Institutional Identity Standards

A Message from the Director of Communications:

The Office of Communications has developed this manual to help serve as your guide for producing documents and publications for internal and external audiences. Please consult with the communications office if you have any questions about procedure.

Even a brief review of our published materials (backed up a few years ago by a formal survey), both online and offline, reveals several permutations of the college logo, and graphic treatments which vary from publication to publication. A new secondary logo was adopted in 1998 to complement the official college seal, but a decade later we still need your assistance implementing this consistent look, and need the help of each office and desktop designer on campus.

When you need to produce a publication that will be seen by an outside audience (whether printed or placed on the internet) please consult with the communications office before you begin.

We will do one of three things:

1 - Produce the piece for you. (This is done with your assistance: you supply copy, photographs and guidelines, and handle the P.O. and distribution process; we provide quotes, design the piece, and work with the printer.)

2 - Send you to a local printer and/or designer who is familiar with our graphic identity and logo package.

3 - Give you permission to be the "desktop designer,” and review the project for consistency and standards compliance before you send it to a printer.

Allow adequate time for your project. The communications office can help you determine a schedule for production.

Thank you for your help in presenting a polished, unified image of Mars Hill College.

Thank you,



Mike Thornhill
Director of Communications


Graphic Standards

Seal The college seal is our primary formal graphical institutional identity. It features the cupola tower from Marshbanks Hall, silhouetted against Bailey Mountain. The inscription reads: Pro Christo Adolescentibusque, meaning "For Christ and for Youth." The logo was designed in 1940 by W.B. Logan, operating under instructions to create a simpler design for printing than was present in the previous logo. It must always be printed in a one-color format (either black, metallic gold, one of the two acceptable "MHC blues" listed below, or the MHC gold listed below) unless prior approval is obtained from the Office of Communications) at 100% of the color (screening the logo is not an acceptable usage). The logo may also be presented in white, reversed out of any solid color. EPS Seal, Encapsulated PostScript Image, best for printed documents JPG Seal, Joint Expert Photographic Group Image, good for Web documents TIFF Seal, Tagged Image File Format, good for printed documents GIF Seal, Graphic Image Format, best for web documents

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Cupola The Cupola, also called "Type and Tower," is the main secondary logo. It is appropriate for most college documents, including on-campus communications, informal documents such as memorandums and "MHC blues" listed below, unless prior approval is obtained from the Office of Communications) at 100% of the color (screening the logo is not an acceptable usage). The logo may also be presented in white, reversed out of any solid color. EPS Cupola, Encapsulated PostScript Image, best for printed documents JPG Cupola, Joint Expert Photographic Group Image, good for Web documents TIFF Cupola, Tagged Image File Format, good for printed documents GIF Cupola, Graphic Image Format, best for web documents

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Lion Logo The Mars Hill College Lion logo is the primary logo used for athletics purposes. It is also acceptable for use on promotional items, but should not be used in publications other than those of the athletics department, unless prior approval is obtained from the Office of Communications. EPS Lion Logo, Encapsulated PostScript Image, best for printed documents JPG Lion Logo, Joint Expert Photographic Group Image, good for Web documents TIFF Lion Logo, Tagged Image File Format, good for printed documents GIF Lion Logo, Graphic Image Format, best for web documents

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Colors
  Blue - Pantone Matching System (PMS) 280 (Reflex Blue is also acceptable)
  Gold - Pantone Matching System (PMS) 109

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Fonts
Mars Hill College primarily uses the following fonts for communications. Other fonts may be used (with the exception of the Logo Typeface, which must be in Giovanni) with permission from the Office of Communications.

The Logo Typeface: Giovanni (in small caps @ 85%), Futura Book is used for "Est. 1856." The Giovanni font files are available on the college's internal file server.






For body text in Web pages: Verdana, size 11 point




For invitations, concert programs and formal type: Nuptial, Palace Script may also be substituted.

Style Guide

Official college writing style generally follows the Associated Press Stylebook ("AP Style") and/or the Chicago Manual of Style ("Chicago"), with certain institutional variances. This Mars Hill College Style Guide is a work in progress. Updates will be posted here until codified in a more formal publication and/or Web page.

A

alum, alumna, alumnae, alumni, alumnus: We will generally follow the Latin variations with alumnus used for a singular male, alumna for a singular female, alumnae for a group of female former students, and alumni for a group of males or a group of mixed gender. To avoid unnecessarily cumbersome writing, the less formal alum is acceptable for use in referring to a singular former student of either gender (the plural of alum is alums). The terms alum/alumna/alumnus are not restricted to those who graduated from MHC, but include all former students who attended at least one semester.

apostrophes in dates: Use an apostrophe to indicate the absence of "19" in a year (preference is to use all four digits, but two digits with apostrophe may be used on second and subsequent reference) but not to form a plural for a decade; e.g., '07, 1990s. Also note that, for printed material, the apostrophe in the example '07 should be a "single right quote" (see your layout program's "help" feature for instruction on inserting that special character).

C

college: Lowercase the word, even when referring to MHC, unless the word is used as part of the full name of an institution.

Mars Hill College, the college

D

departments, divisions, and programs: Full formal names of MHC departments, divisions, and programs are capitalized: Department of Music, Department of Education. Second references or shortened versions are lowercased: biology program.

I

Internet and Web related words: Internet is capitalized. So is Web (as in Web site and Web page, although webmaster and webcam are not). Online is one word (not on-line) and generally not capitalized. Electronic mail is e-mail (not email or E-mail).

T

titles: Personal titles immediately preceding a name are capitalized; those following a name or set off by commas are not.

The latest discovery by Associate Professor Scott Pearson. . .

Ashby F. Walker, assistant professor of sociology, has found . . .

A professor of music at MHC since 1985, Dr. Reed teaches . . .

This rule applies not only to academic titles, but also to administrative titles.

President Dan Lunsford, the president . . .

Thornhill became communications director of Mars Hill College in 2004 . . .

An exception to this rule is a “named” title.

Katharine R. Meacham is the Bost Professor of Philosophy at Mars Hill College.

Treat references to the trustees of Mars Hill College in the same way as other personal titles discussed above.

Our office recently received a visit from Trustee Wayne Higgins.

Bonnie Adams was previously a trustee of the college.