This morning, Emily Carr University president Ron Burnett unveiled the institution's brand new visual identity, in anticipation of its move to a new campus in its own purpose-built facility on Great Northern Way this fall.

Dr. Burnett shared the new logo and the concept behind it at the school's current location on Granville Island.

"This new logo represents the history and future of Emily Carr University," said Burnett to media in attendance. 

In a press release, the president called the new identity an expression of the institution's "current vitality and future aspirations, as our school ascends as one of the eminent educational institutions of art and design, not only in North America, but in the world."

The new logo, designed by Camp Pacific, features a palette of colours developed by professors Landon Mackenzie and Ben Reeves, based on shades that the university's namesake, Emily Carr, used in her paintings of British Columbia's west coast.

Burnett called the design a semblance of "painterly swishness", and one that is intentionally simple in its shape. The vivid colours layer and overlap in a way that is meant to reference the transformative and accretive process of learning. 

The design was developed over a year-long process of consultation with faculty and staff.

Emily Carr University's new campus in Vancouver's False Creek Flats will open in September. The 285,000-square-foot building will feature windows highlighted with colours from the same palette used in the logo. 

"Our new building will be a bridge between the east and west of Vancouver," said Burnett. "It's the first time in 90 years that Emily Carr will have its own home."

The 18-acre site where the facility is being completed was first donated to the institution in 2001, and a plan to develop it has been in place for decades.

Burnett said that False Creek Flats is quickly becoming "the new place where the city will define itself", as more than 40 projects in the area are either underway or awaiting approval. 

He expects the institution to be fully moved into the new location at the end of August. An official grand opening will be held on November 16.