1. Branded Outlines | 2. Branded PowerPoints
3. Logo/Lower-Thirds in Zoom/Teams | 4. Dr. Craig Engstrom’s Style Guide
Branding Resources for Instructors
Here's what you'll find on this page:
1. Creating a Branded Outline
Below is a sample template. If you'd like specific examples (I have more) or need help creating a custom template -- just contact me! Happy to help. This is not a sales pitch. No payment required--I trade in collegiality.
2. Branded PowerPoints SIUC
Currently three templates are available. Click image to retrieve the desired template. Note: Similar ones are available for the School of Communication Studies via the progrm's SharePoint.
3. Add a Logo (Lower-Third) to a Zoom or Teams Call
Download the PDF document that explains how to add a lower-third graphic in OBS.
4. Dr. Craig Engstrom - Style Guide
The Name
Hello. I’m Dr. Craig Engstrom, but you can just call me Craig because I’m not a pedantic a-hole.
I’m a mediocre human, so I don’t need “branding” per se. However, there are a few Craig Engstroms out there. A few even have PhDs. So, I devised a style guide for a few reasons.
First, a logo and consistent colors make identifying me on the web and social media easier. I do want a high search engine ranking.
Second, a style guide helps me make design decisions more quickly, especially in Canva.
Third, I want to be efficient; a style guide expedites the preparation of various documents and presentations.
Finally, I hire freelancers to create content for me from time to time. So I mainly created this style guide to make it easier for them to create documents for me.
My favorite teaching catchphrases:
Trust the process.
You can’t know everything.
Mediocrity is okay. In the peloton, you do 30% less work. (You don’t have to fight to stay in the lead, you take turns supporting the team, and you don’t fall behind.)
The Aesthetic
The colors in the logo and style guide combine the primary colors in the SIU Brand palette and my consulting company Communication@Work LLC‘s color wheel, which combines my love of pink, purple, blue, and pastel colors. I also like green and khaki, but that’s more a clothing choice to match my hazel eyes. My preferred color for my bike is light blue.
Why Ninja?
The legend of Craig Engstrom Ninja is a joke. I teach the powers of persuasion in many courses. Sooner or later, students realize I’ve been using the strategies they’re learning from the first day! One student said, “You’re like a communication ninja.” That’s right.
Logo
The logo is a speech bubble as a ninja and combines the SIU Maroon and the Communication@Work LLC salmon (my consulting business).
Color Palette
The color palette combines the SIU colors, the Communication@Work (C@W) colors, and some other fun colors that Canvas recommended to me.
Tyepface
As shown in the screenshot above, the preferred typeface (fonts) of Craig Engstrom is the modern and clean sans serif Helvetica. However, Helvetica is expensive and not standard in many applications. Therefore, Helveticish in Canvas or Calibri and Arial in Word are all okay to use.
Actually, any sans serif typeface will work. Generally, headings are in the primary color of #720032 or #660000 (SIU Maroon) or #F24F4F (Communication@Work Salmon).