We’ve assembled this simple brand guidelines to vividly illustrate how this is done. We hope it helps you see how and why consistent branding is so important.
At NerdBrand we like to talk about branding.
Quite a lot.
That’s because we believe deeply that the first, most important task for any company, product, or service is to first understand their “why.”
Because “why” is where your brand begins.
Part of communicating your brand’s “why” is to clearly define the personality of your brand through your logo, colors, fonts, and related visual and verbal expressions.
The Logo
The NerdBrand logo is comprised of 3 parts
The Nerd Specs – A trademark of nerd culture – the horn-rimmed eyeglasses. It quickly establishes our nerd bonafides.
Nerd – Nerd is what we are. But we aren’t just comic book and sci-fi nerds, not simply “nerds” in the conventional sense. We’re branding, advertising, and web nerds. And we proudly take ownership of that fact, damn the torpedoes.
Brand – It’s what we do. It’s what we’re about. So we tell you clearly and immediately.
Our base logo uses 2 simple colors:
PMS 021 Orange – Bright and arresting.
PMS 419 Dark Grey – Not as harsh as a true black, yet firm and confident.
There are other logo formats and colors we use when the logo translates to other mediums and reproduction processes. We’ll cover that as we move forward.
The Logo Rules
Depending on the application, the NerdBrand logo may be used in the following ways. No exceptions, no deviations. And we mean that. Don’t make us come back there.
- In full-color applications on a white or very light background.
- Two color use on a black or dark background.
- For medium-density background applications such as the NerdBrand orange.
- Reverse, or white applications on a black or other dark- colored background.
- For black and white applications, or where NerdBrand colors are not available.
Room to breathe
It’s always healthy to give yourself some space, no one wants to feel claustrophobic. To that end, we want the NerdBrand logo to have the same luxury. Please try to provide a minimum space equal to the distance of the left edge of the nerdspecs to the left edge of the “N” in “Nerd” on all for sides. Or more, if you can swing it.
We’ve included this handy illustration.
The Logo Don’t’s
The “don’ts.”
Maintaining the integrity of brand guidelines is a responsibility we take seriously. No, really. We do.
To that end, we have a few simple rules for what you cannot do when applying the NerdBrand logo. These aren’t a huge ask, but we want to maintain the highest possible quality and consistency. Here are some simple rules to follow.
The Logo Placement
Flexible, but consistently so.
Rules are good, but we don’t want to be zealots about it. You can be consistent AND practical. When placing the NerdBrand logo in advertising or marketing material, it can be placed in either the lower right (preferred, see Fig. 1), or in the lower right (alternative option, see Fig. 2), depending on the placement of other elements in creative. However, keep in the mind the guidelines regarding minimum “breathing room” for the NerdBrand logo.
The Brand Colors
Color can be weird.
With all of the different reproduction processes (offset printing, digital monitors, large format inkjet, your office printer/copier, etc.) color matching across all platforms can get complicated.
With NerdBrand we have 2 categories of color in our brand guidelines palette – Base and Accent.
Base colors are the anchors for our brand, associated with our logos and icons. Accent colors are chosen as compliments to the Base, and are utilized for secondary design elements, website buttons, calls-to-action, etc.
All colors were chosen using the industry-standard PANTONE® color matching system, ensuring uniform interpretation across any platform. The swatches below provide formulas for each color for all applications, whether digital or print.
Base Colors
Accent Colors
The Brand Fonts
Typography is cool.
Choice of typeface is essential for expressing your brand personality. Right? We’ve chosen the awesome font Raleway to carry that load for NerdBrand. See below for examples.
Raleway Bold
For things like headlines and emphasis.
Raleway Regular
For things like body copy or being fashionably understated.
What if I don’t have those hip, cool fonts?
We’re reasonable people. If you aren’t fortunate enough to possess the awesomeness that is Raleway, here are a few alternatives.
- Avenir Black
- Avenir Light
- Arial Bold
- Arial Regular
Podcast Art
Loud and proud.
The NerdBrand Podcast, a singular expression of the heart and soul of what NerdBrand is all about. To promote this extension of the brand, we use an additional bold, nerdy font, bold color, and large photos to grab the attention of the viewer. For the example below, we are using the YouTube preview format.
Other brand guidelines details.
Guest name copy: Raleway Bold
Guest book, publication, or brand affiliation logo
The background uses a “halftone” method, with a color image over-layed with a 78% transparent blue hue, made up of the RGB mix: R:37, G: 64, B: 143. The podcast number and headline boxes are black, with a 73% transparency effect applied to the headline box.
