CUSDBrand Book

WHAT’S INSIDE?

1. Sustainability2. What is CUSD?3. Our Mission3. Our Story4. Words We Like5. Who Are Our Customers?6. Who Are Our Members?7. Our Tone of Voice8. Our Logo9. Our Colors10. Our Typefaces11. Photography12. Logo Dos and Don’ts13. Partnering Logos14. The End Bit

WHAT IS THIS BOOK?

This book is meant to guide the members of Cornell University Sustainable Design and others to understand more deeply and concisely the essence of our initiative. The CUSD brand, one of our deepest assets, should be individually portrayed in graphic and verbal contexts.

Sustainability is an interpretive doctrine; it works to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can productively coexist, permitting the social, economic, and ecological viability of present and future generations. It is about renewing society’s motivation to discover and instate a respectful and holistic symbiosis with our planet.

While CUSD works to create a more sustainable world, we’re also trying to work in the most balanced way by utilizing interdisciplinary perspectives to achieve that paradigm shift. CUSD believes that we can find a way to live sustainably without compromising our dedication to improve the collective human condition.

SUSTAINABILITYDEFINED

CUSD started as Cornell University Solar Decathlon. By the completion of our solar house, we felt that building a singular, idealized solar home every two years limited our ability to make visible, tangible impacts on a span of communities.

There were aspects of sustainability we weren’t considering: “economic impacts, social interactions, and resource conservation.” We felt that we weren’t executing sustainable design in the correct fashion; it was too singular an experience and too singular a product. We felt that it was time for a change.

In our current state, Cornell University Sustainable Design functions to break the pre-conceptions of sustainability. As our co-founder, Jeremy Blum, remarked, “Renewable energy is not the only way to achieve a more sustainable future. It’s only a small part of it.” To expand our view of sustainability we harness the diverse, interdisciplinary creative capital of our group to achieve the goal of a sustainable future.

CUSD is also more than our projects; our mere existence is predicated on the notion that, “student organizations are simply organizations that happen to be comprised of students.” We are capable people doing incredible work; we give our members the opportunity to be the solution now.

WHAT IS CUSD?

CUSD is about excellence.

MANTRA

A mantra is a distillation of our mission. Although it is important to reserve a formal mission statement for articulating our work and expectations to clients, we also understand individual members may feel disconnected or lost in the formal verbiage.

The mantra, “Innovate Everything” serves as an accessible, but powerful touchpoint for those within and outside CUSD. “Innovate Everything” works to ensure that members truly understand why the organization exists; it also informs the way their operation and diligence make CUSD an exceptional student group.

MISSION

CUSD empowers students to make an impact now.

We provide engaged learning opportunities to conduct proactive research and innovative design.

We hope to achieve an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable symbiosis between people

and their environment.

Innovate everything.

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS?

CUSD primarily exists to serve its students members. As a student-lead initiative we deliver exceptional products, but the formative, engaged learning processes that students endeavor upon represent our primary product.

CUSD also serves communities and people locally and across the world. Understanding the intrinsic impact we have on the communities where our projects are located represents a very important part of communicating the CUSD brand.

CUSD exists within Cornell University. This means our tertiary, yet very important customer is the university, playing a part in giving credit to our students and funding our projects.

Plainly, CUSD caters to a host of clientelle, whether it be the students who design our projects, the people who benefit from them, or the university that allows this to happen. Having a keen understanding of the intended audience, whoever they may be, is a main concern of CUSD communications and branding.

WORDSWE LIKE

Integrated DesignNovelHolisticInterdisciplinaryInnovationLeadershipTechnologyCrossing BoundariesEndeavorIniativeEducationIndustryPrivate/Public PartnershipsActive

ActivistGreenEnvironmentalistMovementProtestDemonstration

WORDSWE DISLIKE

TONE OF VOICE

CUSD prides itself on both its innovation and its practicality. Our tone of voice as an organization is unique; it mirrors these oftentimes contrasting principles. The way innovation and practicality intersect within CUSD necessitates that our tone of voice be digestible, even while covering topics as abstract to the real population as Anaerobic Digestion. To summarize, our tone of voice remains light and engaging even when communicating subjects traditionally indigestible.

CUSD

Our logo represents the culmination of CUSD’s best traits. This culmination is embodied by excellence; the ribbon element harkens to this excellence by depicting the awards we have won and have yet to win. Another premier element of this logo lies in the nature of ribbon. Ribbon can remain continuous as well as tie things together. It works symbolically to link CUSD’s projects. Each project is represented by a section of this ribbon; only combined do they make up the whole of vCUSD.

OUR LOGO

SUSTAINABILITYRESEARCH FACILITY

SUSTAINABLENEIGHBORHOODS

NICARAGUA

SCHOOLHOUSESOUTH AFRICA

SRF

SNN

SSA

PROJECT TEAM LOGOS

The ribbon motif is carried through to the project team’s logos in the form of unique shapes for each team, as each logo stands for excellence in its on way. Each of them includes the project team’s old logos as well as individual accent colors. The colors are applied along the same gradiet used for the CUSD logo to keep a sense of consistency and cohesion.

There are times when the graphic logo is appropriate and there are times when the text is more appropriate. When in doubt, use the graphic logo. The text is for situations in which the audience is completely unfamiliar with CUSD and our affiliation with Cornell.

CORNELL UNIVERSITYSUSTAINABLE DESIGN

OUR COLORS OUR TYPEFACES

Primary SecondaryType

Our colors were especially picked to be the chromatic ambassadors of the CUSD brand. In the eyes of the world they show CUSD as the diverse and smart, yet energetic and young, initiative it is.

Gotham Rounded

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff GgGotham Medium

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg

Helvetica Neue Light

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff GgArcher Book

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff GgArcher Light Italic

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg

PHOTOGRAPHY

CUSD likes black & white, except for very special occassions where color is necessary to make statements, keeping in mind that black and white makes a very large statement.

In photographing subjects try to keep compositions varied and interesting.

We prefer to have our photos be of our students, our projects, and our partners, keeping stock photos to a minimum.

Think Active, Engaged, Fast-Paced, Impressive, Extraordinary.

Crystal clear focus is of the highest priority, no blurry lines!

Also, 300 dpi, please.

MEDIA

The CUSD brand is multidimensional and so are the media outlets and channels through which it is communicated. Although word of mouth represents a vitally important method for the communication of CUSD’s excellence, formal channels, be they electronic or traditional, remain an integral part of the CUSD mission. Communicating the subjects and topics via the right channels is of utmost importance. Combining channels is also a consideration. For example, you would want to thank a sponsor using a social media blast and personally through a letter, but you would not want to soley use social media.

PARTNERINGLOGOS

SSA

SNN

SUSTAINABILITYRESEARCH FACILITY

SRF

CORNELL UNIVERSITYSUSTAINABLE DESIGN

SUSTAINABLENEIGHBORHOODS

NICARAGUA

SCHOOLHOUSESOUTH AFRICA

CUSD +

SSA

SNN

SUSTAINABILITYRESEARCH FACILITY

SRF

CORNELL UNIVERSITYSUSTAINABLE DESIGN

SUSTAINABLENEIGHBORHOODS

NICARAGUA

SCHOOLHOUSESOUTH AFRICA

CUSD+

SSA

SNN

SUSTAINABILITYRESEARCH FACILITY

SRF

CORNELL UNIVERSITYSUSTAINABLE DESIGN

SUSTAINABLENEIGHBORHOODS

NICARAGUA

SCHOOLHOUSESOUTH AFRICA

CUSD+

Partnerships are integral to CUSD’s completion of our projects. To go along with these foundational beliefs, we hold that when adjoining the CUSD logo with those of our partners, we emphasize that in the partnership of the two groups, the sum is better than anything either group could have produced on its own.

THE END BIT

Although this brand book marks a turning point in the definition of the CUSD brand, we acknowledge that it will continue to evolve in the future. Having a grasp on how and when to change becomes a guessing game, but oftentimes communications based issues as well as other factors will point toward a revision; embrace the change.

Hopefully this book has illuminated exactly how unique our voice is and how to communicate it in a relatively unequivocal way. To reiterate, our brand constitutes one of our main assets. Treat it well and it pays off.