Visual Identity

Logo Guidelines: Clear guidelines ensure consistent logo usage, including placement, size, color variations, and clear space requirements. 

We have a few variations of our logo available to use. One is a horizontal version with the disc on the left, followed by the company name on the right. The other version the disc is seated OVER the top of the company name. (less used) (provide demos)

Brand Integrity: We want to remember that in the case of visuals used on the internet, people will ‘download and save’ images, and we want our images to ALWAYS be identified as OUR work. This fact should never be overlooked without exception.

Logo Colors: The basic logo color is black with a white TD design on the black disc. Occasionally, for the purpose of insuring the logo displays well on different color backgrounds, we invert the color (to white with black) – THIS IS THE ONLY VARIATION that should be used on the logo to not dilute the BRAND. The high contrast of black and white insures the Logo stands out in all visual scenarios. 

► Alternatively, it sometimes makes better aesthetic sense to place some type of ‘block’ or semi-transparent ‘block’ behind the logo to ensure that it can be readily seen. This comes down to a matter of having an eye for a clean design and perspective, maintaining the overall idea that we are designing to maintain a brand’s persona, its look and feel.

It is also often good graphic design practice to incorporate some of that same black and white subtly throughout for a cohesive design (when it makes sense, as in adding text or visual design elements) (It is also neutral and will fit in any color theme) (Demonstrate Visual Examples)

Visual Anchor: The logo serves as the visual anchor of a brand, and consistent usage reinforces brand recognition and helps customers instantly connect the logo with the company and its values. Observe that it is used on our website, in the print media, our portfolio, and on all promotional images posted to Social Media platforms.

Consistency Across Platforms: By outlining where and how the logo should appear (e.g., bottom-left corner, minimum size), businesses ensure a cohesive and professional appearance across all platforms. It is best to use it in a traditional placement (such as bottom-left corner) for eye-tracking visibility (and is occasionally only altered when it makes more sense visually, to place it in the upper left corner, such as when it is interfering in or over the image or negative space.)

► Eye-tracking studies demonstrate that our eyes are trained to ‘read” pages as well as images from the top left corner, to the right, then to the bottom left and off to the right – Essentially a “Z” format, so we make every effort to strategically place the brand in the eye-tracking path… in a place (where, for example, on Social Media)… we wish to remain consistent, since the images as a whole, are also seen cohesively.

Clear Space Requirements: We need to utilize enough space surrounding the logo to prevent crowding by other elements, and ensure the logo remains legible and impactful. One way to ensure this, is to measure the height of the logo in its entirety, and use at least HALF that height as an equal amount of space AROUND the logo, most especially where the logo meets the edge of the graphic.

SUGGESTION: **this needs to stand out**
Using App Specific Templates: (Like Photoshop for example,) Create a template (psd) with layers for the stationary Logo placement. Keep the logo in place along with the inverted versions, to keep it stationary without moving it around from one ad to the next. (Visual Demos included)

Your audience’s ability to read your design is critical to its success. If your audience can’t make sense of the design, they won’t be able to understand your message. When deciding how to use fonts for the design, you must keep your target audience in mind. We are choosing a sans-serif font in a larger size for ease of reading. This can improve the audience’s experience consuming our content and provide a positive experience for them. 

A good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to three brand fonts: a primary font, a secondary font, and an accent font. Your primary font will be the workhorse, used for most of your body text. The secondary font should complement the primary one and can be used for headings and subheadings. This font is typically a sans serif style font. It can be styled for example, Capitalized or Uppercase and in Bold as a way to increase the Heading Factor without straying from the cohesiveness of the overall type.

On our website we use the font Catamaran. On our images we use Calibri. Calibri is a fairly new font and pairs well with our logo. It’s clear, clean, easily read, slightly rounded and plays nicely in different weights for headings and highlights. We move forward with the standard rules of font use in design below…

Rules to Help Optimize Text

• Referencing Graphic Design Rules, we want our Designs to be Legible and Easy to Read.
• Standard Fonts Are Better Than Decorative Ones.
• Use No More Than Three Typefaces.
• Be CONSISTENT

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• Use Colors that insure the Words can be Read on the Background they’re on. (High contrast, clear, no blur.)
• Maintain Alignment. Use Left Alignment and/or on Ads, align Ad copy in clean blocks of text.
• Be CONSISTENT

Rules for I-Capping and Stylizing Headings

In heading capitalization, “i-capping” refers to capitalizing the first letter of each word, except for certain words like articles and conjunctions, following title case rules. 

Title Case

Capitalize the first word of a heading, and then capitalize all major words (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and some prepositions and conjunctions, while leaving minor words (articles, short prepositions, some conjunctions) lowercase. 

• Exceptions to Title Case:
  • Articles: “a,” “an,” “the” are typically lowercase. 
  • Short Prepositions: “in,” “on,” “at,” “to” are typically lowercase, but this can vary by style guide. 
  • Coordinating Conjunctions: “and,” “but,” “or,” “nor,” “for,” “so,” “yet” are typically lowercase. 
  • The Infinitive “to”: “to be,” “to go” are typically lowercase. 

• Sentence Case: Capitalize only the first word of the heading and proper nouns, leaving the rest lowercase. 

• All Caps: While all caps can be used in certain situations, it’s generally best to avoid it as it can appear as shouting and is less readable. In SOME cases it helps for the headings and CTA’s to stand out (primarily for web use.)

Rules for Text Styling

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SUGGESTION:
Using App Specific Templates: (Like Photoshop) Create a template (psd) with stationary Logo placement. Keep the logo in place along with the inverted versions, to keep it stationary without moving it around from one ad to the next. (Visual Demos below)…

List hexidecimal #color values used on website. Usage as it pertains to maintaining legibility. This information should be included in the Digital Marketing Area for Website – Social Media – and Email areas –

Marketing: Analyzing social media and online content for brand mentions and visibility can help assess brand integrity. 

For Social Media Posts: Please follow the established formula of Write, Credits, Table Description, and Proper Hashtags relevant to the location/subject. (See examples available ON our social media platforms)
Write (the copy) should be clear, concise and condensed in a professional format. Polite and matter-of-fact.
Credits are the designer, location, photographer (when applicable) of who was involved and / or provided the installation photos. Include their @ name from the platform when possible. (Research this from their websites or other location for accuracy)

Also – I-Cap Key Phrases in the post. Example: Hospitality Design

Write about sizing requirements PER SM Platform and to stay up to date on them as occasionally they change.
Recently Instagram changed the outward facing catalog sizes but they didn’t change the size of the actual post (when you click on it) so the decision was made to retain continuity and continue to create the actual Social Media image in the 1080 x 1080 pixel format.