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8-1: Branding Policy – Procedures

Santa Fe Community College’s brand identity defines the College and the role it serves in the community. It enhances recognition of the College and its exceptional programs. Design and editorial unity enables communications materials to have a cumulative positive impact for the College. The objective is not to make every publication look the same, but rather to give each common elements that will clearly mark it as part of the SFCC “family.”

SFCC Logo

The College’s logo is available in various file formats on the College’s internal portal/intranet.

Logos are available for your use when:

  • Ordering or creating items for a special event, such as pens, folders, labels, tablecloths, napkins, etc.
  • A partner organization wants to include it on promotional materials.

Use only versions of the logo that are of reproduction quality. Do not print or reproduce the logo from a previously photocopied version or from a version copied from the website. This B&W sample is unacceptable.


Logos may be resized but not altered in any way, including using only part of the logo. Do not skew or squish the logo. When resizing, hold down the shift key to keep the logo proportional.
Acceptable

Unacceptable

The size of the SFCC logo should never measure smaller than 2 inches wide by .75 inches tall.

Certain programs and college-wide events have been authorized to have their own special-use graphic, which may or may not incorporate the SFCC logo. This is not standard practice and each case must be approved. Graphics for special programs and events are developed only by MPR.

College Colors

Part of the graphic identity, the effectiveness of the SFCC colors depends on the quality and consistency of their reproduction. This section provides specifications for college colors.
SFCC’s colors are turquoise and maroon. The effectiveness of these colors depends on the quality and consistency of their reproduction. PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors should be provided when specifying color to a vendor for printing purposes.

PMS CMYK RGB HTML
Turquoise PMS 326 C81 M0 Y39 K0 R0 G178 B169 00B2A9
Maroon PMS 484 C8 M92 Y100 K33 R154 G51 B36 9A3324


Templates

Flier, Power Point presentation and electronic letterhead templates are available on the College’s internal portal/intranet.

College Writing Style Guide

Whether you’re drafting copy for a flier, a news release, an advertisement or a Web page, please follow these basic style guidelines. Our reference point is the Associated Press Stylebook. You will note that in some instances SFCC’s style guide will differ from AP’s in order to suit the needs of the college. If you have questions, contact MPR at extension 1667. You may also search the AP Stylebook.

Acronyms
Always use the full name “Santa Fe Community College” on first reference. Afterward, use SFCC or ‘the college.’

Names not commonly used should not be reduced to acronyms. Your intent should always be to communicate clearly with your audience. If an acronym is not clear on second reference, do not use it.

Administrative Titles
When referring to the college president, vice president, assistant vice president or dean, the title should precede the name and always be capitalized.

Assistant Vice President of Vending Machines and Snack Foods Ronald McDonald will report on the school’s higher cholesterol initiatives.
If it follows the name, it should not be capitalized.
Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has agreed to serve as dean of the School of Arts and Design.

Age

Always use figures. The boy is 7 years old. Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun (a 5-year-old boy), or as substitutes for a noun (The race is for 3-year-olds).

Capitalization

Avoid formatting text with All Caps as it is more difficult to read and should be used only rarely, such as in occasional short headlines.

Confine capitalization of formal titles to those used directly before an individual’s name. See the section on Administrative Titles, above.

Use lowercase titles when they are not used with an individual’s name. The president issued a statement.

Use lowercase titles in constructions that set them off from a name by commas: The assistant vice president, Ronald McDonald, declined to comment.

Offices, Departments and Programs

Uppercase titles when using the names of academic departments (the History Department). Also, the names of specific academic programs should be capitalized (John is in the Culinary Arts Program).

Capitalize the name of specific courses.
          Clarence registered for Principles of Accounting I.

Do not capitalize general courses of study, with the exception of languages.

Donna is studying math and business.
Patrick is studying Spanish.

College Name

Santa Fe Community College should be used on first reference. For subsequent references, use SFCC or “the college.” The word “the” should not precede the name of the college unless it is being used as an adjective (Students enrolled in the SFCC program. He is enrolled at Santa Fe Community College…not the Santa Fe Community College.)

Lists

In general, avoid overuse of punctuation. If a bulleted list makes sense without commas, periods or semicolons at the end of each bullet, then don’t use them. If punctuation is needed for clarity and the listed items complete a sentence, put a semicolon at the end of each bulleted text, add and to the end of the penultimate bullet after the semicolon, and add a period at the end of the list.

Because of complications related to the surgery, Marjorie was no longer able to:

  • play the violin;
  • understand written language; or
  • drive a car.

If the bulleted list is simply a list, it does not need to be punctuated.

Marjorie needs these items from the store:

  • gift wrap
  • measuring cups

For graphic design purposes, you can choose to capitalize the first word or not:
Marjorie needs these items from the store:

  • Gift wrap
  • Measuring cups

Marjorie found that after the surgery, many things had changed for her:

  • She could understand her cat.
  • Her hearing improved tenfold.
  • Raspberries and chocolate were her new favorite foods.

Dates

Avoid using superscript (1st, 2nd, 3rd); use the number by itself as in January 1, 2014.

Days of the Week

Always capitalize the days of the week. Do not abbreviate them except when needed in a tabular format.

Months

  • Capitalize the names of months in all uses.
  • Spell out all of the months when used alone or with a year alone: January was a cold month. When a phrase lists only a month and a year, do not separate the year with commas:January 1972 was a cold month. When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas: 15, 1987, was the target date.
  • When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate Jan., Feb., Aug, Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. His birthday is Aug. 22.
  • Spell out March, April, May, June and July. The event will be held April 17.

Times

  • Use figures except for noon and midnight.
  • Use a colon to separate hours from minutes: 11:30 a.m. Do not use a colon for exact hours. 11 a.m. (not 11:00 a.m.)
  • Lowercase a.m. and p.m.
  • Avoid saying “11 a.m. this morning.” It’s redundant.
  • When citing a time period that spans just the morning or evening hours, do not repeat a.m. or p.m.: 9 to 11 a.m. or 3 to 5 p.m. When a time period goes from morning to afternoon, cite both a.m. and p.m.: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Numbers

Spell out numbers one through nine. Use numerals for 10 and up. Spell out first through ninth. Use figures starting with 10th.

Punctuation

  • Ampersand (&) should not be used in place of “and” unless it is part of a company’s formal name.
  • Apostrophe: for possessive apostrophes, do not add an “s” after an apostrophe on a word ending in “s”; for example, Susan’s bicycle, but James’ skateboard.
  • Commas (,) are used to separate elements in a series.
    • Do not use a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: The flag is red, white and blue.
    • Use a comma before the concluding conjunction in a series unless the series has a conjunction: I had orange juice, toast and ham and eggs for breakfast.
    • Use a comma before the concluding conjunction in a complex series of phrases: The main points to consider are whether the athletes are skillful enough to compete, whether they have the stamina to endure the training, and whether they have the proper mental attitude.
  • Quotation marks and:
    • Colons (:) go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quotation itself.
    • Commas (,) always go inside quotation marks.
    • Exclamation points (!) go inside quotation marks when it is part of the quoted material and outside the quotation marks when it is not part of the quoted material.
    • Question marks (?) go inside or outside the quotes, depending on the use: Who wroteA Confederacy of Dunces?  “How long will it take?” he asked.
    • Semicolons (;) go outside quotation marks.

Pronoun Use

Singular pronouns carry a gender reference. When faced with using one in a generic sentence, try to rewrite the sentence to include a plural pronoun.

When the students finish the test, they may be excused.
instead of
When the student finishes the test, he (or she or s/he) may be excused
.

The dean reported that as soon as the perpetrator is identified, they will be held for questioning.

“Once we find out who it is, they will be held accountable,” said the dean.

For further discussion on this, see Grammar Girl or Instant Grammar Checker.

Spacing After Periods: The days of the ancient machine known as a typewriter are over! Only one space after a period, not two. Always single space after periods – especially at the end of a sentence.

Tech Terms 
Cyberspace
Database
dot-com
DSL
email, e-book, e-commerce
home page
hyperlink
hypertext
Internet
intranet
login, logoff, logon
online
shareware
website
webcast
webmaster
World Wide Web
website addresses (URLs)

When referring to any page listed on SFCC.edu, refer readers to sfcc.edu. If the information will not be posted on the home page (as most events listings are), suggest a search word.

For more information, search for ‘collective unconscious’ at sfcc.edu.

For pages that are unique sections on the SFCC site, refer to the full site URL:

More information can be found at kidscampus.sfcc.edu

To reference links to sites outside of SFCC’s website, refer to the shortest URL feasible that will still get readers to the site you are referring to. Add a suggested search word if that reduces the length of the URL.

Search for adhd data at cdc.gov to learn more.
Instead of
For more information, go to www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

Contact:         Todd Lovato, Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations
505-428-1217, todd.lovato@sfcc.edu

Updated:        6/23/2017

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