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Our Brand

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Everything is rooted in our brand strategy. There can only be one brand promise and strategy across the institution.  In writing, messaging or adapting your positioning, you must express your area's uniqueness while staying true to the brand positioning. Each Faculty has a unique expression of the brand strategy and ladders up for consistent, authentic communications across the entire York brand positioning. York as an institution: We are a community of change-makers. We exist to create positive change for our students, our communities and the world around us.

Within this page are resources you will find specific to your Faculty such as templates, and additional resources to use for your next communications.

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Brand Promise

Driven by passion, creating POSITIVE CHANGE for our students, our communities and the world around us.

Our Shared Identity:

A community of changemakers

How I feel when I interact with York:

  • Inspired
  • Empowered
  • Confident
  • Welcomed
  • Proud
  • Cared about

Functional Benefits:

All communications should deliver on at least one of these benefits in an emotional and compelling way.

  • York is an exceptionally diverse community working together to tackle complex societal challenges.
  • York conducts purposeful research that advances knowledge and creates positive change.
  • York is a highly valued educational experience that prepares students for meaningful careers and long-term success.
  • York is a supportive, inclusive, and caring environment that promotes personal growth and well being.
  • York is an effective organization that embraces collaboration, new ideas, and a strong sense of purpose

We have developed a brand toolkit that includes a snap shot guide pertaining to colour proportionality, logo cheat sheet, and checklist to assist with the implementation of the Brand standards.

Please note that these are to be used as a guide in conjunction with the Brand Standards outlined on the brand site.

We have introduced new templates to assist you with incorporating the brand into social media posts for Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and X. We are also introducing LCD templates to ensure brand alignment.  These templates are available in PowerPoint, InDesign and Photoshop to make them accessible to the entire community. Note that for LCD the templates are available in PowerPoint only.

Video Bumpers

Bumpers, also known as intro and outro videos, are short (usually 10 seconds or less) clips that typically show the brand or organization that your video represents. It includes your logo and name with graphics and music playing in the background, as well as a link to your website.

Download your custom Faculty bumper.

PowerPoint Templates

Designed with the York colours and fonts embedded for ease of use, this template can be customized. Template files are available in a widescreen (16:9) format and can be accessed here.

Please note that you no longer need to download the templates for PowerPoint, Word and Excel! Simple open a new document and select the York University option and you are set.

This PowerPoint template is AODA compliant (last updated April 2021) but you will need to do your part by making accessibility part of your routine (ie. create the document using master slides etc).  To find out how to create accessible PowerPoint presentations click here

For accessible alternative text images to copy and paste into your PowerPoint presentation, download here (.pptx).

Email Headers

Email marketing is an effective way to communicate with your subscribers and your overall target audience as a whole. Start your email off strong by using York branded email headers so that it is instantly recognized, making a good first impression. Also when composing your email, be sure it aligns with York's brand positioning. Visit the Messaging Guide page for more information.

Using your custom background

To help with move to online classes and video conferencing, York University developed a series of custom Zoom backgrounds to use.