This style guide applies only to official University pages. Official University pages are defined as web pages on a University web server that have been created by the University, its schools, departments, or other administrative offices. It does not apply to web pages created by individuals, such as students or faculty members.
Every Penn web site contributes to the user's perception of the University. When a user visits the Penn web, they take away with them an impression of the University and its departments. To ensure a unified web presence, official pages of the Penn web should appear to be visually related in order to help promote usability and to reinforce Penn's brand identity.
As part of our branding strategy it is expected that all "high-level" or "cross-university" administrative offices will adopt the heavy branded templates in order to provide consistency of look and image for the University.
Although consistency is important, this style guide takes into consideration the fact that design standards may vary for individual departments and schools. There are several versions of branded templates to assist in the creation of your web site. If you choose not to utilize the templates, elements of the style guide, such as color and font standards, may be adopted for use in your design.
However, if you wish to make creative modifications to the templates, please contact University Communications in the early stages of redesigning your site.
While there is the option of choosing between several templates, there are certain required elements, which are outlined in the Required Elements section of the style guide.
Download printable version of Web Style Guide in Adobe PDF format.