Brand Guidelines

Use Red Hat Text and Open Sans whenever you are working with desktop applications like Adobe Acrobat or the desktop versions of Microsoft Office applications. These fonts should also be used for all major print jobs. 

Red Hat Text

Red Hat Text should be used for headlines or whenever your design requires text elements that have greater prominence.

Download the font here

Open Sans

Open Sans should be used for body and paragraph copy, or whenever your design requires a large amount of text.

Download the font here

Use these equivalents whenever you are working in an online environment (Outlook Web Application and all Office applications online).

Source Sans Pro Text

Source Sans Pro should be used for headlines or whenever your design requires text elements that have greater prominence.

Verdana Text

Verdana should be used for body and paragraph copy, or whenever your design requires a large amount of text.

You are permitted to adjust the color of the mark with brand colors and adjust the branded house name (usually reserved for departments) for specific enterprise initiatives like climate action.

The City’s logo must have a minimum amount of white space or clearance surrounding it. As a rule of thumb, use the “N” in “SAINT PAUL” to measure out the minimum amount of space. All of the logo files included in the Brand Library are formatted to include this minimum amount of clearance.

The Office of Technology and Communications has created individual department logos that follow a common brand architecture consistent with the new City logo and brand guidelines. “Brand architecture” refers to the structure of relationships that ties together a parent brand with its component parts.  

The purpose of the new department logos and consistent brand architecture is to signal information to our residents that departments are connected to the City as a whole. Over time, this will help our residents better understand the functions and scope of our City government and contribute to the overall professionalism of our materials. A unified image bolsters not only our professionalism but the authenticity of our materials. Residents will be more trusting of materials that are clearly, visually, from the City. 

Pre-approved Uses  

• Department letterhead, business cards, applications, forms, reports, or official documents. 
• Social media posts when it is necessary to differentiate the department from the City at-large. 

Guidelines 

• All variations of department logos can be located in the Brand Asset Library on Saint Paul Connect in the “Departments” folder.  
• Department logos should only be used on materials that reflect individual departments’ programs, initiatives, campaigns, reports, official documents, or announcements.  
• Materials that are presented by multiple departments should use the City’s logo rather than multiple department logos. For example, if Planning and Economic Development and Public Works collaborate on a project, the materials should use the City’s logo rather than multiple department logos. Contributions by individual departments can be referenced in text below the City’s logo. See Example A to the right. 
• Department logos should follow the same guidelines that govern the use of the City’s logo. Most importantly, departments should use the correct version of the logo based on the environment (light vs. dark background, print vs. web) and ensure that department logos have enough white space or clearance around them. 
• Department logos should never be used in email signatures. 

Departments Covered by This Policy 

Departments listed below should plan to retire custom department logos, and workgroup logos, that are inconsistent with the City’s new brand architecture. If you have questions, please contact the OTC Service Desk. 

• City Attorney 
• Financial Empowerment
• Financial Services 
• Human Resources 
• Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity 
• Neighborhood Safety
• Planning & Economic Development 
• Public Works 
• Safety & Inspections 
• Technology & Communications

• Use only an official, high-resolution version of the Seal, which can be provided by the City Clerk. 
• Do not use any versions obtained on the Web or reproduced from other materials. This may result in an unprofessional, pixelated, or blurry image. 
• The City Seal, City logo, and other materials featuring the City’s official branding (including colors and fonts) may not be used for political campaigns. 
• City departments should not use the City seal as a replacement for the official City logo, with the exception of the Mayor’s Office, City Council, and city councilmember ward offices. 
• The City Seal may be used on official City legal documents as authorized by the City Clerk, including, but not limited to documents authored by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), City Attorney’s Office, and the Office of Financial Services. 
• Approval for using the City Seal may be obtained by email from the City Clerk. 
• If you see the City Seal being improperly used, please contact the City Clerk’s office. 

The City Seal has a specific color palette that should not be altered.  

City Seal Blue 

• Hex: #003499 
• CMYK: 100-90-6-1 
• RGB: 0-52-153 

City Seal Bright Yellow (stylized rope around seal) 

• Hex: #FEFF98 
• CMYK: 3-0-50-0 
• RGB: 254-255-152 

City Seal Gold (original City Hall building illustration) 

• Hex: #989A32 
• CMYK: 44-28-100-5 
• RBG: 152-154-50  

The current City seal was first presented to the City Council by Mayor George Latimer in 1979. The new design was based on research by a staff member in the Planning and Economic Development department that discovered that the old City Seal inaccurately represented the City’s original city hall building. The new seal, which featured an updated illustration of this historic building, was unanimously adopted by the City Council (see City Council File 87-1156), and officially recognized by the State of Minnesota, in 1987.  

The first city hall was built 1856-1857 and completed May 1857. It was built on the corner of 5th Street and Washington Street, where the current Landmark Center stands. The lot was purchased from "Rice and Irvine's addition" for $1,500 on August 12, 1856, and a contract was signed with contractors Alpheus G. Fuller and George Scott for a $6,500 building. It was a two-story building. This building was used as the city hall until 1889, when the new combined city hall and county courthouse was finished.