Department of Energy Logo and Branding Guidelines

Official DOE Seal

The Department's official seal first appeared in the 1978 issue of the Federal Register. The eagle represents the care in planning and the purposefulness of efforts required to respond to the Nation's increasing demands for energy. The sun, atom, oil derrick, windmill, and dynamo serve as representative technologies whose enhanced development can help meet these demands. The rope represents the cohesiveness in the development of the technologies and their link to our future capabilities. The lightning bolt represents the power of the natural forces from which energy is derived and the Nation's challenge in harnessing the forces.

The color scheme—dark green, dark blue, gold, black, and white—is derived from nature, symbolizing both the source of energy and the support of man's existence. The blue field represents air and water, green represents mineral resources and the earth itself, and gold represents the creation of energy in the release of natural forces.
 

Official DOE Logo

The DOE's official logo is the DOE seal with the department's name in bold typography beside it. It was designed for various applications such as digital media, print materials, and signage. It consists of the eagle, encircled by the department's name in bold typography. The logo retains the symbolic elements of the seal while ensuring legibility and visual impact at different sizes.

DOE's logo, consisting of the Department's seal and wordmark, is the brand identifier for the Department. Use of the DOE seal alone is limited (see “DOE Seal Usage” below).

The logo is to be used on official Departmental publications and communications to identify the source of the information and to properly represent that the Department endorses the information. It should not be used on unofficial communications that do not reach the level of an official statement by the Department. The usage of a DOE graphical identifier is an implied or even explicit endorsement by the Department of the content it is associated with.

The logo cannot be used in a manner that has an implied or explicit endorsement of any private company, service, product or activities.

The logo can be used by external entities to recognize funding, support, or other formal involvement of the Department if there is an official relationship between the Department and the entity; The usage has proper qualifying language, and context, to explain its presence on non-DOE materials, and is properly separated from other material not related to the DOE information; the DOE office whose involvement is being recognized approves of this method of recognition; and the usage is reviewed and explicitly approved by an appropriate organizational representative of the Department.

The DOE seal CANNOT be used on its own, without the DOE wordmark or similar co-branding, except in limited circumstances, such as on official DOE letterhead or when used by the U.S. Secretary of Energy.

For more detailed usage DOE Seal guidelines, visit the Code of Federal Regulations.

To maintain the integrity and recognition of the DOE's visual identity, it is crucial to follow the guidelines below when using the official seal and official logo:

Size and Proportions

• The size and proportions of the DOE seal and official logo should remain consistent across all applications. Avoid scaling or distorting the images disproportionately.
• For digital media, the minimum size of the official logo should not be smaller than 100 pixels in width.
• For print materials, the minimum size of the official logo should not be smaller than 1 inch in width.

Clear Space and Placement

• Maintain sufficient clear space around the DOE seal and official logo to ensure visibility and avoid visual clutter.
• The minimum clear space around the seal or logo should be equal to the height of the "E" in the department's logo (e.g. Energy).

Background and Color

• The DOE seal and official logo should be placed on a clean background to ensure readability.
• When using the official logo on a colored or photographic background, ensure sufficient contrast for legibility. You can check whether your color scheme is accessible by using Adobe Color Contrast Analyzer tool.
• The colors of the DOE seal and official logo CANNOT be altered or modified. Use the approved versions provided in the branding resources.

• DO NOT alter, distort, or modify the DOE seal or official logo in any way.
• The DOE seal and official logo should not be combined with other logos or graphics without prior authorization.
• Seek approval from the appropriate department personnel for any usage that deviates from the provided guidelines.

The Director, Office of Administration is the Secretary's designee for reviewing and approving usages of the DOE graphical identifier by entities external to the Department, or purposes other than standard official usages. The Department has a concurrence system to process requests for official DOE identifiers which gathers pertinent information about the association with the Department, the relationship with the requestor, the context the identifier would be used, and the content it would be associated with. 

Visit our the Office of Administration's official page to request permission to use DOE's official seal and/or logo >>