Internal brand guideline

Not written yet. Two sentences: why this exists, and where it is going.

Not written yet. A value without an observable behaviour beside it is decoration.

Not chosen yet. This is what voice and tone are derived from.

Not written yet. For whom, in what category, different how, and on what proof.

Not written yet. Needs nothing else first — this can be the first thing you do.

Not written yet. How things get named, so the next product name is not an argument.

Not written yet. Positioning first — a tagline without it is a slogan.

Not written yet. The paragraph everyone pastes and nobody owns.

Not written yet. Archetype first — tone is how the archetype behaves under pressure.

Not written yet. Approved words, banned words, and what to say instead.

No mark uploaded, and this product will not draw one — a logo is the part of an identity that has to be designed, not generated. Bring a vector mark and six further components follow from its own geometry: clear space, minimum size, variants, background safety, misuse and lockups.

No variants yet. Monochrome and reversed versions can be generated from a vector primary.

Not defined yet. How the parent mark relates to sub-brands, and the approved lockups.

Not defined yet. How the mark sits beside a partner’s, and how far apart.

Not derived yet. Requires a vector primary mark.

Not derived yet. Upload a vector mark and this follows from its own geometry.

Not computed yet. Requires a vector primary mark.

Not proved yet. Needs a mark and a palette; the ratio against each brand colour is then computed, not asserted.

Not generated yet. Needs a mark and a palette — then the don’ts page renders itself.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

Not ranked yet. A palette without a hierarchy tells nobody which colour leads.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

Not set. Which tier is reached for first, and what has to be exhausted before the next.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Everything in this section follows from the palette.

No colours yet. Chart palettes derive from the brand palette, then get checked against simulated colour-vision deficiency.

Not set. Whether gradients are permitted at all is itself the rule.

Needs at least two colours. With two, this page generates itself.

Not set. How someone asks for a colour that is not in the palette — and who says yes.

Display

Unbounded

Body

Plus Jakarta Sans

Mono

Geist Mono

Character

Wide, geometric, deliberately synthetic

Served from

googlemeasuredLicence terms are not carried by the preset yet — §9 licensing depends on them.

Display

Unboundedfontsource/unbounded · 8 weights · variable · self-hostable

Body

Plus Jakarta Sansfontsource/plus-jakarta-sans · 7 weights · variable · self-hostable

Mono

Geist Monofontsource/geist-mono · 9 weights · variable · self-hostable

SIL Open Font License 1.1

Unbounded · Plus Jakarta Sans · Geist MonoWeb embedding, Print, Bundled in a product — but NOT sold on its own. May be bundled and sold with a product, but never sold on its own. A modified version must not use the original Reserved Font Name, and must itself stay under the OFL.

Display

"Unbounded", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif

Body

"Plus Jakarta Sans", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif

Mono

"Geist Mono", ui-monospace, "SF Mono", monospace

Email

Arial, Helvetica, sans-serifMost email clients strip webfonts. This is what actually renders.

Body weight

400measured

Available

200–800 on an axisA variable font carries its weights on a continuous axis, so any value in that range is a real cut rather than a browser faking one.

Reversed on dark

Not setdeclaredText reversed out of a dark ground reads lighter than it is. Most manuals step the weight up.

Base size

1rem16px at a 16px root.

Ratio

1.250

Steps

display → captionLine height, tracking and weight each state a per-role rule and have their own entries below.

display

3.05rem48.8px at a 16px root

h1

2.44375rem39.1px at a 16px root

h2

1.95625rem31.3px at a 16px root

h3

1.5625rem25px at a 16px root

h4

1.25rem20px at a 16px root

body

1rem16px at a 16px root

small

0.8rem12.8px at a 16px root

caption

0.6375rem10.2px at a 16px root

Body

1.55

Headings

1.12Derived. Long text needs more leading than a heading of one or two lines — USWDS puts headings between 1 and 1.35, running text at 1.5 or above.

Body

0em

Kerning

Opticaldeclared

Uppercase

Not setCaps set at body tracking read tight. Most manuals add 0.05–0.12em.

Readable range

45–90 characters

At this base size

360px – 720pxApproximate — character advance is per-face, so treat it as a target column width rather than a guarantee.

Target

65 charactersdeclared

Not set yet. How much air sits between paragraphs, whether they indent, and how they break across a column.

Not set. Where capitals are allowed, and how long a headline may be before they stop working.

Not set. Which alignments are permitted, which are forbidden, and whether text may hyphenate.

Not written yet. Alignment, case, widows and orphans, and which numerals to set.

Web body

16pxUSWDS floor for running text.

Email body

14pxBelow this the fallback face becomes unreadable.

This system’s body

16px at weight 400WCAG treats it as normal text, so it needs 4.5:1.

Web

16px body against a 16px floor — holds · "Plus Jakarta Sans", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serifcitedThe only channel where the stack you chose is the stack that renders. The U.S. Web Design System sets 16px as the floor for running text.

Email

16px body against a 14px floor — holds · Arial, Helvetica, sans-serifdeclaredMost clients strip webfonts, so the brand face never arrives and the fallback is what people read. Practitioner floor, not a published standard: below 14px the fallback face — which is what most clients actually show — stops being comfortable.

Print

12pt body · "Plus Jakarta Sans", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serifSized in points on paper, so a pixel floor says nothing. The licence is the constraint that actually bites. SIL Open Font License 1.1 permits print use.

Presentation

12pt body · Arial, Helvetica, sans-serifRead across a room and usually opened on a machine that does not have the face installed, so it falls back like email does.

Authored line height

1.55

Reader override of 1.5

no layout changeAlready at or above the value the criterion asks content to tolerate.

Do not tighten body tracking

0em → -0.02emNegative tracking on running text costs legibility for a saving nobody asked for.

Do not set headings at body leading

1.55 on a display sizeLeading that suits a paragraph looks slack on a two-line heading.

Do not go under the channel floor

12px in emailBelow 14px in email the fallback face is what people actually read.

Not set yet. Named axes — candid to staged, warm to cool, close to wide — beat an adjective list.

Not set yet. How photography is graded so it sits beside the palette rather than fighting it.

Not set yet. Which ratios are used, and where type may sit over an image.

Not set yet. Style, stroke behaviour, and which part of the palette illustration may use.

Not defined yet. The recurring non-logo mark — a swoosh, a bracket, a cut — that does more brand recognition work than most logos.

Not defined yet. Where pattern is used, at what scale, and where it must not go.

Not defined yet. A canvas size and a stroke width are enough to make every future icon checkable.

Not defined yet. Which icon styles exist, and which colour role each state takes.

Not defined yet. Pictograms carry a different optical grid from UI icons — IBM ships two libraries for a reason.

Not defined yet. Chart types, axis treatment and annotation — the part of a brand nobody specifies and everyone violates.

Not defined yet. A duration ladder and two or three curves are all a motion system needs to be consistent.

Not defined yet. Needs a mark first.

Not set yet. Title treatment, pacing and how a film ends on the mark.

Not defined yet. A brand that appears in video, on hold or in an app has a sound whether it chose one or not.

Not set yet. One base unit — 4 or 8px — makes every spacing decision downstream checkable.

Not set yet. Needs a grid first — a breakpoint that is not a multiple of the base unit undoes it.

Not built yet. A component without its focus and disabled states is half a specification.

Not defined yet. How deep the hierarchy goes and what each level is called.

Not set yet. Uniform radius and shadow across every component is the fastest way to look like a template.

Not set yet. Focus treatment, minimum target size and reduced-motion behaviour.

Not written yet. Serial commas, capitalisation, dates and numbers — the arguments that recur forever until someone writes them down.

Not written yet. What the button says, and what the error says when it fails.

Not built yet. The same system shown to two different audiences is what proves it flexes.

Not built yet. Needs a mark, a palette and a typeface — then sizes and safe zones follow.

Not built yet. Dark mode and the webfont fallback are the two things every email system gets wrong.

Not built yet. Slide masters are where a brand system is violated first and most.

Not built yet. Which formats are supported, and how the mark behaves at each.

No colours or typeface yet. A stationery spec is the format, the ladder and the ink — all three come from the system.

Not specified yet. Deferred deliberately — the furthest from the engine and the heaviest to do well.

Not specified yet. Which mark variant survives embroidery is a real constraint, not a detail.

No colours or typeface yet. A stationery spec is the format, the ladder and the ink — all three come from the system.

Not specified yet. Placement and scale of the mark on a moving, curved surface.

Not specified yet. Which garment, which mark variant, and what the badge does at that size.

Not specified yet. Materials, finishes and how the mark is applied to a physical object.

Not set yet. A naming pattern turns "please name files sensibly" into something the system can check.

Not set yet. Which format for print, for web, for a partner who will ask for "the logo".

Nothing uploaded yet. Files land here whether or not they answer a component.

Not recorded yet. Font licences, stock licences and which marks are registered.

Not written yet. Who outside the organisation may use the mark, on what conditions, and how they ask.

Nothing submitted yet. An approval records who signed off on which component, at which version.

Not recorded yet. Who prints, who fabricates, and who already has the files.

Not filled in. One line — a team and an address — and it appears in a third of real brand books.

None yet. How someone requests an asset, an exception or a new lockup.

Not planned yet. When the new identity appears, where first, and when the old one stops being acceptable.

Nothing is set yet, so there is no version to state. A stamp appears as soon as the system has anything in it.

Nothing tested yet. Which of your assets do people actually link to you — and to you alone?