• Design templates
• Download the Design
• Isolation zone elements
• Positioning the Design
• Colour use
• Alternate Text

Design templates

These templates have been made available to Australian Government departments and agencies as an aid in creating variants of the Design for online use.

There are three sizes of each configuration of the Design available for download. Sizes are identified in pixels (the height of the Coat of Arms in each instance).

Please note that the 32 pixel versions of the Design should only be used when available space is limited and should not be used in Agency website ‘mastheads’.

Files are provided in Adobe Photoshop 6.0/Adobe Image Ready 3.0 format, with each element on its own layer, and all type and colour fully editable. The size, leading, tracking/kerning of the typeface and the dimensions between the primary elements of the Design should not be modified. Times New Roman is the only typeface font that can be used for all Designs.

Download the Design

Format: Adobe Photoshop 6.0/Image Ready 3.0 (in a .ZIP archive)

Requirements: Adobe Photoshop, Times New Roman (Roman and Bold)

*Sizing refers to the height of the Coat of Arms in each version of the design.

*Sizing refers to the height of the Coat of Arms in each version of the design.

Isolation zone elements

Each file has a guide layer set, which should be repositioned to define the Design’s ‘isolation zone’ when purpose-specific text has been incorporated. The outer edge of the guide layer set defines the isolation zone.

Positioning the Design

Consistent positioning of the Design is critical to the intention of establishing and maintaining a single recognition device for the Australian Government.

The Design should always have prominence over other images and graphic elements. When incorporating the Design into a traditional web page’s masthead, the Design should occupy the top left of the page, with other elements following on to the right of and beneath the Design. See the Application section for further guidance.

An isolation zone has been established to ensure that the dignity of the Design is not jeopardised through crowding. The zone is based upon the distance between the top of the capital ‘A’ in ‘Australian Government’ and the bottom of the horizontal line beneath those words. For Design size 32 the isolation zone is a 10 pixels wide border, for  Design size 48, the isolation zone is 16 pixels wide and for the largest Design size 64, the isolation zone border is 21 pixels wide border around the Coat of Arms.

Please note: The overall dimension of an individual Design will also vary – dependent on the volume of text within each design – but the isolation zone remains constant.

Colour use

The prime consideration in the use of colour is to maintain sufficient contrast to ensure the legibility of the Design. Attention and care are required to ensure the Design does not become ‘lost’ through inappropriate use of colour or contrast.

Design treatment

The Design itself can be displayed using any solid colour. However, that colour must provide sufficient contrast to its background to ensure legibility.

Background treatment

The treatment of the background in which the design sits is crucial to its overall legibility. The background can be a solid colour, a pattern, a texture or a continuous image (photograph). Whatever the choice, the legibility of the Design must not be compromised through insufficient contrast.

Acceptable use of colour, contrast, texture and tone (example)

Unacceptable use of colour, contrast, texture and tone (example)

Alternate Text

Alternate (alt) text for use with the Design

Alternate text is an accessibility feature of HTML used to supply contextual information as an alternative to images.  The Alt text for the Design (when used only as an image) should read as follows:

For the department/agency Design:

The Australian Government Department of (full department/agency name).

For an Australian Government initiative program/product name:

(Program name) followed by ‘An Australian Government Initiative’.

For the Australian Government Design:

The Australian Government.

Note: Where the Design is used as a navigational element (e.g. functioning as a link to the agency’s ‘home’ page) the alt text should also describe the destination of the link.

Subjects:

• Government Design
• Stacked sizes
• Inline sizes
• Colour
• Alternate text