Design & Creative Services exists to ensure that all materials bearing the Texarkana College name accurately represent the college’s brand and identity to employees, students and the public.

The function of Design & Creative Services is to present a united and professional front in all of our communications. For that reason, we discourage the use of most clipart; fonts not associated with our brand; emoticons; multiple exclamation points or other punctuation marks; excessive underlining, bolding or italicizing of text; and any other design practices not approved by Design & Creative Services. Any signs, placards or handouts in administrative offices or going out to a large portion of the student body must adhere to the guidelines represented in this manual. Design & Creative Services takes or outsources photography work to represent the College in an official capacity and is responsible for choosing photographs that provide color, clarity, a sense of community, and an accurate portrayal of student life at the College.

Organizations created and run by students may be responsible for their own materials, but must not misuse the official symbols of the college. For example, a student-run club may use the athletics mark (bulldog) in its communications, but must use the approved bulldog.

Academic divisions and departments may not create their own logos. All uses of the Texarkana College logo must adhere to the Identity & Standards Guide.

Until 2011, the Texarkana College Official Seal was used as the primary logo for the college. To stay on par with the best practices of other colleges and universities, the academic mark replaced the seal in most instances. The seal is meant to be a mark of formality and will have more weight when it is only used for formal documents (like diplomas) or for formal communications sent directly from the president of the college. Please contact Design & Creative Services if you intend to use the seal on a document.

Business Cards

You may order business cards from Firmin’s at $39 for 250 cards and $59 for 500 cards. Traci Pitman will typeset your business card, but you will need to complete a purchase request and pay the printer directly out of your own department’s budget.  Call Firmin’s at (903) 793-5566 to place your order.

Submit a request for business card typesetting online.

Photography

Only use photos for which you have permission to use. Take care not to use copyrighted material. For example, downloading an image from a Google image search is a violation of copyright law unless you have contacted the owner of the image and received permission to use the photo. Design & Creative Services has several photo resources available to campus entities to avoid copyright violations.

• The Texarkana College Flickr is a repository for College photos. These photos are arranged by event or subject in sets, mostly in reverse chronological order. College entities may use photos on the College’s Flickr in any communications.
• Though we prefer to use our own students whenever possible, Design & Creative Services maintains a yearly subscription to Shutterstock, a stock photo website. This subscription allows a limited number of downloads per day. College entities may search for photos and illustrations and send a request for download including link or photo ID number to Traci Pitman. DCS reserves the right to deny download requests if the images do not meet the College’s professional brand standards. Please allow several days for your request to be processed.
• Flickr Creative Commons photos are photos with special licenses that can be used for non-commercial purposes. Many Creative Commons photos must have attribution. Learn more about Flickr Creative Commons.