City of Durham Brand Guide

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Our Vision


Durham will be North Carolina’s leading city in providing an excellent and sustainable quality of life.

Our Mission


City of Durham employees work hard every day to provide the quality services that make Durham a great place to live, work, and play.

Our Story


The City of Durham is an innovative, diverse, and entrepreneurial community where passion and pride for our community thrive. Our 24 departments exist to support our incredible residents and improve their lives by delivering cost-effective, highly responsive services with integrity and friendliness.

Our city is a place to live, visit, and study. It is a place that supports innovation, a place that leads the world in research and healthcare, a place for arts, education, and sports. It is a place rich in cultural identity, diversity, and inclusivity. The City of Durham’s organizational logo is the visual foundation that represents each of the attributes that makes Durham a great place to live, work, and play.
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The City of Durham’s flag, designed by artist Al Nichols, unites our rich history with what promises to be a dynamic and prosperous future. The flag is the foundational element of the City’s logo as it unites our community under our shared dedication to our core values: Courage, Action & Progress, High Quality in All Growth, and High Ideals.

The “seven stars” on the flag represent a group of stars called The Pleiades or the “seven stars” found in the Taurus constellation. The stars reflect Durham’s spirit and story: 

  1. Arts
  2. Commerce & Industry
  3. Education
  4. Medicine
  5. Human Relations
  6. Sports & Recreation
  7. Preservation of Our Rich Heritage

Blue

Courage


  • CMYK: C100 M57 Y0 K38
  • RGB: R0 G70 B127
  • Hex: #00467F
  • Pantone 541

Red

Action & Progress


  • CMYK: C0 M91 Y76 K0
  • RGB: R239 G61 B66
  • Hex: #EF3D42
  • Pantone 185

Gold

High Quality in All Growth


  • CMYK: C0 M17 Y80 K0
  • RGB: R255 G210 B7
  • Hex: #FFD24E
  • Pantone 122

White

High Ideals


  • CMYK: C0 M0 Y0 K0
  • RGB: R255 G255 B255
  • Hex: #FFFFFF


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A brand is more than a logo, a mission statement, or a tagline. It is a combination of these elements, woven together to tell a story. Our brand is how we tell the City of Durham’s Story.

What is a Brand Guide?


The City of Durham has an extraordinary story, and our approach to sharing it is guided by research and input from our individual departments and community partners. The resulting guide provides direction and clarity for how we can best communicate internally and with the greater Durham community and beyond.

A brand guide offers a comprehensive foundation of graphic design standards, communication guidelines, and best practices when visually representing a brand across all mediums. A brand guide improves communications, internally and externally, by ensuring quality, accuracy, and consistency of the brand.

Whether you are looking for logo information, downloadable templates or anything related to the visual or written representations of the City, this guide has your needs covered. The guide is a comprehensive foundation of graphic standards, internal and external communications, and overall best practices in making our City’s brand come to life.

Who should use this guide?


This style manual was prepared for City of Durham administrators, public affairs specialists, clerical staff, and employees who create materials using the City’s identity. To protect the City’s organizational identity and ensure proper use of the logo, this guide should also be supplied to the appropriate external resources and/or vendors. As a general rule, third parties may not use the City of Durham organizational logo without authorization as an official partner or vendor/contractor. The logo must always be used pursuant to the specifications in the City of Durham Brand Guide to identify the organization, its departments, and its programs and services. Any use that falls outside of these specifications is strictly prohibited. The City of Durham reserves the right to terminate or modify permission to display its organizational logo, and may request that third parties modify or delete any use of the logo that, in the City’s judgment, does not comply with these guidelines or might otherwise impair the City’s rights with its organizational logo. The City further reserves the right to object to unfair uses or misuses of its organizational logo or other violations of applicable law.
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