University of Glasgow brand guidelines

Freedam's take

I like how pragmatic the University of Glasgow brand toolkit is. It lives right inside the university web infrastructure, making it easy for staff to grab exactly what they need. The rules linking the logo and brand message are especially clear, specifying proportional sizes and strict pairing rules like boxed with boxed. Choosing Google Fonts for their type family, Noto Sans and Noto Serif, ensures that anyone on campus can work with the identical typeface across more than one thousand languages without licensing hurdles.

At a glance

Sections

Brand elements · About our brand · Audiences and sub-brands · Additional support

Tone

Clear, practical, and structured institutional design guidance for university staff.

What I noticed

1. The logo is broken down into two distinct core elements: the coat of arms and the logotype.¹²
2. Rules dictate that boxed logos must pair with boxed messages, and unboxed logos require unboxed messages.³
3. The institution relies on Noto Sans as its primary typeface and Noto Serif as its secondary typeface.⁴
4. University Blue serves as the primary brand color, supported by secondary dark and secondary light palettes.⁵⁶

Numbers refer to the screenshots above.

Ideas to borrow

1. Define strict proportional pairings between logos and tagline messages, such as requiring linear messages to match double the width of the logo.⁷⁸

Quick answers