College Style Guide

Projecting a consistent and positive image allows the College to build and maintain an institutional identity that is easily and quickly associated with quality by all of our constituencies.

Brand Book Canto Photo Archive

The Office of Communications and Marketing reviews external communications to ensure consistency.

Chicago Manual of Style
The College follows the Chicago Manual of Style for writing and editing. Access the online version.

Identity
College Colors
The College’s colors are red and black.

Logo Colors
The logo colors are PMS 186 Red (CMYK 2 100 80 19 ), PMS 871 Metallic Gold (CMYK 5 12 2 28 ), and Black.

The Lake Forest College Logo
The official logo, or word mark, is central to our identity system. It is the only logo authorized to represent the College, internally or externally. The logo may not be altered, reversed, or distorted in any way. Do not: add other elements to the logo, delete text associated with the logo, print the logo on distracting backgrounds or overlapped with other text and images, or integrate the logo into illustrations or cartoons. Please allow at least a quarter inch (1⁄4’’) of space around the logo and do not reduce the size of the logo to less than a half inch (1⁄2’’).

Communications and Marketing

Downloadable PDFs

Quick Style Guide

Design and Print Rules

Editorial Style

The preferred style follows that of the Chicago Manual of Style and Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

This is intended for use with conventionally printed and electronically published materials. Style and format in non-printed personal correspondence may vary. When in doubt, please contact the Office of Communications and Marketing for clarification.

Abbreviations

Do not use in running text (Professor Smith, not Prof. Smith).
US is acceptable as an adjective, but use United States for the noun.
Always use US without periods between the letters (US not U.S.)
Acceptable abbreviation in first use if common (CIA, CEO, SAT, NCAA, AIDS, HMO, NASA, FBI). Otherwise, introduce by placing the acronym in parentheses after the first use of the spelled-out term.
The College’s URL, domain name, and email are lakeforest, not lfc.
Do not use LFC to abbreviate the College’s name.

Ampersand

Do not use an ampersand in place of the word and unless it is part of a formal title (AT&T).

Capitalization

Official names are capitalized (Office of Admissions, Department of Chemistry) but use lowercase for informal form (chemistry department, registrar’s office)
Set lower case departments or offices that are not official names (the alumni office); nouns used with numbers to designate chapter, rooms, pages, etc. (chapter 1, room 234, page 555); simple direction (the west coast of Michigan).
Capitalize Commencement, Orientation, Homecoming, and Campaign when it refers to the College.
See also course titles, degrees, headlines, times, titles of people, and the Web.

College

Always capitalize College when referring to Lake Forest College. Never use LFC, always spell out Lake Forest College.

Comma (Serial)

Always use a comma in a series before the end of a sentence (She liked dogs, cats, and birds.)

Class Years

Indicate class years of alumni and students by listing the year after the name set off by an apostrophe. Note that the apostrophe is curved away from the class year (Jamie Williams ’16). Mac computer command is option + shift + ]. PC computer command is alt + 0146 (number lock on).

Course Titles

Capitalize course titles but do not use quotation marks.

Dashes

Use en dash (–) for a range (pages 40–48, 1991–92) and to join adjectives when one of the adjectives is already a compound (New York–Boston route). Mac computer command is option + hyphen. PC computer command is alt + 0150 (number lock on).
Use em dashes (—) for material that amplifies, explains, or disagrees. Commas may also be used for the same purpose. The Mac computer command for this is option + shift + hyphen. PC computer command is alt + 0151 (number lock on).
Do not use a space before or after em/en dashes.
Use en dash (–) between times (10–11 a.m).

Dates

Use an en (–) dash to show a range of dates and do not repeat 19 or 20 (1998–99 and 1997–2002 and 2001–02). Do not use a space before or after an en dash.
If the day of the month appears, use a comma before and after the year (by the January 15, 2014, deadline). Do not use a comma between the month and the year alone (by the January 2014 deadline).
Do not use st, nd, rd, th, even if the dates are adjectives (March 1 event, not March 1st event).
Times come before days and dates in running text (at 9 p.m. Friday; at 9 a.m. Monday, June 7).
Months are not abbreviated.
Use numerals for decades (1960s or the ’60s).

Degrees

Do not use periods in PhD, BS, MA, etc.
Do not capitalize bachelor of science, master of arts, etc.
Do not capitalize academic degree or major except for languages and proper nouns. (Her majors are English and communication and her minor is Asian studies. He received a bachelor of arts in biology.)
Use an apostrophe in master’s degree and bachelor’s degree.

Freshmen/First-Year

Use first-year instead of freshmen, as appropriate.
Use lower case first-year for student and upper case First-Year Studies for program.

Headlines

Sentence case capitalization is preferred over title case in headlines. (Sentence case: Lake Forest student wins national award) (Title case: Lake Forest Student Wins National Award)

Lecture Titles

Use quotation marks around the formal title. (“Your future and ours”)

Numbers

One through nine are spelled out; 10 and above are generally used as numerals.
First through ninth spelled out; thereafter, 10th, 11th, etc.
Use numerals with dollar sign ($3), temperature (8 degrees), page (page 2), room (room 7), chapter (chapter 6) and percent (7 percent). Spell out percent in running text.

Offices

Capitalize when formal name (Office of the Registrar), but lowercase informal form (registrar’s office).

Spacing

Use only one space between sentences and after colons.

Times

Lowercase a.m. and p.m. and set off with periods.
Use noon, not 12 p.m. or 12 noon, and midnight, not 12 a.m. or 12 midnight.
Do not use a dash in place of to in a range of times introduced by from. (from 5 to 7 p.m., not from 5–7 p.m.)

Telephone Numbers

In running text, use a dash between area code and number (847-735-0000).
Always include full phone number, never just an extension.

Titles of People

Capitalize formal titles preceding a name (Professor Robert Lemke), but lowercase after a name (Robert Lemke, professor of economics and business) or if a functional title (program director Jane Smith).
Always capitalize the name of an endowed chair, whether before or after a name. (Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies and Professor of Sociology Ahmad Sadri; Ahmad Sadri, Gorter Professor of Islamic World Studies and Professor of Sociology)
Titles should be uppercase in lists and on business cards.

Titles of Publications

Titles of books, periodicals, (including online magazines), movies, television series, plays, works of art, musical compositions, collections of poetry, and long poems published separately are set in italics.
Titles of lectures, speeches, episodes of television and radio series, songs, poems, articles from newspapers and periodicals, chapters, short stories, essays, and individual parts of books are set in Roman type and within quotation marks.
Underlining is not appropriate in printed material.

The Web and Email

Do not hyphenate email; lowercase it except at the start of a sentence or as a title. (Note: This is one of a very few places where we do not follow the Chicago Manual of Style.)
http://www is not needed at the start of an address unless there
is confusion about whether it is an address.
Capitalize Internet.
The College’s domain name is lakeforest.edu, not lfc.edu.

Building names

Official names of offices, departments, and programs

Administrative Offices
Career Advancement Center (CAC)
Cashier
Counseling Services
Facilities Management
Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth
Glen Rowan House
Health and Wellness Center
Interfaith Center
Lake Forest College Bookstore
Learning and Teaching Center (LTC)
Information Technology
Mail Services
Office of Admissions
Office of Alumni and Parent Relations
Office of Annual Giving
Office of Athletics
Office of Business Affairs
Office of Communications and Marketing
Office of Community Education
Office of the Dean of the Faculty
Office of Development and Alumni Relations
Office of Financial Aid
Office of Intercultural Relations
Office of Human Resources
Office of Major Gifts
Office of Planned Giving
Office of the President
Office of the Registrar
Office of Residence Life
Office of Student Affairs
Public Safety
Office of Student Government
Office of Visual Communications
Writing Center

Academic Departments
Department of African American Studies
Department of Art and Art History
Department of Biology
Department of Chemistry
Department of Communication
Department of Economics, Business, and Finance
Department of Education
Department of English and Creative Writing
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Department of History
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Department of Music
Department of Philosophy
Department of Physics
Department of Politics
Department of Psychology
Department of Religion
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Department of Theater

Academic Programs
African American and Latinx Studies Program
American Studies Program
Area Studies Program
Asian Studies Program
Cinema Studies Program
Classical Studies Program
Digital Media Design Program
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program
Environmental Studies Program
First-Year Studies Program
Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program
Graduate Program in Liberal Studies
International Relations Program
Islamic World Studies Program
Latin American Studies Program
Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program
Neuroscience Studies Program
Pre-Health Program
Pre-Law Program
Print and Digital Publishing Program
Self-Designed Major
Social Justice Studies Program
Urban Studies Program

Did you know?

Alumna refers to a female graduate of the College. Alumnus refers to a male grad.

Office of Communications and Marketing

Location

North Hall, 4th floor
Middle Campus

Media inquiries

Linda Blaser
News and Media Relations Manager
North Hall, Room 403
847-735-6177
blaser@lakeforest.edu