Policies

All Northeastern-sponsored advertising and media plans must be developed in consultation with University Marketing, including review and approval by our office before the plan is finalized. Please submit advertising and media plans to  [email protected] at least two weeks prior to finalization.

As an institution of higher learning and a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, we carefully evaluate where the Northeastern brand appears. The content on advertising and media platforms—print, online, radio, and TV—must align with the university’s values. Should an advertising or media platform consistently promote content that contradicts or undermines the university’s core values, for example offensive language, hateful speech or questionable labor practices, University Marketing will determine whether to continue the relationship.

All creative must adhere to the university’s standards for branding, design, digital experience, and messaging.

University Marketing is required to review and approve key creative work, prioritizing externally facing, high impact, and high visibility creative.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Identity development, including logos and brand guidelines
• Names of new entities and programs
• Design templates
• Environmental signage applications (via the University’s Planning, Real Estate, and Facilities division) and graphics
• Website designs and messaging updates
• Message positioning and frameworks
• Brochures, magazines, and one-pagers
• Advertising, including banner ads, audio scripts, out of home, print, social media ads
• Videos
• Email campaign
• Merchandise and promotional items using brand marks

Please submit creative concepts, assets, and the corresponding plans for context to [email protected] , allowing at least two weeks for review and response. Be sure to allow time for revision prior to your required release date.

Northeastern University carefully evaluates the use of its name and visual identity. As a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution, the university cannot endorse—or appear to endorse—commercial products or enterprises.

• Communications and promotional content: Vendors and other organizations affiliated with Northeastern may distribute press releases that accurately describe their relationship with the university. Northeastern employees may not provide supporting quotes or testimonial comments in third-party press releases. Vendors and other organizations affiliated with Northeastern may request to accurately describe their relationship with the university and feature work completed together in a case study. Northeastern employees may not provide supporting quotes or testimonial comments. The request and resulting studies should be reviewed and approved by the Marketing team in advance at [email protected] 
• Logos and marks: In select cases like detailing academic and research partnerships, the university’s visual marks can be used to convey a relationship between Northeastern and another organization. These instances should be reviewed and approved by the Marketing team in advance at [email protected] . You can find design guidance and preferred marks here.
• University Seal: The official Northeastern Seal cannot be used by any organization other than Northeastern University.

Public Art projects are managed by University Marketing. You can learn more about this work here.

Large-scale exterior environmental design, including banners, murals, and other public executions, must be created in collaboration with University Marketing.

Interior environmental design executions are overseen by Northeastern University’s Planning, Real Estate, and Facilities (PREF) team. PREF is responsible for coordinating brand reviews with University Marketing for these projects.

Co-sponsored events are an excellent way to showcase collaboration and to build reputation through affinity.

Follow these guidelines to ensure that the Northeastern brand and hierarchy of sponsors is clear and appropriately represented.

Northeastern marks with external partners and co-sponsors: Use our Primary Logo in most instances; use the red Monogram when color is allowed. Ensure that the appropriate sponsorship hierarchy is used. Ensure that you provide your partner organization with the correct logo and guidance for use, including following clear space requirements. You can download marks and find guidelines here.

Northeastern marks with internal partners and co-sponsors: If more than one Northeastern unit is sponsoring an event, use the Northeastern Primary Logo only and use narrative text to convey the sponsoring units.

Don’t assume that logos will communicate the partnership. Use spare narrative text to underscore the nature/intent as needed.

Staff members representing Northeastern University at non-scholarly events: You must seek permission from the Senior Vice President within your division before representing the university. If permission is granted, use Northeastern University’s Primary Logo; use the red Monogram when color is allowed.

Land acknowledgment statements are developed in consultation with the Indigenous peoples of each region where Northeastern has a campus. These are managed and approved by the Office of Belonging. Please reach out for support on developing an appropriate statement for your campus.

Once your statement has been approved, you should modify it only slightly for use case and flow (i.e., adding a transition to acknowledge an event by name). Keep the following guidelines in mind for usage:

• With approval of your senior leader, the acknowledgment can be read at an event or ceremony, appear in an event program, or included within the context of initiatives and programs serving First Nations people.
• If adding to your email signature, please use a version that doesn’t exceed 50 words.
• Where appropriate, include a link to resources your campus offers in support of indigenous people.

See the section on merchandise in Visual Design.

The Office of Communications in External Affairs is responsible for initiating and responding to media contacts and requests, and for managing those interactions for staff and faculty across all Northeastern campuses as outlined below. In all instances, contact Office of Communications for guidance before responding to a press inquiry or pursuing a media opportunity, including:

• Administrative staff, including those in senior positions.
• All staff members with media relations as part of their job responsibilities.
• Faculty members—in administrative and non-administrative roles—asked to comment on behalf of the university, even if the query is related to their administrative responsibilities.
• Faculty and staff creating or overseeing content related to university policy or the institution’s position about an issue.

Faculty members are encouraged to speak with the press on issues relevant to their academic discipline or research and to promote new research and published work, but they should coordinate with the Office of Communications on the most effective strategies and for media training.

All new names for programs, centers, and institutes must be approved by Marketing prior to use. We recommend that you to seek a creative consultation when beginning a naming process. To schedule one, please email [email protected].

Large-scale, comprehensive sign projects are overseen by Northeastern University’s Planning, Real Estate, and Facilities (PREF) team. PREF is responsible for coordinating brand reviews with University Marketing for these projects.

If your group is working with an external vendor on an environmental design that includes signage, please secure an appropriate contact in PREF to ensure that the design, inclusive of signage, meets brand standards and ADA compliance.

For help creating smaller-scale signage, such as Braille room-number plates, temporary event signs, and building identification plaques, please contact the Northeastern University sign shop and you’ll be directed to the appropriate support for your campus.

With thousands of employer, research, and government partners worldwide, partnerships are an essential part of the Northeastern University approach to learning and research.

A partnership must have a contract in place to communicate the integrity of those partnerships and nature of the relationship in your collaborative work. Follow these guidelines for branding and logo use:

• Contracts: Use the partnership contract to stipulate use of logos and the restrictions of your partnership agreement when it comes to communicating your brand.
• Marks: Use of marks in marketing and communication materials to signify an official partnership is encouraged. Use of marks to convey an informal relationship is not allowed. Use the Primary Wordmark; the red Monogram is preferred where color is allowed. Emphasize the Northeastern mark to communicate instances where Northeastern is the lead partner. Follow spacing requirements outlined in our University Wordmarks guidelines. Ensure that you provide your partner organization with the correct logo and guidance for use.
• Co-branded merchandise: If your partnership contract allows for co-branded merchandise, you must use a vendor licensed by Northeastern University. Designs will be submitted by the vendor for approval prior to production. In any instances where a licensed vendor is not able to be used, please reach out to [email protected] for review and approval before production. Include a copy of relevant partnership contract language for reference, as well as a description of the use case and audience.

See the section on photography in Visual Design.

Northeastern faculty and staff are required to use preferred vendors to order printed materials. For a list of preferred print vendors, please contact Procurement Services at  [email protected] . Any printing jobs exceeding $10,000 must be triple bid.

Reprographics can be used for digital copying and printing, offset printing, variable data printing, binding, and wide format print services (posters, banners, contour cutting). Official stationery must be ordered through Reprographics. For signage needs, please review the signage policy.

Reach Reprographics Copy Center at 617.373.5646, [email protected] , or at 11 Ell Hall on the Boston campus, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Northeastern University encourages the communication of recognition by or membership to prestigious national and international organizations and societies, such as the Carnegie Classification for Research and the Association of American Universities.

Any numbers published for public view on our University Decision Supportwebsite may be used to underscore value, growth, and momentum.

Northeastern limits the use of third-party numeric rankings in externally facing marketing and communications. Exceptions include:

• For use in some internal communications to the Board of Trustees, faculty, and staff. References should include the appropriate context for the message. Communications sent to these groups must be reviewed by the Office of External Affairs prior to distribution once approved by your unit’s senior leadership.
• For use in paid placements that have been approved by University Marketing.

General Policies

• Any Northeastern school, department, and office that wants to create a social media account must first seek approval from the university’s Communications Office. Please contact the social media manager at [email protected].
• Users must report any suspected “fake” social media accounts to the university’s Communications Office and social media manager at [email protected]. Users should refrain from replying to or engaging with any suspected “fake” accounts.
• All social media passwords must follow the Policy on Enterprise Passwords from Information Technology Services. The university’s Communications Office recommends that passwords include longer phrases rather than university-related names, nicknames, or acronyms. Passwords should be updated at least quarterly, and again when a social media administrator leaves their position at Northeastern.
• Any employee with responsibility for and/or access to a university social media account must be removed as an administrator upon leaving the university. A direct supervisor of the employee must do so in a timely manner, and in accordance with the HRM Off-Boarding Toolkit.
• Please notify the university’s Communications Office of any new social media contact people.
• Evaluate Twitter performance using Twitter Analytics. Evaluate and monitor Facebook pages using Facebook Insights. For LinkedIn, sign up to receive email analytics reports from LinkedIn.

Monitoring Comments

• If someone asks a question and you don’t know the answer, be honest and say you don’t know, but will find out or point them to someone who does. If negativity or other problems arise, take appropriately firm—but polite—action as necessary and according to your office’s social-media policy.
• While we want to promote free speech, it is acceptable to remove posts that are profane, in violation of privacy, or are otherwise inappropriate.
• Be wary of engaging with “fake” social media accounts. If you suspect that an account that is branded Northeastern University is not authentic, please contact the Communications Office’s social media manager at [email protected].

Account Names and Identities

• When naming an account, use the name of your department, school, or organization. Do not use “Northeastern University” alone.
• No new Northeastern University-affiliated account is permitted to use “NEU” in the name, avatar, or description.
• Use the following categorization on Facebook and anywhere else that page classification is required: Companies & Organizations > University
• If you are near Northeastern’s Boston campus, use Northeastern University as your location. If you are at one of our other global locations, use that location.
• Link to your own department or school’s northeastern.edu website.
• Note: Some usernames—such as a Facebook URL—cannot be changed, so choose carefully.
• If you opt to use a personal identity and are selecting a photo as the avatar or icon, choose carefully. Remember that you are representing the university.

Use of NU

• Although NU is not typically permitted for university use, it is acceptable for social media use (icons, names, and copy), where space is limited.
• However, an NU icon must use Northeastern’s primary colors to differentiate from other “NU” schools such as Northwestern.

Avatars, Cover Photos, and Background Images

• How your page looks is an extension of its content, so be conscious of what personality you are projecting through colors and graphics.
• Do not use the university logo or college logos—they will not present properly in these small applications.
• The use of Northeastern’s Seal is reserved for the official Northeastern University accounts run by the Communications team, the Office of Alumni Relations, and the top-level social media accounts for all of our global campuses.
• Do not use the Athletics or Alumni Relations logos; they are reserved for those offices only and variations are not permitted. Instead, select iconic photos, such as images of your building or location. Use the university’s Digital Repository Service as photo resources.

Videos must reflect Northeastern’s brand and be consistent with the style of other Northeastern products and publications. Please review our videography guidelines for more information.

To sustain Northeastern’s brand and offer a superior user experience, Northeastern websites must have a consistent visual language and be optimized for different devices. To learn our standards for web design, including elements such as logos, typography, headers/footers, please review Visual Identity.

To request a WordPress account with customizable Northeastern themes installed, please visit the Web Hosting Services website.