Style Guide. Visual and editorial guidelines for Church at Charlotte communications

Transcription

1 Style Guide Visual and editorial guidelines for Church at Charlotte communications

2 Why Branding? Brand is a big idea, but in broad strokes, it is the nature or personality of an organization that develops in people s minds when they see the logo or name of that organization. For Church at Charlotte, our goal is to have our brand bring to mind an authentic community of Christ followers who are bringing gospel hope and renewal to our city and world. This is the who we are and seek to be at Church at Charlotte, and it is important for us to be consistent in displaying our brand on our materials and create identities for specific ministries or events that fit within that overall brand. The Church at Charlotte brand begins with the people in our congregation who are living out our mission. Their work is supported by the look and feel of the Church at Charlotte website, print pieces, signage, etc. In addition to the look and feel, there are some visual and editorial style choices that are dictated by the Church at Charlotte brand. In order to consistently implement the Church at Charlotte brand, the Communications team needs your help. Mission Statement & Logo Meaning The Church at Charlotte logo complements the church mission statement: Church at Charlotte exists to be an authentic community of Christ followers who are bringing gospel hope and renewal to our city and world. In the logo, the words and the skyline interact with the word church, serving as the foundation, the roots, of the skyline above. This brings out the idea that we are rooted in this authentic community and that the gospel is the foundation of the hope and renewal we bring to the city and world around us. The bright green swath represents the renewal, flourishing, and growth of life in Christ, the idea of movement out from our rootedness into the world, and it is also reminiscent of the piedmont area of North Carolina where Charlotte sits. The city skyline above the hill is deliberately abstract, representing the church as a city on a hill and the many places where we seek to bring gospel hope and renewal, both here in our own city and around the world.

3 Colors Pantone: 375U CMYK: 59 : 0 : 100 : 0 RGB: 114 : 191 : 68 Hex: #72BF44 Pantone: Black 6U CMYK: 68 : 61 : 51 : 32 RGB: 78 : 78 : 85 Hex: #4E4E55 Non-standard colors If a vendor must use coated Pantone colors for a product the following coated PMS colors should be used. PMS 368C PMS 446C Clearspace & Minimum Size Requirements Clearspace is 1/4 the width of the logo. 3/8 The logo should never be less than 3/8 wide. This maintains legibility and negative space lines.

4 Acceptable Colorways Standard two-color One-color fill Non-standard two-color One-color reverse

5 Tagged Logos students The space between the dividing line, main logo, and tag should be approximately the width of one character space in the main logo. One character space Logo Misuse The logo should not be stretched or twisted when inserted into a document. Nor should it be altered in any way. Vertical stretch Horizontal stretch Alterations

6 Logo Placement The primary placement for the logo is top center of any document. A secondary option is centered at the bottom of the page. 855 Sam Newell Rd. Suite 100 Matthews, North Carolina Font The church typeface is Helvetica or Helvetica Neue. These are very versatile, timeless fonts that should be used in any church correspondance or document. If you have Helvetica on your computer, please set it as your default font. If you do not have Helvetica on your computer, select a similar font, like Arial.. Helvetica Light: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Helvetica Regular: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Helvetica Bold: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz The font in the Church at Charlotte Logo is Coves. Coves is used in a limited context on formal CAC documents like stationery.

7 Address & Phone Number The primary Church at Charlotte mailing address is the SouthPark campus: 2500 Carmel Road Charlotte, NC The mailing address for the Matthews campus: 855 Sam Newell Road Suite 100 Matthews, NC When the addresses are used on letterhead or more formal documents, they can be formatted as follows: 2500 Carmel Road Charlotte, North Carolina Sam Newell Road Suite 100 Matthews, North Carolina The church website URL should always be formatted using lowercase letters. The church phone number should be formatted using periods Voic & Your voic greeting should include your name and your title or area of ministry at Church at Charlotte. should be consistent across all staff members. Your font should be Helvetica, the church font, and in black only. Suggested font size is 12 pt. Please do not use background images in your template. They don t always translate well across providers, and they rarely work on mobile devices. Your signature should include your name, title, Church at Charlotte, phone number, and It should follow the format below: Jane Smith Assistant to the Manager Church at Charlotte

8 Basic Communication Guidelines All writing and speech should be: Accurate: Above all, make sure you get your facts straight; double check names, spellings, and numbers. Brief: Get to the point, and do it quickly. Our audience won t waste time reading or listening to lots of words. Engaging: Use the element of story when you can. Leave people with something to remember. In Our Voice: Copy should reflect the sound of our leadership as well as the church s personality. Be informal. Use humor where appropriate. Do not overuse embellishments or exaggerations (e.g.: amazing, great, fantastic). Steer clear of inside jokes. Avoid the trite, clichéd, and corny. Consistent: All written copy will follow the guidelines outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style; a few style guidelines unique to Church at Charlotte are outlined in this document s Editorial Style Guide. If you have questions regarding the Chicago Manual of Style, please see the Communications Team. Proofreading Tips Even the best writers need good proofreaders. Always have at least one other person preferably someone not familiar with your text proofread your writing for errors. When proofreading, check for: Accuracy: Double-check all facts (dates, times, names, etc.), spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Audience: Is it simple and appropriate for the intended audience? Basic Information: Does it communicate who, what, when, where, why, and how? Style: Is it consistent with Church at Charlotte s voice and editorial style guide? Terminology: Does it use Church at Charlotte s terminology?

9 Editorial Style Guidelines Church at Charlotte follows the Chicago Manual of Style for the majority of our style choices. However, we have some style points unique to Church at Charlotte that we ve listed below, along with a few common errors that come up in writing. Abbreviations: Avoid using abbreviations unless necessary. For the church name, if an abbreviation is necessary use CAC. Do not use C@C, CaC, and cac ; these are unacceptable forms. Apostrophes: Do not use apostrophes to pluralize anything. Example: 4s, CDs, 1960s Biblical References: Capitalize Bible. Do not capitalize biblical. Capitalize Scripture. Capitalize Gospel only when specifically referencing one of the four Gospels. Example: the Gospel of John. Do not capitalize the gospel when referring to the gospel message as a whole. Our standard translation is the English Standard Version. Capitalization: Avoid using all capitals in writing. If you wish, you may capitalize references to God. Examples: God, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, He, Him, His. Be consistent in your capitalization use. Commas: In a list of three or more, use the comma prior to and/or (sometimes called the Oxford or serial comma). Example: Church at Charlotte serves adults, students, and children. Dates: Do not abbreviate. Use the full day, month and date, including year unless the year is already stated or you are writing within space constraints (for example, in a Weekly announcement). Example: Saturday, March 8, Do not use the ordinal form of numbers (-st, -nd, -rd, -th) when writing a date. Hyphens: Do not hyphenate words at line breaks. If needed, move the full word to the next line. Ministry Area Names: Names for our major ministry areas should be capitalized. Examples: Outreach, Community Life, Family Life, Student Ministries, Women s Ministry, Men s Ministry, etc. CAC Kids, our children s ministry, is for infants through fifth graders. Use Church at Charlotte Kids or CAC Kids when referring to our children s ministry. Mission Statement: Our mission statement is as follows: Church at Charlotte exists to be an authentic community of Christ followers who are bringing gospel hope and renewal to our city and world. Numbers: Spell out numbers one through nine. Use numerals for numbers 10 and higher. Always spell out numbers at the beginning of a sentence regardless of how high the number; so avoid beginning sentences with large numbers such as a year.

10 Editorial Style Guidelines Periods: Use only one space after periods at the end of sentences. Phone numbers: Phone numbers should be separated with periods. Punctuation with Quotation Marks: A period or comma always goes inside the closing quotation mark. The dash, semicolon, question mark, and exclamation point go inside the quotation marks when applied to the quoted material only. They go outside when they apply to the sentence as a whole. Student Ministries: Use high school or middle school when the target audience is outside the church (eg. on the website). Use Student Ministries when referring to both ministries at either campus. When referring to these ministries at the SouthPark campus to an internal audience, United (high school) and Launch (middle school) are acceptable. Time: All times should be written consistently. Use minutes even for the top of the hour. Use a.m./p.m. lowercase with periods. Example: 1:00 p.m. Do not use 12:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. Instead use noon or midnight. Titles: Personal titles should be capitalized when used as titles, but not when used as descriptions. Example: Senior Pastor Jim Kallam is preaching this weekend; Jim Kallam, a senior pastor, is preaching this weekend. Worship Services and Venues: At the Matthews campus, both 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services meet in the Sanctuary. At the SouthPark campus, Sanctuary Live meets in the Sanctuary, Café Live and Video Café meet in the Café, Traditions meets in W-1, and Colony Road meets in Colony Road.