ST. LOUIS – A new school year leads to a new look for Washington University in St. Louis. The institution unveiled a rebranded logo on Friday, featuring the shorter name “WashU.”

WashU is a longtime colloquial name for the university, founded in 1853 and named after first U.S. President George Washington .

The university shared a video Friday on its social media channels promoting its “WashU” identity, also elaborating on the impact of the name change in a separate YouTube video .

Organizers of the rebrand are hopeful to promote a new visual identity for WashU that reflects its “contributions in education, research and patient care,” according to a news release . It also aims to highlight the university’s people and programs.

“WashU has a proud history and a strong reputation as a top university, but we definitely fly under the radar relative to some of the institutions we consider to be our academic peers,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “Members of the WashU community — students, faculty, staff and alumni — are impacting the world daily, often in ways that are imperceptible to the public. We have an opportunity and an obligation to tell these stories in new ways and to the right audiences, to share with the world what WashU is and what we can do.”

As of Friday, the university its primary logo from “Washington University in St. Louis” to “WashU,” accompanied by an updated and modernized university shield. This change has also appeared on the university’s website , campus signage and merchandise.

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The logo update is part a collaborative, multi-year process led by the university’s Marketing & Communications department. A full transition to the new visual identity could take up to three year, and in certain physical spaces the full, formal name of the university will remain for posterity.

“WashU is a complex organization. It’s important that we’re responsible stewards of university resources, and that this update causes as little disruption to campus operations as possible,” said Mike Bulthaus, associate vice chancellor for university marketing. “It won’t be long before everything is ‘WashU,’ and we know it’ll be worth the wait.”

NOTE : Photos and videos provided by Washington University in St. Louis, aka “WashU.”

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