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Visual Identity

May 2014 Note: The USGS Visual Identity is in the process of being superseded. Hopefully new guidelines will be released in the coming months

The USGS Visual Identity System

Includes specifications for just about any mechanism that can be used to promote our agency.

The scope of items included is not limited to publications, CD-ROM'S, clothing, vehicles, outreach items such as pencils, rulers, and bookmarks, maps, and of course WWW pages.

In the old days there used to be separate Visual Identity rules customized for Web pages. The 'new' guidelines consist of information for implementing the most recent Templates for Web pages and references to the general publications rules for Visual Identity. This is rather misleading as there are a number of requirements specific to Web pages, and the wording on the new page seems to refer only to the templates when in fact it is attempting to outline new Visual Identity rules for Web.

Visual Identity Templates for Web Pages. See also: link labled 'Quick Start' for general overview of Visual Identity.

There used to be several sizes for web page banners. This is no longer the case, and the banner size has been standardized to a single height of 72 pixels.

General Notes

• Layout: The USGS identifier belongs at the top left of every page. The identifier is followed by the secondary identification (if necessary) then the page title.

  The page layout should have a left aligned grid, this includes titles, headings, body and footer information. This does not mean you can't have a column page layout like a magazine or newspaper. Just use a left alignment within the columns.

  The exception for left alignment is for displaying columnar data. These headings in tables can be rendered with a <TH> table tag. (Remember that WAI guidelines recommend using <TH> only for the intended purpose.)

• Fonts: Because the Visual Identity fonts--Univers Condensed and Times Roman--do not display well on computer monitors, Web pages are one of the few exceptions to the rule that these two fonts are to be used on all USGS products.

  The new visual identity rules specify the following CSS font cascade:
  Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif

• Old information on implementing full width banners using tables and cascading style sheets is no longer relevant, as banners are now supposed to be defined to be 1600 x 72 pixels, and the template takes care of the scaling/resizing.

• The old NatWeb banner Guide is now somewhat outdated and needs to be revised to comply with the new Visual Identity standards.

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"Mastering a Web Site" online course Created and maintained by Lorna Schmid and David Boldt. http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/training/webmaster/vis_id.html     Last modified: Mon May 1 15:06:44 EDT 2006