Spring 2020

We’ll all stick together in all kinds of weather for dear old Nebraska U. This issue of the Brand Report provides COVID-19 resources and remote work tips as well as notes from our co-working days, announcements and additional resources to keep you updated on our brand and visual language. Also, in each edition, we will introduce you to one of the visual communicators at Nebraska to continue building connections with our peers.

Notes from Happy Half-Hours

Kim Smith presented on best practices for digital signage based on her experiences in the College of Business.

Digital Signage

This past quarter we hosted our most popular Co-Working Day yet! As always, Co-Working Days are neat opportunity to meet peers, see what they are working on, get feedback and discuss the future of the brand.

We discussed best practices for digital signage, including design and content ideas that build community while leveraging the brand. We shared a design tip about using cerulean as an accent to highlight a call to action because it offers the most contrast from scarlet. We also discussed common requests and how to handle them, such as adding QR codes to digital signage.

The presentation can be downloaded here. It featured minimal words on the slides, so if you have any questions, Kim Smith is happy to have a discussion with you. Email her.

Secondary Colors

After months of testing and deliberating on our new colors, we finally have an update to our secondary colors and the addition of tertiary colors. Here's a summary of the things that have been changed and updated:
1. Our primary colors do not change
2. Our secondary colors now include only two shades of blue, Navy and Cerulean. See the recommended usage in the PDF file below.
3. We added tertiary colors and those must only be used for infographics, charts and graphs.
4. No floods of secondary or tertiary colors are allowed except in social media and digital signage.
5. The breakdown of each color is also foundon ourBrand Guide

VIEW UPDATED COLORS

Announcements

Shift-Sharing Policy

Due to the COVID-19 situation, plenty of things have changed at the University this semester, including that some of you may be swamped even more now or perhaps a number of things have dropped off your to-do list. We at the VCN would like to let you know about this policy of shift-sharing from HR. If you need some extra help with your workload or if you have time to help, you may follow the guidelines found here.

We suggest you ask your supervisor first whether they consider you could share your workload or share your time with someone who’s swamped. Perhaps your supervisor will even be OK with a more informal request if it’s something quick or a one-time thing.We just wanted to make sure you knew this was in place and that there’s a whole network of talented people who may be able to offer help to those in a situation where they need extra help. Once you have approval, you can use the #share channel on the VCN Slack Workspace to recruit help. Share your request and if there are takers, you may coordinate that via direct messaging. We are all in this together.

Upcoming Co-Working Days

After having to cancel our March Co-Working day, we decided we should offer an alternative. Our next Co-Working day is scheduled for Friday, April 10. We will be doing it online only, via Zoom, and you will receive an invite when we get closer to the date. The format will be changed to a single hour, from 2 to 3 p.m. We will keep the channel open for any questions you may have or any work or news you want to share. Join us then. Depending on the circumstances of our campus and the COVID-19 response, we will have other Co-Working days the same way.

Tips, Tricks & Resources

Illustrations of people working remotely in different environments.

Top 5 challenges of working remotely & how to overcome them

As we begin to work from home, we are presented with new and unique challenges as visual communicators. Take a moment to read this article from Dribbble on the most common challenges with working remotely and how to can combat them.

Read on Dribbble

COVID-19 Information and Social Graphics

There are Coronavirus social and digital sign graphics available in the Content Library. As this situation develops, continue to direct individuals to theUNL COVID-19 websitefor the most up to date information. Visit the Box folder below to gain access to the social and digital sign graphics. If you need to use the same backdrop for your own messages, download themhere.

COVID-19 Graphics Folder