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For printed pieces, such as brochures or posters, be sure to follow our requirements and guidelines. There are many different ways and different software programs used to create brochures and posters. If you’re unfamiliar with the process, here are two simple ways to get you started.

Download a Word, InDesign, or PowerPoint template

Work within a pre-made Word, InDesign, or PowerPoint template to create a brochure or poster. Templates are compliant with graphic standards and print-ready.

Seek design assistance

The University’s Printing Services offers full-service design and printing services. Well-versed in University branding policy, and addressing and mailing standards—Printing Services is a trusted partner that can help with any communications need. For more information, visit Printing Services.

In addition, University Relations is happy to consult or review your design project to answer any questions you have about compliance with standards and policy.

The University Libraries offer and support the UThink blogs. The blogs are available to the faculty, staff, and students at the U, and are intended to support teaching and learning, scholarly communication, and individual expression for the U of M community.

Units that want to communicate official University business using the UThink blogs must use the blog templates created using the blogs' Moveable Type code.

Step by step instructions along with the blog template downloads should allow you to quickly construct your unit's blog.

Note: The blog templates cannot be used for personal blogs.

There are 5 things a unit needs to have before making a website on the umn.edu domain.

1. A communications plan for the site – what is its purpose, who will write site content, who will keep the content updated?
2. A place to host the site – web server, site URL, and email address.
3. A designer with web experience to design images, manipulate photos for web, and define a color palette for the site.
4. Software for building a website, such as Dreamweaver and a photo/image manipulation software such as Photoshop.
5. A qualified webmaster who understands how to connect to a web server and can use the University templates to construct the site’s pages. Minimally, anyone working with the web templates should have a good working knowledge of XHTML and CSS. Courses offered by the University Technology Training Center may be helpful as well.

When building your site, be sure to refer to the web publishing checklist. Once you begin to add code to the templates, the web page(s) should be checked often in a variety of browsers to be certain they still work. Typically if problems arise with a page or a site, it’s due to the code that has been added.

All University websites should be housed on the University's umn.edu domain. See Domains in Web Requirements for more information.

If you're considering Google Sites for your website, please see the FAQ from the Office of Information Technology related to work on Google Sites and University branding.

1. Ensure that your message supports your unit’s communications plan or a project plan.
2. Determine your audience.
   1. If it is large-scale internal (e.g., all staff or a campus), please see the resources on the Faculty and Staff site.
   2. If it is alumni or donors not from Medical School or School of Public Health, be ready to enter a query request with your criteria in the University of Minnesota Foundation's Donor Management System.
   3. If it is alumni or donors from the Medical School or School of Public Health, speak with your regular contact in the Minnesota Medical Foundation.
   4. For all other audiences, determine your starting audience and how you will maintain recipient information, handle opt-outs, or unsubscribes.
3. Determine how you will send the message. Lyris ListManager is recommended for one-way communications, LISTSERV for discussion lists.
4. Write and edit your copy, and identify any imagery to use.
5. Create and code the message, or a template for recurring communications. You will need:
   1. A web developer familiar with HTML email.
   2. A graphic designer, if going beyond University mass email templates.
6. Test and review your message. Make sure all links work and do a final proof.
7. Send your message.
8. Verify your message was sent properly.
9. Review analytics, if available.