4TH BUILD / BRAND GUIDELINES / SEPTEMBER 2026
Make the win unmistakable.
A practical identity system for an embedded fractional CMO practice—built around finding where you win, building the commercial system around it, and making it repeat.
01 / CORE IDENTITY
The mark carries a repeatable commercial system.
4
4th build
SCALE WHAT WORKS. REPEAT.
Use the primary lockup in website navigation, documents, proposals, and wide social placements.
USAGE RULES
Keep the mark on warm paper or ink navy. Preserve open space equal to the terracotta square around all sides. For small avatars, use the standalone 4 mark only.
02 / COLOR SYSTEM
Warm paper. Ink authority. One signal color.
WARM PAPER / #FAF7F2
INK NAVY / #1C2333
TERRACOTTA / #C8562F
03 / TYPOGRAPHY
Clear enough to operate with.
DISPLAY + INTERFACE
Find where you win. Build the commercial system around it. Make it repeat.
Use for headlines, navigation, body copy, and all client-facing UI. It should always feel direct, not decorative.
LABEL + SIGNAL
SCALE WHAT WORKS. REPEAT.
Use for chapter numbers, labels, specifications, and compact signals. Keep it concise and in all caps.
04 / VOICE + APPLICATION
Specific words. Work that holds up.
LANGUAGE TO OWN
Repeatable GTM motion. Embedded fractional CMO. Founder-led sales. Commercial system. The work starts with the constraint.
LANGUAGE TO AVOID
Growth hacking. Full-service marketing. Outsourced marketing department. Generic scale-your-growth language. Activity without ownership.
APPROVED MESSAGE
Scale what works. Repeat.
For partners: lead with what’s actually in the way, then make the commercial system around it clear. Let specificity do the credibility work.
05 / LOGO USE
A mark with one job: signal the operating model.
PRIMARY / HORIZONTAL
4
4th build
Default for websites, proposals, and any horizontal layout with room to establish the full name.
SECONDARY / VERTICAL
4
4th build
Use only when a vertical composition is required, such as a cover, square social placement, or stacked document title.
ACCENT / SYMBOL
4
Approved for social avatars, favicons, and compact square placements. Use the symbol alone only where the name is already established.
DARK MODE / HORIZONTAL
4
4th build
Use this version on ink navy fields. Preserve the terracotta square and never reverse it to white.
CONSTRUCTION
The square chip is the unit. Its corner accent sits inside the chip; the wordmark starts one-quarter chip-width away.
CLEAR SPACE
Keep open space equal to one terracotta square on every side. No text, rules, or imagery enter this zone.
MINIMUM SIZE
Horizontal lockup: 120 px digital / 32 mm print. Symbol only: 24 px digital / 7 mm print.
MASTER SYMBOL / 72 PX
The chip is the construction grid.
Build from the outer square inward. Scale all dimensions together—never resize the numeral or the terracotta signal independently.
CHIP / 72 × 72 PX / 12 PX RADIUS / 100%
NUMERAL / MANROPE 800 / 51 PX / −6 PX TRACKING / 71%
SIGNAL / 11 × 11 PX / 3 PX RADIUS / 15% / 8 PX INSET
POSITION / SIGNAL ANCHORED BOTTOM RIGHT / 11% EDGE INSET
06 / PRODUCTION RULES
Build it consistently, wherever it shows up.
COLOR SPECIFICATIONS / PRINT VALUES PROVISIONAL
WARM PAPER — HEX #FAF7F2 / RGB 250 247 242 / CMYK 0 1 3 2 / Pantone 7527 C (provisional)
INK NAVY — HEX #1C2333 / RGB 28 35 51 / CMYK 45 31 0 80 / Pantone 2965 C (provisional)
TERRACOTTA — HEX #C8562F / RGB 200 86 47 / CMYK 0 57 77 22 / Pantone 7599 C (provisional)
SOFT RULE — HEX #E4DDD0 / RGB 228 221 208 / CMYK 0 3 9 11 / Pantone 7527 C (provisional)
BLACK / WHITE / MONOCHROME
Use all-ink on light backgrounds and all-warm-paper on ink backgrounds. The terracotta corner square may be dropped only when single-colour reproduction is required.
BACKGROUND RULES
Default to warm paper or ink navy. On photography or colour fields, use a single-colour mark only when clear contrast and clear space are guaranteed.
TYPE + FILE FORMATS
Keep the wordmark with Manrope and supporting labels with IBM Plex Mono. Supply SVG for digital, PDF/EPS for print, and PNG only when transparency is required. Never redraw the mark from type.
DON’T
Do not stretch, rotate, recolour, outline, shadow, crop, or rebuild the mark. Do not separate the chip from the wordmark in the primary version. Do not place it on a busy or low-contrast background.