How to use this
- 01
Fill in one section at a time. Short answers are fine, and a blank is better than a guess.
- 02
Write it for someone who will use it without you in the room, like a freelance designer or your printer.
- 03
If a blank page slows you down, start from the example. Then change every answer until it is true of your brand.
- 04
Your answers save in this browser as you type. Download the PDF to share it: it is set in the colours and typefaces you write down here.
- 05
Read it again every six months. Rewrite any rule nobody follows, or cut it.
The example · Slow Ember
An invented brand: a small-batch chilli oil made in Bengaluru, sold online and in two local shops.
01Positioning
What you sell, and why someone picks you over the jar next to you.
Your brand's name
Slow Ember
What you sell
Small-batch chilli oil, made in Bengaluru.
The shelf you sit on
Condiments and cooking sauces.
The one difference
We fry the chillies slowly in cold-pressed groundnut oil, forty jars at a time. You can taste the toasting.
Positioning line
For people who cook at home on weeknights, Slow Ember is the chilli oil that makes a plain bowl of rice or noodles taste finished.
02Audience
The people who buy it, described well enough that you would know one if you met them in a shop.
Who buys it
People in their late twenties and thirties who cook most nights and get bored of their own food. Many live away from home and miss how it tasted.
What they want
Real flavour in two minutes, without a shelf of jars they never finish.
What stops them
They think chilli oil only goes with Chinese food, or that it will be too hot to enjoy.
Where they find you
Our own site and two grocers in Bengaluru. Instagram sends most of the traffic.
03Voice
How the brand sounds when it writes. Anyone writing a caption or a label should be able to follow it.
We sound like
A friend who cooks well and does not show off about it.
Words we use
Toasted, slow, a spoonful, weeknight, crunch.
Words we avoid
Authentic, artisanal, fusion, explosion of flavour, guilt-free.
A line in our voice
Leftover rice, one fried egg and a spoonful of Slow Ember. Dinner is sorted.
04Logo rules
The rules that keep your logo readable wherever somebody else puts it.
Versions you have
The full wordmark for the label and the site. The ember mark on its own for small spaces, such as the lid and the browser tab.
Clear space
The height of the letter S, on every side.
Smallest size
Wordmark 25 mm wide in print or 90 px on screen. The mark alone, 8 mm or 24 px.
Where it can sit
Chilli red on sesame, or sesame on chilli red. On a photo, only over a calm area with no text nearby.
Never do this
Never stretch it or add a shadow. Never retype it in another typeface, even for a joke post.
05Colour
Your colours as exact values, and how much of each to use.
Main colour
Chilli red #B8321F
Second colour
Sesame #E9D8B4
Accent
Curry leaf #3F5B2A
Neutral
Steel #2B2B2B
How much of each
Sesame for most of any surface. Chilli red for the logo and one block of colour. Curry leaf only for small marks, such as a price tag.
Print values
Chilli red is matched to a Pantone spot colour. The number is written on every artwork file.
06Type
The typefaces you use and how you set them.
Headline typeface
Fraunces, semibold.
Body typeface
Inter, regular, for anything that has to be read.
Sizes and weights
Product name 28 pt on the label. Flavour in 11 pt capitals. On the site, body text is 17 px.
Where the fonts come from
Both are free from Google Fonts, under the Open Font License.
07Imagery
What your photos look like, so every shoot feels like the same brand.
What the photos show
Food in the middle of being eaten, with a spoon in it. Hands, never faces. The jar is always within reach of the bowl.
Light
Warm daylight from one side, with real shadows left in.
Colour
Warm and a little rich. The red always matches the jar.
Never show
Fake steam. Chillies flying through the air on a coloured background.
08Do and don't
Short rules someone can check their work against. One rule per line.
Do
Show the food being eaten. Keep the label facing the camera. Write captions the way you would say them out loud.
Don't
Use the accent colour for big areas. Put text over the jar. Follow a trend because it is everywhere this month.
Saves in this browser as you type
01Positioning
What you sell, and why someone picks you over the jar next to you.
As it is written on the label, with its own capitals. It goes on the cover.
In plain words, as you would say it to a stranger.
Where a shop or a search would put you.
One reason to choose you. If you have five, keep the one a customer would repeat.
For [who], [brand] is the [category] that [difference].
02Audience
The people who buy it, described well enough that you would know one if you met them in a shop.
Habits tell you more than age. Describe what they do on a weeknight.
The job they buy you to do.
The real reason they hesitate, even if it is price.
The places that actually sell.
03Voice
How the brand sounds when it writes. Anyone writing a caption or a label should be able to follow it.
A person, described in one line.
Real words from your labels and posts.
The words that would make you sound like everyone else.
Something you would really post.
04Logo rules
The rules that keep your logo readable wherever somebody else puts it.
Name each file and say when to use it.
The empty space it keeps around itself.
Below this it stops reading.
The colours and photos it works on.
The mistakes you have already seen.
05Colour
Your colours as exact values, and how much of each to use.
A name, then its hex code. The square opens a colour picker.
Used small, for one thing at a time.
For text and fine lines.
A rough split stops the accent taking over.
The Pantone or CMYK values your printer works from.
06Type
The typefaces you use and how you set them.
A few steps are easier to follow than many.
So a freelancer can get the same files legally.
07Imagery
What your photos look like, so every shoot feels like the same brand.
08Do and don't
Short rules someone can check their work against. One rule per line.
Saves in this browser as you type
The lessons behind it
- PositioningBrand strategyMember
- Audience and segmentationBrand strategyMember
- How a brand sounds: tone of voiceVerbal identity
- Logo misuse rulesIdentity systemsMember
- Colour pages and how to specifyThe brand bookMember
- Type pagesThe brand bookMember
- Photography and illustration directionThe brand bookMember
- Dos and don'ts, and how to write them wellThe brand bookMember
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