Marketing, Brand & Communications Policies

A brand refers to more than simply taglines and logos. It’s much more. In fact, our brand is a reflection of everything we do and say, everywhere. Our brand promise is the assurance that we will continue delivering on our mission, the foundation of our four pillars, our goals, and personality over time – consistently and recognizably. 

This means that while each of our schools, departments, and programs have their own strengths and differentiating features, they ultimately all ladder back up to the larger College brand. It is only together that we are Catawba College.

Below, access Catawba College's brand assets including our style guide, logos and resources, fonts, colors, and more.

The College logos may not be altered. This includes overlaying them with other designs or lettering, displaying only part of a logo, or changing the colors.

While each of the College’s units has unique attributes that enrich the Catawba College brand, individual marks, logos, and branding elements may cause confusion, detract from, or result in a negative impact on the College’s brand and reputation.

Other logos, slogans, or taglines must not be developed or used to represent sections, units, internal departments, programs, initiatives, research centers, institutes, groups, or communities housed within the College.

• No College logo may be altered or combined with any other mark or element.
• A unit may use its name only with the College’s wordmark as outlined in the brand guidelines.
• The wordmark is required on all official internal and external communications, excluding individual email messages.
• University colors and branded elements must appear prominently on all official communication and marketing materials.
• The use of taglines, icons, or graphics as logos or in logos for College units is prohibited.
• Logos must not be used in a manner that suggests endorsement of external products or services.

The Catawba College Brand Identity Standards offer academic schools, departments, and administrative offices a means to establish their identity and affiliation with the College utilizing a lock-up or text treatment used in conjunction with the College wordmark.

Custom Logos

The creation of custom logos is restricted to strengthen the College’s Brand Identity. Custom logo development will be considered exclusively under the following circumstances:

• New College initiatives such as a center, institute, or specialized program
• When an external grant or partnership necessitates a distinct logo
• In the case of a unique college-wide initiative
• For special college-sponsored events with a defined end date
  • Campaign
  • Strategic Endeavor
  • Special Occasion
  • Milestone Celebration

These marks must adhere to the overall Catawba College Brand Identity. Graphics should include pairings of colors from the brand palette and brand fonts with icons, geometric designs, patterns, or shapes. It may use unique elements that represent the specific focus necessitating the custom logo.

The development of a custom logo should only be undertaken by the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Custom logos may not be used for non-program-specific business without explicit permission from the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Custom logos are trademarks of Catawba College and must be used in accordance with the Brand Identity Standards, relevant institutional policies, and copyright laws.

The Marketing and Communications (MarComm) Office is responsible for maintaining a consistent editorial and graphic identity in all official Catawba College publications, communications, and branded materials. 

All requests for the MarComm Office should be submitted using the online MarComm Project Request Form online. 

We request you submit an online Project Request Form providing our office with as much advanced notice as possible for us to better manage your project through the planning, design, and production process. 

View the complete guidelines for submitting requests on the MarComm webpage below:

Mission Statement
Catawba's website (catawba.edu) and any information that is presented directly from that site or its affiliated sites is for the purpose of promoting Catawba College and providing up-to-date information about the College.

The role of the webmaster (webmaster@catawba.edu), who resides in the Marketing & Communications Office (MarComm), is to maintain a positive image of the college via the website while providing current and accurate information in a timely manner to visitors outside the college community. Content from various campus departments is provided to the webmaster to post to the site and this method of keeping content updated within a centralized and consistent presentation works well in providing a unified product.

The primary function of websites maintained and hosted by the MarComm Office, therefore, is marketing for the global internet audience, the public sector. The functions of our websites are to provide information about Catawba, its programs, facilities, events, faculty and staff to a multi-faceted audience: prospective students and parents, alumni and the general public at large. Aside from that purpose, the Catawba website serves as a portal site to detailed academic and educational material for the campus community itself within the boundaries of our available resources.

Updates to the Website
Updates to the website must be submitted via the online Project Request Form.

External Websites & Domains
It is our policy and preference that all web content be hosted within the catawba.edu domain. In the rare cases where an external website and domain name is needed, the respective department should contact the MarComm Office so that the domains may be registered with the other official domains owned by the College. Departments should not acquire domains and web hosting for external websites on their own. To ensure that College standards, branding and procedures are followed, these need to be coordinated through the MarComm Office.

Faculty        
The MarComm Office agrees that faculty should have access to a webserver or website to freely post course supplements, syllabi, and other educational materials. This is a service of Information Technology, who maintains a Blackboard Course Info server expressly for this purpose. It is the mission of the Information Technology department to provide the Catawba Community academic services using various means of technology.

T Drive
In addition to this, all faculty members have space on the T:/ drive on the Catawba network to post course-related information that students on campus can access. The directories are divided up according to academic departments, then by faculty name. If you are a faculty member and no directory is listed under your departmental folder, please contact Information Technology at 4666 to have one established.

Student Organizations         
Student organizations and clubs would fall under the category and structure of intranet services. However, if student organizations desire to have a website, they can request the webmaster to make a link to their off-site page from an area — designated by the College — on the official college website.

At this time, Catawba cannot provide student organizations with the server space to host their websites.

Disclaimer:
Catawba College and the MarComm Office reserve the right to deny URL posting based on what may be viewed as offensive or inappropriate material therein. Links to these homepages are provided as a service to the students of Catawba College. These homepages are not part of the Catawba College website, but are the work of the individual people represented. Inclusion of such pages does not represent the college's endorsement nor the endorsement of the College. Catawba College claims no responsibility for their content, nor are the opinions expressed therein necessarily the opinions of Catawba College. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. Comments on the content of these pages should be addressed to the individual authors.

Updated 8/6/21

If you or your department creates, owns or posts to any social media account on behalf of Catawba College or as an official representative for your department or the College, follow the established guidelines below.

Following these guidelines will help ensure and maintain consistent branding and messaging so that we all “speak the voice of Catawba” and maintain and present a common, positive tone and impression on prospective students and our social media audiences in general.