After nearly a year of research, meetings with more than 300 stakeholders, and refining draft after draft, Trinity University unveiled today an updated brand: a new logo, a new website, and a new way of telling its story that reflects the school’s distinction as a national liberal arts and sciences university on the rise.
The new website, at the same address, trinity.edu, employs the new messaging and visual identity while making it easier to navigate thousands of pages of information. Read more about the website.
“The refreshed brand is an evolution of the university’s message, not a reinvention,” said Tom Evelyn, vice president for Strategic Communications and Marketing (SCM), whose team led the branding effort. “Throughout the process, we stayed keenly aware of Trinity’s history, and drew directly from it, while sharpening the language we use to describe where we are today.”
To stay competitive and relevant, all brands need to evolve to reflect their current mission, values, and ambitions, said Mario Gonzalez, Ph.D., a marketing professor in the Department of Business Administration who specializes in brand storytelling. Gonzalez is also a “brand ambassador,” a group that includes students, faculty, staff, and alumni who provided input about the brand and how to implement it and who will continue to support its adoption.
“Trinity has come a long way since our founding days in the small town of Tehuacana, Texas. Ours is a history of vision, and also of perseverance, that steeled us into the university we are today,” said Trinity University President Vanessa B. Beasley, Ph.D. “Now we are increasingly a university of national prominence and responsibility, and one where faculty and staff still know students by name. Our refreshed branding will help us tell the university’s story more precisely and eloquently, further distinguishing us within U.S. higher education.”
Trinity’s Upward Trajectory
After spending decades as U.S. News & World Report’s top-ranked liberal arts and sciences university in the Southwest region, Trinity moved into the national category in 2023, ranking No. 55. It climbed to No. 37 in this year’s ranking.
During a similar period, annual financial giving to the university grew, highlighted by three transformative gifts: $25 million to name the Michael Neidorff School of Business, $26.5 million to name the D. R. Semmes School of Science, and $25 million to name the Carlos Alvarez School of Arts and Humanities.
In 2025, the university’s endowment fund passed $2 billion, placing it among the top 15 liberal arts universities. The investments have enabled the university to offer more scholarships and opportunities for students, such as more study abroad programs, more research, and more internships, without having to grow class sizes, even though the number of applications has been at record highs.
A Brand Rooted in History
The brand refresh builds on Trinity’s 157-year-old foundation as a liberal arts and sciences university. Gloriana Cardenas, director for strategic communications in SCM, helped lead the effort to create messaging that reflects the university’s current and aspirational position. Research identified a commitment to three core themes that will find their way into Trinity narratives:
- Learning With Purpose: Trinity students gain experience inside and outside the classroom that prepares them for meaningful careers and lives.
- The Value of Breadth: Students gain deep expertise across disciplines, combining the liberal arts with professional preparation and learning critical thinking, communication, and adaptability.
- The Power of Place: A small residential campus in a big city with the cultural diversity of San Antonio expands students’ perspectives and opens doors to educational experiences.
“When considering the themes and Trinity’s offerings, the partners we worked with suggested that if someone were to build the ideal university for the 21st century, they would build Trinity,” Evelyn said. “No other university in the country can offer what Trinity can offer. We want to make sure people know that.”
Trinity’s New Logo
An organization’s brand reflects its values, principles, and promise, but the visual representation is what people see first, and first among visuals is often the logo. Trinity used its seal as its primary visual identifier through most of its history until 2002, when Sharon Jones Schweitzer ’75, P’19, the assistant vice president of external relations at the time, led efforts that resulted in the first logo featuring Murchison Tower launching in 2003. Now, she says, it’s time for Trinity to embrace a new logo.
When she first saw the new logo, Schweitzer, who is also a brand ambassador, found it “striking. It reflects the aesthetics of the campus as well as the aspirational values Trinity is offering.” Compared to the tower, it gives a “stronger sense of place that’s broader than just campus.” Those qualities are necessary as Trinity increasingly competes nationally.
For inspiration, the SCM team, working with University Archivist Abra Schnur, looked all the way back in the university’s collections to the 19th century. “Less than a year after the university was founded, it created the official seal. And there on the seal is the sun representing knowledge and enlightenment,” said Anh-Viet Dinh ’15, director of creative strategy in SCM. Through the decades, on official papers and marketing material and yearbooks, there was the sun. “We’re really returning to the image that carried us from the start,” Dinh said. The Tiger logo for Trinity Athletics will not change.
Here Comes the Sun
Once the team realized the sun was a prominent image, they started seeing it everywhere on campus, Evelyn said. It’s carved into wood and stamped into tin in the Korbell Great Hall inside the Chapman Center. The shadows of the pillars along Northrup Hall and from the window frames in Coates Student Center stretch as the sun goes down.
The sunburst is made up of triangles that echo designs across campus. Its symmetrical, repeating pattern with negative space is a contemporary representation of mid-century modern design and an ode to architect O’Neil Ford, who designed the campus, and his woodworking brother, Lynn Ford, Dinh said.
“In short, the logo, like a Trinity education, is purposeful,” Dinh said.
Dinh and his team of designers created more visual elements to complement and amplify the messaging and the logo. An expanded color palette includes the Bridgeport pink of the buildings’ bricks, teal inspired by Miller Fountain, and a hot chili red taken from the chili pequin, the endearing pepper plant that grows throughout San Antonio. They also duplicated patterns found on doors, lanterns, and other design elements around campus. A brand toolkit is available online.
“In the end, Trinity’s brand is more than words or images. It’s our values, who we are, and what we do,” Evelyn said. “Trinity University is one of the best universities in the country, with devoted, expert faculty and staff, incredibly bright and hardworking students, and a broader community that cares deeply about our mission. That’s tough to boil down to a color or a logo, but we tried very hard, and I think our efforts reflect the university well.”