Instructions

To log in to your account:

1. Go to express.adobe.com.
2. Enter your Illinois email address and click "continue." Because of the University's Adobe Enterprise account, you will only be granted enterprise privileges on your Illinois account.
3. Choose "Company or School Account" and follow the prompts to log into your university account.

Getting started:

1. Use the menu on the left side to navigate to "Brands."
2. Select “Education Brand for Adobe Express” to view the brand assets.

Using our templates:

Creating a file:

1. Use the menu on the left side to navigate to "Your stuff." Go to "Projects."
2. Select "Education at Illinois Brand Templates" to view available templates. Most of them are sorted into folders by category.
3. Select the template you want to use to open it up larger and browse through the available pages. Click "Use template." This will create a new working file and open the editor.

• This file will automatically save to "Your stuff," which can be found on the side menu, and then under "Files." Recent files will also show on your Adobe Express home page.
• To rename this file, either select the three dots and click "Rename," or within the editor, replace the title in the top left corner.
  
  

Editing text:

1. Select the text you’d like to change and type in your desired title, subtitle, CTA, etc.
2. Select Brand > Fonts to change typefaces that are within the branded fonts.
3. When text is selected, use the panel on the left when adjusting the text. From here you can select a number of editing options.
   

Changing photos:

1. Select the image from the right-hand layers panel, right-click the image on the graphic, and select "Replace" to swap it out.
   
2. Use the white dots in the corners to adjust the size and placement of the photo.
3. To add or replace university logos and assets:
   1. Select "Brand."
   2. Navigate to "Logos" and select the wordmark that best suits your design.
4. To add a photo from the Photo Library:
   1. Select "Your stuff" on the left menu and then go to "Libraries."
   2. Navigate to "Education at Illinois Photo Library." All photos are grouped by photo category (e.g., Buildings, Students, Research).
   3. Scroll through the photos and select the one you'd like to add.

Note: If you'd rather search and download your photos first, go to adobe.com/files/libraries and find the Education Photo Library. From there, you can download photos one at a time and more easily navigate through the categories.

Adding brand elements:

1. Select "Your stuff" on the left menu and then go to "Libraries."
2. Select "Education Campus Assets."
3. Scroll through this list to find a number of patterns, backgrounds, and graphic elements you can use in your piece. Many of these are great as a background on its own, or paired with a solid colored background to show variation (e.g. the ascending narrow lines).
4. Select the graphic you want to try. Use the white dots in the corners to adjust the size and placement.

Best Practices

Accessibility

As you will likely be exporting these designs as an image file (.png or .jpg), it’s important to ensure your designs are clear, readable, and designed well, as reading order and alt text won’t be able to be included or displayed.

Font Size

Make sure the font size is large enough to be easily readable. Small text may become unclear or hard to read, so aim for a size that ensures legibility at all screen sizes.

Color Contrast

It’s important to keep text legible by maintaining proper color contrast. Below are a few tools provided by StratCom for testing color contrast:

• Brand Content Delivery Network: showcases the best color combos for Illini Blue and Illini Orange backgrounds
• Illinois Brand colors contrast checker tool
• If you have text placed over an image, you can check color contrast by using this image and text color accessibility tool by Andrew Brandwood – Lead Digital User Experience Developer

High-quality images

Ensure images are clear and sharp by using high-resolution files (at least 150 dpi for print, 72 dpi for web). Use the Education Photo Library for Education-specific photos taken for and by the college, or the Illinois Image Database for high-quality photos taken by our campus photographers.

Simplicity

• Avoid clutter by prioritizing essential elements and maintaining a clean layout.
• Keep your text short and straightforward.
• Try to keep headlines to under 5 words.
• Have a clear Call To Action, such as a website or registration date. Create a short URL using go.illinois.edu on Webtools, and/or add a QR code if it's a piece that will be printed. Do not put a QR code on a social media or website graphic!

Tips and Tricks

Use our templates as a starting point! Please feel free to remix these designs to best suit your needs. These are not strict templates and are intended to be flexible.

Additional Resources

Online Tutorials

Coming soon!

Education MarCom Teams Space

Request access to the MarCom Teams channel where we'll have tips & tricks, Q&A, and tutorials for using our Adobe Express templates.

Adobe Express Workshop

Watch StratCom's Adobe Express Workshop for a more in-depth look and walk-through of this software.

Contact

Dana Hagerstrom, Graphic Designer,  danaeh@illinois.edu