. The program also included Christopher Cipriano, president of the Fairfield University Students Association, and Paul Audley, first selectman for the Town of Fairfield, who received a Fairfield banner to be hung in the lobby of the town's Independence Hall.

At this time, Fairfield has 3,000 full-time undergraduate students, about 1,000 part-time and 800 graduate students - almost 5,000 students from 36 states and 34 countries.