York University’s brand narrative, Positive Change, exudes hope, optimism, action and inclusivity. To establish a strong relationship with our audiences, our content must consistently communicate these attributes, across all channels, online and offline.
More than ever, audiences want to make an emotional connection with the brands they follow or engage with. You need to know your target audiences and how to make that content resonate. Most importantly, speak directly to them – not at or past them.
Your tone should encapsulate all that your audiences value, while maintaining consistency with the York brand and its writing style guidelines.
Using consistent messaging strategies and writing style are important parts of building and maintaining the University brand; they are a reflection of our culture. By following these guidelines correctly and consistently, readers will grow to trust in our content and its association with York.
Use this Messaging Guide to help demonstrate York’s brand narrative in a variety of creative ways and determine the best content choices for your audience.
Use this Writing Style Guide to find standards for spelling, capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, formatting, use of titles and more.
Please note that the documents linked below are to be used as a guide in conjunction with the full version of the Messaging & Writing Guide.
Download Brand House
A core element of the University’s brand strategy, the brand house will help inform content choice to bring the brand to life in your content creation.
Download Institutional Messaging
As shared in the Messaging Guide, this document outlines the actual words to get inspiration from our brand story, general institutional messaging and multi-campus messaging.
Download Audience-First Approach
An audience-first approach to content and messaging is critical to bring our brand to life.
Consistency is key to create trust with our audiences. Use this writing style guide as your first reference when communicating to both the York University community and the general public in English. Within, you’ll find standards for capitalization, abbreviation, punctuation, use of titles, language, and other style guidelines.