Employee Style Guide

This handbook is intended to provide city staff with information and templates to utilize when creating city correspondence and materials. Varied and inconsistent templates, fonts, and styles may give the appearance of shoddy, rushed, or outdated work that could lessen the impact of the content of the message. Having a consistent style assures that all correspondence between the City and the public is professional, and provides a unified identity, or “brand.”

Following these guidelines is part of being a modern and effective public agency.

The material on this webpage should provide you the resources you need so that all City departments can present themselves to the community with a unified look, while still allowing some individuality among the different departments.

For additional materials, please reach out to Susan Duncan.

Click here to download complete style guide. Included in the style guide are guidelines and recommendations relating to publications, emails, presentations and more. Below you will find downloadable materials to assist in designing your professional documents.

Email Signatures

Email is a main method of City communication. For consistency and to keep residents, vendors, and co-workers from having to search for contact information, the following information should be included in all email signatures. This applies to both sending and replying to emails.

  • First and last name, followed by any professional designation
  • Title/Organization
  • Preferred Pronouns (optional)
  • Phone number/Website address
  • Social Media links (optional)
  • Public disclosure notification

Here are instructions on how to update your signature in Outlook.

You are welcome to copy/paste this into your signature block and update it with your information.

EXAMPLE:

John Smith, AICP

Community Development Director
Male Pronouns (He/Him) ** Optional**
City of Ferndale, Washington
Phone: (360) 123-4567  – www.cityofferndale.org
Facebook |  Twitter **Optional**
NOTE: My e-mails are subject to public disclosure

Staff Report Templates

Reminder that all committee materials are due by 10 a.m. on the Monday before committees. Council meeting materials are due by 10 a.m. on the Friday before council meetings.