UMD’s Queer and Allied Student Union (QASU), has adopted a new logo. Submissions were open to UMD students and freshman Mads Reineke’s design was chosen by the board.

At a general meeting earlier in the semester QASU told their members they were looking to update the logo. Mads submitted a few sketches of their design to the online form. In March the board notified them that their design had been selected as the new logo.

Mads identified a few elements of the logo they really tried to focus on. Especially the prismatic effect.

“If you’ve ever seen those spotlights of light of either CYMK [cyan, yellow, magenta, black] or RGB [red, green, blue] color schemes [in which] all the colors overlap and create different colors in the overlapping spaces,” Reineke explained. “I liked to take that idea and then integrate the gender symbols into it.”

The old logo had the gender symbols as well and Reineke wanted to keep that element in the new design. They took their concept of the colored lights and tied it in with the gender symbols.

Another element of the design is the incorporation of triangles. While not directly intentional it is a known symbol among the LGBTQIA+ community. Their triangle serves mostly for an aesthetic purpose to create repetition from the arrows in the gender symbols. However they recognized the history behind the symbol, dating back to WW2 when a pink triangle was used by Nazis to identify homosexual and bisexual men, trans women and other LGBTQIA+ prisoners.

“Beginning in the 70’s the pink triangle was reclaimed as a symbol to fight against homophobia,” Reineke said. “While my triangle isn’t pink, there is the fact that the history behind triangles in the LGBTQIA+ community should be acknowledged.”

Reineke expressed their appreciation for the club, saying even though it doesn’t always fit their schedule they are grateful QASU is here and they can go when they can.

“I come from a very supportive family but it’s fun to be able to hang out with people who are like me who can understand where I come from,” Reineke said. “It’s just a nice place to meet with people and have fun.”

Merchandise featuring the new logo is available for order online through Wednesday, April, 3rd. QASU general meetings are held every Wednesday, follow them on social media for more information about QASU and Gaypril.