Brand Standards Manualv1.0.0 · 2017-09-21
Ideal State
Change is the new status quo.
Document
ClientIdeal State
Established2016
Issued2017-09-21
Versionv1.0.0
Knowledge architecture for organizations driving systemic change.
1.0 HeritageIdeal State — Brand Standards
Change is the new status quo.
Knowledge architecture for organizations driving systemic change.
Ideal State designed knowledge ecosystems for organizations working on social change. Practice and theory delivered together.
1.1
Origin
Founded in 2016.
The practice opened to design knowledge architectures for organizations working on systemic change. The starting bet: a thriving knowledge ecosystem is one that combines people, process, and technology to redefine how people work together and achieve maximum impact.
The 2017 brand system carried that bet through. A pronunciation-key logotype. A Cartograph type pairing. A topographic ground. Four sub-brands written as filepaths. Templates for the documents the practice actually shipped.
1.2
Character
Plainspoken. Ambitious. Warm.
Holistic · Practical · Empowering · Ambitious · Heartfelt · Human-centered
1.3
Pillars
2.0 ColorIdeal State — Brand Standards
A warm signal in a cool field.
Tangerine over royal blue. Practice over theory.
The palette runs on two registers. Tangerine carries the energy. Royal blue carries the institutional weight. The two halves talk to each other across every surface, which is how a knowledge architecture is supposed to behave.
2.1
Palette
Select any step to copy its hex. The widest step in each ramp is the working default.
warm
3 stepscool
3 stepsneutral
3 stepsWhite
1 step3.0 TypographyIdeal State — Brand Standards
One family. Two registers.
Cartograph Sans and Mono CF.
Cartograph is a humanist family with a shared mono skeleton. The sans cut runs as the workhorse face. The mono cut handles captions, kickers, code, and any moment where the type should feel like a printed label. Pairing them keeps the brand on a single typographic key without going monotone.
3.1
Typefaces
Aa
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
primaryCartograph Sans CF
Aa
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
monoCartograph Mono CF
3.2
Hierarchy
Every role stacked the way it ships.
Hierarchy in use2 roles
Primary
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Cartograph Sans CF (Connary Fagen). The brand's workhorse face. Headlines, body, labels.
Mono
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Cartograph Mono CF. Captions, kickers, version stamps, and the path-notation logotype itself.
4.0 LogoIdeal State — Brand Standards
A pronunciation key. A filepath. A pivot.
The marks of a system architecture.
The primary logotype is the brand name set inside the brackets of phonetic notation. The macron over the I marks the long 'ī'. The slash before /State both separates syllables and behaves as a filepath. Read together they form the visual pronunciation: /īdē[ə]l/stāt/. The marks all extend from the same device.
4.1
Marks
5.0 PhotographyIdeal State — Brand Standards
Two illustration registers. One signature texture.
Linear schematics, figurative posters, topographic ground.
The primary illustrations read as schematics of an organization. Monoweight outline, tangerine on white, ambient line work. The secondary illustrations are figurative posters on the topographic ground. Bolder color blocking, narrative scenes. The texture itself is a contour pattern that nods to the Cartograph type family. Together they form the visual grammar of a system reference.
6.0 VoiceIdeal State — Brand Standards
Change is the new status quo.
Plainspoken · Ambitious · Warm
7.0 Sub-brandsIdeal State — Brand Standards
7.1
The wider system
Ideal/Knowledge
shippedService area
The knowledge-architecture practice. Information design, taxonomy work, content systems.
Ideal/Community
shippedService area
The community + collaboration practice. Stakeholder engagement, focus groups, user stories.
Ideal/Events
shippedService area
The convening practice. Workshops, training sessions, strategy sprints.
Ideal/Systems
shippedService area
The technology practice. Intranet, extranet, and digital tools that hold the knowledge architecture together.
Ideal/Process
shippedProgram
ID_COURSE.01. The process program. How the practice is run.
Ideal/Research
shippedProgram
ID_COURSE.02. The research program. How the studio listens before designing.
Ideal/Mindset
shippedProgram
ID_COURSE.03. The mindset program. How the studio teaches the orientation that makes the rest possible.
8.0 ApplicationsIdeal State — Brand Standards
8.1
In the world
Business Identity Set
Business cards with the tangerine block + horizontal logotype on the face, square ID monogram on the back. Letterhead in the same system with the stacked logotype anchored top-left.
White Paper Template
Full white-paper series template. Topographic royal-blue cover, sub-brand mark on the cover (Ideal/Community, Ideal/Knowledge, etc.), tangerine accents on numbered process steps and pull-quotes, modular interior grid for stories + sidebars.
digital
Presentation Template
PowerPoint master template with topographic chapter dividers, the brand's tangerine accent rules, and the secondary illustration set for section openers.
One-sheet Handout
Tri-fold handout summarizing the practice. Front cover: topographic ground + 'Change is the new status quo'. Interior: the four-pillar ecosystem diagram, services list, contact panel.
internal
Design Process Map
Internal-facing process diagram (Build / Human-Centered Design / Workspace). Used inside the studio and on engagement kickoff decks to set expectations for the way the practice works.