FAQs

Per Bentley’s own marketing curriculum: a brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination that identifies the product(s) of a company while differentiating them from their competition. A brand represents consumers’ perceptions and feelings about a product, its performance and everything that the product or the service means to them. It is comprised of elements that are under the company's control (packaging, logo, tagline, spokesperson) as well as those that are not (personal experiences, stories, associations).

In 2024, we sharpened our brand messaging in a way that would differentiate us from our competitors without adding complexity to our existing brand platform. Marketing and Communications worked with an external agency to administer more than 60+ stakeholder interviews; conduct a thorough assessment of our current proof points/competitive advantages as well as complete extensive consumer research.

We are now more confident than ever in our core brand platform: good business. However, we have made some refinements to our brand messaging. We now have three brand pillars versus six, an “elevator pitch” and a new campaign in market (It’s Just Good Business).

Be a Force is still who we are – its pillar number one of the messaging guidelines, after all. But the overarching idea of good business is the bigger and broader platform above it, meant to encompass the spirit and direction Be a Force offered over the last few years and give us more messaging options going forward. “Good business” evolves and sharpens “Be a Force” to make it easier for all of us to tell Bentley’s story, while keeping our same emphasis on using business to improve our world. 

Bentley’s brand guidelines were created to help all members of the Bentley community understand the brand and how to work with various elements and assets. It describes our positioning, personality and conveys who we are. These guidelines ensure that all Bentley content creators project a unified voice that strengthens both our internal and external materials across all media. 

We believe that a consistent expression of Bentley's brand helps the world understand exactly who we are and what we’ve set out to do. 

Our brand guidelines were created with our business partners in mind to explain the various elements of our brand and how to incorporate them into materials developed by departments, offices and centers. By presenting our brand consistently, you can positively influence how people think and feel about Bentley and that means you can amplify our potential impact, whether by recruiting more students and faculty, raising more money for new technology on campus, or adding new programs and services. 

While these guidelines are intended for the entire Bentley community, student organizations are allowed additional flexibility in their branding and design options. However, Bentley logos, wordmarks and certain illustrations of the clocktower are trademarked and must be used according to the guidelines.

The brand system is intended to visually align all of Bentley’s communications and programs. As such, we expect that departments will update their materials as soon as it is feasible (i.e., digital assets are replaced immediately, printed pieces as they run out). If you have any concerns about this, please reach out to your VP or email us at brand@bentley.edu.

Branded stationery, business cards, letterhead, envelopes, note cards and more are available at store.shawmutdelivers.com. Orders are paid for by individual departments and must be approved by the department manager/director/VP and paid for at the time of order. Visit the Resources page for more information.

Templates, including presentation slides, digital letterhead, report covers and email signature guidelines are available on the Resources page. If you are a Canva user, you can also find many templates in the university’s brand toolkit. 

Our primary font is Helvetica Neue and our secondary font is Caecilia. 

Bentley does not have a university-wide license for these, so each department must purchase their own from fonts.com. In lieu of purchasing a license, Arial may be used as a proxy for Helvetica.

If you need help creating marketing or promotional materials, submit a project request at bentley.edu/project-request and one of our project managers will help you, including collaborating with one of our in-house designers. Alternately, if you have a Canva account, you can use one of our branded templates to get started. If you need help with a website update, submit your request at bentley.edu/web-help. 

For help setting up an account, email GA_Social@Bentley.edu.

We also have a campus wide social media user group that meets regularly to share best practices and get updates from the social media team. Email the Social team to be added to the group. 

We also have helpful social media guidelines here.

Depending on the complexity of your request and the volume of projects in our queue, we can turn requests around in as few as three days or up to 14+ weeks for extensive signage projects with fabrication and installation. Click here to see a summary of project types and timelines.

A logo can have text and graphics, but a wordmark (sometimes called a logotype) is generally just text only, stylized or not. Bentley’s wordmark is “BENTLEY UNIVERSITY” in all caps in our brand font, Caecilia. Our athletics / spirit wordmark is more stylized and has a wing-flourish on the B in Bentley and the F in falcons.

Not all logos and wordmarks are trademarked but most are (and should be) to protect their brand from being misrepresented by others. Trademarking means that legally, no one else can have the same combination of logo/text/stylized text that we do. 

Bentley logos can be downloaded in various formats from the brand site under Visual Identity. 

While we do not have these pre-made for download, you can easily create them using our logo generator app.

The app combines your department/center/office name with the Bentley logo and wordmark (i.e., Bentley University in our signature font) to create a “lockup.” Your lockup will be automatically created with the correct colors, spacing and fonts and then emailed to you in several formats in a .zip file. 

Generally, logos (as well as other graphics) will be available in three different formats – EPS, PNG and JPG files. You can download Bentley logos from the Visual Identity page as an EPS file (vector, scalable to any size) or PNG (transparent, best for web). Note: JPEG files are usually photos or images.

Bentley’s brand is strongest when it is cohesive and consistently applied. Generally, departments, centers and offices – particularly those that communicate externally – should use a lockup with the Bentley logo. However, programs and events – particularly those that are on campus for students and alumni – may have additional brand elements created. 

The decision about whether a program or event gets a distinct visual identity or logo is made by the Marketing and Communications team in consultation with the interested department or division leadership. To inquire, email brand@bentley.edu or submit a project request at bentley.edu/project-request. 

Note: All student organizations create their own logos (often with help from HYPE). The only constraint is that they cannot incorporate any of Bentley’s official marks in their designs, such as the seal, university shield or athletics shield, as they are licensed/trademarked for official university business only.

Most departments, centers and offices will not have their own logos or sub-brands. This is by design, as it is important for the university to present itself as one institution, rather than a collection of separate entities.

It is also important that you or your vendors do not attempt to use or manipulate the Bentley logo without following our brand guidelines and Licensing rules. 

The Bentley seal is used as a formal insignia on official university documents and on materials produced for the Board of Trustees and Office of the President. Use of the seal by any other office or department or in any applications such as printed invitations, etching or engraving must be approved by the brand team.

The athletics shield (black fill with no date underneath the “winged” B) is designated for athletics use only – specifically, competitive and club sports as well as officially licensed merchandise. 

While part of the athletics brand guidelines, the falcon illustration (head and body) and the wordmarks (stylized text) are considered spirit marks and can be downloaded and used by anyone in the Bentley community. Contact brand@bentley.edu with questions.

If you are a Canva user, you will find many branded templates for invites, flyers and social posts in the brand toolkit there. If you need help creating print or digital materials, submit a project request at bentley.edu/project-request.

In fall 2024, the university’s online events calendar (events.bentley.edu) was updated and redesigned to become the primary means to promote events on our campus. Instructions on how to add an event can be found there.

The event(s) will be included in regular emails to faculty, staff and students and events will be considered for publication on the university’s social media channels and website.

In addition to submitting your event to the online events calendar (see above), you can also submit your event to the social media team to be included in the weekly Falcon Fliers story on the university’s Instagram account. (This channel is best for promoting your event to students.) 

Email a 1080 x 1920 JPEG flyer for your event to GA_Social@Bentley.edu by Friday at noon to be posted the following week. 

In addition to submitting your event to the online events calendar, you can also reach out to the Strategic Communications team regarding sending a campus wide email or being included in the Bentley Buzz email newsletter which goes to all faculty and staff. For more information, email buzz@bentley.edu.

Canva is an online design and publishing tool that empowers you to create presentations, posters, social media graphics and more. If you join Bentley’s Canva Enterprise account, you will get access to Bentley- branded templates and toolkits so you can easily create on-brand designs.

Yes. When you are logged into Canva, you can click “request approval” by clicking a button in the upper right corner. There will be a comments field where you can type in specific questions and your message and design will be routed to a member of the creative services team who will get back to you. 

Submit a project request at Bentley.edu/project-request. Be sure to mention you are looking for a Canva template and provide an outline of what you are looking for i.e., a flyer with a headline, subhead, optional hero image, registration link, body copy (1-2 paragraphs), footer with my department lockup.

You can transfer ownership by notifying us at brand@bentley.edu. We can assist with transferring designs, folders, templates, etc. to someone else.

The licensing program aims to protect our name, logos and other symbols that have or will come to be associated with Bentley from unauthorized use.  It also ensures that our name and marks will be used on tasteful, high-quality items from socially responsible vendors that comply with fair labor practices.

CLC is the trademark licensing representative for Bentley and is responsible for administering our licensing program, including processing applications, collecting royalties and enforcing trademark usage.

Direct them to CLC's website and have them click the "Apply Now" button. CLC charges $250 for a license application.

It normally takes 2-4 weeks to complete the licensing process. Companies cannot produce any products until the license application has been approved.

Artwork approvals may take up to five business days during periods of heavy volume. Creative Services strives for same-day approvals whenever feasible.

Yes, but you can have your vendor apply to be licensed with CLC and then you may resume working with them. 

Yes. Unmodified uses of Bentley’s trademarks on stationery, business cards, reports, brochures, flyers, signage, advertising, webpages and similar items, as well as materials used in academic courses. 

Student organizations using the word “Bentley” (without “University” and without the logo) are not subject to trademark rules per se but should still use licensed vendors for their merchandise or apparel orders.