HARVARD GRADUATE COUNCIL
BRANDING GUIDE Designed by Nima S. Zamanpour Andy Yu
00. OUR MISSION This branding guide sets out to design alignment between HGC’s brand image and the Council’s ‘One Harvard’ mission. A difficulty faced by student based organizations is maintaining consistency as legislative and executive bodies come and go on a yearly basis. This document lays out specific technical details to build cohesion between HGC’s numerous mediums of marketing (social media, website, tabling, etc). and to maintain consistency between the years. This document should exist as a living document, tracking and systematizing changes to HGC’s brand image through the years as it adapts and expands. The document has been created by thee 2021-22 Chair of Information, Nima Shariat Zamanpour, alongside Marketing Committee member Andy Yu.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 01. COLOR 02. TYPOGRAPHY 03. LAYOUT 04. LOGO 05. DOs & DONTs
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01. COLOR HGC’s primary color is Harvard’s Crimson Red, a color you will see across the school’s various insignia, merchandise, and buildings. Alongside this are a set of secondary and tertiary colors that should be used in support of the primary color. The technical specifics of each of these colors have been outlined. Of course, slight adjustments should be made when dealing with technical obstacles such as printing on non-traditional medium to reach a color as close as possible to those specified. When an option, avoid gloss and opt for matte representations.
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01. COLOR (cont.) PRIMARY (A) crimson red (backgorund, text, logo) #A41D36 rgb: (164, 29, 54) cmyk: (24.02, 100, 76.92, 17.38)
SECONDARY (B) off-white (backgrounds, trim) #FFF4E4 rgb: (256,244,228) cmyk: (0, 3.26, 9.43, 0)
TERTIARY (C) black & grays (trim) pure black 50% gray 25% gray
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01. COLOR (cont.)
crimson margin off-white background black text
off-white background crimson object white text
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01. COLOR (cont.)
white background crimson object black text
crimson background white text
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02. TYPOGRAPHY Century Gothic Pro, based off of Futura is chosen as our primary typeface. With the numerous mediums used in generating content (Canva, Adobe CC, GSuite) no typeface will be accessible on all platforms. Instead we are outlining our preferred typeface to be used wherever it is available. In areas that it is not available, a suitable replacement should be sought. For replacements, at a minimum the typeface should be sans-serif, with a preference for those that are geometric. If Futura, or another futura derivative is offered it should be a suitable replacement. In addition, as we are only using a single typeface for any medium, it will important to use good discretion in creating layout hierarchy for each content pieces particular needs. The Century Gothic Family offers bold, regular, and italic fonts, and works well in ‘ALL CAPS.’
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02. TYPOGRAPHY (cont.)
BOLD ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 REGULAR ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 ITALIC ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
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03. LAYOUT Several layouts have been developed to offer both consistency and flexibility across disparate subject materials and mediums. Preference is given for the development of materials using InDesign, but with access, technical literacy, and numerous content creators in mind, these layouts should be able to synthesize and create in simpler web based software as well such as Canva. Full size renditions and alternate size versions are offered in the appendix of this document.
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
SOCIAL MEDIA 1080 x 1080 px Square flyer intended for social media posts. This includes Instagram, Facebook, etc.
POSTER 8.5 x 11” Poster flyer intended for digital use AND print. This format accomodates for graphic design and longer text-based descriptions.
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Subheader
TITLE (CONT). Body (cont.) Metadata
Metadata Metadata
QR Code
Metadata
SOCIAL MEDIA Layout 1
This text-only graphic contains three main sections: the header, body and secondary information.
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Interested in joining the HGC’s Executive Board?
HGC SPRING ELECTIONS Make an impact to the graduate student body across all schools Harvard! Apply using the QR code or following this link: shorturl.at/nqCM4
April 25th Harvard Medical School
7-9pm QR Code
Tosteson (TEMC) 250
SOCIAL MEDIA Layout 1 (Example)
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BRANDING GUIDE
03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Subheader
TITLE (CONT). Body (cont.) Metadata
Metadata Metadata
QR Code
Metadata
SOCIAL MEDIA Layout 2
This image-based post includes an image for the background. This image must have a black transparent overlay (opacity >50%) to ensure legibility of text.
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Interested in joining the HGC’s Executive Board?
HGC SPRING ELECTIONS Make an impact to the graduate student body across all schools Harvard! Apply using the QR code or following this link: shorturl.at/nqCM4
April 25th Harvard Medical School
7-9pm QR Code
Tosteson (TEMC) 250
SOCIAL MEDIA Layout 2 (Example)
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Subheader
TITLE (CONT). Image or graphic
Body
(cont.)
HEADER
HEADER
HEADER
Metadata
Metadata
Metadata
(Cont.)
(Cont.)
(Cont.)
Subdata
Subdata
Subdata
POSTER Layout 1
This layout is conducive to a large piece of graphic/ image, along with a longer event description.
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
tinyurl.com
POSTER
Layout 1 (Exmaple)
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
Subheader
TITLE (CONT). Graphic
Body (cont.)
HEADER
HEADER
HEADER
Metadata
Metadata
Metadata
(Cont.)
(Cont.)
(Cont.)
Subdata
Subdata
Subdata
POSTER Layout 2
This layout is meant for an image-based background, with a black transparent overlay (opacity >50%) to ensure legibility of text. HARVARD GRADUATE COUNCIL
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03. LAYOUT (cont.)
POSTER
Layout 2 (Example)
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04. LOGO In 2022, with approval from the trademark office, HGC updated its logo. The new logo was designed by Nima Shariat Zamanpour and consists of a silhouette of a seal, and a star. The star has twelve points, with four elongated points to symbolize the 12 school’s and 4 campuses respectively. The logo has multiple permutations with the scenarios outlined. The vector file of the logo should be made available to the Chair of Information, with public versions being raster outputs.
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04. LOGO (cont.)
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04. LOGO(cont.)
PRIMARY website socials banners
FLAT small print low-res digital 2 color merch
B&W print (grayscale) inverted one color merch
LINEWORK reference embroidery
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04. LOGO (cont.)
LETTERHEAD web banner newsletter agenda
*to be used in marketing materials of events funded through catalyst fund
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05. DO’s DO make materials accessible. Ensure images are high contrast and that text is legible to ensure that materials are equitable. Use graphic design best practices for accessibility and offer a multitude of ways for accessing links and information. Avoid triggering mediums like strobing lights or graphic material.
DO utilize functional pairs. HGC’s branding will involve several stakeholders ranging from Information and Marketing to Programming and individual Event Planners. Keep communication open and coordinate on the implementation of a marketing strategy for events.
DO get help in generating materials. The branding of HGC is too much work for one student, get help in generating materials using committees and adjacent positions. There is a guest account on Canva for this purpose. Also ask the event hosts to produce their own materials when it’s a third party event we are supporting.
DO ask for revisions to materials. When materials are produced by others, feel free to offer feedback and ask for revisions. This could range from adhering to more specific conventions, to including the logo, to modifying information included.
DO include links in multiple ways. Ensure images are high contrast and that text is legible to ensure that materials are equitable. Use graphic design best practices for accessibility and offer a multitude of ways for accessing links and information. Avoid triggering mediums like strobing lights or graphic material.
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05. DONT’s DO NOT link directly. When linking, try to link to a place that you know will not change. If there is a Zoom link that you haven’t set up yet for instance, link to a google doc that holds those zoom meeting info that you can edit later on. You don’t want to deal with the hassle of updating flyers and marketing sendouts with a link correction after they’ve been propagated, it will create confusion.
DO NOT share source files and passwords. Especially important for the information chair, be mindful of who you send account credentials to. If you are wanting to give access to a non HGC member, make a dummy account that can be used by guests with limited privileges. And change credentials between uses. Do not give credentials to any of your primary accounts. For the logo, keep the AI files private, and share out the rasterized versions.
DO NOT use the logo on secondary events without approval. The logo can be thought of as the HGC ‘seal of approval.’ Be mindful of who is allowed to use it and when. While we do have approval from the trademark office, there can be issues should we sponsor commercial events hosted by non-Harvard groups.
DO NOT post 3rd party information on main accounts. Our direct posts should represent what the HGC is doing. Any events we want to relay by other orgs should be ‘reposted’ and relayed on our newsletter and Instagram stories.
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BRANDING GUIDE