Virginia Tech Master Brand

The Virginia Tech color palette has two layers: primary and secondary. The primary palette will always include Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange, supplemented by Yardline White and Hokie Stone as neutrals. These colors should be present in most marketing and communications materials. The secondary colors should be used sparingly as accents or to represent different moods.

More about Virginia Tech’s color palette.

Information about Virginia Tech's brand fonts, how to use them, and links for downloading can be found on the Typography page of the Virginia Tech Brand Center.

Virginia Tech's Brand Center contains a comprehensive style guide that covers everything from correct names of campus buildings to how to format a bulleted list.

COMMON STYLE ITEMS FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

• Always write out “Virginia Tech” – do not use “VT” in formal writing that includes web pages, PowerPoints, stories/news, emails, bios, briefs, proposals, and speeches.
• As of February 2022, the name of the office is no longer "Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation." It is simply Research and Innovation. Write out the word "and" – do not use an ampersand.
• Dan Sui’s official title is Senior Vice President and Chief Research and Innovation Officer. At times his title is abbreviated to Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation. In that case, be sure to use “for,” not “of.”
• Virginia Tech uses the serial (or Oxford) comma: "Students will do coursework in three major areas: economics, languages, and history."
• Refrain from acronyms and jargon whenever possible. On the first reference, write the full name with the acronym in parentheses after it: "National Institutes of Health (NIH)." On second reference consider using "the institute." Using acronyms repeatedly in text disrupts the flow for the reader, especially if they are unfamiliar with the term and/or acronym. Using acronyms on web pages can decrease search engine optimization. When in doubt, refrain from using acronyms.
• Use one space after a period or any other punctuation mark.
• Hyphenate pre-award and post-award. When referring to the name of the group within Sponsored Programs, capitalize both words: Pre-Award, Post-Award.
  
• Do not upper-case job titles in paragraph text. It is okay to capitalize job titles on something like a "people" or contacts page, but in paragraph text the job title should be lower-case.
  
• In general, avoid capitalizing words unnecessarily. Watch for words like “program” or “office.” An example would be "She is taking part in the Women in Business program." The name of the program has initial caps, but the word "program" should not be capitalized.
• Quotation marks go outside the punctuation. “Like this.”
• Titles of books, magazines, plays, movies, poems, albums, songs, works of art, and lectures or speeches should be written with quotation marks. Do not italicize titles. Names of newspapers, magazines, newsletters, journals and other compositions or publications, as well as the names of software, apps, or games, are capitalized but do not take quotes.
• Use periods, but no extra spaces when referring to degrees: B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D. An exception is MBA – it should be written without periods, and with no spaces between the letters.
• Do not use “Dr.” or credentials, except when the person is a medical doctor.
• Don’t use first-person pronouns ("I," "me," "my," "we," "us," etc.) or address readers as "you" in formal writing, which includes web pages. In general content should be written in the third person.
• Don't use exclamation points!