Branding Identity Guidelines
At its core, UArts’ brand is our reputation. It represents who we are as a university and stands for our aspirational goals and ideals. It embodies our values as perceived by the general public, our students, our faculty and staff, our alumni and our friends.
Communicating our ideals and values in a compelling and consistent way allows us to achieve important objectives for the University. It is a unified strategy that informs all levels of organizational planning and communications.
Through this coordinated strategy, we seek to systematically engage our varied and diverse audiences with a cohesive message about who we are, what we represent, and what differentiates us from our competitors.
By presenting our brand consistently, we can positively influence how people think and feel about UArts. And that means we can amplify our potential impact, whether by recruiting more high-achieving students and top faculty or raising more money to support programs and student scholarships.
The University of the Arts Style Guide was developed with one goal in mind: to create a shared visual identity that reflects the excellence and innovative vision of this institution. In the piece you will find guidelines for everything from logos to letterhead, social media icons to institutional photography, brochures to signage.
Our brand is very much alive, and it’s in your hands. Everything you say and do on behalf of UArts is part of that living brand. By using a consistent visual style, we can convey our messages more clearly and more effectively, ultimately helping us touch more lives.
Here you will find everything you need to help us exercise the UArts Brand. If you have any questions please contact marketing@uarts.edu.
Logos
This is our Standard Logo. It's used as our masthead. It should be considered the most universally applicable logo.
This is the Formal logo. It includes our tagline. Use this when "signing" multi-page communications.
All logo assets are located on the Portal. You need a @uarts.edu login to access them.
Download LogosPlease Note: In transitioning from one set of branding elements to another, there is always the question of what to do with existing physical materials that feature the older brand elements. We strongly recommend using up what you have produced already before adding the new brand to your marketing and communications collateral.
In making decisions about what materials to revise first, we advise prioritizing materials that are meant for external audiences.
Poor Logo
Usage
DO NOT PLACE THE BRAND SIGNATURE ON TEXTURED BACKGROUND.
Neither provides the necessary contrast for good legibility.
DO NOT TAKE OUT OR ALTER ELEMENTS WITHIN THE BRAND SIGNATURE.
Do not change signature colors, or alter the size or shape of the signature, or any element in the signature.
DO NOT PLACE THE BRAND SIGNATURE WITHIN SHAPES, OR APPLY ANY EFFECTS.
Do not apply additional, nonbrand colors to any of the elements within or around the signature.
DO NOT REARRANGE THE ELEMENTS OF THE BRAND SIGNATURE TO FIT CERTAIN SHAPES.
Do not typeset elements or use the brand signature in the context of a sentence.
DO NOT PLACE THE BRAND SIGNATURE ON A BACKGROUND THAT DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH CONTRAST.
Do not remove white from behind UArts Dot in brand signature.
Colors & Fonts
Primary
Colors
#d22630
CMYK 0,96,93,2
RGB 210,38,48
PMS 1795 C
#000000
CYMK 0,0,0,1
RGB 0,0,0
PMS -
#6a737b
CYMK 11,1,0,63
RGB 106,115,123
PMS 431 C
#ffffff
CYMK 0,0,0,0
RGB 255,255,255
PMS -
Secondary
Colors
#d22630
#df5257
#e77d81
#efa8ab
#f7d3d5
#ffffff
#6a737b
#878f95
#a5abaf
#c3c7ca
#e1e3e4
#ffffff
Can I use other colors?
Yes - the colors provided above are the primary and secondary colors to use in association with our brand and logo; however specific designs for various collateral are not limited to the colors above. Please contact us if you are unsure how to proceed.
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Web Updates
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Add or update a student, faculty or alumni spotlight
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Change curriculum text
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Change images, galleries and supplemental content
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General inquiries/other
Submit an update via the Web Request form.
Please note: all changes to program, department or college pages are subject to Provost’s Office approval.
The marketing team will work with you to assess the need for a new page and produce a user-friendly, search engine-optimized design that adheres to the UArts editorial and brand styles. Please submit your request, copy and images together so we can prepare your page for review. Please note, all new page requests are subject to approval.
We encourage departments to continuously review their content on an ongoing basis. If you are a department or unit head and feel content relative to your area could be strengthened through a reworking or redesign within a given page, please use this form.
It is important that the UArts website maintains an up-to-date website with information that is always current. Many visitors access uarts.edu through Google searches, so it's important to remove old PDFs, information, images or anything else that is out-of-date. Please alert the marketing team to assist in removing content using this form.
All events published to uarts.edu are built using 25Live, the event management system maintained by the Registrar’s office. If you have a specific event you’d like promoted on the Featured Events Calendar, please login to 25Live and make your request through the system. Please email registrar@uarts.edu if you have any questions.
If you would like to promote an event via a University publication such as Happening @ UArts, please fill out this form.
Have a newsworthy event, student story or any happenings at UArts? Please use this form to provide details, and University Communications will reach out to help craft a news release.
If you’d like to request a short URL for marketing purposes, i.e. uarts.edu/animation, please use this request form.
Faculty, staff and other directory records will be maintained by the Provost Office or Human Resources, respectively. To fix errors in directory listings (i.e. phone number changes, office room changes), please submit a HelpDesk ticket.
If you or your department would you like to update content on the website, please contact marketing@uarts.edu. The marketing team will reach out to train users on updating the website.
For any questions related to the website, please email web@uarts.edu.
Social Media
Social media accounts require ongoing maintenance and must adhere to the University's social media policy (PDF) and brand standards, and must be registered with the University.
Review UArts social media guidelines, tips and overall best practices.
If you or your department currently has an account on any social media platforms, please register it via the link below.
University of the Arts requires employees engaging in social media on its behalf to keep content updated, accurate and to respond in a timely fashion to communications they receive on the platform in question.
The University also requires employees engaging in social media on its behalf, to register the social media accounts with the Communications and Marketing departments, so we can monitor the channel for positive or negative content and in the event that the channel goes inactive for a long period of time, recover and or remove it.
Even though we are an institution comprised of many parts, it's important that we do our best to present ourselves as one cohesive entity. Individual department or program social media channels should appear as though they are extension of the University. That can often be hindered by inconsistent branding. If a social media channel has a logo that seems off, a visitor can question the validity of the channel or worse, the overall organization of our University. We will be generating social media logos for departments and programs that have social media accounts. You can find ones that currently exist here.
If you operate a University-branded social media account and there is not currently a logo for your channel, you can request one via the form bellow.
Have a success story or event you'd like us to share on the official University of the Arts social media channels? Fill out this form to provide us with the information we need to do so. We can't promise that everything will be featured, but we're happy to work with you to brainstorm the best ways to promote what you share.
Photo & Video
Over the years many photos and videos have been made on a wide range of subjects here at UArts. We have invested in a new digital asset management system, Bynder, which stores and organizes all of our photographic and brand assets. We are limited to a certain number of seats and will not be able to give accounts to everyone. To request access you can email kmerinsky@uarts.edu.
If you or someone in your department has access to Bynder, they can submit photo collections directly in the application. If you do not have a Bynder account, but wish to submit something of interest, you can do so on the Bynder homepage without having an account.
Photography and videography requests are handled on a case-by-case basis. Submitting a request does not guarantee that Marketing can provide resources.
Marketing maintains a list of recommended Photographer and Videographer Vendors linked from the request form below.
Templates
We have provided some templates to use with the new style guide. These are available for you to customize with your copy and images.
- Powerpoint Slides
- 11 x 17" Poster/Flyers (InDesign)
- 8.5" x 11" Poster/Flyers (InDesign)
- Trifold Brochure (InDesign)
- Letterhead (Word, PDF)
- Design Elements (TIFF)
- Design Fonts (OTF)
To access these, please use the link below to login to the Portal.
Editorial Guidelines
Why copywriting standards?
As with graphic standards, consistency and quality in copywriting help convey the University’s essential nature and brand identity. Like many colleges and universities, UArts uses a modified Associated Press style as the basis for our editorial standards in story and other common text uses. AP style is notable for its thoroughness and flexibility, characterized by regular updates that reflect changes in usage and culture. The gold standard for journalism, AP style is useful for colleges and universities because it helps us effectively communicate with external audiences in ways that are familiar to those audiences. In some cases, especially pertaining to certain academic disciplines, it may be necessary to follow a different style guide, such as MLA.
UArts now has an editorial style guide that addresses terms and usage particular to our community. View the guide.
For a number of years after being granted university status, the internal standard was to always capitalize “the” prior to “University of the Arts.” The current standard is that “the” should always be eliminated. (“University of the Arts is located on the Avenue of the Arts”).
In mid-sentence, titles are generally not capitalized if they stand alone (“The new program will be run temporarily by the dean, with assistance from her chief of staff”). When referring to academic programs or administrative departments, only the name of the unit is capitalized (“The Photography program hosts two events this week”; “Please contact the Human Resources department for more information”). The exception is when referring to units such as the President’s Office or the Office of the Provost.
When referring to the institution, the word “university” should be lowercase (“The project is a joint effort of the university and several external agencies.”). The institution’s full name should always be used on first reference; on second reference, the abbreviation “UArts” may be used.
Per AP Style, UArts does not use the Oxford comma (except in special instances). Also known as the serial comma, it is the comma used after the next-to-last item in a series. For example: “She bought boots, a shirt, and some fish” is an example of the Oxford comma. UArts style would require that the sentence be written “She bought boots, a shirt and some fish.” UArts’ guidelines allow for its use only if leaving it out would cause confusion to the reader (“The package contained bananas and pears, and forks and knives, and bananas fared the worst in the journey”).
Capitalization can cause confusion. For an individual’s title, the AP rule is straightforward: if the title comes just before the person’s name, capitalize it (“The opening speech was given by Ohio Senator David Smith”). If the person’s title comes after the individual’s name, it becomes a description rather than a title, and is written in lower case (“David Smith, the Ohio senator, gave the opening speech”). In mid-sentence, titles are generally not capitalized if they stand alone (“The new program will be run temporarily by the dean, with assistance from her chief of staff”). When referring to academic programs or administrative departments, only the name of the unit is capitalized (“The Photography program hosts two events this week”; “Please contact the Human Resources department for more information”). The exception is when referring to units such as the President’s Office or the Office of the Provost.
At UArts, we have a specific nomenclature for student and alumni degrees and years. For those who have graduated, the structure is:
Jane Doe BFA ’97 (Acting)
If an individual has multiple degrees from UArts, it is:
Sara Smith BFA ’87 (Painting), MFA ’89 (Printmaking)
For those who are nondegree alumni, which is defined at UArts, as at many other schools, as having attended here for at least one year, the year is governed by the graduation year of the class with which the individual entered, and no degree is listed:
John Jones ’97 (Graphic Design)
For current students, the structure is:
Tom Brown ’19 (Creative Writing)
In the case of current students, no degree is listed because none has yet been attained.
AP Style calls for single spaces between sentences in the same paragraph.
If you have any questions regarding copywriting style, punctuation, grammar or any related issue, contact Maria Raha in Enrollment Marketing (mraha@uarts.edu or 215-717-6219).