Rice launches new identity guidelines

Rice launches new identity guidelines

RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

A visit to Rice University’s Web site or a perusal of its many publications can be a bewildering experience — for the uninitiated and the initiated alike. So many designs, colors, logos, typefaces, mascots and slogans adorn these venues that sometimes it’s impossible to tell whether you’re dealing with one institution or a shopping mall.

No longer. This week the university released a new publication called Rice Identity Standards to organize and focus the various words and symbols that constitute its identity system. The manual, available in print and online, is designed to help Rice representatives speak with a common visual language.

The comprehensive identity standards manual is available online at http://www.rice.edu/ricebrand.

“Rice has beautiful images that have been used to identify it over the years, but the university suffers from an overabundance that now dilutes and confuses who we are and what we stand for,” said Linda Thrane, vice president for public affairs. “It’s like the old joke about blindfolded people touching different parts of a camel and coming to wildly different conclusions about what it is. Rice deserves better.

“The identity standards will let anyone who touches any part of Rice know they are in contact with an institution that has its act together,” she said.

The standards include usage instructions and color specifications for the Rice University logo, wordmarks, seal and new Unconventional Wisdom tagline. Also included are guidelines and templates for business cards and stationery and guidelines to help schools, centers, institutes, departments and other Rice entities adopt the standards into their own identity systems. Templates for Web sites will follow shortly.

“This will be an evolution as we work to build a more cohesive look and image for Rice,” Thrane said. “But finally people with questions about how to use Rice’s identity assets will have a place to go for answers.”

The identity standards are based on familiar Rice icons. They include the shield with the Athenian owls, enhanced through modern digital technology to be more visible on Web sites and in print. The familiar Trajan typeface was incorporated into the logo and various wordmarks. Additional standards were developed for athletics purposes using the Old English font that graces Rice baseball team uniforms.

Rice’s design director, Jeff Cox, worked to develop color specifications that capture the hues envisioned by Rice founding President Edgar Odell Lovett: “a blue still deeper than the Oxford blue” and “the Confederate gray, enlivened by a tinge of lavender.”

“You’ll still see variations based on where the colors appear, but at least we’ll all be working off the same palette,” he said.    

“The main difference is that you won’t see countless versions of these sacred symbols,” said Elisa Fink, director of marketing. “Visually aligning our communications and marketing efforts is a big step toward creating a stronger Rice reputation. For example, no matter where you go on our Web site, we want folks to know who they are dealing with and to have a good experience.”

The Unconventional Wisdom theme grew out of more than 100 focus groups and interviews and an online survey. Endorsed by the Rice Board of Trustees last June, it speaks to Rice’s distinctive approach to teaching and research and especially to its unique culture.

A “Who Knew” campaign is currently introducing Unconventional Wisdom to audiences inside and outside of Rice. Developed by OLSON, the university’s strategic marketing agency, Who Knew allows members of the Rice community to tell the story of Rice through surprising and little-known facts written in a catchy and compelling way.

“People are coming up with impressive Who Knews every day,” Fink said.
“The Who Knew concept allows anyone inside and outside of the Rice community
to contribute to the narrative that defines the university.”

A special Web site has been created to allow people to submit and, soon, vote for their favorite Who Knews. The public affairs team will work with faculty members to research and produce the accompanying Who Knew stories. 

In addition to the standards manual, a universitywide stationery storefront will soon be available online. This will allow Rice employees to quickly and conveniently order personalized business cards, letterhead and envelopes. The comprehensive identity standards manual is available online at http://www.rice.edu/ricebrand. A link to the stationery storefront will be added soon to this Web page.

“The fulfillment tool will guide users through the creation and ordering process,” Cox said. “It contains templates for your basic stationery needs — for a better-looking, better-branded product at a lower cost. We will expand the template selection as quickly as possible.”

The brand management and promotion will help link many activities and projects now under way as the Vision for the Second Century gains momentum, Thrane said.

“As the Collaborative Research Center and other new buildings emerge, and as we intensify our student and faculty recruitment efforts, they will benefit from Rice’s more cohesive visible identity and wider recognition,” she said. “And as a rallying cry for the upcoming centennial, Unconventional Wisdom will testify to Rice’s scholarly accomplishments in its first century and to the knowledge and discovery to come.”

In the forward to the manual, President David Leebron observes: “Rice University has achieved a distinctive position among America’s top research institutions as a small university with great impact. But that comparative smallness also makes presenting a clear identity to the world especially important. We amplify our voice when speaking as one interconnected university. By presenting a clear, coordinated identity, we give Rice a face that more people can recognize and value.”

Fink and Cox said they stand ready to help Rice colleagues heed the president’s call to use the identity standards consistently and to bear its symbols proudly. Contact Fink and Cox at ricebrand@rice.edu.