For the second year in a row Pentagram has created a series of banners and posters touting Loyola Marymount University’s academic rankings and the achievements of the school’s students, faculty and alumni. The ambitious banner program and an accompanying poster series, lovingly referred to internally as the “swagger” campaign, dominates the university’s well-manicured, Southern California campus situated on a high ridge looking out over the city of Los Angeles.
Founded in 1911, Loyola Marymount University is a top-ranked Catholic university rooted in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions. The institution’s multi-pronged mission is the encouragement of learning, the education of the whole person, the service of faith and the promotion of justice but the school has also garnered an impressive tally of rankings. Pentagram’s charge was to publicize LMU’s academic excellence and to communicate the achievements of its students, faculty and alumni visually and verbally on and around campus.
One series of banners highlights the school’s recent accomplishments and academic rankings in bold, all-caps typography and features the word-mark “LMYOU,” a playful twist on Loyola Marymount University’s acronym LMU. The LMYOU logotype developed by the Pentagram team for the campaign, with its emphasis on the word “You,” underscores the university’s commitment and appreciation of its people–the human capital that makes this highly respected Jesuit institution excellent. In addition to the banners and posters LMU rolled out an array of short and long-sleeve T-shirts, baseball caps and other promotional paraphernalia so the student body could show their school pride.
Accompanying the typographic rankings campaign are a complimentary series of banners and posters featuring black-and-white portraits, photographed by the university’s award-winning photographer Jon Rou, of accomplished LMU students, faculty and alumni. The simple studio portraits shot against a white, seamless background are paired with short, pithy explanations of their achievements.
An additional series of commencement banners were strategically placed along the busy thoroughfares leading in and out of the sprawling campus on Lincoln and Franklin Boulevards. This special set of off-campus banners celebrating the university’s outstanding graduates included portraits of LMU’s 2016 honorary degree recipients Steve Mosko, the former Chairman of Sony Entertainment, and the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Pentagram previously designed LMU Magazine, the school’s alumni publication.
