We prevent misrepresentation of the university's mission, goals, and reputation through careful monitoring of products carrying our trademarks. Therefore, Grand Valley requires all commercially printed or resold items featuring its name, logos, or verbiage to be produced by a registered licensee.

We partner with the Affinity Licensing for vendor licensing. Affinity Licensing assists the university in protecting items that have become associated with Grand Valley State University over time and that enhance the university's image. 

All use of Grand Valley logos and marks on licensed merchandise must follow brand guidelines as outlined in the Logos section of this site.

The institution's full proper name is "Grand Valley State University". 

After the first use of the full name, it is appropriate to shorten it to "Grand Valley State" or "Grand Valley". 

"GVSU" is only appropriate to shorten in informal contexts, when space is limited, or if "Grand Valley" has been used so often it becomes distracting. 

"GV" should only be used in internal, informal documents.

The process for obtaining registered trademarks and legal rights to university-related terms requires us to actively monitor usage to guard against losing those trademarks.

If applying any of the above verbiage to items that will be commercially printed or resold, please review our Licensed Vendors requirements.

Printed materials should include copyright information in the format "© [YYYY] Grand Valley State University".
    © 2025 Grand Valley State University

It is not permissible to copyright specific departments.
    © 2025 Grand Valley State University University Marketing

See the Editorial Style Guide for more guidance on copywriting.

Grand Valley State University strives to be an inclusive environment. As such, it is GVSU's policy to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Please see Grand Valley's ADA philosophy statement for more information.

To comply with the ADA, documents posted online, including, but not limited to, Adobe PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and online flipbooks, must be screen-reader friendly. Screen-reader software is a form of assistive technology that reads a screen's display aloud to the user.

Learn more about Document Accessibility →

University Marketing looks for the following attributes when specifying paper for printed communications:

• Domestically manufactured
• Paper that is manufactured with paper fibers from certified sustainable forests (Forest Stewardship Council or Sustainable Forestry Initiative)
• Emissions-free renewable energy used in the manufacturing of the paper or carbon neutral paper
• Elemental chlorine-free (ECF)
• Alternative fiber paper
• Carbon neutral paper
• Paper from mills that have received third party certifications such as Green-e, Green Seal

When printing, whenever possible, University Marketing uses:

• Local printers with FSC or SFI certification
• Aqueous coating instead of petroleum-based varnish
• Vegetable-based inks

University Marketing encourages other departments to make similar considerations and choices when choosing paper and commercial print vendors.