Style Guide

Introduction

Every Center for Teaching Excellence website, flyer, brochure, powerpoint presentation, etc, contributes to the perception of the CTE. Each day, many visitors view our web pages and take away with them an impression of the CTE and Texas A&M University. It is in the best interests of the CTE and staff to maintain publications that are consistently identifiable, attractive, and easy to use.This style guide provides CTE staff and affiliated groups with the means to create websites, flyers, brochures, powerpoint presentations, etc, that have a unique identity while meeting minimum recomendations and practices with design consistency.

Graphics & Typography

Minimum standards

Two main graphic elements identify the CTE on our resources: our logo and nameplate.

The center's nameplate consists of our logo and the words "Center for Teaching Excellence" arranged as shown above, in Times, a highly available typeface usually installed on all Macintosh and Windows systems. Times is used for the CTE nameplate in white and on all headings in the blue accent color.

Core recommendations

The logo and nameplate are suggested for use on all publications. They need not be used on every page or slide but even used sparingly they can help make a publication more recognizably linked to the CTE's look. The use of Arial typeface is recommended for all remaining content text as it seems to be the most easily read, and least decorative font for reading. Other images in the image database may be used on publications as well. Email the webmaster if you need a higher resolution copy.

Colors

The official colors of the CTE are khaki and olive green with maroon and blue accents. These colors were chosen by the CTE Staff. For web & print purposes, the Center's colors are below

Templates

Individuals and groups are not required but recomended to use any of the templates provided here. All of the templates listed on the link above meet the minimum standards stated in this style manual. Many also illustrate core and extended recommendations.

Content and Maintenance

It is because of our purpose that any information published on the CTE Website should be as accurate and up-to-date as possible.The CTE should only publish materials that we as a staff have the capacity to maintain. Maintenance includes keeping the information on each webpage/publication up to date and keeping the design and technology of a whole web site up to date. As a staff we should have a clearly understood process through which designated individuals periodically review, maintain, and update the content of our webpages and publications. Beyond our accuracy and maintenance, content for the web can be greatly improved through appropriate writing style and formatting. My recommendations include:

As webmaster I do my best to keep the technology and functionality of the website as up to date as possible. It is up to the rest of you, that all of our content is proofread, written in the shortest way possible, and in a way that it is not dated (i.e. instead of saying a program is in its Nth year, we should say it began in YYYY) I am asking all of you to commit a portion of your administrative time you set aside at our retreat, at least five minutes a day, to help review the content of our website. Our website is our voice to the world. We need to speak clearly, accurately, and efficiently.