In order to build a strong and recognizable brand Golden West College must present a consistent identity for our stakeholders, including students, employees, alumni and community supporters.
GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services department has established these standards and guidelines for publications, social and digital media, Web pages and video to help ensure that the College is consistently branded. Clarity, consistency and coherency ensure that all material written and produced by GWC strengthens our brand.
Members of the College community – students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, and friends – are encouraged to recommend stories and photos for promotional purposes by contacting promotions@gwc.cccd.edu
GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services is the primary marketing, advertising and public relations arm of Golden West College. In addition to promoting the College as a whole, Marketing and Creative Services provides support to programs and departments, for both internal and external communications.
All marketing requests will be fulfilled given limits of time, resources and intent to fulfill the mission and strategic goals of the College.
Services provided by Marketing and Creative Services include:
GWC communicates a consistent message by use of its logos, tag lines, school colors, design and stylistic elements on all visual media originating from the College’s Marketing and Creative Services department.
All external (i.e. public-facing) promotional and marketing material MUST adhere to Golden West College graphic standards.
There are several different approved versions of Golden West College’s official logo. GWC’s logo and seal are copyrighted graphics and are not to be altered outside of the approved standards.
GWC’s logos and seals can be requested through the Logo Use Request form {INSERT LINK}. The Marketing and Creative Services department reserves the right to deny use of the College’s official logos.
The GWC logo may be used in tandem with special program logos, sports logos or alone. However, a program logo cannot take the place of the GWC logo.
College-sanctioned department logos are available for all departments and programs on campus. These logos consist of the institutional icon with the words “Golden West College” and the name of the program to the right and separated by a horizontal line.
The GWC Style Guide is an essential tool for preparing publications and/or any promotional material that contains written copy. It features formatting, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and language guidelines.
The official GWC signature template is designed to provide a consistent, professional identity for all GWC employees to use in their email communications. Adhering to this standard will provide quick recognition and assurance of your GWC identity to all our current and prospective students, vendors and collaborators.
Graphic design establishes a visual identity through elements like logos, color schemes, typography, and imagery. These elements create a consistent and recognizable look that differentiates GWC’s brand from competitors.
Marketing and Creative Services provides graphic design for all print and digital projects, such as external advertising, College publications, recruitment materials, on-campus signage, t-shirts, brochures, flyers posters and more. The graphic design team coordinates with outside vendors, as needed, for print production.
Before you submit a request for graphic design services, please consider the following:
Your Responsibility
Marketing and Creative Services requires 7-10 business days for printing, and at least 10 business days for design and proofing. Please plan your projects accordingly. Requests for rush jobs may not be accommodated.
Requests for design services can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form.
Things to keep in mind
Video content allows brands to tell their story in a dynamic and engaging way. Through a combination of visuals, sound, and motion, Golden West College can convey messages more powerfully and memorably than static images or text alone.
GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services provides full video production services that support the College’s marketing and outreach efforts. The primary purpose of promotional videos produced by the College is to support enrollment and raise brand awareness.
Promotional videos typically fall under one of these categories:
Your Responsibility
Video is an important medium for telling the story of Golden West College. It’s also a time-consuming process that takes careful planning and execution.
The minimum lead time for a basic video is four weeks before the deadline of the project. An example of a basic video could be a one- to two-minute interview with minimal editing required to finalize the product. Additional requirements and more advanced productions may require more lead time.
Requests for video production services can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
Things to keep in mind
All on- and off-camera talent that contribute to the project are required to sign and submit a release form.
Releases are kept on file with the Marketing department.
Marketing and Creative Services provides editing services for video and/or audio productions.
Requests to re-edit existing video or video generated by a third party require a six-week lead time. Some requests may not be feasible due to technical limitations or legal concerns.
Requests to modify or edit material not created by Marketing and Creative services requires the requestor to provide the relevant material to be edited in the highest quality available.
If your project requires specific graphics or artwork, please mark and detail those requirements in your request.
All produced videos with dialogue must be closed-captioned, per ADA guidelines. Marketing and Creative Services provides transcription and input closed-captioning if the video is not dialogue intensive. In cases where videos are dialogue heavy, the department can recommend vendors to closed caption the project.
Marketing and Creative Services asks that requestors provide a script to better determine whether the department can transcribe the video or it has to be sent to a vendor. If no script is available for the project, videos up to three minutes can be closed-captioned by the department.
Marketing and Creative Services can provide technical and editorial assistance with video projects used to market your program. Please contact Reid Gibian at rgibian@gwc.cccd.edu for more information.
Depending on the type of video and approval of the department, videos may be uploaded to the official Golden West College YouTube account (https://www.youtube.com/@goldenwestcollege)
*Note* It is advised that the requestor provide a short description of the video and/or relevant timestamps for chaptering.
Photography is one of the best opportunities to convey the personality of Golden West College. Original photography of students, faculty, staff, and our campus reinforces our brand by spotlighting our unique and diverse community.
Marketing and Creative Services provides event photography, by request, throughout the academic year.
Golden West College owns all photos and videos created by Marketing and Creative Services staff. The College maintains an extensive repository of photos on the GWC Gallery website.
Before using any of these photos in public-facing publications, online or in print, please contact Marketing and Creative Services at promotions@gwc.cccd.edu. Usage of some photos may require signed model release forms.
Images produced by Marketing and Creative Services may not be used for personal gain and may only be reproduced with prior written consent of the Director of Marketing and Public Relations.
Your Responsibility
Marketing and Creative Services requires a lead time of 7-10 business days in order to coordinate event photography or professional headshots. Requests for photography are approved or denied depending on staff availability and potential use for such photos. Covering events outside of normal business hours cannot be guaranteed.
Requests for event photography services can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
Anyone appearing in a photo that is used for promotional purposes is required to sign and submit a release form.
Releases are kept on file with the Marketing department.
Use of original photos featuring GWC students, faculty, staff, and our campus is preferred when creating promotional content. Depending on your project needs, Marketing and Creative Services may already have appropriate photos, or may be able to produce new photos. Stock imagery is typically used as a last resort.
Accordingly, please remember that additional time will be needed to complete projects that require new photography.
A website is often the first point of contact between a brand and its audience. Web design helps maintain a consistent visual identity across all digital touchpoints, and consistent use of colors, fonts, imagery, and logos reinforces brand recognition and ensures a cohesive brand image.
Marketing and Creative Services maintains the College’s public-facing homepage, provides design services for all College websites, and supports Web editors who update content on the College’s department- and program-specific websites.
Examples of Web design services include:
*Full-time employees who wish to edit their department’s Web pages may request training and access by submitting a Marketing Project Request form.
Web hex colors are a way of specifying colors for Web design and other digital uses using hexadecimal (base-16) notation. Each hex color code is a six-digit combination of numbers and letters that represent the intensity of red, green, and blue in the color.
Your Responsibility
Marketing and Creative Services requires a lead time of 7-10 business days for simple website edits, with all text changes provided by the requestor. Extensive text changes and more complex website redesign requests may take longer, depending on the scope of the project. For complex website requests, please plan on submitting a request 4-6 weeks before the deadline for the project.
Requests for website changes may require the approval of GWC’s executive team.
Requests for website design services can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
Marketing and Creative Services offers Web editing training to all department designated “Web editors” on an as-needed basis. Please submit a Marketing Project Request form to request Web editing training. All requests will be verified with the requestor’s direct supervisor.
Publicly funded institutions of higher education are required to make all digital content accessible, per the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design.
All PDFs uploaded to the website must be checked for accessibility prior to publication. Employees may use Adobe’s Accessibility Checker (a tool in the Adobe Suite) to make documents compatible with screen reading devices.
All image files must have an image description. Image descriptions must be provided for all requests to use a specific image. No images should be larger than 500k (header images only) or 200k (within the body of the page). Marketing and Creative Services can help with reducing image sizes.
When creating links to Web pages not belonging to Golden West College, links to forms or PDFs should open in a new window.
Images that will be used on GWC’s website must be sized according to the following dimensions for optimal resolution:
Interior pages – 1080 x 450px
Image teaser – 800 x 600px or 480 x 400px
Head shot of ID photo – 200 x 261px
Use high-quality, relevant images. This means images should be relevant to the context of the Web page, as well as appropriately sized, well-composed, well-lit, and free of pixelation. Marketing and Creative Services reserves the right to remove a low-quality image from GWC’s website.
Many images found online are protected by copyright and subject to law in the same manner as any other creative work; there is no guarantee that an image is legally available for re-use just because it is freely accessible on the Web.
Marketing and Creative Services can assist in procuring College-owned or licensed stock imagery for use on the College’s Web pages.
Social media platforms allow brands to introduce themselves to a broad and diverse audience. Regularly sharing content on social media helps GWC increase visibility and recognition among potential students, as well as engage with existing students, alumni, employees, members of the community and other College supporters.
Marketing and Creative services manages several social media accounts across many different platforms. Below are the College’s main social media sites:
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/goldenwestcollege/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/goldenwestcollege
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/school/golden-west-college/
X (formerly known as Twitter)
https://twitter.com/goldenwesthb
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/goldenwestcollege
SmugMug
https://www.gwcgallery.com/
Social media publicity services include the following:
*Departments requesting paid social media advertising must provide their own funding.
Your Responsibility
Marketing and Creative Services requires a minimum lead time of 7-10 business days for simple social media publicity requests, such as promotion of a class or program. For event publicity, Marketing and Creative Services requires three to four weeks lead time in order to create graphic or video content, as well as allow ample time to publicize the event in advance.
All graphics or photos produced by someone other than GWC’s graphic design team MUST meet the College’s branding standards. If a provided graphic or photo does not meet branding standards, Marketing and Creative Services reserves the right to re-design the graphic or select a different photo, which may delay the project’s completion. If the requestor declines a re-designed graphic or different photo, Marketing and Creative Services will not publicize the event or program on the College’s official social media platforms.
Requests for social media publicity can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
All new social media accounts must be created with the approval of GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services department. Employees who wish to start a College-sanctioned social media account must first undergo social media training provided by Marketing and Creative Services.
Individuals who manage officially recognized GWC accounts on social media MUST be a full-time employee; students are prohibited from managing social media accounts, and Marketing and Creative Services strongly recommends against part-time employees managing social media accounts, unless there is a full-time employee serving as a co-manager.
Marketing and Creative Services offers support and training for social media accounts currently in existence. This includes: recommendations for social media resources and software, refresher training, collaborations and cross-posting on official channels, and special campaigns. All current College-sanctioned social media accounts MUST have GWC’s Social Media Posting Guidelines in their bio. All current College-sanctioned accounts will be included in GWC’s Social Media Directory.
All officially recognized and sanctioned Golden West College social media accounts must adhere to the College’s Social Media Posting Guidelines.
Social media account managers must enforce GWC’s Social Media and Blogging Guidelines and remove content that violates posting guidelines. The link for the Social Media and Blogging Guidelines must also be displayed somewhere on officially sanctioned accounts, preferably in the bio section of an account’s profile.
GWC observes the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). GWC will not release private and proprietary College information. GWC’s privacy protection also extends to its staff, faculty and students. Approval and documented consent of release is required for all confidential information that is posted on College-sanctioned social media accounts.
Photos of any individual under the age of 18 MUST NOT be posted on social media accounts sanctioned by the College without the express written permission of a parent/guardian.
Marketing and Creative Services will not engage with users who make negative or slanderous remarks toward the College or one of its employees on official College social media accounts. If necessary, an authorized GWC representative will respond respectfully to correct any false statement. Depending on the severity of the negative comment, the College’s executive team and/or authorities will be consulted.
If a post produced by a GWC sanctioned social media account is found to be offensive, Marketing and Creative Services will request that the post be deleted immediately and an apology issued. The person or group responsible for the post will be reported to their direct supervisor.
It is the responsibility of the person posting content to GWC’s sanctioned social media accounts to be informed of copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity, third party rights and user-generated content. The owner of any content that did not originate from GWC may need to be reached for permission of usage. For all GWC sanctioned social media accounts, applicable sources MUST be cited and reference links MUST be provided if using another person or entity’s content.
Posts are permanent
Please remember: once social media posts are released, they can be deleted from the account, but cannot be completely erased from the Internet. Therefore, any social media posts affiliated with Golden West College must be carefully vetted and proofread before being released. Marketing and Creative Services strongly advises that posts be approved by a supervisor before public release in order to protect the College’s brand.
In the event that any of GWC’s sanctioned social media accounts experience a security breach (i.e. hacking), the manager of the accounts and the head of any relevant departments should immediately contact Marketing and Creative Services by emailing promotions@gwc.cccd.edu or arangno@cccd.edu.
In some cases, the public will be notified of the security breach and the passwords of all GWC social media accounts will be changed.
A social media crisis occurs when there is a sudden spike and continuously growing topic of conversation that could damage GWC’s brand or reputation. The crisis can occur on GWC’s platforms or on any third-party account.
Each situation will be specific and have different needs. In such an event, immediately cease all social media activity. An emergency meeting of GWC’s Crisis Response Team should be scheduled with the Director of Marketing and Public Relations, as well as any pertinent parties to devise a plan of action. Please report all negative activity to Marketing and Creative Services immediately by emailing arangno@cccd.edu.
Digital communications enable brands to tell their stories and engage with audiences in a meaningful and timely way. Notably, digital communications also contribute to search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Regularly updated content, social media activity, and backlinking strategies improve GWC’s online visibility, driving more organic traffic to the College’s website.
Marketing and Creative Services manages or supports several vehicles for digital communications, including the GWC website and newsroom, social media channels, Slate CRM, All-User Email, digital marquees, RAVE emergency notification system, and the GWC app.
Your Responsibility
Depending on the project, there are several ways to request Marketing and Creative Services support for digital communications.
For social media publicity, website services, or news releases, please reference the relevant sections of this Branding Guide for lead time information.
Requests for Slate support must be submitted at least 3-4 weeks in advance to give Marketing and Creative Services time to gather information and build a template or campaign. Slate requests for digital communications can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
Emails sent to the All-User distribution list and digital marquee graphics must be approved by the president’s office and GWC executive team, respectively.
The GWC App is managed by GWC’s Student Services area, and the RAVE emergency notification system is managed by GWC Public Safety.
In order to transmit relevant and timely information, it’s important to choose the best possible communication medium for the targeted audience by distinguishing internal and external communications.
Internal groups include:
Examples of Internal communications include:
External groups include:
Examples of External communications include:
NOTE: Some messages are applicable to both internal and external audiences and can be disseminated using a combination of digital mediums.
GWC's marquees are intended for an external audience at the College that includes the surrounding community. Located in high-traffic areas, the marquees provide highly visible, bright and colorful digital communications that not only convey information but also increase brand awareness and recognition.
Digital marquee graphics are planned and approved by the College’s executive team.
All-User Emails are intended for an internal audience at the College that includes faculty and staff.
Faculty and staff who wish to send an All-User email can send the message and request in several ways: they can request access through their manager or their VP’s administrative assistant, or they can request access via the President’s Office by emailing gwcpresoffice@gwc.cccd.edu. Approval for All-User emails is at the sole discretion of the President’s Office.
Guidelines for All-User distribution list:
Always remember that this list goes to everyone and strongly consider another communication medium for your message before submitting. Other listservs that are not moderated are available for specific campus groups (managers, faculty, staff) and other mediums are available.
Alternative lists:
Media relations are a crucial aspect of branding and help build and maintain a positive image. Positive media coverage can amplify other marketing efforts by complementing advertising campaigns and social media strategies, as well as adding a level of legitimacy that is difficult to achieve through self-promotion alone.
Marketing and Creative Services utilizes several tactics to communicate information about the College to external audiences, including press releases and media alerts that are distributed to local news sources, as well as posted on the GWC Newsroom. The following guidelines will help determine which type of news release will best serve your needs.
Press releases are distributed regularly to all major local print, online and television news sources, as well as industry specific trade publications. The purpose of press releases is to generate media interest in the school and its faculty, students and staff.
Media alerts are distributed as needed to all major local print, online and television news sources.
The purpose of media alerts is to notify assignment editors and reporters of a school-sponsored event that they might be interested in covering. The format of a media alert is brief; it is primarily concerned with answering the “who, what, where, when and why” of an event, as well as providing appropriate contact information for follow-up.
GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services maintains a list of media contacts that is updated regularly, but the department is always open to suggestions for new publications and media sources.
Press releases are edited according to AP Style Guidelines with some exceptions. Marketing and Creative Services will send a draft of each press release to the primary and secondary contacts referenced in the release for further fact checking at least one day prior to its distribution. Once everyone has signed off, the press release is distributed via the gwcnews@gwc.cccd.edu email inbox.
Media alerts are written according to AP Style guidelines with some exceptions. All news releases are fact-checked to the best of the Marketing and Creative Services team’s abilities.
Your Responsibility
Timing for distribution of press releases is subjective. For example, GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services takes several factors into account when deciding when and how to send out a press release for events, such as whether or not attendees must pre-register, the cost to attend, the frequency of the event, etc.
As a general rule, it’s best to submit a request for a press release 4-8 weeks ahead of a scheduled event. For non-event press release requests, GWC’s Marketing and Creative Services requires no less than 3 weeks notice in order to adequately research, write and distribute a press release.
For media alerts, Marketing and Creative Services requests no less than 2 weeks notice in order to adequately research and write the alert.
Requests for a news release can be submitted via GWC’s Marketing Project Request form. Please submit requests as soon as possible and include all relevant details of the project.
This handbook is a reference tool to guide and protect the integrity and consistency of Golden West College’s brand. It is intended to help the College’s staff, representatives and outside vendors make the best decisions about how to contribute positively to the overall perception of GWC’s brand and identity. Adherence to these guidelines will help us build trust, recognition and loyalty among our key stakeholders.
Continual updates will be made to this document so that it represents the most up-to-date changes related to the Golden West College brand.
Contact the Golden West College
Office of Marketing & Communications
promotions@gwc.cccd.edu
