Marketing and Strategic Communication

Knowing the purpose and goals of a project assists OMSC staff in creating the best product in a timely, efficient manner. It also ensures projects are properly prioritized in relation to the goals defined in Simpson’s Strategic Plan.

Begin with the end in mind. What do you hope to achieve with your project? How will it serve College priorities? When possible, quantify specific goals.

It is essential to know whom you are trying to reach with what message and call to action. How is your project relevant and important to one or more of the following?

• Current students – Students that currently attend Simpson College in any capacity
• Prospective students – Students who do not attend Simpson College
• Parents – Parents or guardians of current or prospective students
• Alumni – Graduates of Simpson College
• Staff/faculty – People who are employed by the college in any capacity
• Other – Any audience that does not fall into the above categories

Depending on the type and scale of your project, the time needed to complete projects will vary greatly. Submit your requests well in advance of desired delivery.

Print project timelines

New design and print projects require extra time to complete. Please see print project timelines below. For all print projects, please provide quantity and, if applicable, information about mailing lists.

Note: The above are approximations and depend greatly on OMSC’s project load, the piece’s complexity, paper supply chain, and the printer’s current projects. 

Required information for the form depends on the type of request. You can find definitions of various form sections on pages 3 and 4. At a minimum, each request will need to include:

• Contact Name – The name of the requestor or project contact
• Email – The email of the requestor or project contact
• Project Subject – This is how the project will be named in the tracking system
• Requesting Department / Office – The department of the requestor or project contact (also needed to look up a request once submitted)
• Desired Due Date – When a piece is to be delivered or released
• Request Description – Detail of the project
• Resources – A document link, webpage link, or a link to an example of a similar project

If you need assistance submitting your request, please contact OMSC Director Alisa Reynolds-Good.

Prioritizing and preparing your project

The request form populates an intake sheet holding all OMSC current and newly submitted projects. The intake sheet is used to assign responsible OMSC staff members and highlight key project parameters, including desired due date.

Once your project request is submitted, a staff member will reach out to you within 24 hours to let you know whether OMSC will be able to accommodate your request. If so, we will provide you with the next steps and ask you for any additional details needed to execute the project.

Checking your request status

Once a project has been officially accepted, users can view the status of a request by viewing the requesting department/office’s project report. For example, if a user submitted a request and selected “Admissions” as the requesting department/office, they would view the Admissions Project Report to see the status of their request.

Access your department/office’s report using the links below.

• Academics and Faculty Project Status Report
• Admissions Project Status Report
• Alumni, Advancement and Giving Project Status Report
• Athletics Project Status Report
• Business Office Project Status Report
• CGOE Project Status Report
• President’s Office Project Status Report
• Simpson Centers Project Status Report (Culver, History, Performing Arts, )
• Student Clubs and Organizations Project Status Report
• Other Staff-led Office Project Status Report

If you do not have access to view your department/office’s report, please contact OMSC Director Alisa Reynolds- Good.

• New print/digital design piece – Design an all-new piece that does not yet exist
• Revision or reprint of previous piece – Edit and/or reprint a piece already in existence
• Photography/videography – New photography or videography project or video edit
• Website task – Website update, in any capacity
• Print request – Printed copies in color using the Xerox printer located in the OMSC
• Other – Any project that does not fall into the above categories, may also select when more than one item is needed

• Brochure (folded piece) – 5×11 bi-folded or tri-folded
• Flyer (one-pager) – 5×11 printed on 1 or 2 sides
• Postcard – 4×6 or 6×9 printed on cardstock with mailing address on 1 side
• Poster – 1-sided 5×11 (or larger) print
• Booklet/program – Folded and stapled piece with cardstock cover (varying sizes)
• Campaign materials – Folder with insert materials (varying sizes)
• Signage/banners – Billboard, pop-up banners, building sign (varying sizes)
• Stationery – Folded card, business cards, envelopes, letterhead (varying sizes)
• Sticker – Paper or image with adhesive back (varying sizes)
• Digital graphic – Website or social media graphic, email headers (varying sizes)
• Event coverage – Photography coverage of an event that the OMSC can use in print and digital media
• New photography – Non-event photography including, but not limited to, headshots, portraits, story imagery etc.
• New videography – An all-new videography project
• Photo or video edit – Edits to an existing photo or video project that originated in the OMSC
• Other – Any project that does not fall into the above categories, may also select when more than one item is needed

If you need further explanation of any of the form sections, please contact OMSC Director Alisa Reynolds-Good.

Simpson College’s primary brand colors are red, gold, black and white.

Note: We are open to using other accent colors such as gray, but avoid pinks and light yellow.

PRIMARY – Simpson College’s Brand uses Avenir Next and Avenir Next Condensed.

SECONDARY – Simpson College’s Brand uses Arial

Identity System Overview

The Simpson College Formal Logo includes two key elements: the Tower icon and the Simpson College Primary Wordmark.

To be clear, this formal logo is not the exclusive mark of the College. A complementary primary wordmark will be discussed in subsequent pages of this guide.

The formal logo is most appropriate for use with formal occasions such as Commencement, Honors Convocation, news conferences, academic presentations and signature events such as the Culver Center Lecture, etc.

Additionally, the formal logo remains an option for all creative instances, if and as preferred.

Formal Logo

The formal logo consists of the tower icon and the Simpson College Primary Wordmark. This mark has been specifically configured as a single graphic. The formal horizontal is the preferred logo for use whenever space allows.

For advice on wordmark usage or approval, Please contact Joe Hahn, senior designer, at joe.hahn@simpson.edu.

Clear Space

The Formal Logo must be surrounded by a clear space at least equal to the cap height of “SIMPSON.” The clear space is measured from the top left and bottom-most points of the logo. As a general rule, more clear space is always preferred. No other competitive design elements may be positioned within this space, including typography.

Minimum Size

Primary logos have minimum sizes for reproduction. There are no maximum size limits, however, all design elements of the logo must appear intact and in proportion.

Primary Wordmark

The Simpson College primary wordmark serves as the common, informal logo for the college. Under most circumstances, the primary wordmark is preferred. All wordmarks follow the same clearspace restrictions and minimum size requirements as the formal logos.

Arched Wordmark

While the primary wordmark is preferred for most uses, the arched wordmark is intended for use by the Spirit Shop, as well as in other environments or applications that offer creative flexibility.

All wordmarks follow the same clear space restrictions and minimum size requirements as the formal logos.

View all guidelines

OMSC has created a website issues form for you to complete. You can access the form here. Please DO NOT send emails to individual staff members regarding web issues.

Short answer — it’s coming. OMSC must update hundreds of pages over the coming weeks and months. We are, of course, especially concerned about pages with incorrect content and broken links. Please use the form noted in #1 above, if you have those issues with your pages. Otherwise, we ask for your patience as we work through the creative refresh process. We would also be happy to schedule a time with you to discuss your needs for content updates. Please contact sammi.jahde@simpson.edu to request an appointment.  

At this time, all content updates must be made by OMSC staff. If you are in need of a content update, please submit this form. By January, we hope to have permissions settings in place allowing authorized users to make edits that will be submitted to OMSC for approval. Training information will be provided at that time. Watch for future updates.

Upon launch of the new website, the previous site will not be publicly available. However,  information from the old site will not be lost. Our team is currently working to migrate content from the internal site to the new website. Most of the information will be found externally on the correlating department or academic area page. See that list here. (Once the new site is live.)

For now (once the new site is live), you can still find some of the quick links and resources here. If there is essential information you need that you cannot find, please reach out to OMSC and we will help you locate it.

We are pleased to share that the Registrar’s Office has just published a new online catalog, which you can access here: https://catalog.simpson.edu/