Design and Content Standards

The Division of Communications provides guidelines and tools to help website maintainers ensure that their content is compelling, accurate, professional, and consistent with institutional style. When planning to use an outside vendor for website work, please contact the Director of Design and User Experience so we can help ensure that branding requirements are met.

Branding Tiers

Carleton.edu is a primary communications channel for Carleton College. It’s essential that our website reflects the college’s brand identity and presents our institution clearly, consistently, and professionally, and adheres to web accessibility standards.

Carleton’s identity guidelines are developed by the Division of Communications with the approval of college leadership. When planning to use an outside vendor for website work, please contact the Director of Design and User Experience so we can help ensure that branding requirements are met. 

We follow the below three-tiered approach to branding and content requirements, based on the degree to which the web content officially represents Carleton as an institution:

Tier I: Official Institutional Content (fully branded)

Applies to:

  • Sites where someone might say, “Carleton College states…” about the content
  • Sites critical to the operations of the college
  • Examples: Office and department sites, college initiatives, campus directory (includes faculty bio sites), research lab websites, alumni directory, Workday
  • Example: Student organizations tied to the governance structure of the college (e.g., CSA) or advertising to a larger community audience (SUMO).

Level of branding support

  • Full support, in line with Web Governance standards and Roles and Responsibilities
  • Support entails: Initial design setup, technical support, troubleshooting, and periodic training
  • For third party apps at a Tier 1 level: As much brand alignment as possible

Oversight and ongoing maintenance

  • Communications reserves the right to request or directly make changes to images, graphics, and website copy that do not appropriately reflect Carleton’s brand identity, meet web accessibility standards, or violates other Carleton policies (e.g., data security)
  • Site maintainers and owners are responsible for website content updates

Branding requirements

Unless an exception is approved in advance by ITS and Communications—after consultation with the Web Advisory Group, if merited—all Tier 1 content should adhere to all college design and content standards and include the following elements: 

  • A carleton.edu URL
  • Maintained in the college content management system (WordPress)
  • A Carleton wordmark that follows established logo usage guidelines
  • The sitewide Carleton navigation menu
  • The sitewide Carleton footer
  • Fonts selected from an approved Carleton web typography set
  • Colors selected from an approved Carleton web palette

Third-party vendors, applications, plugins

  • Third-party site vendors, integrations, and applications must be approved by ITS and Communications. 
  • If Tier 1 content is hosted in an approved third-party tool that does not accommodate the level of branding described above, ITS and Communications will provide alternatives.
  • Examples: Workday, OCS Student Portal in Terradotta

Tier 2: College-Affiliated Content (lightly branded)

Applies to:

  • Sites whose content represents individuals affiliated with the college, specifically related to their work for the college or their affiliation to the college.
  • Sites where someone might say, “This person, in the context of their relationship to Carleton College, states…”.
  • Sites with shorter-term lifespans (~5 years or less)
  • Non-marketing sites intended primarily for internal audiences, often involving college operations/processes. 
  • Examples: Course sites, including student-owned sites focused on related academic content and web experiments; short-term academic or grant project sites; and student organizations (hosted on Presence).
    • Note that office and department websites, even if they are internally oriented, fall under Tier 1.

Level of branding support

  • Moderate support, in line with Web Governance standards and Roles and Responsibilities
  • Support entails:
    • CarlSites template and/or up to 3 hours of design and startup support for course sites and academic and grant project* sites. We recommend budgeting for web design in grant proposals, if needed.
    • A moderately-branded third-party platform for student organizations.

Oversight and ongoing maintenance

  • Communications and ITS reserve the right to request or directly make changes to images, graphics, and website copy that does not appropriately reflect Tier 2 brand requirements or meet web accessibility standards.
  • Site maintainers and owners are responsible for content updates.

Branding requirements

Carleton has an interest in being identified with the site, but does not require full branding consistency. Tier 2 sites have less stringent branding requirements than Tier 1, but should at a minimum include:

  • A carleton.edu URL
  • Maintained in the college content management system (WordPress) or other college-approved tool (e.g., Presence, CarlSites); primary site maintainers have some input on plug-ins.
  • At least one form of Carleton identifier on the site’s homepage:
    • The sitewide Carleton navigation menu (preferred), or
    • A Carleton wordmark that links to the Carleton.edu homepage, or
    • Site title text or homepage text identifying its association with Carleton College

Tier 3: Personal Content, Student ePortfolios (unbranded)

Applies to

  • Sites whose content speaks on behalf of individuals or groups who do not represent the college. 
  • Examples: Faculty/staff personal (not professional) sites that are unrelated to their role at Carleton, student ePortfolio sites not tied to course research or projects

Level of branding support

  • No support; Communications may review content if the site is flagged as somehow affiliated with the college to request necessary changes to ensure separation from the college and the individual.

Oversight and ongoing maintenance

  • No support; these sites should be managed by the person they are affiliated with, or someone that person has hired.
  • ITS will provide guidance on migrating web content out of CarlSites into a personal web hosting platform when a person is no longer affiliated with Carleton 

Tier 3 content:

  • Should not display the Carleton wordmark or sitewide Carleton navigation menu.
  • Should adhere to Carleton community standards as outlined in the Campus Handbook.

Websites for Faculty, Research Labs, Courses, and Projects

There are three common approaches to faculty websites at Carleton: Directory Bios, Institutional WordPress, and CarlSites. Learn more about faculty website options.