Style & Writing Guide

Color Palette

Building strong color equity for the Southwestern University brand is critical to strengthening brand awareness.

Consistent use of color will help make our communications even more recognizable to our audiences. Used consistently over time, colors become associated with our University, using even slight variations or screens of these colors causes confusion and can erode brand equity. 

The Southwestern University color system is comprised of four colors- black, yellow, gray and brilliant white.

White is our main background color and helps to establish a sophisticated, modern look. Black is our secondary color and is to be used for most type.

Yellow is also a second color, but is to be used purposely as an accent or, on occasion, in type.

Warm gray is a tertiary color used for accent a larger areas of revered copy where a flood of black may appear too jarring.

Hex:
#FFFFFF

R: 255
G: 255
B: 255

C: 0
M: 0
Y: 0
K: 0

PMS C: N/A
PMS U: N/A

  Hex:
#000000 		R: 0
G: 0
B: 0 		C: 75
M: 68
Y: 67
K: 90 		PMS C: Black C
PMS U: Black U
  Hex:
#FFCD00 		R: 255
G: 205
B: 0 		C: 0
M: 19
Y: 100
K: 0 		PMS C: 116C
PMS U: 114U
  Hex:
#828282 		R: 130
G: 130
B: 130 		C: 51
M: 42
Y: 42
K: 7 		PMS C: Cool Gray 8C
PMS U: Cool Gray 7U
Color Blocking
The primary color should always be white, the secondary color black, and use SU yellow purposefully as an accent to highlight important information. 
In print, yellow can be used in small color blocks to break up a page. Never change the opacity of any of the brand colors. 
Avoid large colors blocks behind small type. It is bad for legibility and hard on the eyes.