The Stephen F. Austin athletic department released a new visual identity on Monday afternoon, which includes an updated primary mark, new alternate logos and associated wordmarks.
“We are excited to unveil our new family of logos and identity marks,” athletic director Ryan Ivey said in a statement. “These marks provide us with a diverse group of assets that will allow us to expand on our iconic primary mark with consistency across all platforms. As we continue towards our vision of becoming the leading mid-major athletics department in the nation, these marks provide us with a strong foundation of our visual identity.”
The updated primary logo retains many details from the previous mark, most notably the Texas state outline, the stacked “SFA” and the star pinpointing the location of the Lumberjacks’ Nacogdoches campus on the map. The beveling effect, two-tone coloring and gray outline were removed from the numbers and replaced with a brighter shade of purple, however.
Stephen F. Austin’s new secondary logo brings the Piney Woods that cover much of Arkansas, Louisiana and East Texas, as well as the university’s forestry roots, to the forefront of the Lumberjacks’ branding. It features a double-bladed axe with pine trees on one side and a star on the other as a nod to the Lone Star State and the Texas State Flag.
The new mark also features a bold new typeface that can be used with either the Lumberjack or Ladyjack moniker.
“Throughout this process, it was extremely important that we remained true to who we are,” Ivey said. “Our goal was to ensure that when any of the marks are visible, that you will always be able to identify it with SFA, the state of Texas and the Piney Woods. A consistent, readily identifiable story from mark to mark was paramount during this process.”
The double-bladed axe is carried over to Stephen F. Austin’s tertiary logo, though it’s turned on its side. The letters “SFA” stand in for the handle, while the a trio of grey-shaded pine trees site in the bottom half of the blade. Much like the secondary mark, the tertiary logo will be used for sport specific branding across the Lumberjacks’ 18 varsity programs.
Stephen F. Austin competes in the Southland Conference at NCAA Division I level in all sports except football, where the conference and program are both members of the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). The school was recently hit with a lack of institutional control for improperly certifying academic eligibility for 82 student-athletes in nine different sports between 2013-19.
The Lumberjacks were forced to vacate any games that included ineligible student-athletes — including a 2016 NCAA Tournament victory over West Virginia and 2015, 2016 and 2018 conference titles — and received a three-year ban from the postseason for the school’s baseball, men’s basketball, football and softball programs.
Photos via Stephen F. Austin State University.