Our brand is how we tell our story.
It’s not just the words we use, the banners we unfurl or the traditions we hold dear. It’s all those things and more, working together to create a distinctive look, feel and voice that people will immediately recognize as Arizona Western College. A visual identity is more than just a symbol, logo or icon. A well-crafted visual identity represents and reflects a college’s culture, mission and services. It’s the sum of all the visual elements used to distinguish itself from competitors.
This Quick Start Style Guide will give you the branding basics you need to put AWC’s best foot forward. Thank you for effort to provide a cohesive visual experience.
Logos
The Arizona Western College logo is the strongest visual representation of the entire college. It embodies who we are and unites our different voices so that together we are stronger than the sum of our parts. More than a mere visual mark, it is the face of the institution and should be consistent across all mediums.
Institutional Logo
The Primary version of the Arizona Western College institutional logo consists of the college wordmark stacked under the AW icon.
To ensure optimal visual impact when using an institutional logo, consider the primary version as your first choice.
One color* and black/white versions of the institutional logo are also available.
Vertical
Primary – Vertical
Primary Reverse – Vertical
The Secondary version of the institutional logo consist of the college wordmark stacked to the right of the AW icon. Use this as your secondary option, if more applicable.
Horizontal
Secondary – Horizontal
Secondary Reverse – Horizontal
The Secondary version of the institutional logo consist of the college wordmark stacked to the right of the AW icon. Use this as your secondary option, if more applicable.
Do’s and Don’ts
Review the Quickstart Style Guide for using the Arizona Western College logo properly.
Downloads
Please refer to the Quickstart Style Guide for more information regarding the logo.
Colors
Beyond our logo, color is the most recognizable aspect of our brand identity. Using color appropriately is one of the easiest ways to make sure our materials reflect a cohesive AWC brand. These colors define who we are as an educational institution.
Colors are separated into two main palettes – Primary and Secondary. Primary colors are to be used as the main color indicator for all marketing materials. Secondary colors are reserved for Marketing & Communication and special request. These colors are always to be used in conjunction with primary colors and should not be used otherwise.
Legacy colors are reserved for Special events, Presidents’ Office, and the AWC Foundation.
Please refer to the color wheel* for usage.
Primary Color Palette
Matador Red and Skystone are AWC’s official colors.
Red (Matador Red)
Turquoise (Skystone)
White
Black
Accent Colors
Matador Red and Sky Stone are brand-specific and should be first-choice considerations when selecting color elements for your project. Both colors define who we are as an educational institution
*Refer to the Quickstart Style Guide to view the color wheel.
Font
In addition to logos and colors, typography plays an important role in identifying materials that represent the Arizona Western College brand. Arizona Western College strives to maintain a standard in how we manage and maintain our brand message through type.
Primary Institutional Fonts
Proxima Nova
Proxima Nova and Proxima Nova Condensed are the college-wide institutional sans serif fonts. They should be used as the primary font for all college-wide marketing and communications when available. They may be used in a broad range of applications, including word processing and as body copy in printed materials and web.
Alternative Fonts
Helvetica or Arial are acceptable substitutes for Proxima.
Garamond Pro
Adobe Garamond Pro and Garamond Premier Pro are the college-wide institutional serif fonts. They should also be used as the primary fonts for all college-wide marketing and communications when available. They may be used in subheads, headlines and display type. A version of Garamond comes with the Microsoft Office Suite.
Alternative Fonts
Goudy Old Style or Times New Roman are acceptable substitutes for Garamond Pro.
Refer to the Quickstart Style Guide for examples.
Assets
- What are brand assets?
- Brand assets are tools, including official college logos, templates (Word, PowerPoint, and Canva), color guides, desktop and zoom backgrounds, email signatures, and so much more, provided by Marketing & Communications. Use of logos, color, and fonts should follow branding guidelines.
- Who has access to brand assets?
- Arizona Western College faculty and staff students*, and community partners* have access to brand assets.
- Why do I use brand assets?
- Brand assets are used to help maintain a unified visual experience for Arizona Western College.
- Where can I find brand assets?
- AWC faculty and staff can find all assets within Workplace in folder...
- "AWC BRANDING RESOURCES"
- When may I start using brand assets?
- You may start using brand assets immediately. Use responsibly and according to guidelines.
- How often are brand assets refreshed?
- Any new brand assets will be available at the beginning of each semester.
*limited access
Email Signature
Streamline your email signature creation in seconds. No more manual formatting. Generate a signature now.
Business Card Form
Our business cards have a new look! Employees can request individual or departmental business cards here. AWC’s branded business cards are the only business cards allowed to be ordered with college funds. Special design requests will not be accepted with the exception of special programs requiring separate branding (i.e. SBDC).
There are many reasons for organizations to rebrand. Organizational change and redefinition of mission and values are often primary reasons. As an organization evolves, offers new programs and services, enters into new partnerships, or serves new markets, it is important for the brand to also evolve. It is also best practice to rebrand every 8-10 years, and we were beyond that mark.
The process began with gathering a substantial amount of feedback regarding our previous brand to identify what would change before our creative team went to work on concept creation. Initial concepts were shared and extensive feedback was gathered before second and third iterations were developed and finally refined to what we have today.
We sought advice from experts, the people who know us best—YOU! Through extensive surveys including students, staff, faculty, alumni, partners, and community, we gathered an incredible amount of feedback, critique, and ideas and discovered common threads through our analysis. We hosted focus groups and interviews to speak face-to-face with our college community to listen to their passions and frustrations regarding the former brand. As we conceptualized ideas, we continued to seek feedback from these key stakeholders until consensus was reached and the brand pieces were finalized.
The new brand will be official on September 19, 2022.
Fully transitioning to the new brand will take time, likely multiple years before everything is replaced. We will work on replacing items based on priority and urgency, cost to replace, ease of replacement, and impact on the student experience. All members of the Leadership Advisory Council have been asked to reach out to their respective departments to gather an inventory of items that need to be replaced in order to make informed decisions moving forward. If you have a specific item you’re looking to have updated, you can email us at marketing@azwestern.edu and we will do our best to accommodate.
We want to roll out or new brand while also being conscious of our sustainability efforts. We encourage you to use up what you have and then replenish using the new branding. Promotional items, printed materials, business cards, consumable items, etc. can all continue to be distributed until supplies are depleted. Items that are more permanent and used repeatedly should be in your plan for replacement.
We recognize that along with a rebrand comes cost, and all of our departments are working within limited budgets. At this time, there are no specific funds allocated to replacing branded materials district wide. The Marketing and Communications team has offered to replace branded tablecloths in an effort to alleviate that cost from your budgets and provide brand consistency. As previously stated, you should continue to use up items until supplies are depleted and use the new branding when you would normally place orders to replenish supplies. We will continue the work of replacing larger items such as signage over the next few semesters.
Primary logos and some basic assets will be available to the public for download at azwestern.edu/branding. AWC employees will have access to additional brand assets and branding resources through Workplace under the document folder titled “AWC BRANDING RESOURCES.”
In Workplace, AWC employees will find:
- Acceptable versions of the logos and word marks
- Official colors (PMS, RGB, etc.)
- Email signature template
- Digital letterhead
- Zoom backgrounds
- Phone and desktop backgrounds
- PowerPoint templates
- Canva templates
- Vendor information
No. The College has adopted the new brand and expects employees to follow new branding guidelines. Official colors and logos are to be used as outlined in our Quickstart Guide. Use of old logos and colors will not be permitted except for instances of depleting old supply or awaiting replacement items.
If you see a community partner, external organization, or individual still using the old logos or colors, we’d love for you to let them know we’ve rebranded and direct them to azwestern.edu/branding for the new assets or to marketing@azwestern.edu for questions.
Our hope is that we will all become champions of the new brand and respectfully remind our colleagues and the community of the new brand standards.
Many (if not most) institutions have a different look to their athletics branding. In consultation with our athletics department and in review of other institutions, we made the decision to develop a separate, but complementary brand for athletics. The official colors are the same, but the athletics logo and font are unique to athletics.
The official institutional logo must be used on all institutional materials. The athletics logo is reserved for athletics purposes only. You may find apparel and other spirit items available for purchase in our bookstore or distributed through the Matador Athletics Association featuring the athletics logo, but all other institutional items must solely use an allowable version of the official AWC logo.
The marketing team has been working closely with Barnes and Noble to ensure they have the new brand assets, so branded materials will be featured in the bookstore very soon. We are also working with local vendors to have AWC items for sale in their stores. More information to come.
We are the Matadors and are remaining the Matadors. We will be gathering feedback regarding the new look of our physical mascot. Stay tuned.