Welcome to the Bates College Brand Identity Guide. This guide is intended to be a roadmap, providing guidance on how best to represent the college, its people, and its programs consistently and effectively, across all channels, in word and image.

As a living document, this guide to Bates’ brand identity will evolve to reflect small and large adjustments in both verbal and visual messaging for the college.

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Introduction

Bates has a long-established reputation as a leading American liberal arts college. We are known for rigorous academics and a commitment to the educational and community values of inclusivity and diversity. These perceptions are central to our brand.

As an entity, the perception of Bates is extensive and many-layered, and it includes the college’s history and mission, its values and institutional vision, and its broad community, past and present. It is important to understand that while images like the college wordmark and phrases like “transformational power of our differences” represent and support the college brand, the brand is how the college is known and understood in the marketplace — its reputation.

The Bates Communications and Marketing Office (BCM) is charged with protecting and strengthening this reputation. At some point, everyone in the college is a communicator on behalf of Bates. This Brand Identity Guide is intended to be a roadmap, providing guidance on how best to represent the college, its people, and its programs consistently and effectively, across all channels, in word and image.

If you are communicating on behalf of Bates, this guide is a resource for you so that your message design and delivery is in concert with how the college communicates. For anything not covered in this guide — or for any communications matter you face — BCM is here to support you and your efforts. Please do not hesitate to contact us!

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Brand Messaging

Conveying the Bates message: Language
As a community, Bates has developed accepted ways to describe its history and mission, which serve as an excellent resource when writing or speaking about the college.

Mission Statement: Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts. Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. With ardor and devotion — Amore ac Studio — we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times.

Boilerplate PR Language: Located in Lewiston, Maine, Bates is internationally recognized as a leading college of the liberal arts, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world. Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin. Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world. 

Key words and phrases:
academic rigor
opportunity and excellence
purposeful work
engaged liberal arts
research and scholarship
senior thesis
community
inclusivity and diversity
student athlete
collaboration, collaborative
Maine

Key Institutional Messages: The following statements represent the college’s key messages and embody our guiding principles and institutional priorities. Such messages evolve with time and institutional leadership, but currently, the following statements frame communication about the college and capture what we most want people to know about Bates.

• Our goal is for Bates to offer the model liberal arts experience.
• Our rigorous liberal arts education is built on deep and personal relationships among our students, faculty, and community.
• We are engaging the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.
• Since our founding — and a century before our peers — Bates has welcomed men and women from all racial and economic backgrounds to our campus in Lewiston, Maine.
• Bates is a national leader in civic and engaged learning.
• Bates has a distinctive and powerful approach to preparing students for lives of purposeful work. 

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The Bates Wordmark and Logos

The official logo for the college is the Bates wordmark. It should appear on any official communication or marketing material, print or digital.

The wordmark has been created from a non-specific font and uses the letters “B, a, t, e, s” with the lead letter uppercase and the remaining letters lowercase.

If you are in need of using the Bates wordmark for a specific reason (for example putting the wordmark on baseballs or novelty products you wish to sell) and are not sure beyond the measures explained in this guide, please contact the Communications Office immediately prior to starting your project.

Other treatments of “Bates” have been developed for specific uses, but should always appear with the official Bates wordmark in marketing materials. These marks include the graphic treatment currently used with Admission materials (Knockout font); the treatment developed specifically for athletics and “spirit” materials; and the Bates Magazine masthead.

General Usage

Scale and Size
The wordmark may be used at various scaled sizes.

Proximity and Padding

Proper consideration must be given to the use of elements, figures, photos, shapes, text, or other words around the wordmark at all times.

To this end, it is important to consider how closely the wordmark is enclosed within a shape.

Incorrect Usage

Do not change the font:

Do not stretch, manipulate, or distort the proportions as a whole or for any given letter:

Do not adjust size of letters:

Do not alternate the colors or change the total color scheme from anything other than the brand standards palette:

Avoid an unclear or distracting background:

Do not allow any elements, figures, photos, shapes, text, or other words to overlap the wordmark:

Unique Scenarios

Sometimes there is a need to use the official wordmark in a unique way. The Communications Office is available to consult, review, and approve special uses of the wordmark as needed.

Bates Athletics Brand Identity

The mascot for Bates Athletics is a bobcat, represented by a bobcat face and head as the primary visual mark. The text “Bobcats” and “Bates” are styled with Batesina Athletica, a custom font developed for and used exclusively with the college’s athletic marks. Additional secondary and tertiary versions of the athletic marks are available for each of the 31 varsity teams. For more information about the Bates Athletic Brand Identity please download the Bates Athletics Style Guide PDF.

Purposeful Work Branding Guidelines

Purposeful work is a college-wide initiative built on the premise that preparing students for lives of meaningful work lies at the heart of the liberal arts mission.

Primary Logo

The primary logo for Purposeful Work is inspired by the tension and interactivity of finding your purpose. It explores the relationship of planes and the development of disparate parts (interests, passions, ideas) coming together to form a whole.

The primary logo includes the brand’s official name ‘Bates Center for Purposeful Work.’ It may be used interchangeably with the alternate logo whenever needed or desired.

Alternate Logo

The alternate logo may be used interchangeably with the primary logo, whenever needed or desired.

All logo color variations are drawn from the primary color palette. The logo should never be displayed in a color outside of this palette.

General Usage

To maintain legibility, the logo should never shrink to smaller than 0.75”w x 0.29”h.

The logo spacing states there must always be a minimum of clear space around it to maintain logo clarity.

Incorrect Usage

Do not stretch or warp, logo mask, reposition or change, change color, use the dark logo on a dark background, or use the light logo on a light background.

Purposeful Work logos are available on the Downloads Page.

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 Departmental Co-branding

Included with the Bates brand are co-branded options for offices and departments. The co-brand style includes the primary Bates logo, a line, and appropriate text in the font Frutiger Neu LT Pro (Bold).

Examples of horizontal co-branded logos shown with short, medium, and long titles:

Examples of vertical or stacked co-branded logos shown with short, medium, and long titles:

Major Initiatives

Selective graphic treatments are used to promote and identify major institutional  events and initiatives that support the college’s mission.

An example of a major initiative is the Mount David Summit. Below is the graphic identity for this initiative.

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The College Seal

The official Bates College seal is used intentionally, sparingly, and with the approval of the Communications Office. The seal is traditionally reserved for formal, institutional, official, and presidential communications. Examples are documents such as the watermark on official college stationery, academic transcripts, and diplomas. It is used selectively on college store merchandise, such as commemorative plaques, glassware, portfolios, or furniture.

With questions about usage, please consult BCM.

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If you are interested in the meaning of the imagery in the seal…

From “The Academic Procession” — part of the annual Commencement Program:

“Another tradition to which Bates College adheres is that of having a seal, or — more properly — a coat of arms. In heraldic terms it may be described as: A shield, per pale; the sinister half, per fess. On the dexter side, a pine tree with a stag at the foot of it, lodged. On the sinister chief, an open book; and on the sinister base, a sheaf of grain. Surmounted by a crest, a lighted lamp. And the motto: Amore ac Studio, “With ardor and devotion.”

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Typefaces

Bates uses two primary fonts in its official communications: Sabon Next (serif) and Neue Frutiger (sans serif).

Sabon Next is an old-style serif typeface. A staple of Bates’ print communications for years, Sabon Next is utilized on the web mainly in larger header styles. Timeless and elegant, this font is indicative of our strong history and academic rigor.

Neue Frutiger is a modern humanist sans serif font, known for its clear and legible design. This typeface has a breadth of styles that provides versatility and flexibility, making it ideal for any use, from headlines and subheads to captions. It is also our main text font. Neue Frutiger appears welcoming and warm, reflecting Bates’ identity and distinctive sense of community.

On occasion, BCM uses other fonts for specific marketing materials. If you have a question about fonts or how best to utilize them in your communications efforts, contact BCM.

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Colors

Our established color palette helps to strengthen the visual recognition of our brand among audiences. Bates Garnet (PMS 201) is our official color and is supported by black, a warm dark gray (PMS 424), and a warm light gray (PMS 421).

Official Color

BATES GARNET

PRINT
PMS 201
C:4 M:100 Y:68 K:32

DIGITAL
FOR LARGE & MEDIUM AREAS
HEX: #881124
HSL(350, 78%, 30%)
RGB: (136, 17, 36)

FOR SMALL & THIN ELEMENTS
HEX: #981328
HSLA: 351,78%,34%,1.00
RGB: (152, 19, 40)

Supporting Colors

In our communication materials, the BCM design team uses other colors that complement our signature color palette. If your project requires the use of secondary colors, please feel free to consult BCM.

Purposeful Work Color Palette

The color palette for Purposeful Work is fresh, energetic, and modern. The colors are to be used in relationship with the Bates primary color palette (Bates Garnet).

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Digital Applications

Presenting the college in a consistent and professional manner is important in every medium. Here are some guidelines for representing Bates effectively on a variety of digital platforms:

bates.edu
The Bates website is the college’s flagship digital publication. The styles for the site’s pages are defined in our stylesheets and ensure that content created by site editors across campus is rendered consistently.

If you are a site editor (or are interested in learning more about managing web content at Bates), you can join our WordPress Community of Practice, a group of campus WordPress users who work collaboratively to cultivate solutions and best practices for WordPress at Bates.

Social Media
Social media is a crucial and ever-changing forum. If you are responsible for maintaining an official college social media account, you can stay informed about best practices by joining the Social Media Community of Practice.

Topics regularly discussed include optimizing your profile page, avatar, cover photo, how to create engaging content, how to handle comments, and more. It is also an opportunity to up your social media game, stay informed, compare experiences, and share best practices with your peers. Contact BCM to join the Social Media CoP, or with any questions you may have about representing the college through social media.

Presentations
PowerPoint presentations made in an official capacity can benefit from using a standard Bates PowerPoint template.

Email Body Text and Signatures
Email from your Bates account is professional correspondence.  While Gmail allows you to use a variety of colors and fonts, it’s worth keeping in mind that some colors and fonts can be difficult to read. We recommend the use of black text, since other colors can be distracting and difficult to read.

Here are a few elements to consider including in your email signature:

• Your name
• Your title
• Your department
• Bates College
• Phone number(s)
• A link to bates.edu

If you think your mailing address or fax number could be of use to people with whom you email, feel free to include them. Including your email address is unnecessary, since anyone receiving an email from you has that already.

Some people like to include an image file of the Bates wordmark in their signature. If you do so, use a small file optimized for email such as the one available on the Downloads page. Just keep in mind that some email clients strip out images, which create a broken link in your signature for some recipients. Avoid using other images.

If considering the use of a quote below your email signature, give thought to how the words relate to Bates and whether they are appropriate. Be considerate of readers’ varied backgrounds and experiences in your selection, and remember that Bates email is professional correspondence.

Here is one example of a recommended email signature format:

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Robert Cat
Assistant Director of Mascot Services
Office of Fun Times
Bates College
207-555-1234
bates.edu

Monitor Slides
The college provides monitor slides across campus, which are managed by Post & Print. If you would like to share a message via the monitor slides, Post & Print can work with you to fit that message into a template. Publicity via monitors for day-to-day events is managed by OS. The BCM role is primarily limited to major institutional events, such as Commencement.

BCM recommends keeping monitor slide messages short and keeping text big — slides are up for approximately 10 seconds, and people are walking by! Think of it as a digital highway billboard.

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Signage

Campus signage is critical for wayfinding on campus by community members and visitors. Communications collaborates with Facilities on campus signage to ensure clarity and consistent branding.

There are a wide variety of sign categories. As an example, here are several versions of signs for use on campus vehicles:

If you have a need for campus signage for any purpose, please contact BCM to get the conversation started.

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Licensing

If you’d like to work with a vendor to develop a product that includes Bates marks (such as hats, blankets, or other merchandise), you’ll need to be familiar with the college’s licensing agreement. The college marks are controlled under a licensing program with CLC, and only vendors who are registered with CLC are typically permitted to use the Bates marks.

If you have questions about the licensing process or exceptions to these guidelines, or if you would like to see a list of approved vendors, you may contact BCM. If you would like to know which vendor created a certain product that is sold in the campus store, contact the Bates College Store.