HEX HEX Brand Bible and style guide
HEX HEX
HEX HEX
Contents who are we? 6 equal sides colour guidelines font guidelines working with our brand Dos and don’ts outdoor advertisment branded products setting an example
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Hex is: Casual Balanced Clean Simple Colourful Structured fun sharp angular restrained uniform Equal 4
Who are we? Hex is a team of committed designers and developers who want to work together to create the most brilliant and exciting products we can. Coming from a wide range of backgrounds, interests and talents – we think we have what’s needed to create truly awesome experiences. Of course, that’s not to say we’re a disparate bunch. We share unifying ideals on style and design, and what we all like and dislike. We believe in a casual atmosphere with emphasis on simplicity, structure and restraint in our designs. We would call ourselves a product of modern design sensibilities – we love flat, angular design, and we love colours to reflect that, but we’re more than happy to adapt, to make a claim to the next big thing. We believe in equality and shared responsibilities, each member of Hex makes up each equal side of the hexagon shape. This way we feel everyone has an equal amount of input into each project, which in turn reflects our individual personalities. 5
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6 Equal Sides
Our name. ‘hex’ gives a concise summary of everything the company represents.
It’s Greek meaning translates to the number six, but we can reference hexadecimal colours and the six equal sides of the hexagon which.
The straight lines and angles represent our no-nonsense solutions that meet our clients needs.
“Six equal sides interact together to form one” 7
A Hexagon emphasizes and represents union, balance and precision which is what we want our customers to discern when they see our products. Our products are the result of different skills and technologies working together harmoniously.
interactivity is a key part of our designs we want our products to engaging and exciting at all times
Our True colours Our use of colour relies on pairs of cool and Warm. The cooler blues are our preferred branding colour, but the reds and oranges stand out brilliantly when set against the green/Blues.
The darkest Blue and the Lightest Turquoise are to be used most. Light Turquoise sits behind our white logo beautifully, While the Dark Blue sits nicely behind Light text. The middle Turquoise is to be used to separate the two more easily.
Our Red is a Handsome Background colour, whilst the Orange works in small sections. Our Yellow is very bright and a bit distracting if used in large amounts, so should only be used in case where attention is needed to be drawn quickly. 8
Standing out boldly. Cool and Dark C=81 M=56 Y=43 K=37
A cool but comfortable midpoint c=57 m=0 y=2 k=49
Cool and modern - Our leading colour c=65 m=0 y=13 k=29
The Dark’s Friendly Opposite C=0 m=57 y=64 k=13
For When we need something Kinder c=0 m=45 y=69 11
Loud and Strictly for effect c=0 m=16 y=64 k=8 9
Font Usage Bebas Neue Bold Bebas Neue Regular Bebas Neue Book Open Sans Light
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The majority of our branding should be composed of Bebas Neue. Open sans is used in scenarios where blocks of text need the definition between upper and lower case, which Bebas does not provide. Bebas Bold is for use in full headings and not to be used in paragraph text. We use it at 90% height to look squarer Bebas Regular is to be used as emphasis in paragraph text. It’s subtle, but looks great. Bebas Book is our go-to paragraph and writing font. It’s thin but readable, and can look great everywhere. Opens sans should only be used when Bebas is too heavy, or you need to differentiate capitals Text colour can either be the light (20% Black) or dark (80% Black) grey shown to the left. 11
Working with our brand Our brand is one of our most important aspects. This brand bible should be evident of that, but there are some things that need to be understood when working on projects that make use of our brand. Firstly, our brand is important, but it’s not a be-all-end-all. There’s fluid options, which takes the stress out of designing, but there’s solid rules too. Everyone should at least be familiar with how one might brand a piece of work, be they a designer or developer. Indeed, we have 6 very important brand elements: • The Logo(s) • Angles and shape • Sizing and placement • Typography • Colouring • Writing and tone
Angles and Shape Logo The logo has been talked about before in this document. Important points to remember: • Choose the correct version for the correct positioning • Are you working on a coloured background? Use the white logo? • Working on white or shades of grey? Use the coloured logo • Do not distort the logo in any way Our logo says a lot about us, so don’t get it wrong. Using the logo should be the first thing learnt by nondesigners, it’s the easiest thing to get right, but the most inexcusable to get wrong.
Each internal angle on a regular hexagon has angle of 60 degrees. This is our most used element in background design, because it’s simple but means something. A 60 degree slope in our designs (even if it’s just the slope) can signify a hexagon. Indeed, it’s encouraged to do interesting crops on a regular hexagon to give spice to designs. It should also be noted that we only encourage the use of regular hexagons, where all angles are equal. You can hint at a regular hexagon, you can cut one up, but it must still be perceivable as a regular hexagon, even if you’ve zoomed right in on one edge. 12
Colouring
Typography Sizing and placement An easy one this, create a grid for your layout, suitable for medium, and stick to it. As an example, this brand bible was created on a 6 column system, but all text areas are at least 2 columns wide. 13
The start of this document goes heavily into typography choices. Only use Bebas Neue in most cases. The exception is when you need to show contrast in capitalisation, and most official letters. Bebas is big and bold, and can be used in lots of brand, but everyday items are recommended to use Open Sans
We only have 6 colours, that should be obvious now, but we also allow two tones: 20% and 80% black, these two tones, or light and dark grey respectively, are what we use as a text colour in this brand bible throughout. Their usage is obvious, use one if there isn’t enough contrast between the text and the background colour. Our six main colours all have special usages. Primarily, stick to the blue side of the palette, as these look better and the majority of our branding looks far better working with it. The red side of the spectrum is to be used against the blues as accents, and when used sparingly look excellent.
Writing and Tone When you’re talking as a representative for the company, there’s some things to be aware of. You do have to tow the company line, but you can be relaxed and casual. We’re not a big company, so all promotions comes from word of mouth, or people seeing our work. In a perfect world, everyone who hears about us will want to see our work. So make your tone when talking about the company reflect that.
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Asset Usage
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The hex logo should not be tampered with in any way. You cannot edit the shape, the position of the text or the proportions of the logo
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The White logo should always be presented atop one of the brand colours. You should not edit the colours of the logo It is permissible to use the white logo on outside of styles already provided. Black or very dark sections of images if You should not change the opacity and you absolutely necessary should not make the logo so small it is illegible. The Hexagon shape should not appear to the right of the text.
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Make use of the most fitting representation of the logo. We have versions that work at the top of a page, and the bottom. the logo should try and sit to the left of a page. If you use the right side for logo placement the hexagon shape becomes the central focus, and that should be positioned in the most attention grabbing place.
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The coloured logo should never be used on a coloured background. It should always sit on neutral greys, white or black Backgrounds.
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Outdoor Advertising A large part of Hex’s identity is our love for interactive and interesting large screen projects. our first job as a team was to create an interactive installation, and we loved doing it. The utility given to us through such powerful devices such as the kinect create experiences that anyone can use, and give both our designers and developers a substantial work out!
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Branded Objects
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Setting an example Everyone who works for us should really want to follow our main philosophies. We don’t want to sound too pretentious though, so we’llkeep it nice and simple. We are casual and fun, but we do like to present an air of sophistication (as much as none of us, individually, are). That’s why we’ve got these guidelines to keep us in check. Trust us, being able to talk the talk put our brand in a really strong place, and if everyone’s on board, all the better!
Hex is all about teamwork, we work with very skilled employees to develop latest designs. Our customers come first even with our designs and we pride ourselves on creating the best solutions for our customers. Future customers We do this by establishing a reliable and fans can get and efficient online presence as involved with production we want our customers to by suggesting ideas of what know they are in safe they want to see next. We keep our hands. fans updated with the latest news and projects. Years of experience has ensured that we have a knack for paying attention to details, this is proven in all our projects. 18
Social Media Attitude Add Value Try not to sound too negative - keep your words helpful and thoughtprovoking whilst still sounding genuine. cite others who are writing about the similar topics which will in turn allow your content to be shared.
Aim for quality... ...not quantity: Relay your contribution with a variety of contents whenever you can as this make it more interesting for readers. Provide references and links to blogs and articles or other relevant sources. Consider attaching documents when necessary but avoid confidential or internal documents And in every case, keep the language simple and flowing. Ensure that with whatever medium you use, readers can leave feedback or comments swiftly as this allows for more meaning conversation.
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Be Transparent Be Transparent: be sure to clearly disclose your relationship with the company for example; are you and employees? is this a sponsored review?
Moderation Moderation: With everything you do moderation is always important the company does not take responsibility for the entries posted by the third parties however, bombarding social networks is not our style and we do no want the company name to be associated with negative content. Any posts that do not meet the guidelines will be disregarded and challenged.
Be Engaged + Informed take advantage of the current discussion and make contributions of your own perspective. when writing about our company make sure you have reliable sources and details.
HEX HEX Hex: A product of bournemouth
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