One shape, the whole idea
The mark had to say foundation, identity and growth, in the order a client goes through them, without turning into an illustration.
Our own identity, built like client work.
A studio that cannot apply its own rules should not be selling rules. So the BrandzaX identity was scoped, argued and documented exactly the way a client project is, with the same deadlines and the same refusal to keep a second direction alive.
One mark for a studio that does more than one thing.
BrandzaX works across brand, web, growth and systems. The identity had to carry that in a single shape, then hold together as a system tight enough that nobody on the team has to guess how to use it.
We ran it as a client project: one direction, a written rationale for every decision, and rules written down before anything went live.
At a glance
- Client: BrandzaX, our own studio.
- Deliverables: master mark, palette, wordmark, lockups, avatars, favicons and rules of use.
- Year: 2026.
- In use: across this website, from the header lockup to the favicon.
Three constraints a logo on its own would not survive.
From favicon to embroidery
The same drawing had to work at 16 pixels in a browser tab and as a single-colour cut in thread or metal.
Light and dark, no new colours
It had to work on bone, parchment, ink and brass, and full-strength brass fails contrast as small text on the light surfaces.
An X with one arm turned into an arrow.
The mark is an X in three colours. One stroke carries on past the crossing and becomes an arrow pointing up and to the right, and the arrowhead has already left the shaft. The gap is the moment the brand leaves the studio and goes out into the market. It is deliberate, and it is the part people are most tempted to "fix".
Everything is drawn from a single 100 by 100 master. Both diagonals sit at exactly 45 degrees and cross at the centre. All three arms share a stroke width of 14 units with round caps, and that stroke width is also the unit for clear space. The arrowhead is a right-angled triangle, the only sharp shape in the mark. The layer order never changes: parchment, ink, brass shaft, arrowhead.
Ink: foundation
The heavy lower arm. The structural work everything else stands on. It sits underneath the brass, because it has to.
Parchment: identity
The light upper arm. Logo, brand system, themes and templates: the layer that gives a company a face.
Brass: growth
The stroke that crosses both, and the arrowhead that has already flown ahead of it. Up, to the right, and out.
Sampled from a brass door plate.
The colour came from a physical object: an unlacquered brass door plate, sampled at the brightest and darkest points of the same surface. That is why the golds sit slightly green rather than orange. Ink is a warm near-black, and the light surfaces are never pure white, because pure white behind warm gold makes the gold look dirty.
The core four
Brass#C89A46
Ink#26252B
Parchment#F1E7D6
Bone#FAF7F2
Brass ramp
Brass 50
#FBF4E6
#FBF4E6
Brass 100
#F4E4C4
#F4E4C4
Brass 200
#E8CD96
#E8CD96
Brass 300
#DCB66C
#DCB66C
Brass 400
#D0A555
#D0A555
Brass 500
#C89A46
#C89A46
Brass 600
#A87C34
#A87C34
Brass 700
#856027
#856027
Brass 800
#62461C
#62461C
Brass 900
#402D12
#402D12
Neutral ramp
Neutral 50
#FAF7F2
#FAF7F2
Neutral 100
#F1E7D6
#F1E7D6
Neutral 200
#E3D8C6
#E3D8C6
Neutral 300
#C9BDAA
#C9BDAA
Neutral 400
#A2988A
#A2988A
Neutral 500
#7A7268
#7A7268
Neutral 600
#575047
#575047
Neutral 700
#3D3833
#3D3833
Neutral 800
#2E2B28
#2E2B28
Neutral 900
#26252B
#26252B
Pairings and contrast
On dark surfaces the parchment arm steps up to Brass 300 and the ink arm swaps to parchment. The brass itself never changes. Because full-strength brass fails contrast on the light surfaces, gold text under 24 pixels uses Brass 700. This site follows that rule.
Ratios are WCAG 2.2 contrast ratios, rounded to one decimal place.
| Pairing | Ratio | WCAG | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink on Bone | 14.2:1 | Passes AAA | Body text on the page background. |
| Brass 700 on Parchment | 4.6:1 | Passes AA | Small gold text: eyebrows, links, labels. |
| Ink on Brass | 5.9:1 | Passes AA | Button labels and text on brass bands. |
| Brass on Ink | 5.9:1 | Passes AA | Headings and accents on ink surfaces. |
| Brass 300 on Teal | 4.0:1 | Large text only | Display type and UI on the teal accent; not body text. |
| Brass 500 on Bone | 2.4:1 | Fails | Never for text at any size. The mark, fills and rules only. |
One capital, one colour, one point of emphasis.
The wordmark is set in Sora SemiBold, tracked in tight, all lowercase except a capital brass X. The X is the only capital and the only coloured letter, so it is the single point of emphasis and it echoes the mark beside it.
The casing rules are written down so nobody has to guess.
brandzaX
| Written as | Where |
|---|---|
| brandzaX | In the logo only |
| BrandzaX | In running text |
| brandzax | Only where lowercase is forced: the domain and email address |
Every version drawn from the same master.
Nothing is redrawn by eye. Each version is produced from the one master file, so the gap and the angles stay exact at every size.
Full colour
On bone and on parchment, for any background we control.
Reversed on ink
The parchment arm steps up to Brass 300 and the ink arm turns parchment, so the shaft still separates. Hero, deck covers and social templates lead with it.
Knocked out on brass
A single-colour light mark for brass backgrounds.
Single colour
Ink, brass and parchment cuts for embroidery, engraving and stamps.
Horizontal lockup
The primary lockup, for the site header, email signature and deck footer.
Stacked lockup
For print, merchandise and anything vertically generous.
Lockup with descriptor
Mark, wordmark and a spaced-caps descriptor line.
App icon and avatars
Ink tile with the mark at 66 per cent, a circle crop for social, and a brass alternate.
Favicons
48, 32 and 16 pixels. The gap holds down to 32; at 16 it closes, which we accepted.
The rules we hold ourselves to.
A system nobody can break by accident is mostly a matter of writing the rules down. These protect the idea behind the mark, not just its appearance.
Minimum size is 20 pixels on screen and 6 mm in print for the mark alone, and 120 pixels or 30 mm for the horizontal lockup.
Never break these
- The arrowhead stays detached. Joining it to the shaft makes a different logo.
- The arrow always points up and to the right. Never rotated or mirrored.
- Brass stays on top of the other two arms in every version.
- No new colours, gradients, shadows or outlines.
- Always scaled proportionally, from the master file.
It runs this website.
The header and footer use the horizontal lockup, the favicon is the mark, the ebook covers carry it, and every colour on this page is a token from the palette above, including the Brass 700 rule for small gold text.
That is the whole result so far. The identity is new, we have not measured anything about it, and we will not claim results we cannot show.
What the system still needs.
- Outlined wordmark artwork. The wordmark is still set live in Sora. It needs final outlined files so it cannot drift with font rendering.
- A motion version. The detached arrowhead is the obvious thing to animate. It should be drawn once, as a rule, before anyone improvises it.
- Real-world print tests. The print minimums and single-colour cuts are written but untested on actual stock, thread and metal.
This is how we would write up yours.
Including the last section. If you want a studio that will tell you what is still unfinished, start here.