Web Style Guidelines

The User Experience & Web Strategy Team (UXWS) requires that all Howard sites follow established industry standard best practices in site development, hosting, and post-launch maintenance. In order for a Howard constituent website to be approved to use a Howard subdomain, and therefore become an official part of the Howard web family, the site must meet the following style guidelines. 

Colors

  • Please use the hex color codes provided on our Colors and Typography Guidelines page for the primary and secondary color palettes. 

  • The primary color palette should always be given priority. Blue should always be dominant. Red should make up no more than 25% of the color scheme. 

  • Secondary colors are meant to be used as accents, such as for hyperlinks, buttons, borders, etc.

  • Slight variation for accessibility or theme reasons may acceptable, but please submit an inquiry for approval when varying color.

The Clocktower Logo

The Clock Tower logo represents a time-honored landmark at the University, and it serves as the institutional marketing signature and primary identifier. The Clock Tower is available for usage by all offices, departments, schools and colleges at the University.  

  • See our Logo Usage page for general guidelines.  

  • Obtain official logo image files from the Office of Communications using our request form. Do not use images downloaded from the web. 

  • Use the Clock tower logo, preferably horizontal/landscape treatment, and position in the left-hand-side of the website masthead. 

  • The logo should normally serve as an active web link leading to the main university homepage at howard.edu.  If the logo is not in the header in a way in which it can be linked in this way, then another type of link leading to howard.edu must be added to the site header. 

  • The University Seal may not be used. 

Unit Signatures & Graphic Identifiers

Unit signatures consist of the primary University logo with the unit’s name to the right of the symbol. Please see the Logo Usage page for general guidelines and a list of University departments with approved primary or secondary logos on file with OUC. 

Clock Tower and Unit Signature rules for use include: 

  • Obtain official logo and unit signature image files using our request form. 

  • Do not use Images downloaded from the web. 

  • The Howard University clock tower logo and unit signatures may not be altered, stretched, or rearranged in any way. 

  •  Use the clock tower logo horizontal/landscape treatment and position in the left-hand-side of the website masthead. 

  • The logo should normally serve as an active web link leading to the main university homepage at howard.edu.  If the logo is not in the header in a way in which it can be linked in this way, then another type of link leading to howard.edu should be added to the site header. 

  • The University Seal may not be used.

Fonts

  • Primary header font: Georgia (serif) 

  • Primary body font: Open-sans (sans-serif) 

  • Font-size: Site context-dependent 

For more information, please see the Colors and Typography page.

Website Backgrounds

Website backgrounds should be subtle and be either a light grey or white.  A subtle background pattern can be overlayed as well.  Anything beyond that can be distracting and begin to clash with the content of the site, and so should not be used.

Images & Photography

Please see the Photography & Video page for general guidelines. Always include alt text on images. Check out these resources for best practices and examples of effective alt text.