Brand guidelines
Request design work
Work with our in house Graphic Design team.
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Information for external creative professionals is in our Visual asset guide.
As part of the Marketing team, we have in house Graphic Design professionals.
Our Graphic Design team can produce a variety of different resources. These include:
- Posters
- Leaflets
- Event banners
- Social media graphics
- Web and email banners
If we are given enough notice we can usually produce these for teams across the University.
Wherever possible we prefer it if you come to us with your design requests rather than creating assets yourself. This lets us make sure we have consistency and high quality across everything the University produces, as well as saving you time.
As part of the process a member of the Marketing team will work with you to make sure that the content fits our style guide and overall brand. You will always be given the chance to feed back on and request amends to your designs before they are finalised.
Lead in times for design work
We ask for 2 weeks minimum notice, but appreciate longer lead in times if you are able to give them. If your designs need printing please take this extra time into consideration. Print turnaround times can be between 5 and 10 days, depending on what the item is.
At certain busy times of year (for example, in the run up to Open Days and Clearing) we may be unable to help with your request. In this case we would either suggest delaying your project slightly, or recommend freelance designers and support you in working with them.
Printing and costs
If your request is directly student recruitment related we can usually cover the cost within the Marketing budget. If it is not then you will need to cover the cost of printing (and design if you use an external supplier) within your school or department budget.
When items need printing, we will arrange this within the Marketing team and find a competitive price with one of our trusted suppliers. If the cost is coming from your own department then you will need to arrange the payment.
Submitting a design brief
To request a job from our Design team you will need to fill in a design brief form.
It is best to wait until you have all the details, text and images you need before submitting your request. This means we know exactly what is needed when we come to work on a first draft.
Find out what to include in more detail below.
Deadline
When will you need this?
If you are requesting items for an event, we would suggest giving a deadline a few days before to allow for any last minute issues with delivery.
Quantity
How many will you need?
Bear in mind that it will be much more economical to get a large number of items in 1 order than to submit several small orders.
Format and size
What format do you need it in? For example, is it a poster, a digital PDF or a banner?
What size does it need to be? For example, A6 is a standard postcard, A4 is a small poster, A1 is a large poster.
How many pages should it be? Please be aware that for printed booklets pages need to be in multiples of 4. It would be impossible, for example, to print a 6 page booklet.
Paper stock
Do you have any preferences on gloss or matte paper? Does it need to be a certain thickness? Would you like it to be on recycled material?
Text and images
Do you have all the essential details which need to be included? If there is a lot of text it is best to upload this as a Word document.
Do you have specific images or logos you would like to include? If so, it is much better to upload them separately on the form as image files rather than embedded within a Word document.
For print publications, images (excluding logos) should be above 1MB in size so that they do not look pixelated or blurry.
Style and layout
Is this part of a wider campaign? If so, we will make sure it fits the same style.
If it is a standalone project, do you have ideas about colour or style? Are there any brand guidelines we need to follow outside of the University's own? Is there a theme or tone of the project which we need to know about?
You may have an idea of how you want your item to be laid out, but if you do not then we can usually find a way of making it work!
Audience
Is this for current students, applicants, younger children, parents, teachers, academic professionals or the general public?
When you have submitted your design request form, you will get an automatic notification letting you know we have received it.
Depending on the nature of your request and the amount of copy it involves, a Marketing Officer may be assigned to review the text and ensure it fits with our writing style. You will always have the chance to see the revised version before it goes to print.
When we have a first draft, we will send it to you to review. In most cases this will be in PDF form. The best way to provide feedback on the draft is by annotating the PDF. If you don’t know how to do this, we can provide guidance on best practice. Most jobs will take more than one draft and we will not be offended if you have changes to make!
We will then work with you to refine the design until we have a final version.
Many print jobs are now carried out internally through print services, which we can arrange for you. If it is a job which will need to be printed externally, there may be a cost to your department. The Marketing team may pay for or contribute to materials which directly relate to student recruitment, but materials for other purposes will need to come from your own budget, and you will need to arrange payment within your team.
