Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill
Brand Guide
How to make it look — and sound — like Trinity.
A short, practical guide to Trinity's visual and written identity — the colors, type, logos, photos, and words that make something feel like Trinity, and simple recipes for using them.
Everyone who makes things: teachers writing class newsletters, coaches ordering spiritwear, parents making event flyers, staff building slides. No design experience needed.
Nothing bad happens to you — but off-brand items may be asked to retire, regardless of cost. When in doubt, ask first. It's a two-minute email.
Navy does the talking — text, backgrounds, authority. Gold appears in small, deliberate doses: a thin rule, a keyline box, one big number. The exception: an all-navy or all-gold "poster" moment carrying a single sentence.
Titles wear Trajan-style capitals with room to breathe. Sentences wear Times New Roman. Pull quotes go bold italic. In headlines, the little words — of, in, and, the — are set in italic.
We are literally the "rich yet unhurried" school — our pages should look like it. One idea per page. Generous margins. A warm cream band is how a page takes a breath.
Photography is candid and mid-action: real laughter, paint on hands, the cap toss. Natural daylight, warm and unfiltered. Our navy-and-gold world shows up in the frame on its own.
Our shapes come from the crest's trinity-knot curves. Photos get quarter-circle corners, collages stack quarter and half circles, corners carry a navy-and-gold quarter-circle mark, and gold dots fill quiet cells.
Warm, plain, and confident. Numbers are stated as testament, not pitch. Growth is credited to God's faithfulness and the community's generosity — never to our own excellence. No hype, no urgency, no "kids."
Trajan Pro — always capitals, letter-spaced, never bold-shouted. Titles, section heads, formal signage.
Times New Roman — body copy, sub-heads, pull quotes (bold italic). The workhorse; it is already on every machine.
Myriad Pro — small labels, captions, charts, utilitarian signage. Eyebrow labels get a gold "//" prefix. On badges and name tags: Trajan speaks for the institution, bold sans capitals for the person.
Section headings sit inside a thin gold keyline box — navy Trajan capitals, generous padding, like the one above. It is the most recognizable device in Trinity print. Use it once or twice per piece, never for every heading.
Our most formal mark — used with reverence, small and centered, never decorated. Comes in full color, all-navy, all-gold, and all-white.
Our athletic identity — and the right choice anywhere the crest would feel too formal. On dark backgrounds, use the white version; never invert the artwork yourself.
The varsity letter — navy block T with a gold keyline. The simplest mark we have, and the friendliest to one-color printing and small embroidery.
And one big one: don't create new logos, lockups, or mascot drawings — for a team, a club, a class, or an event. If something needs its own mark, ask and we'll make one with you. Trinity's marks are for official school use and may not be put on items for sale without written consent.
"…teaching the classical tools of learning; providing a rich yet unhurried education; and communicating truth, goodness, and beauty."
Known & Loved · Classical, Rich & Unhurried · "A community with purpose"
"Once a Lion, always a Lion!" · TK Cubs · #Lions4Life
Non nobis, Domine. — Not to us, O Lord. The school motto, and the reason our writing credits God and community, not ourselves.
| We say | Not |
|---|---|
| students, children, learners | kids |
| Head of School | headmaster, principal |
| flexible tuition | financial aid, scholarships |
| Enrollment Management office | Admissions office |
| invest / investors (in giving contexts) | donate / donors |
| Lower School, Middle School, Upper School | elementary, junior high |
| transitional kindergarten (TK) | pre-K |
| fourth graders, kindergartners | 4th graders |
| Grandparents Day | Grandparent's / Grandparents' Day |
| Varsity Gold Boys Basketball (level · color · gender · sport) | the boys' gold varsity b-ball team |
Selling the shirts (fundraisers, merch tables)? That always needs written approval first.
The poster-page trick from our print work: when in doubt, a solid navy page, one gold sentence in the middle, crest at the bottom. It is almost impossible to get wrong and it always looks like Trinity.
Charts: navy bars, one gold highlight bar for the number that matters, Arial labels. No 3-D, no rainbow series.