TTUHSC Identity Guidelines

Official Colors

Red and black are the official colors of the Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Texas Tech University. Red and black dominate all official identities throughout the system, including Official Seals, Academic Signatures, and Sprit and Athletic Marks. It is vitally important that everyone involved in marketing and communication understands the role of our school colors and how they can best be utilized in both an academic and professional health care environments.

Skip to: Understanding the Role of Color in Health Care | Primary Palette | Secondary Palette | Usage of Black

Understanding the Role of Color in Health Care

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Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center's dual commitment to provide access to quality education and health care requires both an academic and a patient-facing identity.  We differ from Texas Tech University in that we have a presence as both a university and as a health care provider in our communities. As a result, it is important to consider the appropriate role of our official colors when we present ourselves in a health care context versus one that's promoting school spirit.  As a result, it is important to consider the appropriate role of our official Texas Tech colors when we present ourselves in a health care context versus one that's promoting school spirit.

The health care environment requires attentiveness to the role of color from cultural and psychological perspectives, as well as very pragmatic ones such as cleanliness. There are colors that we typically associate with health care, whether it's the familiar red and white of the Red Cross logo, the clean white of lab coats and clinical environments, the cool blue and green of surgical scrubs or the neutral gray of stainless steel. All of these colors reinforce common experiences and expectations and signal to consumers that they're in a professional health care environment.

Using Gray and White

We use a predominance of white when presenting ourselves as health care providers, using gray as a supporting color to reinforce a more mature and professional personality. Our system uses either a white or gray "Signature Bar" as the primary identifier in print collateral. We often use Texas Tech Red as an accent to direct the reader but not overshadow our message. We use photography to introduce color, vitality and life to the white page or surface. We're bringing visibility to all the great things happening at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and that story is much more than our school colors.

You'll see examples of this approach in our presentation templates, print collateral and event banners where white acts as contrasting element to either Texas Tech Red, gray or photography.

Using Red

We're fortunate to have an official color like red that is naturally linked to the concept of patient care. Using red in combination with white allows us to leverage the more distinctive of our two official colors while at the same time alerting audiences in the same way the Red Cross logo signals that health services can be found here.

Use red and white in situations where you need to make a bold statement such as on a banner in a competitive student recruitment environment or to support a health care service or program that would benefit from messages of urgency or immediacy. Red demands attention, so even a little can go a long way toward drawing attention to key points in headlines, subheads or informational text. Its persistent but carefully considered use will help to reinforce our Texas Tech identity while presenting Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center as a dynamic university in its own right.

Remember that too much red without some balance of white can appear "bloody" and using too much black with red will dramatically weaken health care impressions and will limit audience perceptions to historical color associations with Texas Tech University.

Use red in varying combinations with white to make the most of both associations. The section on print collateral and branded environments provides additional insights into when it's best to lead with white and when it's best to lead with red. Think of the different ways we must present ourselves; sometimes as health care professionals and providers, sometimes as a university recruiting the best students and faculty, and sometimes as members of the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center family wanting to demonstrate our school spirit.

Primary Palette

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The gray found in the Texas Tech Double T is one of our official colors and one that together with Texas Tech Red and white forms an important foundation from which to build all of our Health Sciences Center communication and marketing materials. Both gray and white reinforce traditional associations with health care and should be used to maintain a consistently "clean" and professional image. Texas Tech Red provides the flexibility to command attention in either an academic or a health care setting.

Texas Tech Red is a specially formulated color mixture and officially approved ink specifications must be obtained from service representatives from HSC Printing Center at 806-743-2016. When working with color swatches within your design and production applications use PANTONE® 485 C/U for spot designations. Indications must be provided to all printers that Texas Tech Red will replace those spot color designations in your specifications. CMYK, RGB and hexadecimal color values are listed below that best approximate our special Texas Tech Red.  When printing process colors, we add percentages of cyan and magenta to the process black to create a richer, deeper black. We call that Texas Tech Black (see example under Secondary Palette).

Secondary Palette

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Our secondary palette plays a limited but important role in our marketing and communication materials. It provides a complementary set of colors for charts, graphs and diagrams where a range of hues helps to classify and differentiate information for the reader. We've selected colors that reflect the clinical environment found both in our distinctive campus facilities and from what is classically associated with health care. Percentages of each may be used to extend the number of colors and values required to separate different information sets in charts, graphs and diagrams.

Our secondary palette also includes black and a light gray to support a range of graphic and typography treatments. The secondary palette should never replace or dominate our primary palette of red and white and gray within Health Sciences Center materials, although the light gray may be employed as a large color field within black-and-white executions.

Using Black

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The color black carries a number of associations with it, including very formal sensibilities, mystery, danger and uncertainty, and is closely associated with mourning rituals and death. Obviously, its use must be considered carefully in the health care environment, whether in academic or patient-facing materials.

Solid black fields should never be used in any Health Sciences Center marketing and communication materials. Instead use black for body copy on white backgrounds and as a secondary type color on red backgrounds where it can serve as an accent to the dominant type elements set in white. You'll find examples on this page and in the collateral and branded environments section of this site that demonstrate appropriate and inappropriate use of black.