BRAND GUIDE
TIME TO COME TOGETHER
The 635 is the rallying point for every young adult disciple in Dallas. It is the underground Church, the haven for the rabble rousers, the thought leaders, and the upstarts who dare to believe that God is calling them to change the world. During his life, Jesus was undefinable. He was wise but was more than a scholar, a preacher, but also a healer, a revolutionary, but not a rebel. We believe that if we want people to see Jesus in the Catholic Church of Dallas, each one of us needs to become undefinable ourselves. We believe that the Holy Spirit is blowing through the Church in Dallas with the winds of revival, but in order for that revival to happen, we need to be transformed as disciples and as a Church.
LOGOS & ICONOGRAPHY
MEANING The logo takes its circular motifs from highway 635, the loop that encircles the city of Dallas. We believe that the Holy Spirit is moving the Church in Dallas towards a deeper unity and a wider mission because only a unified church can heal a divided city. The 635 loop symbolically reflects both the unity and the mission to which it’s called.
LOGO The logo exists in two versions: negative and positive space. Each version is to be chosen with maximal legibility in mind. To preserve the clear display of the logo, always keep a margin around the logo. The minimal margin size is the diameter of the first circle inside the 6. The logo and its elements cannot under any circumstance be edited, chopped, skewed, or distorted in any way.
TEXTURES Because of the symbology behind the logo’s textures, these play an important role in the brand’s look. The logo’s heavy textured look gives the brand an opportunity to play with it as a graphic element to provide a subtle brand reminder and a distrinctive look. Be careful, however, to use textures too close to where the logo is already placed. This may create unwanted visual competition.
The “635” without its square frame can therefore be used as a texture. It is never to be used instead of the logo, but can be rescaled at will to support design. Textures must only be in black and white, and should be used sparingly and making sure they don’t conflict with the messaging and the rest of the design.
LOGO AND ICON SUMMARY The logo comes in black and white versions, with negative and positive space alternatives. When picking a version, legibility should dictate your choice.
POSITIVE
POSITIVE
NEGATIVE
NEGATIVE
COLORS & TYPOGRAPHY
PALETTE Blue and Rose are the two colors that distinguish The 635 brand, as a nod to the Texas flag. These two colors are complemented with darker and lighter tones to support design. The palette is then combined with black and white textures. Black and white plays, indeed, a prominent role in the look of the brand. The overall palette follows a muted look with a few sprinkles of saturation to guide the eye. When combining, always keep in mind how the colors contrast with each other to make sure whatever’s represented is legible. Avoid using colored text outside of headlines or short sentences.
BLACKBERRY
CRANBERRY
CMYK 96.47.18.51 RGB 0.30.37 Pantone 2965 U/UP HEX #001E25
CMYK 12.88.67.34 RGB 60.0.0 Pantone 202 U/UP HEX #3C0000
BLUE
ROSE
CMYK 99.10.14.39 RGB 26.84.93 Pantone 308 U/UP HEX #1A545D
CMYK 0.96.80.0 RGB 223.60.75 Pantone 199 U/UP HEX #DF3C4B
LIGHT BLUE
LIGHT ROSE
CMYK 45.12.3.3 RGB 103.158.178 Pantone 3577 U/UP HEX #679EB2
CMYK 0.39.11.0 RGB 234.139.129 Pantone 700 U/UP HEX #EA8B81
BLUE WHITE
CREAM WHITE
CMYK 32.4.1.0 RGB 194.232.251 Pantone 277 U/UP HEX #C2E8FB
CMYK 2.0.33.0 RGB 251.247.188 Pantone 607 U/UP HEX #FBF7BC
PHOTOGRAPHY The 635 centers around Dallas. The city’s iconic skyline, infrastructure and architecture, along with its people, are central and should therefore be portrayed prominently in the photography. The look of the photography should be high contrast, muted. In subjects, look for a human, urban, genuine, textured, raw, young feel. Desaturated tones can be used for a fresh lively mood, black and white for an edgy and revolutionary one. When choosing photography, avoid pieces that look heavily edited and/or evidently like stock imagery. The quality should stay high, and its style in any design should be consistent throughout the piece. If looking for stock images, we recommend looking first into the already well curated free options at www.unsplash.com or www.pexels.com.
If combining text and photography, legibility comes first. The background image must not compete with the text in hue, saturation, nor lightness. Turning down the opacity, contrast and luminosity of the image can help achieve this.
TYPOGRAPHY & HIERARCHY
PRIMARY TYPEFACE: GOTHAM Use Gotham bold for sub-heads Gotham is a geometric sans-serif digital typeface designed by Tobias Frere-Jones in 2000. From the American vernacular that inspired it, Gotham inherited an honest tone that’s assertive, friendly and confident: a great match for The 635. To add some contrast and hierarchy, Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Condensed all caps is the brand’s choice for headlines. Note: Gotham is always used for sub-heads.
SECONDARY TYPEFACE: GEORGIA Use Gotham bold for sub-heads Georgia is a transitional serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1919. Because this typeface has become synonym with readability, it is a better font to use in longer bodies of text, like contracts or articles. If the design at hand will have more than six sentences in a body of text, Georgia is a good alternative to pick. It is also a good option to break monotony in design by using it in short introductions and quotations. Outside of that scenario, however, use Gotham. Note: It’s important to keep in mind that Georgia is a smaller font than Gotham. If the two are combined, Georgia needs to compensate in point sizes to look the same size as Gotham.
HIERARCHY Effective communication relies heavily on hierarchy so readers can find information and know in which order to read it. The following are hierarchy levels that are relative to each other, to keep in mind when designing:
LEVEL
USE
TYPE SIZE
FONT
LEADING
L1 or H1
Headlines, key elements
Print: 36 Desktop: 48 Mobile: 32
All caps, colored: Akzidenz Grotesk BQ Condensed
100% of size
L2 or H2
Sub-heads
Print: 24–18 Desktop: 28–36 Mobile: 22–26
Gotham Bold, colored
125% of size
L3 or H3
Short introductions
Print: 14 Desktop: 18 Mobile: 18
Italics: Gotham or Georgia
150% of size
L4 or Body
Body copy, content
Print: 12 Desktop: 16 Mobile: 14–16
Book: Gotham or Georgia
150% of size
L5
Footnotes, captions, sources, etc.
Print: 8 Desktop: 10 Mobile: 8
Gotham or Georgia
150% of size
L1: 36px Akzidenz Grotesk BQ Condensed headline
L2: 18px Gotham Bold sub-head
L3: 14px Georgia Italic intro
L4: 12px Gotham Book body
L5: 9px Georgia Italic foot-note
WHY THE 635? Unity in Prayer and in Mission The Holy Spirit first rushed into the Church when the disciples all came together to pray in one place. The 635 exists to penetrate the closed gates of our hearts, breathe life into our community & awaken within us a passion to see the kingdom come in Dallas. Our cause of The 635 is to bring the disciples of Dallas* into one place, literally and metaphorically.
*Young professionals in the area.
BRANDING + DESIGN DanielaMadriz.com SherwoodFellows.com