Lindenwood Brand Identity Guidelines (2025)

WEBSITES & DIGITAL CONTENT Our websites serve as key touchpoints for students, families, and partners—requiring accessibility, consistency, and alignment with our brand standards. This section outlines the essential elements for building and maintaining official Lindenwood University websites. Each component ensures clarity, functionality, and strong visual identity across digital platforms. Essential Foundations for an Effective Website Every official Lindenwood University website must be built on a strong foundation that ensures accessibility, relevance, and clarity across all audiences. USER ACCESSIBILITY An effective and engaging website should be accessible to all users. Lindenwood University is committed to creating an accessible web presence. Therefore, all web content contributors must develop and edit their content with accessibility in place. For more information on accessibility compliance, visit www.lindenwood.edu/accessibility CONTENT STRATEGY Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. Ask these key questions before launching or updating any site: • Who is the target audience? • Why do they come to this website? • What should they know or do once they’re on the site? • How often will the site be updated? • Who is responsible for ensuring the content remains current? Answering these questions at the start of every project helps ensure content is accurate, purposeful, and valuable to users. RESPONSIVE DESIGN The website should work just as well on mobile devices as it does on larger screens. A poor mobile experience frustrates visitors and undermines engagement. A responsive website presents the same copy, images, and elements no matter what device it’s viewed on—but the layout may shift based on screen size to optimize usability and readability. Tip: Always test layouts on mobile and tablet views before publishing. Required Features All official university websites must include the following features to maintain structural consistency and user-friendly navigation. GLOBAL NAVIGATION ELEMENTS These components must appear on all www.lindenwood.edu pages: • Main Navigation Menu • Footer Menu • Campus Alert Banner (when applicable) They provide orientation and help users find what they need quickly and easily. DOMAIN NAME POLICY All university-related domains must use lindenwood.edu . Subdomains or custom URLs require prior approval from Information Technology and the Marketing Department . Exceptions exist, but domain registration must always be processed by IT, with the University retaining full ownership. Departments requesting a custom domain will be responsible for any additional costs. COLOR CONTRAST RATIOS To meet accessibility standards, we follow WCAG contrast guidelines. These values are already set via the global style sheets and must never be overridden manually. DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY GOLD When designing digital assets such as buttons, banners, or other interactive elements where white text appears on Gold, use the darker Gold shade (#857542) to ensure sufficient contrast and meet accessibility standards. This applies only to digital work; for print, continue using the standard Gold (#B5A36A). Tools We use the following tools to manage and optimize our web presence. BIGTREE CMS Our internal content management system used across www.lindenwood.edu . • Allows departmental access for content updates • Must be used within approved templates • All contributors receive training before access is granted SITEIMPROVE SiteImprove ensures ongoing compliance and improves long-term usability. Third-party software that scans our web pages regularly and indexes errors related to: • Accessibility • Governance • Quality assurance GOOGLE LIGHTHOUSE A free tool built into Google Chrome. Use it to run individual page scans for: • Performance • Best Practices • Accessibility • SEO WEBAIM / WCAG CONTRAST CHECKER Tools for evaluating color builds and contrast ratios. These tools help maintain accessibility standards: • WCAG Contrast Checker (by Acart Communications) – precise contrast ratio testing with interactive picker • WebAIM Color Contrast Checker – includes lightening/darkening features for fine-tuning builds WEBSITE RESOURCES All approved fonts, logos, and imagery can be downloaded through: • Asset Den • Creative Cloud Libraries • Adobe Fonts Visit www.lindenwood.edu/brand or contact marketing@lindenwood.edu to request access. 053 EMAIL SIGNATURES The addition of badges, logos, quotes, or other elements to email signatures is not permitted under Lindenwood’s brand guidelines. Individuals who include unapproved a dditions will be asked to remove them to ensure consistency and alignment with university standards. See below for proper examples of Intstitutional and Athletic email signautures. Use the email signature generator at this link to create your email signature. 53 54