Rotary Brand Guidelines

The rules for using Rotary logos, colours, and fonts in your club's materials.

Why brand guidelines matter

Rotary International has specific rules about how the Rotary brand is used in all communications, whether internal or public. The district Public Image team follows these guidelines, and clubs are expected to do the same.

Always apply the guidelines. The brand rules apply to all materials, even internal communications sent only to Rotarians. The district PI team sets the standard that clubs follow, and consistency builds recognition.

Where to find the official guidelines

The authoritative source for all Rotary branding is:

brandcentre.rotary.org

This site has:

Logo downloads (Rotary, Rotaract, Interact, and program logos)
Colour specifications (hex codes, RGB, CMYK)
Typography guidelines
Image and photography standards
Do's and don'ts for logo usage

Bookmark this page. It is the single source of truth for all Rotary brand questions.

Colours

Rotary's colour palette has three tiers:

Tier	Usage
Primary (Royal Blue, Gold, White)	The foundation of every design. Use these most often.
Secondary (Azure, Cranberry, Turquoise)	Accents and highlights. Use to draw the eye to a specific element.
Tertiary (Violet, Moss Green, Orange)	Occasional use only. A splash of colour to make one thing pop.

Think of it as: primary colours are your everyday clothes, secondary colours are your accessories, and tertiary colours are the statement piece you wear once.

Typography

The official Rotary typeface is Frutiger (licensed). For general use, Rotary provides Open Sans as the free alternative.
Use sans-serif fonts only. Sans-serif fonts have clean, straight edges without decorative strokes.
Do not use serif fonts (like Times New Roman or Georgia) in Rotary materials. Serif fonts have small lines or strokes at the tips of letters.
Keep typography consistent within a design. If you start with Open Sans, use it throughout. Do not mix multiple fonts unless one is being used as a deliberate heading accent.

Logo usage

Key rules for the Rotary logo:

Do not superimpose the Rotary wheel on top of a photograph or busy background. Place it on a solid-colour background.
Do not stretch, rotate, recolour, or add effects to the logo.
Do not place text inside or overlapping the Rotary wheel.
Do give the logo clear space around it. Nothing should crowd it.
Do use the correct version for the background colour (white logo on dark backgrounds, colour or black logo on light backgrounds).

See the Brand Centre for the complete list of do's and don'ts with visual examples.

Design tips from the district PI team

These come from the district's Canva training sessions and apply to any material you create:

Glanceability: A poster should communicate what, when, and where in the first half-second someone looks at it. Put dates, event names, and locations front and centre.
Symmetry: Use Canva's alignment guides (the purple snap lines) to keep elements lined up. Use Position > Centre liberally.
Eye flow: Readers scan in a Z pattern: top-left, across the top, diagonally to bottom-left, then across the bottom. Place your most important information along this path.
Do not overcrowd: If the poster is too wordy, people will not read it. Use dot points instead of paragraphs. Less is more.
Consistent casing: If headings are uppercase, keep all headings uppercase. Do not mix uppercase and lowercase headings in the same design.
Print margins: Keep text at least 5mm from the edge. Someone may print your digital design, and borderless printing cuts the edges.

Questions about branding? Contact the District Public Image Chair or email support@rotary9660.org.au.