Video guidelines provide support and resources to video producers creating content about the University.
Learn when, where and how to use the standard and paid media top, tail, watermark and lower third treatment to effectively brand video content plus find templates you can download to use in your video projects.
Note: These guidelines do not apply to videos produced by faculty, staff or students as part of academic research or coursework.
The approach to video should take inspiration from the image style guiding principles. Videos that use hard-coded text overlays as part of the storytelling should use Bureau Grotesque, or specified alternatives.
Top - guidelines and downloads
A top is the opening sequence of a video. A top is optional for content distributed via owned channels, such as a webpage or social media account, but can be effective when used in videos at live or streamed events to signal to the attendees that activities are about to begin.
A top is mandatory for content distributed via paid media.
| Top type | Description |
|---|---|
| Standard top | The Waterloo tail can be used as the Top. See the Tail section for downloads. |
| Paid media top |
For paid media application, overlay the full University of Waterloo colour or reversed logo in the upper right corner for a minimum of 15 seconds. Example
Downloads |
Waterloo Tail – Guidelines and Downloads
A tail is the closing sequence of the video, and is mandatory on all video content. The tail is comprised of the colour bar, logo and an optional call-to-action. The call-to-action font should be Typ1451 Medium 50pt or Verdana Regular 50pt.
Faculty specific tails are also available with the faculty colour bar.
Waterloo tail examples
Faculty tail example
Video tail with call-to-action example
Downloads
You+Waterloo Tail – Guidelines and Downloads
If using the You+Waterloo brand expression within your video (You+Waterloo language, hexagon, etc.) you can use this tail. If there is no You+Waterloo brand in your video, continue to use the regular Waterloo tail.
Example
Download
Watermark - guidelines and downloads
The watermarked logo is optional, and should be the University of Waterloo, or other approved logo, with transparency in the top-right corner. The watermarked logo should be the width of x, as per our layout layout strategy.
You may want to use a watermark for long form video content, such as public lectures.
Example
Download
Transparency has already been applied to the watermark download.
Watermark - one colour logo reversed with transparency PNG (ZIP)
Lower thirds - guidelines and downloads
The lower third is a graphic overlay placed in the title-safe lower area of the screen.
Design specifications
| Style | Specifications |
|---|---|
| Name | Bureau Grotesque Condensed Bold (or specified alternative), Title case, 75px for brand fonts, and 70px for alternative fonts, in white on a black semi-transparent bar. |
| Title | Typ1451 (or specified alternative). 32px for brand fonts, 30px for alternative fonts, in white, black or gold, text bars can be an primary colour from the colour palette, provided the combination meets accessibility requirements. |
Example
Downloads
Resources
- Adding video captions and editing video captions (required by Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
