Communication and Brand Resources

The resources provided here are intended to supply information, tools and access to the elements that can help us maintain effective, consistent communication about Purdue’s College of Education. The College’s Director of Communication is available to give advice, answer questions and help with projects – especially those that impact audiences beyond the College.

For Communications questions, please email education@purdue.edu.

For new Communications projects, submit a New Project Request.

Accessibility Guidelines

By law, any document you ask us to upload to the College website must first be made accessible per the Americans with Disabilities Act. To make the document accessible, review Purdue’s Innovative Learning Creating Accessible Documents guidelines and do what you can to make your document accessible before sending it to us. Then attach it to your New Project Request and the Office of Communications will finalize its accessibility before posting it to your website. These four documents will help you:

• Formatting Microsoft Word Manual
• Self-Check your Microsoft Word Formatting
• Formatting PDF Manual
• Self-Check your PDF formatting
• Word Accessibility how-to video (presented by College of Education Communications staff)

Branding Guidelines

Please remember that the College of Education’s messages and materials should always align with the Purdue Brand Guidelines.

See Purdue Marketing and Communications’ Visual Identity webpage for guidelines on colors, fonts, and graphic element usage.

It is essential that our communication pieces use the correct “co-brand logos” provided by the University. A co-brand is a recognized logo (“Purdue University”) plus a “type treatment” (text) of a recognized unit associated with it (“College of Education”). Purdue Marketing & Communications only allows these for Purdue’s Colleges, Schools, and recognized official research Centers and Institutes. All other units may not use a co-brand other than the College’s.

You may be using an old, outdated, unofficial “logo” or “graphic”, so before using it or reordering brochures, letterhead, swag or display items, check to see if you are using the current co-brand. Use the guidelines below, Purdue Brand Guidelines, Purdue Marketing and Communications’ visual identity page, or email education@purdue.edu.

NOTE that MarCom will not allow you to use an old logo or graphic, or the Purdue logo improperly, or the Purdue “Motion P” alone on any background, or your own created “logo” or co-brand. Check with the Director of Communication to see if your visual is usable or not, or to request an approved “co-brand” from MarCom (where approved).

Co-brand Logos:

These are the College co-brand logos:

College of Education co-brand logo side-by-side

College of Education co-brand logo stacked

Below are various approved downloadable options for use.

These are the department logos:

Logo Guidelines

Purdue Brand Guidelines about how to use the right file type, color mode and file format.

There are specific university guidelines about which logos we can use as an academic unit. Just because it is on the Internet and easily copied doesn’t mean it can be used!

Fonts:

Typography is a robust vehicle for our brand voice. It contributes to how our messages are read and communicated. Acumin Pro is our sans-serif family and a workhorse for our communications. United Sans adds a rigid and collegiate accent. Source Serif Pro, our serif family, performs well at small sizes, in longer-form text and in more sophisticated applications. Used together, these three typefaces create a clear hierarchy and keep our content legible and engaging. These fonts are available to all users with an Adobe Cloud license, see the font installation page for more information.

These are the official University fonts:

• Acumin Pro: Use this family of fonts for headlines, subheads, callouts and body copy
• Source Serif Pro: Use this font for sophisticated headlines, subheads, and body copy
• United Sans: Use this font for callouts, factoids, and numerals, and adding special emphasis

Alternate System Fonts

Our brand typefaces may not always be available to everyone for use in Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and other digital applications. In these situations, use the alternate fonts listed here, which are freely available on all computers. 

• The substitute for Acumin Pro: Franklin Gothic
• The substitute for Source Serif Pro: Georgia
• The substitute for United Sans: Impact

Web

It is important that we maintain a cohesive design and consistent navigation throughout the College site. Continuity provides a more meaningful user experience and reinforces key messages about who we are and the work we do.

New Websites

If you would like a new webpage on the College of Education domain (www.education.purdue.edu), please note that the Office of Communications will develop or support only websites that belong to the College of Education web framework: departments, academic programs, official research centers, institutes, offices, and labs. The College’s web development staff will work with you to coordinate implementation and content development – submit a New Project Request.

Related websites that the Office of Communications will not support or develop for the College website include faculty websites, grant/project websites, courses, and student organizations. For these related websites, email education@purdue.edu for recommendations of freelancers you may hire for website development.

Below are some general guidelines for faculty websites, grant/project websites, courses, and student organizations:

1. For personal faculty websites, faculty are encouraged to use an external non-Purdue system so the site will follow them if they happen to leave Purdue or retire, and their site will not be subject to Purdue service cancellations or disruptions.
2. For Purdue research projects, faculty are encouraged to request a WordPress site from the central Purdue IT “web services” group: https://www.purdue.edu/itap/webservices/services/wordpress/

Below are some examples of College of Education WordPress research/project websites hosted by Purdue IT (note that they are using the education.purdue.edu domain, which is like having them in the main EDU website, yet they are hosted by Purdue IT):

• https://abil.education.purdue.edu/
• https://disruptive.education.purdue.edu/
• https://gems.education.purdue.edu/
• https://paraimpact.education.purdue.edu/
• https://puede.education.purdue.edu/

Existing Websites, News and Events

The Office of Communications is committed to keeping our College websites up-to-date and accurate. If you need to update information on a page for which you are responsible, or if you see an error on the site, submit a New Project Request.

PDFs and other documents

Because we’re getting many requests to update PDFs and Other Documents on the COE website, we’re asking all requesters to do 2 things to a document before adding it to add to the website:

1. Brand the document according to Purdue’s Brand Guidelines – in this case, change the Fonts to one of the accepted Purdue fonts (I recommend Acumin Pro; Franklin Gothic or Impact or Georgia may be used instead), and make any Colors comply with the Purdue colors.

• Make the document accessible – Review Purdue’s Innovative Learning Creating Accessible Documents guidelines and do what you can to make your PDF accessible. Then attach it to your New Project Request and the Office of Communications will finalize its accessibility before posting it to your website. These four documents will help you:
  • Formatting Microsoft Word Manual
  • Self-Check your Microsoft Word Formatting
  • Formatting PDF Manual
  • Self-Check your PDF formatting
  • College of Education Word Accessibility Presentation

Event Calendar

To add an event to the College of Education calendar, submit a New Project Request and choose Event Calendar Submission from the dropdown menu, then complete the form with your event information. If you have a graphic or image, please attach it. 

News

To request a news story to be written, submit a New Project Request and choose News Story Request from the dropdown menu, then complete the form with your information. The Office of Communications will contact you about this.

Individual Website Photos

All photos added to the College website are subject to Office of Communications approval.

If you have a good-quality, current photo (no more than five years old) on our website directory, we may use it if it meets the following headshot requirements:

• current color photo
• jpg format
• centered and front view of full face
• standard headshot (head and shoulders)
• simple background
• proper lighting
• eyes open and visible
• wear prescription glasses if you normally do so
• high quality (or resolution) photo size (2 MB)
• Do not send photos of you with a hat, sunglasses or other items that obscure the face; severe glare on glasses; shadows; other visible people or objects in the photo; inappropriate expressions.

If you don’t have a good-quality, current photo, you may use this new, FREE option offered by the University: Purdue faculty, staff, and students may have a professional headshot taken at their convenience in a self-service portrait booth in the Boilermaker Station Welcome Center in Stewart Center, Room 102. The booth is available without an appointment Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The self-service portrait booth:

• Features high-quality studio lighting and photography equipment
• Allows users to approve or retake photos and displays tips on posing
• Instantly delivers digital images via email

After having a new portrait photo taken, please:

• update the College’s online directory by emailing it to edit@purdue.edu.
• update your faculty profile on the College website by submitting a New Project Request and attaching the new portrait photo.