Student Club and Org Guidelines

All students are responsible for ensuring proper use of UMBC’s name and identity when creating a name and/or logo for a student group. This includes any variations such as “University of Maryland, Baltimore County” or “UMBC Retrievers.”

It is not necessary for a student group to have a logo. Using the group name in type only is perfectly acceptable.

Student organizations may not use UMBC’s name or their affiliation with UMBC in any manner that may have the potential to suggest or imply UMBC endorsement, approval, support of, or opposition to events, activities, products, services, companies, policies, political and/or social movements, political candidates, and the like without prior UMBC approval.

Student organizations can use UMBC’s name in a locational sense or in order to balance the name of the group by clearly identifying themselves as a UMBC student organization. See below for some examples:

Student Club and Org wordmark examples

In the above examples, please note that numbers 1 and 2 use official UMBC wordmarks to represent the acronym.  In numbers 3 and 4, UMBC is represented with a font. Student Organizations should never represent the acronym in a way that looks like a recreation of an official UMBC wordmark. For example: don’t create your own arched UMBC (shown in example 2) or try to recreate the UMBC wordmark (seen in example 1).

T-shirts for student groups

From displaying spirited school messaging, advertising an event, bolstering engagement in a cause, or simply increasing student group exposure, t-shirts are a great tool. Student Clubs and Organizations are strongly encouraged to work with licensed vendors to produce their t-shirts. The Bookstore keeps a list of licensed vendors. Please note: If you are planning to sell shirts, all sales will be subjected to royalties.

Approval is based on, but not limited to:

  • Is the UMBC name used correctly?
  • How is UMBC iconography used; is it altered?
  • Is there any copyright or trademark infringement?
  • If there is messaging, does the addition of UMBC’s name or iconography create a message endorsement conflict?
  • If there is a student group logo, does it clearly identify itself as a student group, use the UMBC name in the locational sense only, and/or abide by the rules set forth by the UMBC visual guidelines, found on this site?

Graphic Options

UMBC Wordmark

UMBC wordmark
Please note: this mark can be colorized in a single color to fit your design.

Please visit this page to download.


Arched UMBC


Please visit this page to download.


Standing Retriever (Full-Dog includes silhouette)

Full dog retriever in multiple formats

Please note: the silhouette version (above right) is the only one that can have graphics, images, textures, or patterns added to it.

Please visit this page to download.


Official Paw Print

official paw variations
Please visit this page to download.


Please note: While you can find other variations of the UMBC identity package on our “downloads” page, Student Clubs and Organizations are encouraged not to use the Primary UMBC Retrievers mark as it is limited to Athletics materials and merchandise sold in the bookstore.