Client: Texas Christian University
Project: Brand Standards, Web Standards, Brand Ambassador Program
Audience: TCU faculty, staff, students and vendors
Direction: Launch and develop strategy to communicate visual identity standards and brand overview; communicate the necessity for consistency and how to implement proper logo usage and messaging.
Purpose/Goals: Communicate the importance of a “brand.” Pair down options for visuals and give clear direction for identity marks for TCU. Tame the Wild West. Technical writing for TCU brand and the evolution process for a parent brand perspective. Develop and execute strategy to receive branded house plan buy-in and how to implement internally.
RESOLVE:
Brand Standards: Crafted brand guidelines to communicate the importance and application of branding across the academic and administrative sectors of the university using a top down methodology. Evaluated structure of the organization and how to identify between administration and academic levels. Created organizational chart to pair down the levels of naming conventions by identifying the parent entities encompassing the programing. (ex: Which school or college does x,y,z program belong).
Brand.tcu.edu: Launched Wordpress site to reaffirm the digital arm and resource for branding content housing the same content as the printed Brand Standard
Web Standards:
The web visual guide is a collection of elements that creates a cohesive package—colors, typography, graphics, photography and tone of voice combine to communicate a strong and clear image that positions the University as a world-class institution.
The elements reflect a university that’s whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and while there are many different audiences—a host of schools/colleges and departments—the guidelines outlined here create a common user experience and ensure that TCU is recognizable to all.
This was a two year project between our web designer, graphic designer and web developer. We met weekly to discuss design, functionality and user experience. I led the team to derive a standard direction and overall value of consistent user experience.
Standard header - The header contains the University’s signature in the top left corner that links back to the tcu.edu site. The design of the header should never be altered. For this reason the header.php file should never be modified and your child theme should never contain its own version.
Standard footer - the footer includes basic University information only, with three widget areas for individual units to display their word mark and list contact information as necessary. The design of the footer should never be altered. For this reason the footer.php file should never be modified and your child theme should never contain its own version.
Brand Ambassador Program: Led a revolutionary team to develop programming to educate the TCU internal community on importance of brand: Visual Identity, Social Media, Communications Strategy, and Advertising
Branded the TCU house and established a parent brand approach to visual identity:
- Established level of consistency for use
- Wrote technical standardization for program identifiers (modifiers)
- Standardized letterhead, business card, fonts, powerpoint templates
- Developed clear space around the TCU logo
- Affirmed singular PMS color
- Revised logo slick from 12 TCU logos to one increasing brand equity in a consistent TCU logo
- Save time developing new “logos” and further diluting the visual identity
- Better access to branding materials with online resource (brand.tcu.edu)