Branding & Content Guidelines

All University of Missouri websites should adhere to identity standards and brand guidelines.

Colors

Use Mizzou’s primary and secondary color pallets for your website.

Consult the color contrast chart and the accessible text & color guide to to make sure you’re using accessible color combinations and users can easily read your content.

Typography

For websites, we use a subset of the full Mizzou font set.

Only use the following approved web fonts for Mizzou-branded websites:

Open Sans

Open Sans and its family of typefaces are our default web fonts. Because it is Open Source and widely available, it makes for an easy application to any web product.

Open Sans can be downloaded free of charge from Google.

Brand fonts

You can use both Graphik Condensed Black and Clarendon URW when you need a stronger, “Mizzou style”. If you need these faces, please request them from Digital Service.

Other Fonts

Other fonts such as Gotham, Proxima Nova or any other script fonts are highly discouraged and are not approved for Mizzou-branded websites.

Writing style

Follow The Associated Press Stylebook. Exceptions as published in the Editorial style guide.

Domain Names

The University of Missouri’s domain name, missouri.edu, also serves as the university’s homepage.

All MU administrative units, academic units, programs, centers, and labs are required to use a missouri.edu subdomain. When selecting a subdomain, choose a name that is intuitive, brief, marketable, and reflective of the unit’s affiliation with Mizzou.

Brand-appropriate domains

Domain names affiliated with websites not on University of Missouri servers are not allowed to include university trademarks, e.g., Mizzou, Missouri, MU, etc. in the domain name.

To request a subdomain/domain name, contact Licensing & Brand Management by email at identity@missouri.edu.

After a subdomain/domain name has been vetted by Licensing & Brand Management, you will be instructed to contact MU’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) who manages the domain name service (DNS) and Internet protocol (IP) addresses for the MU campus.

DoIT will work with an MU unit to obtain the approved subdomain name within the missouri.edu domain.

University unitDomain                                                    
College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resourcescafnr.missouri.edu
Office of Admissionsadmissions.missouri.edu
Career Centercareer.missouri.edu
Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Centerbondlcs.missouri.edu
Branded sub-domain examples

Iconography

University websites should use the stacked MU for the favicon, which is the icon displayed in the tab of your browser window, helping distinguish multiple tabs from one another.

Header

The header at the top of each page should identify the website as being part of the University of Missouri. Our Header element has three components: the Ribbon, Masthead and (typically) Navigation.

Logo/Signature Options

Include the University signature. It can be included in the Ribbon as the University Signature or as a part of your Unit Signature in the Masthead but never both.

  • Always link it back to the Mizzou homepage.
  • Optionally, the University or the Unit Signature can be included in the Footer.

Footer

The Footer must contain contact information, copyright and nondiscrimination information with links to further details.

Contact information

Before the legal content, the footer should contain contact information such as:

  • The unit responsible for ownership of the site. If applicable, that text should link to a different website representing the unit.
  • A physical address
  • An email address
  • A phone number
Copyright & Nondiscrimination Information

Every University website is required to have the following information on every page in the Footer of the website.  

Nondiscrimination information

MU is an equal opportunity/access/affirmative action/pro-disabled and veteran employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sex in our education programs or activities, pursuant to Title IX and 34 CFR Part 106. For more information, visit MU’s Nondiscrimination Policy or the Office of Institutional Equity.

Copyright information

© << CURRENT YEAR >> — Curators of the University of Missouri. All rights reserved. DMCA and other copyright information. Privacy policy

Best Practices

  • Optimize images for web
  • Review contact and deadline information every semester
  • Check site links monthly
  • Remove outdated pages from server