Brand Guidelines

The Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) brand must be consistent in both look and feel to easily be identified and carry authority. Our brand must meet specific accessibility guidelines that allow users with disabilities to view and understand our content using assistive technologies and mobile devices. The following are rules and guidelines for creating OAG content in various formats and mediums. 

The brand guidelines only to public-facing content like:

• communications with the public and other governments
• publications
• mailers
• memos
• website 

They do not apply to:

• mediation
• investigations
• litigation
• appeals
• amicus filings
• communications with other law firms, witnesses, subjects, targets, court filings, and the court

Accessibility 

Accessibility in this context means that websites, documents, media, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. Accessibility also benefits people without disabilities — rules and guidelines are in place so people can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with what they are viewing. 

Accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the web, media, and documents, including: 

• auditory 
• cognitive 
• neurological 
• physical 
• speech 
• visual 

Guidelines to ensure we are creating accessible content:  

• design — must check to make sure it passes visual rules for accessibility 
• videos — must be captioned 
• documents — must be checked for accessibility
• links — must have context; never use generic text like “click here”

Writing

Plain language

Plain language is a style of writing that focuses on improving how we communicate information to people with different levels of literacy or understanding. When we write with plain language, we remove hard-to-understand language or jargon, helping the reader understand more quickly and clearly. 

Think about your reader. Who will read this content? What are they looking for? What will they do as a result? Use a conversational tone that fits your reader. Choose words they understand. 

Give the big picture. Start with the most important information, then details. End with your “call to action,” or what you want the reader to do. If your content is long, put the call to action earlier. 

Be direct. Use present tense and active voice. Use “you” and “we” to address the reader. Try to stick to a simple subject-verb-object sentence structure.  

Keep it short and simple. Avoid jargon, acronyms, and unneeded words. Define technical terms. Keep sentences short — you should be able to read each sentence aloud without taking a breath. 

Chunk your information. Have one idea per sentence. Use bulleted lists. Keep paragraphs short. Break up information into easy-to-digest sections with descriptive headings and subheadings. 

Avoid clutter. Use plenty of white space, a readable typeface, and boldfaced headings. Do not use too many different colors, typefaces, or images.  

Try technology. Use Microsoft Word’s built-in readability tool (File -> Options -> Proofing -> Show Readability Statistics) or hemingwayapp.com to flag issues like passive voice and difficult sentences. 

Test your assumptions. Ask someone who knows nothing about the subject to read your document and accomplish a task. Can they understand the content? Can they find the information they want? 

Naming conventions

Follow the guidelines below to ensure a consistent writing style across all OAG materials. If a topic is not covered below, refer to AP format for styles. 

Agency/principal 

Office of the New York State Attorney General (abbreviated as OAG). Never use “the” before "OAG" unless it’s at the start of a sentence.

Official titles

Introduce with full name first, then title and last name thereafter.

Office and bureau naming conventions

Capitalization

Do not use capitalization outside of full proper names, even as shorthand for the group name. Use sentence case for headlines and titles where possible and title case only when necessary.

Do not capitalize the words "city" or "state" in almost any instance. Exceptions include if the word starts a sentence, or if referring to a legal entity or if it is in the full, proper name of the location. 

Do not capitalize government and official titles unless used immediately before the person’s name.

Do not capitalize bureaus, units, divisions, or other work units unless using the complete, proper name.

Spelling

Numbers

Generally, spell out numbers one through nine and use numerals for 10 and above. If the number is the first word of the sentence, then the number should always be spelled out. 

Always use numerals in reference to dates or addresses.

When referring to a court ruling, use numbers, a hyphen, and italicize the case name.

Words

Avoid use of contractions and ampersands in place of the word "and".

Always spell out full title followed by acronym in parenthesis before using acronym in text.

Do not hyphenate the following words:

• gun buyback 
• concealed carry 
• law enforcement 
• health care 
• nonprofit 
• coworker 
• ePayments 
• email 
• ebike 
• website 
• homepage 

Punctuation

Use Oxford commas.

Use em dash (longest dash) to set off a phrase or signal an abrupt change.

Use hyphens to join other words and clarify meaning. Use hyphens to make multiple words into a single idea, as in “sister-in-law” or “well-being.” Use them also to join multiple words that are working as a single modifier to clarify your meaning.

For addresses, no comma is needed between city and state if the state is abbreviated with USPS two letters. 

List phone numbers with dashes only and include 1 before area code for toll-free number (800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 and 833).

Lists

Bulleted list: Use whenever the list items have no special order. Most lists can be bulleted rather than numbered.

Ordered list: Use only for items that have a special order, such as a timeline or steps that must be followed in sequence.

Do not use roman numerals for lists or for organization of web content.

If list items are one word or fragments:

• first word lowercased, unless proper noun
• no end punctuation

If list items are full sentences:

• Capitalize the first letter of every bullet item.
• Add a period after the end of each item.

Spacing

Use space before and after em dashes. Only use one space between sentences.

Citing sources 

Avoid footnotes and endnotes. Instead, use in-text citations.

Formatting references

Use APA style for references after all your text. If your reference has a digital object identifier (DOI), list it after the publication title. 

Using endnotes — sparingly

If you cannot avoid them at all costs, use endnotes – not footnotes. Limit these severely.

Law citations 

• First mention: Reference the full name of the law, acronym in parenthesis, the word "section", and number.
• Second mention: Use abbreviation, section and number. Do not use as a citation after sentences.
• Do not use as a citation after sentences.

Email signatures  

Format your email signature based on example below. 

• font: Franklin Gothic, Calibri, or Mr. Eaves (if available) 
• size: 10 pts

Design 

A design system is a set of standards to manage the visual side of our brand creating consistency across different media types and channels. It is important that it balances consistency and flexibility to maximize impact through every application.

Download assets 

You can download branding assets from OAGnet (INCLUDE LINK). Included files: 

• OAG logo — PNG, EPS, and JPG 
• headshot
• Word letterhead 
• PowerPoint template 
• Word report cover 

Adobe creative cloud assets are available be shared with vendors as needed.

Logo

Use OAG logo for all public facing documents. Primary blue or white logo should be used in most instances. Other colors may be used if the design allows for it. 

Headshot and signature 

New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ headshot and signature are available upon request and with the correct approvals.  

Colors

Primary colors

Secondary Colors

Fonts (non-legal)

Primary

Mr. Eaves XL Mod OT — primary font licensed through Adobe 

Haboro Serif – secondary font licensed through Adobe

Alternate

Franklin Gothic — alternate for Mr. Eaves

Bookman Old Style — alternate for Haboro Serif

Font size and style

Print

Website

Visit our website style guide for font and component guidelines.

Design style and imagery

Imagery 

• use OAG image library first and foremost
• use of stock images may be used if necessary  

Rounded corners

Use rounded corners for solid blocks of color, images, and other graphic elements when possible.

Patterns 

Gradients 

Specific colored gradients may be used for content areas as outlined in the color section.

Website 

The web content workgroup will help set up any approval workflows for the website. Content may not be “published” to the public website without prior authorization by an appropriate authority. Website editing roles: 

• Editor: can draft and edit existing content for chief editor to review
• Content specialist: can draft, edit, and publish only specific content
• Chief editor: can draft, edit, and publish all content 

Building pages 

View our guide on how to build pages and rules to follow for component usage.  

Short URLs and redirects

Use short URLs for any OAG links where the link is visible on a graphic or document. Send requests for short URLs to webteam@ag.ny.gov with the original link and the wording for the desired new link 

Uploading files 

Check the file names before uploading since they become the URL for the document. File names should follow these guidelines: 

• be as short as possible — remove any unimportant words 
• not contain any years or numbering, unless it is a legal document 
• not contain any special characters such as &, %, #, @, $, §, * 
• not contain any words that describe the version status, such as “final”
• be checked for accessibility 
• view our guide on how to check and correct documents for compliance

Translations 

By New York State Law, the office must translate vital documents available to the public into the top 12 most spoken non-English languages: 

• Arabic 
• Bengali 
• Chinese 
• French 
• Haitian Creole 
• Italian 
• Korean 
• Polish 
• Russian 
• Spanish 
• Yiddish 
• Urdu 

If the project is under $1,000, it can be put on a p-card and translated by any of the following approved translation vendors: