ISBT Logo

The graphic mark, emblem or logo of the ISBT program has evolved since its inception in 1999. The logo has been used to represent the "trinity" of Science, Business and Technology within the program. The Logo serves as the graphic identity of the program to allow viewers to recognize information and displays that are associated with the Department of Integrated Science, Business and Technology.

Original Logo (1999)

The original ISBT Logo was chosen in 1999 from a small selection of choices. All of the designs included the triangular "pie wedge" in various orientations. The selected design contained three wedges representing the three areas of science, business and technology. The ISBT acronym appeared in lower case letters, as did the expanded acronym appearing along the bottom of the logo. The colors of blue and gold were selected in keeping with the school colors of La Salle University. The acronym used a serif font while the expanded acronym used a sans font. The three areas were separated using bullets rather than commas and conjunctions.

Original Logo in 3D (2000)

While retaining its primary characteristics, the original 1999 ISBT Logo was retouched in 2000 using 3D effects and shadows behind the text and wedges. The wedges gained a white outline and shadows that makes them appear as being stacked rather than on a single plane. The serif font in the acronym was thinned giving the logo a more agile appearance.

Concentration Logo (2005)

During the 2004-2005 academic year the ISBT Program contracted an advertising firm to design a website for the ISBT Program, produce printed promotional materials and to produce a digital compact disc containing video interviews with our current ISBT students and faculty. The firm redesigned the original 1999 Logo to include images in the wedges, each representing one of the three subject concentrations of Energy & Natural Resources (ENR), Informational & Knowledge Management (IKM), and Biotechnology(BIO). The thin font used for the acronym was similar to that used in the 2000 3D Logo. The color scheme was changed to pastels to emphasize a theme of conservation, ecology and sustainability -- advertising themes that were popular during the middle of the decade. The text of the expanded acronym was dropped from the logo.

ISBT Triquetra Logo (2010)

The curriculum in the Department of Integrated Science, Business & Technology underwent an "upgrade" in 2010. The new "ISBT2.0" curriculum blends the Information & Knowledge Management (IKM) concentration into the general courses taken by all ISBT majors regardless of concentration. The importance of IKM to each of the concentrations increased during the first decade of the ISBT Program such that many ISBT majors chose a dual concentration in ENR/IKM or BIO/IKM. This reduction to two concentrations resulted in the "Concentration Logo" no longer being applicable.

The ISBT "Triquetra" Logo incorporates the Triquetra symbol historically used to represent the concept of "trinity". As explained in Wikipedia, the original meaning of the word Triquetra was simply "triangle" and it has been used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it has come to refer exclusively to a particular more complicated shape formed of three vesicae piscis, sometimes with an added circle in or around it. This has been used as a religious symbol of things and persons that are threefold.

The Triquetra is used in the ISBT logo for its universality of representing the integration of things that are threefold. The ISBT Program integrates the subjects of

• Science
• Business
• Technology

into an integrated whole. The curriculum, which is based on General Systems Theory, contains a large number of trinary concepts, including:

• Input
• Process
• Output
• Energy
• Information
• Material
• Research
• Management
• Development

The colors of the Triquetra use the web standard school colors of La Salle University with the three vesicae piscis in Dark Blue and the integrating circle in Golden Yellow. In academic dress, Dark Blue represents Philosophy while Golden Yellow represents Science. These colors were chosen to represent the fundamental education in the Sciences within the ISBT curriculum which is used to integrate the philosophical understanding of all levels of General Systems Theory.

The ISBT acronym and expanded acronym text use the same font in black. The modern font Nyala, which shipped along with the Microsoft Vista operating system in 2007, was chosen to reflect the nascent nature of the department. The Nyala typeface is named for the mountain nyala (tragelaphus buxtoni) a species of great African antelope native to the highlands of Ethiopia. The font was designed to facilitate the typesetting of texts containing technical terms.

The expanded acronym appears along the bottom of the logo and uses a comma and an ampersand to conjoin the concepts of Science, Business and Technology rather than using the bulleted list form that appeared in the original logo. The expanded acronym is also sized to fit entirely under the acronym and Triquetra symbol to give the final logo a balanced appearance. All of the text and the Triquetra itself has drop shadows that impart a Web2.0 3D appearance.