Skip to main content

Arts SU sports clubs and societies

Last updated:
18 August 2025

A football team at the end of the match celebrating with their trophy.
Arts SU Varsity winning football team, 2025, UAL | Photograph: Emily Waters

Though the Arts SU is a separate brand from UAL, we want to help students in Arts SU sports clubs and societies to understand how they’re able to use the UAL brand in their activities. As creative arts students, we know you will understand the importance of brand, licensing and intellectual property.

Arts SU sports clubs and societies should choose a name that is as descriptive as possible. If the society wants to show their connection with the University, they can use ‘University of the Arts London’ or ‘UAL’ before their name, but this is not a requirement.

Arts SU sports clubs and societies shouldn’t choose a name or acronym that might cause confusion between the sports club/society and any UAL courses or activities.

Sports clubs and societies can use the acronym ‘UAL’ in their sports club or society logos but cannot incorporate the UAL logo(s) or brandmark as part of their logos.

Many of the UAL logo(s) are registered trade marks; if third parties like Arts SU sports clubs and societies use our registered trade marks as part of custom logos, this can cause brand confusion and result in potential infringements.

These are existing examples of a sports club and society logos which align with our guidelines, using the acronym ‘UAL’, but not using the registered trade mark:

Two simple, graphic logos for UAL book club and surf club, respectively. The UAL book club logo on the left shows a blue illustration of an open book while the other illustration on the right shows a surf board, a smiling star shape, a wave and a sun.
UAL Book Club and Surf Club logos, 2025, Arts SU

Sports clubs and societies can use ‘UAL’ or ‘University of the Arts London’ in their social media handles if it is part of their name.

However, sports clubs and societies should make it clear that they’re independent from UAL by stating their relationship to Arts SU in their bio and by tagging the official Arts SU account on the social media platform they are using.

There is an existing agreement between the Arts SU and UAL for sports clubs to use the UAL logo on sports kits.

All uses of the UAL logo by official Arts SU sports clubs must be agreed by both the Arts SU and UAL before any sports kit is produced.

A collage of two images. The image on the left shows a basketball team inside a gym, posing for a group photo with three people stood up holding a Varsity Winners sign. The image on the right shows another student in UAL branded kit for outdoor hockey, smiling at the camera.
(left) UAL basketball kit, Arts SU, 2025 | Photograph: Orion Hall Turner; (right) UAL hockey kit, Arts SU, 2025 | Photograph: Sophia Nasif

On most occasions, it’s best for Arts SU sports clubs and societies to only use their own name and/or logo for an event they are hosting. However, there are occasions where an event may benefit from the use of the UAL brand as well to build upon existing familiarity.

Societies and sport clubs therefore need to consider how they will be using the UAL brand for an event using the following criteria:

Event criteria

  1. Decide the role that the UAL brand will take for the event: support or endorsement or lead brand.

    2. The UAL brand has a support or endorsement role if:

    • Another brand is the lead, not UAL.
    • The UAL name and/or logo is used to support or endorse the event on any marketing material.

    If societies and sports club want to use the UAL brand in a supporting or endorsement role, please refer to the support in writing and don’t use any of the UAL logos. They do not need to refer to the rest of the criteria.

    The UAL brand is the lead if:

    • ‘University of the Arts London’/‘UAL’ is in the title/name of the event itself.
    • The UAL logo is the most visible logo.
    • Other elements of the UAL brand are used, such as typeface, colour palette or imagery.

    If societies and sport clubs want to use UAL as the lead brand, they will need to consider the rest of the following criteria.

  2. Staff involvement

    3. Sports club and society events using the UAL brand need to have the support, oversight or involvement of a permanent UAL staff member.

    Sports clubs and societies should seek advice from the Events team at the College at which they want to host the event in relation to the UAL speaker policy, UAL health and safety policy and Freedom of Speech legislation, as well as room bookings at the College if required. The Arts SU can put societies in touch with the relevant contacts.

  3. Duration

    4. Societies and sport clubs need to consider whether the event will be a one-off or part of a continuing series.

    Continuing use of the UAL brand may require separate licensing agreement to be agreed between the society and the UAL Legal Services team.

  4. International or domestic

    5. Societies and sport clubs need to consider whether the event will be hosted domestically in the UK or internationally.

    UAL’s trade marks are only registered in certain territories and in certain classes, you can check where they are registered through WIPO’s Global Brand Database. In cases where a sports club or society may want to organise an event where our trade marks are not registered, then the society will incur any costs related to the registration.

Approval

Once all criteria have been considered, sports club and societies must:

  • Get the use of the UAL brand for an event approved by the Arts SU Community Development team. Please contact events@su.arts.ac.uk to seek approval.
  • Get the use of the UAL brand for an event approved by a member of the UAL or College Events team.
  • Get the use of the UAL brand for an event approved by the UAL brand team by providing visual mock-ups of how the UAL brand is intended to be used as part of any event collateral.

Any Arts SU sports club or society using the UAL brand must make sure that any activity does not bring the UAL brand into disrepute. Any such instances or improper use of the UAL brand may result in disciplinary action from the Arts SU, which will be escalated to UAL if necessary.