Greenspring Graphic Standards Manual Montessori School & Style Guide Rev. 8/09/2016
410.321.8555 | [email protected] | 10807 Tony Drive, Lutherville, MD 21093 From Director of Marketing A Guide for Brand Consistency & Communications
Contents Our Mission Igniting purpose 3 and voice in a fully engaged Greenspring Montessori School Logo learning community. 4 Appropriate Typefaces
5 Colors
7 Related Graphic: Summer at Greenspring Montessori
8 Related Graphic: Greenspring Capital Campaign
9 Related Graphic: Greenspring Annual Fund
10 Related Graphic: Healthy Living Festival
11 Email Signatures
12 MailChimp Guidelines
15 Social Media Guidelines
17 Phrasing Standards
20 Letterhead Template
2 Our Logo
Standard Version
“Bauble” Symbol
Logo Variations & Letterhead
When specific circumstances call for a version of the logo that is shaped or colored differently from the above, please ask the Director of Communications to reformat it for you.
This includes versions in which “Montessori School” has to be bigger, black & white versions, white text versions (for dark backgrounds), and landscape versions (where all text is on one line).
A printable page of the school’s letterhead is included on the final page of this document. A Microsoft Word version of this letterhead is also available upon request. Please use Palatino Linotype, 11 pt, in official school documents on this letterhead - or at least stay within one point of that size for body text.
As we develop other standard versions & uses, they will be added to this document.
3 Appropriate Typefaces
For Logo: Arrus BT abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789!@#$%^&*(),.?
Sanserif Headings: Helvetica, Myriad Pro, sanserif
For Document Text/Headings: Palatino Linotype abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0123456789!@#$%^&*(),.?
For Web: Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Palatino, serif
Sanserif Document/Web/Accent Text: Helvetica, Myriad Pro, sanserif
4 Standard Colors
Logo Dark Green Spot Color: PANTONE 349 C
RGB: 2 105 55
CMYK: 90 33 100 26
Hex: #006633
Logo Teal Spot Color: PANTONE 7474 C
RGB: 0 102 153
CMYK: 93 58 18 2
Hex: #006699
5 Extended Colors
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 367 C PANTONE 1375 C
RGB: RGB: 153 204 102 225 153 0
CMYK: CMYK: 44 0 79 0 0 47 100 0
Hex: Hex: #99CC66 #FF9900
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 369 C PANTONE 158 C
RGB: RGB: 103 153 0 225 102 51
CMYK: CMYK: 66 20 100 4 0 75 85 0
Hex: Hex: #669900 #FF6633
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 3115 C PANTONE 7467 C
RGB: RGB: 0 204 204 0 153 153
CMYK: CMYK: 67 0 27 0 81 20 42 1
Hex: Hex: #00CCCC #009999
6 Related Graphic: Greenspring Summer Fun
Graphic:
Sun Symbol:
Spot Color: PANTONE 012 C
RGB: 255 204 0
CMYK: 0 19 100 0
Hex: #FFCC00
7 Related Graphic: Greenspring Annual Fund
Graphic:
Tree Symbol:
Spot Color: PANTONE 7474 C
RGB: 0 102 153
CMYK: 93 58 18 2
Hex: #006699
8 Related Graphic: Capital Campaign
Graphic:
Variations:
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 367 C PANTONE 349 C RGB: RGB: 153 204 102 2 105 55 CMYK: CMYK: 44 0 79 0 90 33 100 26 Hex: Hex: #99CC66 #006633
9 Related Graphic: Healthy Living Festival
Graphic:
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 367 C PANTONE 349 C
RGB: RGB: 153 204 102 2 105 55
CMYK: CMYK: 44 0 79 0 90 33 100 26
Hex: Hex: #99CC66 #006633
Spot Color: Spot Color: PANTONE 369 C PANTONE 7467 C
RGB: RGB: 103 153 0 0 167 157
CMYK: CMYK: 66 20 100 4 80 10 45 0
Hex: Hex: #669900 #00A79D
10 Email Signatures
For School Email Signature Blocks, use this content & format:
Instructions for Implementation
The easiest way to ensure your signature block is correct is to copy and paste the signature block from the Director of Communications, then change the name, title, and phone extension to your own. If you are in a classroom and do not want to put your direct extension, please put the school phone number: 410- 321-8555. Additionally, if you would like to add a cell phone number, please add it directly below the school phone number.
If you need assistance setting this up, the Director of Communications can help you. It only needs to be done once.
For detailed instructions about where to enter the block into your email, go to this address: http://tinyurl.com/dxrec8l
11 MailChimp Guidelines
Use of MailChimp
MailChimp is used to send formatted mass emails to various large groups within our community. It is the best way to send any official group email that needs to be presented professionally from the school.
There are three main types of MailChimp emails that we send: • Important Notices • A Look Ahead • Greenspring Connection
These are described in detail below and on the following two pages.
Important Notice Example:
Emails such as the one to the right are used when there is an emergency closing or delay, a change in programming, a staffing change, or other important email.
Inclement weather alerts are sent to all parents and staff. They are not sent to the board.
Change in programming, staff changes, or other important emails are sent to the affected parents, all staff, and the board where applicable.
12 MailChimp Templates
A Look Ahead Example:
A Look Ahead is an abbreviated calendar sent from MailChimp biweekly on Fridays at 10:00am.
These should include all upcoming school-wide events for the following two weeks. Days off, deadlines, upcoming events, and scheduling changes should all be clearly documented in this email.
The name of the event is listed in bold. The date is listed in full using italics. If the location of the event is known, it should be included on the line with the date.
The details section should be limited to 144 characters each. There can be a link to RSVP and/or learn more.
A Look Ahead should be sent first to the Board, then to Faculty & Staff, and, finally, to all parents.
13 MailChimp Templates
Greenspring Connection Example:
The Greenspring Connection should be sent biweekly (to alternate weeks with A Look Ahead) on Fridays at 10:00am.
These should include at least one story/ recent event from each level (Adolescents, Elementary, Children’s House, Toddlers, Enrichment, and our Parent Association). There is also a space for a special topic. This can be a recent blog post to highlight, a link to a Montessori video, or some other parent education piece. Each post should link to a more detailed blog post, program page, Facebook album, or other social outlet.
Each section can have one header photo- graph or graphic. This image must be 800x400px. Please include a brief but descriptive caption with every image.
This email is reserved for “good news” to help parents, staff, and the board learn more about the going-ons at the school. All upcoming important dates and “to- do” items should be reserved for the Look Ahead.
Newsletters should be sent to the Board, then the Faculty & Staff, and, finally, current parents.
14 Social Media Guidelines
Social Networks
Greenspring Montessori School uses the following social media networks to stay connected with current parents, alumni, prospective families, faculty & staff, and the greater community.
For all social media, users must use appropriate grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Please see our Phrasing Standards on pages 12-14.
Under no circumstances should the first or last names of our students be revealed in a public social media post.
Below are further guidelines for how to post, when to post, and what types of posts belong on each network.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenspringMontessori/ Facebook is useful to highlight emergency closings & delays, upcoming events, photo galleries, recent blogs and school news, and occasional articles.
Greenspring Montessori School posts to Facebook approximately once per day.
There is a 3:1 parent education to school news ratio. Posts linking to articles, best practices, and information on Montessori philosophy should be limited to 3 per week.
Recent school news with photographs of students should be posted at least once per week.
News relating to the Capital Project should be posted at least once per week.
Hashtags can be used on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. #montessori, #greenspringmontessori, #childrenshouse, #toddlers, #parentedu, #natureplay, and #middleschool are used often. Users should research hashtags before using them in a post.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenspringMont Twitter is useful to highlight emergency closings & delays, upcoming events, recent blogs and school news, and occasional articles.
Greenspring Montessori School posts to Twitter approximately once per day.
15 Social Media Guidelines
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenspringmontessori/ Greenspring Montessori’s Instagram was introduced in the fall of 2015. The School posts to Instagram daily.
Event and classroom photographs, short videos, and details on Montessori materials belong on Instagram.
#MontessoriMondays feature a unique Montessori material from a classroom, describing what the item is, how it is used, and the ways in which it benefits the student.
#TBT or Throwback Thursdays will be initiated to create interest in the upcoming Capital Project. Photographs can include images of the old Emerson Farms, current faculty & staff from years prior, old class and student photographs, and more to the discretion of the user.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6Vy_dSNcpITkd3vD2or9gA
YouTube features commercial-quality videos from Greenspring Montessori School, in-house videos of student presentations, and student-created videos relating to the School.
Posting to YouTube should be done as needed. All videos posted should also be featured on the School’s blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
16 Phrasing Standards
Please use these standards to help us to maintain consistency and professionalism around some terms, grammatical conventions, and formats that may technically have multiple correct forms or otherwise be ambiguous.
Program Names
Capitalize titles of specific program names - including the word program. In other words: “Toddler Program” is correct, but “Toddler program” and “toddler program” are not. When discussing programs in general, as in this sentence, please don’t capitalize.
Program names that need to be capitalized include (but may not be limited to) the following. Please note that the word “Program” may not always need to be part of what you call the program.
• Toddler Program • Discovery Program • After-School Enrichment • Children’s House • Summer Fun • Basketball, Soccer, Track • Lower Elementary • Library, Art, Music, and Field, Cross-Country, • Upper Elementary Spanish, Physical Dance, etc. • Adolescent Education, Digital Media • Parent Association Community • Open Studio
Specific Program Names Conventions
After-School Programs: Use “After-School” - not afterschool. Capitalize the S in school.
Summer Fun Program: Please make sure to call the Summer Program “Summer Fun” or “the Summer Fun Program.” We can’t call it a camp or the students, campers, for legal reasons.
Spanish Dual Language: Dual Language should always be two separate words.
School Name
Call the school Greenspring Montessori School - do not put “the” in front of its name.
Also: if you want to refer to the school in a shortened form, please call it “Greenspring Montessori” - not Montessori or GMS. If you have already referred to the school as “Greenspring Montessori School” or “Greenspring Montessori” at least once, you can then abbreviate to “Greenspring” within the same paragraph.
17 Phrasing Standards
Montessori Terminology
Children’s House In many Montessori schools, this is the classroom for children ages 3 to 6 years; other schools call the classroom for this age group Casa, preschool, or primary school. Some schools use this term to refer to the entire school.
Guide Guide is the designated title for the lead teacher in a Montessori classroom. In Montessori education, the role of the instructor is to direct or guide individual children to purposeful activity based upon the instructor’s observation of each child’s readiness. The child develops his own knowledge through hands-on learning with didactic materials he chooses.
Adolescent Community This is the classroom designed for students from 12 – 15 years old, for 7th and 8th-grade students. Other schools call the classroom for this age the Middle School.
The exception to these terms may sometimes come in how we represent the school in those places where prospective families are most likely to learn more about the school. Particularly because families are more likely to be searching for a “Middle School” when they do not know about Montessori schools and their terminology, on the website and in some admissions materials, we may use more mainstream terms.
For a full Montessori Glossary, please visit https://greenspringmontessori.org/discover/ montessori-glossary/
Titles & Honorifics
When talking about a specific person’s title, please capitalize the first letters of programs and roles - for instance, Shari Wolf is the Assistant Head of School, and Lydia Farmer is a Children’s House Guide.
Time
Use “am” and “pm” with no periods, and no space between am or pm and the time. Always use the full time - for example 9:00am - not 9am. Example:
“9:00am-3:45pm”
18 Phrasing Standards
Oxford Commas
When writing a list, please put a comma before the last clause. For example: “blueberries, bluebirds, and bluebells” is correct, but “blueberries, bluebirds and bluebells” is not.
Ellipses
Ellipses are used only for omitted material within a single quoted sentence. Use ellipsis points to show omission within the quotation. Omit any punctuation on either side of the ellipsis, unless the punctuation is necessary to make the shortened quotation grammatically correct.
For example: “Could anyone other than Thoreau have written, ‘If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost…’?
Ellipses should only be used sparingly in written materials.
Periods & Spacing
After a sentence, always use one space before starting another sentence. Do not use two spaces.
19 “Igniting purpose and voice in a fully engaged learning community.” Montessori School
GreenspringMontessori.org 10807 Tony Drive, Lutherville, MD 21093 410.321.8555