AAD Brand Center
What is a brand?
A brand is the total experience that we create for all of our audiences. In the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design we are a part of the university brand and experience, but it’s also important that we leverage our college brand — because there are amazing things happening in the college and we have a unique story to tell.
We recognize that there are many different experiences and voices that define our story and that it is always changing and evolving. For this reason, we also believe that it’s important that we all understand and are able to articulate what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.
These are the critical parts of our story that at once unify and differentiate AAD from the university brand and form the basis for how we bring our brand — and the AAD experience — to life.
Lockups for the college, schools, and centers
Lockups (or logos) for the college and all of our schools and centers are available on the Virginia Tech Brand Center site. For each unit, you will find horizontal as well as vertical designs; the horizontal lockups are the primary version for print + digital pieces and the vertical or stacked lockups are most commonly reserved for merchandise.
Lockups saved with RGB in the file name should be used for web and digital files. Lockups saved with CMYK in the file name should be used for print pieces. If you have any questions about file format or which lockup to use, contact Victoria Boatwright at vboatwright@vt.edu or 540-589-7849.
Brand and communications resources
In the accordion below, you’ll find the building blocks of a successful brand. This is where you can obtain the graphic elements and language you need to complete a project and where you can plug into and request additional resources.
Visit the Virginia Tech Brand Center to review best practices for incorporating visual elements of the brand such as graphic elements, fonts, colors, logos, etc.
You can also go directly to the downloads page to obtain:
- Fonts (To install fonts on a PC, click the DOWNLOAD NOW button and select “Save File.” Locate the zipped file in your “Downloads” folder, right click, and select “Extract.” Open folder with the individual fonts, right click, and select “Install.” You may need to restart an application to use the fonts.)
- Graphic elements
- Virginia Tech print and web logos
- Virginia Tech branded PowerPoint templates
- Virginia Tech branded Letterhead
If you need to hire a graphic artist, photographer, or other vendor for a special or ongoing project, check out the Resource Network Guide on the Virginia Tech Brand Center. The vendors have been vetted and pre-approved, so they are already under contract by the university. They should also have access to all Virginia Tech branded elements.
We recommend contacting several vendors with project specs and deadlines to get estimates and to be sure the vendor can complete the work in a timely fashion.
If you need letterhead for your school or center, contact the director. You can also utilize the AAD letterhead for university business. If you need to order business cards or letterhead, you can find approved printers through the Resource Network Guide.
Ensemble is the web content management system (CMS) utilized by Virginia Tech. We highly recommend that all units in the college take advantage of the CMS as it is supported by the university. By doing so, you’ll be able to utlize the One theme branded template and have additional “ready-made” templates for pages and page elements at your disposal that do not require a lot of technical expertise to create or incorporate. Please reach out to Victoria Boatwright, digital communications manager, vboatwright@vt.edu or 540-589-7849, with any questions related to moving your site to Ensemble.
Virginia Tech offers a robust slate of social media resources for people who are just getting started as well as more advanced users who want to improve their sites and strategies. All of the following social media resources are available online, and you can also contact the Virginia Tech social media team for additional assistance.
- Virginia Tech Social Media Policy
- Social Media Best Practices
- Recorded presentations and trainings on best practices, using analytics, and more
- Guides for emergencies, moderating online discussions, measuring success, and more
There is a University Relations photo library with thousands of images available for use by faculty and staff. However, AAD-related images are limited. For access, please contact Megan Zalecki at meganz@vt.edu.
If you are taking any staged shots to promote or market your units or activities, please utilize the Media Release Form. Here are a few basic guidelines regarding when you need to obtain a signed release:
- You typically do not need a release if you are taking photos or video of people in a public place, unless you really focus on or get very close shots of people.
- You should get a release for a photo or video shoot that is staged and/or when people are there for the sole purpose of being a part of the shoot, especially when you are planning to use the photos for a print publication or when you are working on a video.
- Always get a signed release when photographing minors.
- We also recommend using the following language on the information and/or registration pages for any event where photos will/may be taken: Please be advised that photographs will be taken at this event. Your participation in this event authorizes Virginia Tech to photograph you and use your image in social media, on the website, and/or in marketing materials.
We are always looking for great stories about what’s happening in AAD and creative ways to tell the AAD story to our varied audiences. If you have big news — especially news relating to student learning, research, or outreach activities — please let us know!
We manage and work within many communications mediums, so we can help determine which is the best channel for each story: social media, website, news, magazine, etc. We also work with University Relations to distribute articles through VTx and other channels. Check out the AAD news feed.
If you are a faculty member with multiple, ongoing projects, consider which one is the most important in terms of impact and your research priorities as we do not have the capacity to produce news stories about every grant and paper. In addition, we also give preference to projects for which an AAD faculty member is the principal investigator or lead author.
These request forms are for AAD faculty and staff only.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact any member of the Communications Team or visit us in 123C Burruss Hall.
- Vacant, Director of Communications
- Victoria Boatwright, Digital Communications Manager, vboatwright@vt.edu or 540-589-7849