Beyond the logo, the Rice brand uses a reoccurring set of elements in order to maintain a consistent and identifiable appearance. These elements include a set of typefaces, a defined use of color and an image gallery with parameters on how to style photographs.
Formal Meets Modern
Rice’s typographic palette combines the elegant formality of Copernicus with the modern design of Mallory for a robust system capable of supporting the many voices of our university.
The Colors of Our Campus
Built from the university core colors, and expanded with colors sampled from the natural features of our campus, the university color palette helps bring life to your designs.
Unconventional Scenes
Compiled from years of work by our university photographers, the Rice photographic library is a crucial resource for telling the story of our university from past to present.
The official typefaces of the Rice University brand are Copernicus and Mallory, chosen for their own character and their ability to be combined in engaging ways. The serif font Copernicus was chosen for its stately character and comes in a variety of weights. Copernicus portrays the wisdom and honor of Rice. Mallory was chosen as a complementary sans serif font, featuring carefully considered details in the design of the letterforms. Its range of weight allows it to be versatile in creating typographic layouts.
Copernicus and Mallory should be used whenever possible in communicating the Rice brand. All university communicators should have access to the official fonts. Font files can be purchased at the following online font providers.
Copernicus: Village Foundry ($300 for all styles and 1–3 computers)
Mallory: Frere-Jones Type Foundry ($375 for all styles and 1–3 computers).
| Aa COPERNICUS SEMIBOLD |
Aa MALLORY BOLD |
| Aa COPERNICUS BOOK |
Aa MALLORY LIGHT |
| COPERNICUS BOOK Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz $ ? ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
MALLORY BOOK Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz $ ? ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
| COPERNICUS SEMIBOLD Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz $ ? ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
MALLORY BOLD Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz $ ? ! 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |
For a more cohesive university brand presence, all schools, departments and institutes are encouraged to purchase and use the official university fonts. If it is not possible to purchase the official fonts, the alternative is to substitute the following fonts, which are available at no cost.
In the event that Mallory and Copernicus are unavailable, two alternate typefaces are available via the free Google font service. They can be used on the web or downloaded for use in print by all users. The alternate typeface for Copernicus is Cormorant Garamond. The alternate typeface for Mallory is Lato.
LATO — LIGHT
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
LATO — BLACK
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
CORMORANT GARAMOND — REGULAR
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
CORMORANT GARAMOND — BOLD
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz.
The following examples show a few ways to style Copernicus and Mallory. For additional examples, refer to how typography has been used in other applications or on the rice.edu website.
High Contrast Heading
Use the difference in the weight of Copernicus Semibold and Copernicus Book to create bold heading treatments. See example below.
Reverse Contrast Between Heading and Body
Reversing the typical hierarchy in size between the subhead and paragraph can create a simple and interesting introductory treatment. See example below.
Unconventional Culture
Every Rice student is a member of one of our 11 residential colleges. Spirited communities where students live, dine and interact with peers, faculty, staff and alumni, the residential college system allows students to develop strong relationships and contribute to the betterment of each other’s lives and intellectual achievement.
Large Serif and Loose All-Caps Sans Serif
Using a large scale version of Copernicus Book paired with a small all-caps Mallory Light, creates a delicate title and subhead treatment which can be used in a variety of applications. See example below.
Rice University Brand Guidelines
The primary colors of Rice are blue and gray, selected in 1912 by Rice’s first president, Edgar Odell Lovett. In addition to these core colors, an extended range of university colors, seen on the Rice campus, are available to use.
Rice Blue
| C | 100 | R | 0 | |
| M | 93 | G | 32 | |
| Y | 33 | B | 91 | |
| K | 32 | |||
| PMS | 280 | HEX | 00205B |
Rice Gray
| C | 53 | R | 124 | |
| M | 44 | G | 126 | |
| Y | 43 | B | 127 | |
| K | 8 | |||
| PMS | 425 | HEX | 7C7E7F |
University Extended Colors
The extended Rice color palette is designed to enrich the core palette by providing a harmonized set of colors. The recommended use of the extended palette is to use two of the colors, one from the darker end of the color set paired with a color from the lighter end. Using all of the colors is not generally recommended. To see a details about the colors below, click on any of the swatches or download the extended palette swatch file.
Tints
The extended palette has a range of light colors. In the event a lighter color is required, they can be tinted by lowering their opacity over a white background. The hue and saturation must not be changed. Using opacity changes over white to lighten colors will prevent such changes. Using tints with the campus-inspired palette is not recommended.
| 100% | 75% | 50% | 25% |
The secondary set of colors was designed to allow for a greater variety in color application while still complementing the core university colors. The recommended usage of these colors is that they are used alongside the core university colors along with two swatches from the campus-inspired palette and possibly by a related extended campus color depending on the level of formality.
The colors of the secondary palette are inspired by the university’s landscape — from the abundant green spaces, the yellow bricks of the historical buildings and the iconic red roofs.
The extended Rice palette was designed to harmonize with the core university colors, but it is important to pay attention to the amounts of color used to ensure your design feels appropriate for Rice. Appropriate color use varies depending upon the level of formality required by a design. Formality can be adjusted on a sliding scale. With more formal designs, the core university colors and university palette should be the primary colors of a design. As a design becomes less formal, the secondary and extended campus colors can become more prominent.
If you have a particular photographic need, such as coverage of an event or documentation of a project, you can submit a request for photography assistance. We also schedule an annual photo session with schools and offices on campus to capture what’s happening at Rice.
