Bringing a Campus Brand to Life—Together

Loyola University Chicago is a place where history and ambition coexist. Its campus reflects more than 150 years of academic excellence, with storied buildings alongside modern facilities and spaces that express what the university stands for.

When Loyola partnered with Thysse to enhance several campus facilities, the shared goal was clear: strengthen the university’s brand presence in ways that honor its character, energize its community, and welcome the next generation of Ramblers.

What began as an initial engagement has grown into an ongoing campus partnership. Multiple projects have been completed, additional work is underway, and a strong collaborative foundation has developed among Thysse and Loyola’s facilities, planning, marketing, and athletics teams.

The first steps in the partnership centered on two important campus facilities: the Sullivan Welcome Center and the Mullady Golf and Softball Training Center.

Each presented a distinct opportunity to express Loyola’s brand within an environment that carries meaning for students, families, student-athletes, recruits, and campus visitors.

The Sullivan Welcome Center is one of the first places prospective students and their families experience Loyola. The goal was to create a branded environment that felt authentically Loyola while elevating the space to reflect the energy, character, standing and ambition of the university.

Working with Loyola and its project partner, Power Construction, Thysse helped execute an environmental graphics package that brought cohesion, warmth, and Loyola pride to the space. Materials and finishes were selected to complement the building’s distinguished architectural character, with close attention to fit, finish, and visual continuity across surfaces.

One of the project’s most celebrated features is the Loyola “selfie sign”—a 12-foot-by-5-foot metal monument sign positioned at a natural endpoint of campus tours overlooking Lake Michigan.

The Mullady Golf and Softball Training Center gave Loyola’s student-athletes a dedicated, purpose-built home—and created an opportunity to bring the Ramblers’ athletics identity to life throughout a dynamic, multilevel space.

Designed by RDG and built out by Power Construction, the facility integrates with Loyola’s broader athletics program. Thysse led the production and installation of the environmental graphics package, including large-format wall graphics, rigid graphic panels, illuminated signage, and branded flooring treatments.

Careful attention was given to how each graphic would perform and appear across different materials, architectural conditions, and viewing distances. Color consistency was especially important, helping the various components read as one cohesive branded environment.

The completed space makes the pride, ideals and identity of Loyola Athletics tangibly accessible to student-athletes, recruits and visitors. These expressions of brand, culture and expectation amplify and enhance the outcomes facilities like this are created for.

Loyola’s campus is defined by architectural character—materials, textures, and surfaces that reflect both its history and its continued evolution. Thysse’s approach to material selection followed a straightforward principle: every element should enhance the space around it rather than compete with it.

For surfaces with distinct textures and architectural characteristics, Thysse specified graphic materials and adhesive systems suited to the application. Wallcoverings, rigid panels, and vinyl graphics were evaluated and tested to support consistent color, alignment, adhesion, and finish across a wide range of install conditions.

That attention became especially important where graphics transitioned between materials, wrapped architectural corners, or extended across large features. Planning and product testing helped ensure the individual components worked together visually while performing appropriately within their environments.

The result is brand experience that feels integrated into the architecture rather than simply applied to it.

University campuses are complex environments. Facilities, planning, marketing, athletics, architects, contractors, and other stakeholders may each oversee different aspects of a project and the brand experience it creates.

Thysse’s experience with large and often diverse stakeholder priorities helps projects like this progress smoothly.

Throughout the Loyola projects, the team coordinated with relevant decisionmakers to document concepts, confirm materials and placements, manage approvals, and prepare for installation. A disciplined presentation and proofing process helped keep decisions clear, reduce surprises, and align the finished work with the approved vision.

Phil Pitluck, who leads the Loyola relationship for Thysse, brings more than 30 years of environmental graphics experience to the work. That background helped bring these first two projects in on time and budget.

Thysse currently has multiple active Loyola projects underway, including additional facility branding, classroom enhancements, architectural column treatments, and continued athletics work.

The relationship continues to expand across more campus locations, more Loyola teams, and more opportunities to bring the Ramblers’ brand to life in spaces that matter.

As the partnership grows, so will the story.