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Print Projects

Creating branded print material

The Cal Poly brand should remain consistent in all of our printed marketing materials, no matter who is creating it. Printed materials include everything from business cards, letterhead, flyers, posters, brochures and more. 

strategy

Before you begin designing your materials, you will need to strategize and plan out your content. You should consider the purpose of the project, your target audience and what you want them to do, the messaging you will be using and what medium will produce the best result. By considering these things and completing a creative brief, it will help keep your content succinct and effective.

Download a Creative Brief

A Cal Poly branded notepad and pen sit at each place setting around a table at an event.
Icon of a smiling face

Tone

The way a piece is designed invokes an emotional response. Do you want to convey fun and excitement? Are you hoping for something more formal in nature? As you plan your design, think about the tone and mood you want to express and design accordingly.

Icon of a message bubble

Messaging

Your headline best conveys your main message. Keep it short and direct but compelling enough to draw people in. Keep all your messaging focused on the main point you want to make and don't give too much information or you may lose the attention of your audience. 

Icon of a pen and a square

Copy

The copy on your printed piece should reflect the tone, voice and style of our brand in order to ensure a consistent brand experience. Our writing guide can help you put this together. 

Your Design

Our brand elements allow you to create unique pieces while still remaining consistent with our overall Cal Poly brand. Fonts, colors, graphic elements and imagery should be used to support your message and create a clear visual hierarchy to draw your audience's attention to where you want it to go. 

A graphic showing the names and looks of our brand fonts, Abolition, Source Sans and Utopia

Typography

Typography is an effective tool that adds visual tone to your messaging. Our official fonts were specifically chosen to reflect our brand and must be dominant throughout your design. Unique fonts will be considered as accents for communicating a specific theme, genre or purpose. 

Learn more about our Typography 

an image showing the brand's entire color palette

Colors

Aside from our logo, Poly Green and Mustang Gold are the most identifiable element of our university. Although your designs should heavily rely on these primary colors, our secondary palette can be used appropriately to fit the demographics of the target audience and the tone of your piece.

Color palette information

Example of a diagonal graphic element with a 1901 in the corner

Graphics

We have a created a variety of graphic elements to help you create a unique look and enhance the visual interest of your pieces while remaining firmly in tune with our brand standards. 

Our Brand Graphics

 

Photography

If you decide to use photos in your piece, they should directly support your message. Photos should have a light and natural feel with no unrealistic elements, and they should feature engaged individuals. You also need to use high-resolution photos to ensure the quality of the images are maintained during the printing process.

Our photography guidelines

Three examples of brand photography.

Templates & Downloads

Looking for a way to easily produce on-brand marketing materials? We have created templates for letterhead, business cards, signs, invitations, presentations and more to help make your job easier. 

EXPLORE OUR downloads 

 

Example of the filled shield graphic

Need Inspiration?

 

This sticker was created for the Admissions office and while it uses a lot of poly green, the brighter yellows and avocado make it feel more vibrant. The topo map in the hills and Source Sans font give the sticker a more relaxed/casual vibe perfect for an incoming student.

This sticker was created for the Admissions office and while it uses a lot of poly green, the brighter yellows and avocado make it feel more vibrant. The topo map in the hills and Source Sans font give the sticker a more relaxed/casual vibe perfect for an incoming student.

This poster, created by CIE for their Innovation Quest competition, uses the primary brand colors but supplements with a heavier use of secondary color since it's meant to appeal to current students. The topographic map is used as a background texture and ties into the outdoor/hiking theme.

This poster, created by CIE for their Innovation Quest competition, uses the primary brand colors but supplements with a heavier use of secondary color since it's meant to appeal to current students. The topographic map is used as a background texture and ties into the outdoor/hiking theme.
The Cultivate Magazine cover uses a dominant amount of brand colors and features a unique illustration depicting the agriculture of our campus and its beautiful location.

The Cultivate Magazine cover uses a dominant amount of brand colors and features a unique illustration depicting the agriculture of our campus and its beautiful location.

Because it's a student-focused campaign, Buck the Stigma uses the brighter Farmers' market green with our primary Stadium gold. Paired with a hand drawn illustration and a unique hand drawn text, this pieces also uses the Source Sans font to remain on brand while still giving it a unique look and feel.

Because it's a student-focused campaign, Buck the Stigma uses the brighter Farmers' market green with our primary Stadium gold. Paired with a hand drawn illustration and a unique hand drawn text, this pieces also uses the Source Sans font to remain on brand while still giving it a unique look and feel.
8 Photos

Need Additional Help?
Our team may be available to help you with your design. Contact our design team for more information.