Digital displays at 121 South Main Street are maintained by our team. All slides submitted for digital displays are subject to the review and approval of the SPH Office of Communications. Slides should conform to Brown University and SPH branding, and be of general interest to the School of Public Health faculty, staff, and/or students (lectures, seminars, blood drives, etc). Additionally, you may request a welcome or greeting slide to run during important events (ie, “Welcome new students”).
Office of Communications & Events
Digital Displays
Create your slide
We prefer that you provide artwork by creating and sharing it in Canva. That way, we can make sure the slide fits our display specifications.
Share a slide in Canva …
The easiest way to share a slide is to build it in Canva and share it with kenneth_zirkel@brown.edu. Ken will copy, size, and scale the graphic to fit display requirements. You do not have to worry about technical specs; Ken will edit the Canva file to meet specifications. If you have special requests (ie, only show on certain displays, certain days of the week, etc), share that information in an email to kenneth_zirkel@brown.edu. By default, all slides show on all signs starting one week to ten days before the event.
... or build your slide in an app of your choice ...
You can build your slide in Powerpoint, Google Slides, Adobe Illustrator, or Photoshop. Please share original editable files as an email attachment to kenneth_zirkel@brown.edu. You may use our templates or create your own design.
PSD template Powerpoint Template
… or submit finished artwork
If you submit finished artwork, please conform to the specifications below. Email the slide to kenneth_zirkel@brown.edu. If you have special requests (ie, only show on certain signs, certain days of the week, etc), share that information in the email. By default, all slides show on all displays starting one week to ten days before the event.
- All signs are 16:9 ratio. Minimum size is 1920 x 1080 pixels. The horizontal displays are 4k resolution, so they can accept graphics up to 3840 x 2160 pixels. The vertical display is only HD, so there’s no point in creating artwork larger than 1080 x 1920 pixels for the vertical sign.
- Keep in mind that slides only show for 10 seconds. Please don’t include more text than can be read in a short period of time. Remember the dictum: "omit needless words."
- You may include a QR code for registration or more information. The QR code doesn’t have to be very large.
- Slides may be JPG, PNG, PDF, Powerpoint, or even video files. See the full list of supported formats. NOTE that we prefer to receive an editable format (.psd over jpg, .ppt over .pdf, etc) because we will likely tweak the design.
- Videos should not last longer than 12 seconds.
- If you feel your event has a wider audience across campus (other than SPH), let us know and we can share with other sign users at Brown.
Supported file formats:
QR Code Generator:
QR codes are a great way to drive traffic to a signup page (typically an event page at events.brown.edu). Canva has a QR code generator built in, or you can use:
Sign Templates
We love to get signs with original and fun designs. Canva templates can provide you with a great starting point. However, if you want to use a simple Brown-branded sign, you can use one of these templates:
The 121 South Main Street building has horizontal displays in these locations:
- 2nd floor hallway outside elevators
- 2nd floor outside room 245 *
- 3rd floor hallway outside elevators
- 3rd floor student lounge *
- 4th floor hallway outside elevators
- 4th floor inside reception area* (smaller screen)
- 6th floor hallway outside elevators
- 7th floor hallway outside elevators
- 8th floor hallway outside elevators
- 9th floor hallway outside elevators
Additionally, we have one vertical display:
- First Floor lobby
* Note: the three non-hallway horizontal screens are informally designated "student spaces" and are configured to show extra content which is primarily of interest to students (ie, timesheet reminders, library research info, etc).
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First Floor lobby
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2nd floor hallway outside elevators
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2nd floor outside room 245
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3rd floor hallway outside elevators
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3rd floor student lounge
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4th floor hallway outside elevators
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4th floor inside reception area (smaller screen)
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6th floor hallway outside elevators
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7th floor hallway outside elevators
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8th floor hallway outside elevators
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9th floor hallway outside elevators