# Redbud Brand Guidelines

> **Visual version:** `brand guidelines.html` — rendered logos, swatches, type and component examples. Its Color Palette section is generated from this file by `build_palette_html.py`, and `asset-class-colors.html` by `build_asset_class_colors.py`; the rest is hand-built and shows what this file says. This file is the source of truth.
>
> **Screen tokens and implementation details:** `brand-tokens.md`. **HTML reports** start from `report-template.html`.
>
> **Online:** https://brand.redbudadvisorsatx.com (until the DNS record lands, https://redbud-brand.vercel.app) — the same pages plus these `.md` files as plain text, republished with `publish_site.py`.

## Logos

Files: `../1. Marketing/assets/1. logos/`. Three marks — the **Primary Logomark** (the tree), the **Primary Logotype** (tree and wordmark; the default) and the **Secondary Badge** (the circular seal) — each in Red, Navy, White, Slate, Clay and Black, as `.svg` with `.png` at 1x, 2x, 3x and 4x. Use the `.svg`.

- **Red is the default** on Paper, Cream and White. **White** on Navy and Night. **Navy** where a formal light-ground cover wants a quieter mark; Red is still the first choice.
- **Slate** where the mark should recede on a light ground, such as a footer or beside a partner's logo. It fails on Navy and Night.
- **Clay** on Navy and Night only, where a warmer mark suits better than White. On light grounds it falls below 3:1.
- **Black** only where the medium is one color: engraving, stamps, single-color print.
- **Paste the SVG inline** in documents. File paths break when a document moves. HTML email is the one exception — `brand-tokens.md` has the hosted PNG.
- **Clearspace** is the height of the "R" in Redbud, on all sides.
- **Don't** stretch, rotate, recolor, move elements, or add shadows or gradients. Use the supplied color files.
- **Never sample a logo for a hex.** Read it from the Color Palette. Superseded and retired files, including the old print set, are in `1. logos/Ω-archived/`. There is one set of logo files; a commercial print job that needs exact color gets a CMYK and Pantone match for Red and Navy from Sandpaper or the printer.

---

## Type

Lora for headings, Inter for everything else.

| Role | Font | Size | Tracking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | Lora 500 | 88px | −0.02em |
| Heading | Lora 500 | 48px; 36px inside a page | −0.015em |
| Subheading | Lora 500 | 24–30px | −0.015em |
| Eyebrow | Inter 500, uppercase | 12px | 0.18em |
| Body | Inter 400 | 18px on the web, 16px in documents | — |
| Emphasis | Inter 500 | as body | — |
| Small | Inter 400, Slate | 13–14px | — |

Emphasis is weight, not bold. Figures set `font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums`. In dense settings — table headers, stat labels — the eyebrow drops to 10–11px at 0.1em.

---

## Color Palette

Retired values, the hues we no longer use, and where each layer of the brand came from: `brand history.md`.

### Core

**Brand.**

| Value | Name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `#0d1936` | Navy [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | Headings, dark fills, table headers |
| `#d04724` | Red [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | Accents, links, CTAs, eyebrows, rules — in **both** modes |
| `#c45236` | Red Muted [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | Full-bleed grounds and large panels |
| `#505561` | Slate [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | Captions, footers, muted body |

**Surfaces.** Pick the row, then the mode.

| Role | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Page ground | `#fbfaf7` Paper [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | `#141210` Night [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Section fill | `#f2ece2` Cream [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | `#0d1936` Navy [Sandpaper · site · 2026] |
| Raised panel | `#ffffff` White [—] | `#312b26` Night Panel [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Hover and pressed | `#f2ece2` Cream [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | `#3f3831` Night State [Carsten · derived · 2026] |

**Rules.** Ink at three weights. Use the alpha in CSS, the flat hex in Excel and print.

| Weight | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| 3% — a second grouping level in a table | `#f4f3f1` Group Fill [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#1b1916` Night Group Fill [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| 6% — rows inside a component, and a top grouping level | `#edeceb` Hairline [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#25211d` Night Hairline [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| 15% — between cards in a grid | `#d7d8da` Divider [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#363330` Night Divider [Carsten · derived · 2026] |

**Ink.**

| Role | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Body | `#191b1f` Charcoal [Carsten · internal · 2026] | `#f8f1e3` Cream-on-Dark [Sandpaper · site · 2026] |
| Muted | `#505561` Slate [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | `#bdb7a9` Muted-on-Dark [Sandpaper · site · 2026] |

**Other.**

| Value | Name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `#000000` | Black [—] | Rarely right — prefer Charcoal on light, Night on dark |

**Semantics.**

| Value | Name | Role |
|---|---|---|
| `#3e8343` | Green [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | Gain and positive, in both modes. Paired with Red for loss |

**Small figures.** Variants for small text only, where 4.5:1 applies.

| Role | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | `#29572c` Green Deep [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#5eba64` Gain on Night [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Loss | `#8b2f18` Red Deep [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#e43f25` Loss on Night [Carsten · derived · 2026] |

**Status.** Badges and state.

| State | Fill | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Gain | `#d9f2da` Gain Tint [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#29572c` Green Deep [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Loss | `#f5e9e6` Loss Tint [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#8b2f18` Red Deep [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Caution | `#f1e9d5` Caution Tint [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#5e4a12` Gold Dark [Carsten · derived · 2026] |
| Neutral | `#edeceb` Hairline only, no fill [Carsten · derived · 2026] | `#505561` Slate [Sandpaper · site · 2026] |
| Strong | `#0d1936` Navy [Sandpaper · site · 2026] | `#f8f1e3` Cream-on-Dark [Sandpaper · site · 2026] |

**Chart series.** For charts and sparingly for other series. Use Red and Green in charts about positive vs negative concepts or gain vs loss.

| Value | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| `#0d1936` | 1 · Navy [see Brand] | |
| `#d5a829` | 2 · Gold [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | |
| `#6a7a99` | 3 · Slate Blue [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | |
| `#e8877e` | 4 · Clay [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | |
| `#b9b4a4` | 5 · Greige [Sandpaper · deck · 2026] | |
| `#6f5a8c` | 6 · Plum [Carsten · derived · 2026] | |
| `#3e8343` | 7 · Green [see Semantics] | |
| `#d04724` | 8 · Red [see Brand] | |

---
## Color Usage

The palette says what each value is. This says what to do where the answer isn't obvious. Colors are named, not hexed — look them up above.

### Red

Red does two jobs. At mid value it is the firm's accent; at deep value it is the minus sign.

- **Chrome takes the mid steps.** Red for eyebrows, links, CTAs, rules and callout borders. Red Muted for a full-bleed ground, and it carries Cream-on-Dark text, never white.
- **Small figures take the deep steps.** The mid steps miss 4.5:1 at text size. A large figure only needs 3:1, so it stays on Red and Green.
- **Keep red chrome clear of the figures.** Where a page carries gains and losses, accents near them give up red: a red rule above a returns column reads as commentary on it. Links and rules go Navy, eyebrows Slate. Elsewhere on the page red stays the accent.

### Grounds

- **Paper for document pages, White for web, Cream for alternating fills.**
- **Band by alternating the ground with the next warm step.** Banding is a rule, not another value.
- **Dark sections run Navy**, or Red Muted where a panel wants warmth instead. A page that is dark edge to edge runs Night, with Navy as the section fill on top of it.

### On Dark

- **White is reserved for the logo.** Body and headings are Cream-on-Dark, secondary text Muted-on-Dark.
- **Red stays the accent**, including in the numbers context, where slate would disappear on navy.

---

## Surfaces

- **Corners are square.** Radius 0 on everything, buttons included.
- **No shadows.**
- **Separate with rules, not borders or fills.** A card sits on the ground with no border. Cards in a grid share Card Dividers; rows inside a component share Hairlines.

---

## Components

### Buttons

Inter 500, 14px, 0.025em, 12px 24px padding, square. **Red fill** with Cream-on-Dark text is the primary action, **Navy fill** the quieter one, and a **1px outline** in the text color the tertiary. A feature panel — a Cream card carrying one action — takes the Navy button.

### Callouts

- **Primary** — a Navy panel: Cream-on-Dark body, Red eyebrow. For the finding or the conclusion. One per major section.
- **Note** — a Cream panel: Slate eyebrow, no border. For caveats and context.
- Gold, Clay, Greige and Plum are never a callout ground. Several colored boxes on one page reads as machine output.

### Tables

Two styles. In both, figures are right-aligned in `tabular-nums`, rows share a Hairline, nothing alternates, there are no vertical rules, and Green and Red appear only where a column is gain and loss.

- **Open** — no header fill. Column headers are Red eyebrows over a Hairline. Group rows carry their own totals in weight 600, set apart by space and indent, no fill. The grand total is weight 600 with a Hairline above and none below.
- **Headed** — a Navy header with Cream-on-Dark eyebrows. Group rows carry their own totals in weight 600: the top level on the 6% fill, a second level on the 3%. Two levels at most. The grand total sits on Cream in weight 600.

### Stats

Two to five figures in a row: a Lora 600 number in Navy over an Inter 600 eyebrow in Slate, a 2px Navy rule above the group, Hairlines between items. A pattern, not a spec — size and spacing follow the page.

---

## Document Layout

### Header

Two forms. Both put the document type in a red eyebrow over the page-one title, never in the header itself, and both repeat the masthead on every page after the first.

- **Masthead** — for dense, print-shaped reports. Red logotype left; right, right-aligned, the client in weight 500 and, beneath it, whatever date the report needs as a Slate eyebrow — AUGUST 31, 2026, AS OF AUGUST 31, 2026, a range, a period, or nothing. Hairline under the strip.
- **Title block** — for a one-page memo, concept or brief with room to breathe. Red logotype top-left with air around it; then the eyebrow, the client as a Lora heading, and one line of context in Slate. No hairline; the space does the separating.

Navy with the White logotype is for on-screen documents only.

### Footer

Firm line left — `Redbud Advisors · 706 Guadalupe Street, Austin, TX 78701 · 512-222-6968` — and on the right the document type with the page count, both small and Slate, above a Hairline. Contact details live here, not in the header. Web pages and emails may add email, site and disclosures, on Navy when full-width.

### Headings

Title Case. Eyebrows are one to three words, Red; near figures, Slate. An em-dash separates a heading from its descriptor: "Option 1 — Annual Gifts".

---

## Iconography

Full iconography reference — library, icon-to-concept mapping, custom icons, styling rules, and selection guidelines — is in `iconography.md` (machine-readable) and `iconography.html` (rendered visual reference).

## Chart Color Reference

Each asset class owns one series color. Subclasses step through its ramp — a dark step, the base, and two tints — deepest for the largest or most senior subclass. `asset-class-colors.html` renders the ramps; `build_asset_class_colors.py` generates it from this table.

| Class | Color | Subclasses |
|---|---|---|
| Equities | Navy | US · International · Emerging Market · Global |
| Fixed Income | Slate Blue | US · International · Emerging Market · Global; Balanced Funds on the lightest tint |
| Cash & Equivalents | Green | Cash · Cash Equivalents · Semi-Liquid Cash Fund |
| Private Investments | Plum | Private Equity · Venture Capital · Private Credit · Hedge Funds · LP Real Estate · Natural Resources; Liquid Alternatives on the lightest tint |
| Real Estate | Gold | Investment Real Estate on the base, Personal Real Estate on the tints |
| Operating Business | Clay | One class, one color |
| Real Assets & Other | Greige | Real Assets on the base; Notes & Receivables, Insurance, Unclassified on the tints |
| Liabilities | Red | Debt classes as tints |

Ramp: the dark step is the base mixed 30% toward Night; the tints are the base mixed 35% and 65% toward Paper.