Branding OHIO on the Web

Renea Morris, OHIO chief marketing officer

Over the last several months, University Communications and Marketing (UCM) and the Office of Information Technology (OIT) have been working together on a three-year project to migrate approximately 200 University websites to a modern Web CMS. 

Along with improved usability, accessibility, and ease of maintenance, this project offers an excellent opportunity for UCM to promote consistency in branding across the institution and provide better support for digital marketing efforts.

A significant aspect of OHIO’s brand is the accessibility of communications. To address this issue, UCM looked not only at the University’s secondary color palette but also at the use of the palette across the institution.

The most recent Branding OHIO article outlined the updated color palette, along with download information. Our desire is for these colors to be a true set of secondary or accent colors to give emphasis and complement OHIO’s green and white identity.

In addition to colors, this initiative is allowing UCM to guide more alignment throughout the look and feel of OHIO’s sites. Having standards doesn’t mean we will produce less compelling content to drive Web traffic or that we will take a cookie-cutter approach to design. Consistency in this sense will mean that the base of content design elements and capabilities will help ensure that assets are reusable and available long-term. By sharing common elements, we can decrease our site's overall bandwidth (read: faster downloads) and present a more common experience for users.

With 14 OHIO sites already using the new Web CMS and many more slated to move in the coming months, visitors will have ever increasing opportunities to see OHIO's branding in action.

For a list of sites that have launched in the new system, visit the Web CMS Migration Dashboard.