Topics: 

SA-14-002

Website Branding

Issue Date:  3/14/2014

Effective Date:  5/15/2014

PURPOSE

The brand standards are designed to establish and support the common branding of websites of all State of Georgia entities and affiliated organizations. The purpose of this resource is to maintain integrity and consistency in every aspect of State product, service and business marketing.  It is to maintain a consistent look and feel among all State websites, while still holding onto the individual identity of each agency.   This standard presents common elements for all State of Georgia websites.

STANDARD

All agencies for the State of Georgia that own, create, and maintain public facing websites shall adhere to the following minimum standards for website brand design.  These standards shall be implemented on all new websites, as well as on any website redesigns or refreshes.   

Agency Logo:

  1. An agency logo may include a pictograph, a symbol or a typographic treatment, or any combination of these.
  2. An Agency logo shall include the name of the organization spelled out.
  3. If an agency owns an existing logo that uses only a pictograph or seal, the agency name must be added.
  4. An agency logo may be only a typographical treatment.

Agency Logo Example

Cobranding:

  • Agencies shall cobrand website pages with the State of Georgia GeorgiaGov logo.   Website pages cobranded with GeorgiaGov shall display the GeorgiaGov logo at the very top left of the website page in a "shared hat" (reference section 3.a. of this document) in the top 25 pixels of the page.  The agency logo should appear at a larger size below the GeorgiaGov logo, in the “page header” area.
agency logos for Office of the Attorney General and Department of Human Services
Example: Cobranding

Agencies may cobrand website pages with other agencies. Website pages cobranded with another agency shall display the logo of the agency which is the primary owner of state business presented on the page in the top left, with any additional organizations listed by name only below the logo.

Shared Elements:

All websites shall include the shared hat and shared footer:

  • Shared Hat.  The Shared Hat displays a global logo identifying the site as a State of Georgia website and an Emergency Alert function that displays a statewide emergency alert only in the event of an emergency, enabling a simultaneous emergency alert service across all websites.
shared hat
Example: Shared Hat appearance

This hat is automatically included in all agency websites that are part of the GeorgiaGov Web Publishing Platform.  GTA's GeorgiaGov Interactive group provides code that can be used to include this hat in non-platform websites. Additional formatting may be applied to accommodate different page layouts, as long as the content is not modified.
 

  • Shared Footer.  The shared footer will fall below the Agency’s footer and will contain common government content links. These include links to Elected Officials’ websites, the State agencies list, the counties and cities list, popular topics, and the Connect Georgia helpline.
Shared footer
Example: Shared Footer

The shared footer is automatically included in all agency websites that are part of the GeorgiaGov Web Publishing Platform.  The GeorgiaGov Interactive group provides code that can be used to include the shared footer in non-platform websites. Additional formatting may be applied to accommodate different page layouts, as long as the content is not modified.

Fundamental Site Elements:

Agencies shall provide the following fundamental site elements on all State websites:

  1. Search  
  2. Contact Us
  3. Privacy statement
  4. Security statement 
  5. Accessibility statement  


Terms and Definitions

Logo - A logo is a simplified, often stylized, representation of a group, business, corporation, or any other entity requiring recognizable identification.

Brand – The name, term, design, symbol, logo, colors or any other feature that identifies one group’s product to be distinct from those of other groups.

Cobrand – To associate two brands or logos together to show a joint affiliation or association.

Hat - The design, text and link elements at the very top of a web page.  The Hat is meant to show branding or affiliation for all pages of a website.  The content of the Hat is not directly related to the rest of the content of the page where it appears.

Footer – The design, text and link elements at the very bottom of a web page.  The Footer is meant to show supplemental meta-content and related links as an “anchor” at the bottom of all pages of a website.  The content of the Footer is not directly related to the rest of the content of the page where it appears. 

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