The history of the Ivy League, an American association of eight private universities, started in 1954. The universities of the league are considered to be the most prestigious in the United States and provide their students with the highest level of education possible.
The Ivy League is the world’s most famous association of universities, composed of eight of America’s oldest universities. The Universities of the league are Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Cornell University.
Seven of the Ivy League members were founded even before the United States gained its independence. The institutions are distinguished by their academicism and elitism: just as several centuries ago, children of political, scientific, and cultural figures, successful businessmen, as well as gifted students from all corners of the world study here.
The level of teaching, and, as a consequence, the requirements for students are extremely high. But all this allows the Ivy League universities to achieve outstanding results: according to such rankings as World University Rankings by Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings, the League universities are traditionally among the top 20 educational institutions in the world.
Despite its outstanding academic performance, the unification of the oldest universities in the United States was facilitated by the development of university sports. All Universities-members have their athletic programs competing within The Ivy League.
As for the name of the league, there are two main versions of how it came out. Firstly, there is a legend that the name “Ivy League” first appeared in the press to make the journalists‘ life easier, as they had to somehow call the athletic association in their articles. And the reason for “Ivy” was pretty primitive, as all the traditional old universities in the USA had a tradition of planting ivy shoots on the first day of the university foundation, hence the walls of the oldest universities were indeed covered with this plant.
But there is also another version of the name’s origin. According to it, a journalist used the epithet “ivy” in a disparaging context to show his displeasure with the slow, ivy-like growth of the Princeton and Columbia University soccer teams.
What is The Ivy League?
The Ivy League is the historic association of the sports teams of eight of the oldest private universities in the United States. Now the name is more commonly used to refer to a group of the country’s most prestigious universities.
As for the visual identity, the badge of the most prestigious intercollegiate league of the United States looks very elegant and traditional. It brilliantly reflects the spirit of the association and its heritage.
Taking into consideration the connotations of the member institutions, it is only natural that the Ivy League logo is muted and calm. It is not trying to make a statement by employing design. On the whole, it is not trying too hard.
And yet, despite its seeming simplicity, the design looks elegant and refined. The serifs on the letters are smooth and stylish, and they somehow rhyme with the ivy branch depicted to the left.
The bold and elegant Ivy League lettering on the logo of the association is set in a classy serif typeface with bold bars and small serifs on their ends, The font, closest to the one here is, probably, Nazanin Bold, or Palladio Bold, but that softened internal line on one of the “Y”s bars is the game-changer, adding individuality to the whole image.
As for the color palette of the Ivy League visual identity, it is set in the shades of green, closest to the natural ivy hue, but sometimes the badge can be seen in reverse colors when the green goes to the background, and all elements are being contoured in light gray.