Every brand starts from this shape

01Overview

The brand

Two or three paragraphs that say what the company is, who it serves, and why it exists — written the way the founders would say it across a table, then edited until nothing performs.

The overview sets the register for everything that follows. If a sentence here wouldn't survive being read aloud in a client meeting, it doesn't survive here.

02Strategy

Strategy

Mission

The change the company exists to make, in one line.

Positioning

One sentence that places the brand: who it's for, what it does, and the difference that makes it the obvious choice.

Values

• First value. One sentence on what this value means in practice — a behavior, never a platitude.
• Second value. Values earn their place by excluding something; say what this one rules out.
• Third value. Three is usually enough. A value nobody would ever reverse isn't a value.

Who we work with

The two or three audiences that matter, named specifically enough that the photography and tone sections can point back at them.

03Voice & tone

Voice

How the brand sounds — one register, held everywhere from the homepage to a support reply.

Principles

• Plain. Short sentences, concrete words, no jargon the reader has to translate.
• Level. Good and bad news in the same calm voice; confidence never needs volume.
• Specific. Numbers, names, and examples over adjectives.

What we say — and don't

04Logo

Logo

The mark and the wordmark, where each is used, and the files to use them from. The Acme wordmark stands in here — the client's mark takes its place, with its own construction note.

Clear space & sizing

Define clear space in units of the mark itself — a wave, a letter height — so it scales with use.

Misuse

• Do not recolor the mark outside the palette
• Do not stretch, rotate, or add effects
• Do not set the wordmark in another face
• Do not redraw it — use the provided files

Credit the mark's designer here, with a link.

05Color

Color

The template ships in process color — cyan, magenta, yellow, key — so every swatch is visibly a placeholder. The client's palette replaces it one-for-one: a working accent, grounds, ink, and a note on what each color is for.

Accent use

One color behaves like ink and does the interactive work; the others earn their appearances. Name the rule for the client's palette here.

06Typography

Typography

One family, few weights, a fixed scale. The samples below describe themselves — replace them with lines in the client's voice, set in the client's licensed face.

Rules of thumb

• State the caps rule — most brands here never set all caps
• Fix the scale; add width to the page, never to the paragraph
• Name the fallback stack for email and documents

Credit the typeface and foundry here, with a link to the license.

07Layout & grid

Layout & grid

The structural rules every surface shares: the module, the gutters, the reading measure, and how boxes sit on the grid. Keep this section even for print-only brands — the discipline is the point.

08Photography

Photography

The art direction in two or three sentences: what gets photographed, in what light, from what distance — written so a photographer the brand has never met could shoot a usable set. The plates below hold the place of the client's photography.

• State the light rule (natural, overcast, hard flash — pick one)
• State the people rule (working, never posing, or none at all)
• State what is banned (stock, filters, tilted horizons)

09Environment

Out in the world

The same eight contexts every system is tested against. The green panels are exactly that — chroma surfaces where the client's artwork composites in, so one photo set serves every brand.

Large screens

A keynote or lobby display. The green area takes the client's slide — logo and one line, left aligned.

Small screens

The brand at phone scale in a real hand. The green display takes a homepage or app screen.

Outside

Glass-door signage. The green panel takes the mark, centered, in vinyl scale.

Merch

Apparel and objects. The green print area takes the mark or a single line, following the fabric.

Billboards

Out-of-home at road scale. The green face takes one headline and the mark — nothing else survives at 80 km/h.

Subway ads

Platform posters read at close range. The green face takes a longer line set at reading scale.

Bus stop ads

The abri format, behind glass. The green face takes the same system as the billboard, one size down.

Conference presence

An immersive booth. The green wall takes large typography that follows the architecture.

10Motion

Motion

How the brand moves: the duration, the easing, and the one-sentence character note — calm and physical, quick and precise, whatever the brand is. Nothing here should need a video to explain.

11Components

Components

The interface kit in the brand's clothes: buttons, fields, tables, and one worked card example so engineers inherit decisions instead of making them.

Buttons & links

Badges

Card

Form

Icons

Icons are 16px, single-weight 1.5px strokes in currentColor — drawn on the same grid, never filled unless the state is active.

12Two names

Expressions

How the brand flexes across named surfaces or sub-brands, if it has them — same identity, different jobs. Delete this section for single-surface brands.

13Do & don't

In short