OEM Style Guide

OEM Style Guide Updated: Jan 2012

Boston • Brookline • Cambridge • Chelsea • Everett • Quincy • Revere • Somerville • Winthrop

Introduction The design elements, or visual language, that make up our house style attempt to convey — through imagery, color and appearance — the qualities that we want the Office of Emergency Management to be known for: being innovative and active in our mission while continuing to be accessible and direct with our public.

The following pages introduce the foundations of our office style, which highlight a distinctive color palette, complementary typefaces, standardized uses of imagery and consistent placement of our signature. Our office style will ensure maximum recognition and a clean, contemporary look for all our communications.

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Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

Branding and Office Style Our office style is a major component of our branding system.

The objectives of our branding system are fourfold: to focus and build impact for the OEM, a modern and non-bureaucratic form of government; to unify and strengthen the department; to help state and local entities, as well as the general public, understand the role and structure of the department; and to streamline communication.

Our branding system must be clear from the stakeholders perspective and make minimal use of acronyms, because an

OEM Signature – For use on all internal and external communications coming from this office regarding City of Boston emergency management activities, programs and operations, including some MBHSR collateral and materials.

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Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

abundance of acronyms hampers clarity and directness. Our branding system is not the same as our organizational chart. No more than two levels have been branded because too many layers and too many symbols suggest traditional government bureaucracy and an unfocused organization.

Every office communication must be branded with at least one — and no more than two, in most circumstances — of the following signatures.

MBHSR Signature – For use on all internal and external communications coming from this office regarding the UASI grant program, regional activities and operations.

EMAP Signature – For use on all internal and external communications coming from this office at all times.

Color Palette The OEM and MBHSR signature should be reproduced in full color whenever possible. The colors of the signature serve as the source for our house style color palettes.

Our primary color palette contains OEM Blue and Red from the signature and adds Light Blue and White. These colors should be employed throughout our communications and are listed in the table below.

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For 4-color process printing, refer to the CMYK values shown.

For print productions, refer to the RGB Print values. The CMYK values provided can be used on both coated and uncoated paper when printing. Although variations in color will occur, try to match the colors as closely as possible.

C

M

Y

K

R

G

B

Hex

OEM Blue

99

79

17

3

17

76

139

114b8b

OEM Red

23

100

100

19

165

0

15

a5000f

OEM Light Blue

61

31

3

0

102

153

201

6699cc

OEM Dark Grey

0

0

0

79

51

51

51

333333

OEM Light Grey

0

0

0

28

176

177

179

b0b1b3

Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

Typography Typography plays a major role in shaping a brand because it helps create a consistent look and feel. For all office communications, one typeface — Times New Roman — is preferred. This typeface has been chosen because it complements the look of the word mark.

If Times New Roman is not available on your computer, you

Times New Roman

may substitute Perpetua for Times New Roman.

Arial has been selected as a secondary or complementary font for Times New Roman. It may be used for headlines, subheads, captions and other supporting text.

If Arial is not available on your computer, you may substitute ITC Franklin Gothic for Arial..

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890$&?{} ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvwxyz

Arial

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 1234567890$&?{} ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvwxyz

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Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

Document Covers The front-facing element of office communications — The cover page is made up of four essential components: whether brochures and document covers or information flyers The image panel — should follow a basic grid system. This grid system The information panel organizes the style components in a consistent way to keep all Primary and secondary messages materials consistent..

The signature The grid splits the front-facing element of a communication horizontally into two halves.

One half is the image panel. This image panel may contain a photograph or a color field in a color selected from the house style primary or secondary palette.

Image Panel The other half is the information panel, which contains a short primary message in large type and, if needed, below the primary message, a secondary message in smaller type. If needed, a date can be added below the message(s).

The signature is always placed at the bottom of the information panel and aligns left with the message type.

Information Panel The placement of the image and information panels can be Primary Message switched to add variety to our communications. For some communications, the information panel will be more appropriate Secondary Message above the image panel.

Signature

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Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

PowerPoint Presentations The front-facing element of office presentations — whether internal or external — should be created within the presentation templates with either a white background or blue background. The cover page is formatted in the same style as the document covers to keep all materials consistent.

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Office of Emergency Management - Style Guide

This style allows for all presentation slides to keep the same formatting (color and placement) which creates a cohesive office look that remains consistent between electronic and print materials.