Consistent use of South Dakota State University's official colors is critical to building brand consistency and awareness in the marketplace. Many well-known brands use color as a primary visual identifier; UPS brown and Coca-Cola red are excellent examples of this concept.
The South Dakota State University brand color palette consists of primary, secondary and accent colors.
Primary Colors
The university’s primary colors are SDSU Yellow and Blue, which must be a prominent and integral part of all university communications produced in color.
SDSU Yellow | SDSU Blue |
Secondary Colors
The university’s secondary colors are SDSU Campanile Blue, SDSU Navy, SDSU Dark Yellow, SDSU Light Yellow and SDSU Light Blue. These do not have to appear on every communication containing color, but their use is strongly encouraged. However, with the exception of campanile blue, these colors should not be used as the dominant colors of a publication.
SDSU Navy | SDSU Campanile Blue | SDSU Dark Yellow | SDSU Light Yellow | SDSU Light Blue |
The university’s graphic standards provide a number of accent colors to augment SDSU Blue and Yellow. This range of colors may be used in limited quantities and should never appear as the dominant color in any communication vehicle. The intended use of the accent colors is to provide highlight options for text and graphics.
PMS 1795 | PMS 185 | PMS 186 (PRT) | PMS 200 (USD) | PMS 416 |
PMS 430 | PMS 444 | PMS 542 | PMS 549 | PMS 5493 |
PMS 123 | PMS 012 | PMS 118 | PMS 137 | PMS 110 |
PMS 335 | PMS 347 (4-H) | PMS 348 | PMS 349 | PMS 359 |
PMS 376 | PMS 377 | PMS 383 | PMS 389 | PMS 575 |
PMS 7494 | PMS 462 | PMS 464 | PMS 471 | PMS 513 |
PMS 520 | PMS 525 | PMS 526 | PMS 527 |
The university’s official logos should always maintain maximum visibility over any background color or image. Where the color contrast is not high enough to distinguish the logo clearly, use the outline version of any logo.
- Avoid the use of color combinations that are commonly identified with other colleges and universities such as black and yellow, blue and orange, etc.
- Red is to be used extremely sparingly.
- Use the SDSU brand colors only according to the formulas provided in this manual.
- For printed documents, never rely on the output produced by a desktop color printer or by the appearance of colors on a computer monitor for true color accuracy.
- Pantone matching system colors should be used whenever possible.
- Lighting conditions in offices in addition to printer and monitor calibration typically do not match the Pantone matching system colors used by offset printers.
- When printing projects in full color (i.e. four-color printing using CMYK process colors) it is strongly recommended to add a fifth color and use PMS 286 or 287 rather than build it through the CMYK process.
- CMYK process blue should never be screened to a percentage less than 100 percent. If a screened background of the university blue is necessary, PMS 286 is the best option.