Visual Elements That Tell Our Story
Unlike logos or official marks, embellishments are flexible graphic devices that can be used individually, combined, or adapted to create distinctive layouts across a wide range of applications.
Our embellishments are designed to enhance your story. Use them with intention, giving each element room to breathe and support the story you're trying to tell.
When in doubt, keep it simple: the strongest designs let your content shine.
Four Primary Brand Embellishments
Cornerstone
Inspired by the red brick architecture found throughout campus, Cornerstone conveys gravitas, legacy, and a strong foundation for learning and discovery. When separated into its individual components, the form takes on the appearance of a viewfinder, creating opportunities to direct attention toward key content or imagery.
Recommended uses:
- Frame or anchor important headlines and messages.
- Emphasize focal points in photography or infographics.
- Rotate, stack, or break apart to balance layouts and photos.
Download Cornerstone Embellishments - CMYK | RGB
Desert Star
Desert Star captures the energy, optimism, and sense of possibility that define the University of Arizona. Its radiating form draws inspiration from the university seal, campus palm trees, fireworks, and moments of celebration across campus. The embellishment can be used as a complete graphic or as individual rays and components, depending on the composition and design need.
Recommended uses:
- Add movement, joy, and energy to layouts.
- Rotate, repeat, or resize to break up dense, dark, or hard-to-print imagery.
- Place beneath text for added readability without overwhelming primary content.
Focus Point
Inspired by architectural details found in the Student Union Memorial Center, Centennial Hall, and traditional tilework around campus, the Focus Point conveys connection, perspective, and discovery. The shape also evokes familiar instruments of inquiry, such as a telescope lens, microscope, or aperture, reinforcing the university's commitment to curiosity and advancing knowledge.
Recommended uses:
- Zoom in or crop out photographic elements.
- Frame faces, copy, or data points within layouts.
- Versatile component parts introduce organic or geometric shapes into layouts.
Steward ("Stewie")
Stewie is inspired by arched architectural features found across campus, including Steward Observatory, the windows of Centennial Hall, and the entrance to Bear Down Gym. Its silhouette also references elements of the Sonoran Desert landscape, connecting the university's built environment with its geographic setting.
Recommended uses:
- Stewie’s organic shape softens hard corners in graphs/charts or angular imagery.
- Create repeating patterns or textures in layouts.
- Use it as a container for headlines, pull quotes, text blocks, or hard data.
- The Stewie Block A container is available upon request from MarCom.
Brand Textures
Our brand textures are built to add subtle layers of energy and mood to our visual identity. Unlike embellishments, which often live in the foreground of a design and may direct the viewer’s eye toward essential information, textures serve as backdrops that add subtle depth where needed, always enhancing – and in service of – the larger message or story.
Textures can provide space, quiet motion, atmospheric layers, or dynamic energy depending on the needs of your main message or story.
When used thoughtfully with embellishments and copy, they provide added oomph to a pithy headline or serve as a visual softener, providing a pleasing background for the reader’s eye to absorb dense chunks of text or creating flow between content blocks.
Three Brand Textures
Array
Array provides a sense of direction making it the perfect visual teaser to invite a reader to flip a page in a printed piece, or to imbue a sense of progress and momentum into Letters from the Dean, annual reports, or even student recruitment materials.
Monsoon
Monsoon provides a sense of linear movement and can sit nicely beneath text columns or provide subtle scrolling reminders in a web environment.
Interlock (Stewie)
Interlock communicates integration and cohesion. It reinforces moments where collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and shared purpose are central. Try pairing it with collaborative lab or classroom imagery. Interlock works best when not confined by borders.
Brand Guidelines
Access a downloadable PDF featuring embellishment assets, recommended applications, and the complete University of Arizona brand system.