Uniform Branding System

Branding is a fundamental part of establishing identify of any organization. A logo is part of establishing this identity, but a logo by itself is not the complete branding. A brand has a set of values and commitment to deliver on a promise. Think of a brand as a relationship: it needs to support a message - a way of life - and behave in a solid, consistent way to establish itself as a trusted source. Branding provides focus on common goals and builds enterprise attitude.

Brand knowledge has been defined as "a function of awareness, which relates to consumers’ ability to recognize or recall the brand, and image, which consists of consumers’ perceptions and of associations for the brand."
Keller 1998

• Start by Creating a Brand Identity. This helps you define your message and image to support your brand message.
• Review Best Practices for Branding.
• Branding Principles.

Branding as Part of Usability

In order to create a cohesive California government identity, the State has designed a uniform, yet flexible branding system. The uniform branding system increases public trust and confidence and provides consistent e-Gov experience, while allowing the State agencies to brand their specific websites. Agencies can use either text or image in the header file for creating brand identity.

The Brand Header

Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of the brand header graphic is to make it clear that the web page being viewed is an official State of California web page with the unique identity of the agency/department embedded at the header level.

Header Rules

• The agency brand graphic shall appear at the top of every web page just to the right of the portal brand.
• The agency brand graphic must be saved on the individual website.
• The agency brand graphic will have an alt tag stating the name of the agency/department.
• It resides directly to the right of the CA.GOV brand logo.
• The agency brand banner should not exceed 77 pixels in height.

Agency Branding Banner

The agency brand graphic is approxitemately 360x70 pixels and it represents the unique identity of each State government agency/department. It can be either a .gif or a .jpg file.

View a Few Branding Image Samples Below: