UWCommunication

The Project

The need for clear rules was just as real: the identity had to meet UW brand standards, stay accessible, and be usable by people who aren’t designers.

Summary: The University of Washington Department of Communication needed one identity to carry its mission across digital, print and merchandise. I developed the 2025 brand guidelines: four logo versions with usage rules, a purple-and-gold color system with accessible pairings, a custom typeface, a voice and terminology guide, and an art and photography style shown in real applications.

The Need: The department’s work is rigorous, publicly engaged and interdisciplinary, and its audiences range from students, faculty and staff to alumni and the public. Its visual identity was being modernized, and the system had to reflect the department’s values, follow UW brand standards while adding department-specific accent colors for contrast, and separate the formal public identity from the UWCOM shorthand used internally.

01 Foundation

Before any logo or color, I put the department’s values into words. Engaged, public scholarship, an integrated perspective that brings together humanistic, critical and social science traditions, and ethical, equitable communication shape every visual and writing choice that follows. Brand personality (intellectually driven, community-oriented, inclusive) and two personas keep the system tied to real audiences: Rachel Johnson, a graduate student focused on journalism, media and democracy, and Inez Williams, an undergraduate focused on difference, equity and inclusive storytelling.

Three values anchor the system: engaged, public scholarship; an integrated perspective; and ethics and equity. Each has a short statement beginning “At UW Communication, we believe…” that can be reused in copy.

02 Visual Identity

The identity comes with clear rules so others can use it without asking. Four logo versions cover the public-facing lockup, the UW Communication logotype, the C mark and the UWCOM shorthand, each with minimum sizes and an exclusion zone. Color follows a 50/25/15/10 ratio of purples, golds, black and white, and accents, with three department-specific accent colors, and approved pairings meet accessibility requirements. The custom typeface, UW Common Sans, uses rounded corners to signal approachability while keeping a scholarly presence.

The UWCOM logo appears in full color, white and black versions with its exclusion zone, equal to half the height of the icon. The white version goes on dark backgrounds and the black on light.

03 Voice & Application

The guidelines go beyond visuals. The brand voice is friendly, thoughtful and inclusive, playful on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and more formal on LinkedIn and the web. Terminology rules set the official name, how to refer to degrees, centers and titles, and when shorthand like UWCOM is for internal audiences only. Writing samples model specific, fair attribution, and art and photography guidance pairs vibrant full-color event photos with timeless black-and-white images, using gradients, overlays and duotone treatments across formats.

Department materials show the system working across formats: a Hall of Fame save-the-date, a Career Kickstart campaign, a CJMD event graphic, the Winter Colloquia series, Meet the Team, Emerging Scholars, business cards, letterhead and Adobe workshop flyers, all built on purple, gold, gradients and duotone imagery.

Deliverables and Artifacts Gallery

Execution across digital and physical channels

• 4 logo versions, each in full color and black and white

• 3 core brand values and 3 personality traits

• 2 audience personas

• 50/25/15/10 color ratio with accessible pairings

• 1 custom typeface, UW Common Sans, plus supporting type families

• 7 guideline sections: brand, logo, color, typography, content, messaging and design