University of South Florida Logo PNG
The university considers learning an integral part of life and development. Education provides a basis for a future career and allows you to benefit your homeland. The USF logo shows the importance of perseverance and persistence along the way.
USF (University of South Florida): Brand overview
| Founded: | December 18, 1956 |
| Headquarters: |
Tampa, Florida, United States |
| Website: | usf.edu |
USF is an acronym for the University of South Florida, Florida’s premier R1-level research and educational institution. It is the eleventh largest institution of higher education in the United States. It is home to 14 colleges, where students complete more than 200 degrees at four levels of study – undergraduate, graduate, professional, and doctoral. USF is highly scholarly, with faculty, alumni, and students holding a total of about 2,400 patents. It also has the National Academy of Inventors, Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, and athletic teams. Their representatives participate in the American Athletic Conference and compete in NCAA Division I. The university is located in Tampa, with chapters in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. The year it opened was 1956.
The University of South Florida is the first university built in the 20th century. Its progenitor is considered to be Samuel Gibbons, a politician who represented the state’s interests in the U.S. Congress. He managed to get a modern institute of higher education to appear on the site of the former Henderson Airfield, which was in operation during World War II. Even though it was established in 1956, its official name was given to it later, and classes started only in 1960. The first graduation was in 1963. Now, this educational institution is recognized as the most prestigious in the system of public universities in the south of the country, so now its identity is recognized in all parts of the world.
Meaning and History
The university-wide emblem is associated with the image of Golden Brahman, later renamed bull. The students chose it as a mascot, who voted for it in 1962. Since then, he has accompanied most of the university’s official paraphernalia, including the logo. The bull’s head with cool horns is harmoniously stylized with the first letter of USF’s name. The front part of the sign has several transitions, diagonal lines, and cuts, which resemble a muzzle of a cloven-footed animal. The horns are directed upwards. They are rounded and widened at the base but narrowed closer to the top. Symbol outlined in a thin band of gold color.
On the right side is the phrase “University of South Florida.” It is divided into two lines and aligned on the left side. “University of” at the top and “South Florida” at the bottom. The basic emphasis is on the second row: a large, bold font is used there, while the letters in the first row are small and thin.
The USF seal is round in shape and is classic in structure. It consists of two basic components: the middle and the border. The center, highlighted by a golden beige ring, depicts a transparent globe. On it is the North American continent, and on top of it is a wide grid of parallels and meridians. This object is located on the right side. On the left is a makeshift sun. It has a circular middle, surrounded by a white-crowned edge. From it, large rays diverge in different directions. They are long and spiky. This image emphasizes the region’s hot climate where the university is concentrated.
The educational significance of the USF is evidenced by the lamp at the bottom, from which a flame shoots out. It takes center stage between two ribbons bearing the words “TRUTH” and “WUISDOM. Surrounding everything is a wide, light-colored band with the name of the university and the year of its creation. The lettering is in uppercase, thin letters with miniature serifs.
1956 – 2018
The old academic logo of the University of South Florida consisted of two parts. Approximately one-third of the space was occupied by the abbreviation “USF” in a dark green vertical rectangle. The letters themselves were golden and dynamic, thanks to the contrasting typeface, which had major and minor strokes of varying thicknesses.
On the right side was a wordmark – the inscription “UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA,” divided into two lines. This phrase was typed in capital glyphs with narrow and long serifs. The designers used the same dark green color for the university’s full name as for the quadrilateral and drew a long horizontal line of gold between the two levels.
2018 – 2019
In September 2018, the new logo debuted to a huge response from USF students and alums. The audience did not like the lime green bull, which was depicted in a minimalistic style using a negative space effect and was very reminiscent of the Merrill Lynch logo. The name of the educational institution was written on the right, for which the designers chose a custom font. The name of the university consisted of asymmetrical sans-serif letters. The capital “U,” “S,” and “F” with empty spaces stood out the most, as well as the italic preposition “of.”
It is known that at first, it was planned to use the Iconic Bull U, a symbol of sports teams, for the University of South Florida logo. But then the concept changed, and it was decided to create a new drawing from scratch. The animal pose was inspired by sculptures located at different campuses. The regal posture comes from the bull from Tampa, the curly tail from USF Sarasota-Manatee, and the upturned head from USF St. Petersburg. The university changed its logo once in March 2019, at the cost of nearly $8,000. The redesign process took five months, but in the end, it turned out that the bull, unloved by everyone, remained, and only the shape of the tail and the location of the hind leg changed.
2019
On May 6, 2019, it became known that the University of South Florida was ready to return to its classic green and gold color palette and abandon the logo that students and alums did not like. Instead, it was decided to use the Bull U badge, made famous by the USF sports teams. In the initial version, a horned “U,” stylized as a bull’s head, was located on the left side, and the name of the educational institution occupied the right side. The letters in all words, except for the reduced preposition “OF,” matched in size. They were fat and elongated vertically. Between the text and the emblem, there was a demarcation line in a golden hue.
2019 – today
In less than a few months, the designers re-released the logo. The new version contains an inscription with more varied fonts. Now the largest is the phrase “SOUTH FLORIDA” in the second line. The word “UNIVERSITY” is half the size, and the preposition “of” is almost invisible because it is written in small and thin letters in lowercase. There is no dividing vertical strip in this version of the emblem.
Font and Colors
The primary basis of all USF’s visual identity marks is a Florida bull breed called the Golden Brahman. And the bull was specifically chosen because cattle breeding is a major economic factor in the region. The first vote for the mascot took place in 1962, the next one – in 1980 when everyone realized a mistake in the name, which made the teams look unpleasant.
The USF seal uses the Univers family typeface, otherwise the Garamond. A custom font is also present. The official colors of the university are green and gold. They are used in all versions of the university’s identity.
USF (University of South Florida) color codes
| Bottle Green | Hex color: | #006747 |
|---|---|---|
| RGB: | 0 103 71 | |
| CMYK: | 100 0 31 60 | |
| Pantone: | PMS 3415 C |
| Lion | Hex color: | #cfc493 |
|---|---|---|
| RGB: | 207 196 147 | |
| CMYK: | 0 5 29 19 | |
| Pantone: | PMS 4535 C |
