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.
Submit a project request form for marketing and communications
If you are a faculty or staff member in the college, please use the link below to submit a video, photography, news story, website, or design request to the college marketing and communications team. Please note that for web updates, if you are in a school, you should first contact the communications specialist for your school for assistance.
Projects will be accepted and prioritized based on college and university priorities, timeline, and staff capacity. We require at least two weeks’ notice, but the timeline will vary based on project parameters.
Need college and school photos? Find them in the photo library.
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 someone on the communications team.
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. If you have questions, please feel free to contact any member of the Communications Team or visit us in 123C Burruss Hall.
- Kris Timney, director of marketing and communications, ktimney@vt.edu
- Evan Musgrave, visual content creator, emusgrave95@vt.edu
We are using Virginia Tech’s Marketing and Communications Photo Library to publish and share the best photos of activities in the college and schools. Photos are available for download to all Hokie faculty and staff.
To search, access, and download:
- Log in to the Photo Library using SSO.
- Note: we recommend exploring and experimenting with searches and search terms to find what you are looking for and to locate a manageable number of images.
- Once you log in and are on the main page, go to the options on the right side and click on “Advanced search” (it’s below the blue “Clear” and “Search” buttons).
- On the “Advanced search” page, use the first field box near the top labeled “All fields” to type in what you are looking for. We recommend starting with a program or major name from the list below. You can also try something more specific like an event name, faculty name, activity, etc. Click below to see a list of the program, major, and school tags we utilize.
AAD – College of Architecture, Arts, and Design (overall college events)
AHRM - Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management
ARCH - Architecture
ART - Art and Art History
CINE - Cinema
DES – School of Design
IDS - Industrial Design
ITDS - Interior Design
LAR - Landscape Architecture
MUS – Music
SOPA – School of Performing Arts
SOVA – School of Visual Arts
TA - Theatre Arts
- You can also try checking the keywords for photo style and event, but these terms may not be consistent across the university. The date ranges can be helpful if you know when the photos were taken.
- One additional area to consider on the page is “College.” If you know Evan Musgrave or someone else in AAD was the photographer, check our college name. If you are not sure who the photographer was or just want a broader selection of photos, don’t check anything to see all photos. For example, if you are searching for “art” and do not check the college name, you will receive all sorts of art-related photos that may have nothing to do with AAD or SOVA.
- Once you have filled in the fields and checked any boxes you want, hit “Enter” and you’ll see the results page(s). If you look at the top right corner of the results, you’ll see how many pages there are.
- If you see a photo that interests you, click on it to go to a larger version and to see the details. This is also a good way to identify options to help you with future searches like key words that are in the caption, photo style, date, etc.
- If you just want to scroll through all the photos returned in the search, click on the first one and then use the arrows in the upper right where it says “View all results” to go forward or backward.
- To download a photo, go to the top right corner to download the original photo or a smaller version.
Questions or having trouble? Contact Evan Musgrave, visual content creator, at emusgrave95@vt.edu.
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 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.
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
If you are taking photos and/or video to share 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 (like people walking on campus), 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 or for a particular activity like an academic class.
- Always get a signed release when photographing minors.
- Always get a signed release for visuals that will be used for any kind of advertising like social media ads, print ads, or admissions marketing materials.
- 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.
Questions? Contact Evan Musgrave, visual content creator, at emusgrave95@vt.edu.
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 Communications and Marketing to distribute articles through Virginia Tech News 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.