Brand Identity Guidelines
How we look, how we sound, and what we refuse to be — a working document for the team building the system of record for what a union member actually is, right now, today, at the door.
- Owner
- The Union Hub
- Volume
- 01 · v1.0
- Status
- Live, governed
- Authority
- Founding Team
Your union card is a piece of paper. That ends now.
A printed card is accurate the day it leaves the printer. Then dues lapse. Members move locals. Members leave. The card says nothing about any of it. Every rule in this book exists to keep the answer to one question current — is this person a member in good standing today?
Brand Foundation.
Who we are, what we replace, and what we will not be talked into becoming. Read this chapter before writing anything for the brand.
The system of record for who is a member, right now.
The Union Hub is digital membership infrastructure for organized labour. We replace the printed union card with a verifiable digital credential that updates in real time. A member's status is current. A rep's verification is fast. A union's roster is sovereign.
We are not an app. We are not a CRM. We are not a marketing platform. We are the layer that answers one question correctly: is this person a member in good standing today?
The 12-second story
A member walks up to vote. Rep opens phone camera. Scans the QR. Screen turns green. Verified — Active member since 2019. Total time: twelve seconds. That is the entire product. Everything in this book exists to protect those twelve seconds.
One mission. Four words for the values.
Mission
Replace the paper union card with a real-time, verifiable digital credential.
Vision
Every active union member in North America carries a credential they didn't have to download.
Values
Verifiable. Member-first. Light-touch. Plain-language. Independent.
What we are not.
Three people. One promise each.
To the member
Your card is current. You don't have to think about it. One link, no app.
To the rep
Your verification is fast. The answer is yes or no, in two seconds.
To the union
Your roster is sovereign. The data is yours, exportable any time.
- Union Admin
- Runs the local. Cares about the roster being clean and exportable. Will not tolerate friction with the member base. Uploads a CSV. Updates statuses. Done.
- Member
- Carries a phone. Doesn't want another app. Got a text once with a link. The card lives there. Works at a vote, a rally, a job site. That is the entire interaction.
- Union Rep
- Standing at a door. Has 90 seconds per person. Needs a yes or no. Opens the phone camera. Scans. Reads the screen. Moves on.
- Executive Board
- Won't use the product day-to-day. Will sign the contract. Reads in numbers and risk. Cares about data sovereignty, audit trails, and the answer to where does the data live.
Voice & Tone.
Short sentences. One idea at a time. The brand sounds like a person who has already picked up the phone.
How we always sound. How we never sound.
Always
Never
If a word in this list shows up, cut it.
revolutionize · leverage · empower · seamless · robust · cutting-edge · next-gen · ecosystem · solution · journey · unlock · synergy · disruption · transformative · world-class · best-in-class · holistic · enterprise-grade · turnkey · learn more · click here · sign up · submit · users
Before. After.
"Empower your union with a revolutionary, next-gen verification ecosystem that leverages cutting-edge technology to seamlessly transform the member journey. Click here to learn more!"
"Your union card is a piece of paper. That ends now. Real-time digital membership for unions. No app. No password. See how it works."
Same voice. Five rooms.
- Marketing site
- Confident, plain, slightly opinionated. The brand has a position. State it once, clearly.
- Member onboarding
- Warm. Calm. Functional. "Here's your card. Save the link. That's it."
- Verify UI (rep)
- Almost wordless. A status word, a date, a member name. The interface does the speaking.
- Errors
- Specific and instructive. Tell the user what failed and what to do. Never apologise abstractly.
- Executive / board
- Sober and precise. Less voice, more substance. Use full sentences. Cite data sovereignty and audit trails.
Logo System.
Two paths. One mark. Drawn once and asked to do everything.
The contour does the work. That's the entire mark.
A custom geometric form, drawn in solid Forest Green on Off White. Two paths, in one weight, with no outline, no inner detail, and no decoration. It is built to read at favicon size and on a black-and-white photocopy at the back of a union hall. The mark always appears as a single fill — never as a stroke, never split into separately coloured pieces, never with a gradient.
Four approved variants. No others.
Clear space. Minimum size. Don'ts.
- Clear space
- Equal to one full mark height on every side. No copy, no rule, no other mark inside that boundary.
- Minimum size
- Mark — 20px digital, 0.3" print. Horizontal lockup — 120px digital, 1" print. The contour holds detail down to 20px and softens below it; if the surface forces something smaller, use a wordmark-only treatment instead.
- Don't
- Don't recolour individual paths. Don't outline the mark. Don't shadow, gradient, rotate, or stretch it. Don't enclose it in a box. Don't pair it with another mark inside the clear-space boundary.
- Files
- SVG is canonical —
logo.svgat the brand root, viewBox 552.18 × 532.22. PNG @1x/2x/3x for raster. EPS for print vendors who insist.
Colour System.
Two greens with two jobs. One red used almost never. Everything else is restraint.
Off White
Forest Green
Active Green
Mint Tint
Deep Forest
Near Black
Mid Gray
Alert Red
Two greens. Two jobs. No gradients.
Forest Green is the brand. Active Green is the verified state. Those are different things and the colour system enforces the difference. Mint Tint exists for soft surfaces. Deep Forest exists for dark surfaces. Alert Red exists for one specific moment — a failed verification — and otherwise stays out of the work entirely.
There are no gradients in this system. Anywhere. A gradient is a hedge between two answers, and this brand answers in one.
The page is mostly Off White.
Forest is the anchor. Active appears only on verified states. Alert flickers, never fields.
Approved. Forbidden. Why both lists matter.
Two greens together fail contrast. Alert touches only calm surfaces — never brand surfaces. Mid Gray is for type, never for fields.
- Body text
- Near Black on Off White — contrast 16.4:1 (AAA).
- Brand on light
- Forest on Off White — contrast 5.7:1 (AA Body & AA Large).
- Verified state
- Active Green on Mint — passes for icon & large display only. Body copy in verified contexts uses Deep Forest.
- Alert state
- Alert Red on Off White — contrast 4.6:1 (AA Body). Always paired with the X icon and a status word — colour is never the only signal.
Typography.
Serif heavy for authority. Sans light for honesty. Most brands use both heavy. We don't.
Aa Aa
A serif that declares. A sans that doesn't shout.
Playfair Display — high-contrast, classic, slightly editorial — does the declaring. DM Sans at weight 300 — light, geometric, unbothered — does the rest. Body copy at light weight is unusual on purpose. It signals an interface that is calm, not selling, and that trusts the reader to read.
Heavy serif, light sans.
If you find yourself reaching for DM Sans 700, switch to Playfair instead. The brand is heavier in the headline and lighter in the body — never the other way around.
Aa Aa
Aa @
One scale. Used everywhere.
Layout & Grid.
No shadows. No drop-blurs. No glow. The hairline at fifteen percent black is the entire elevation system.
The hairline is the elevation system.
Every container, card, input, and divider in this brand uses one rule: 0.5px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.15) on light surfaces, 0.5px solid rgba(245,244,241,0.18) on dark. There are no shadows. There is no glow. There is no drop blur. Depth is implied through hairlines and whitespace alone.
On light
rgba(0,0,0,0.15)
On dark
rgba(245,244,241,0.18)
On mint
rgba(15,110,86,0.25)
One spacing scale. Three radii.
4 · 8 · 16 · 24 · 32 · 48 · 64 · 96 · 128
Pick a value from the scale or argue for a new one in writing.
- Buttons
- 4px. Reads as a button, not a badge.
- Inputs
- 8px. Slightly softer to receive a hand.
- Cards
- 12px. The signature container radius.
- Pills
- 999px. Status only.
Every marketing section, same five beats.
- Eyebrow. 11px DM Mono uppercase. One line.
- Headline. Playfair 700. One sentence. One emphasis word in italic Forest.
- Lede. DM Sans 300, 18–20px. Two sentences maximum.
- Block. Card grid, demo, scene, or table. One per section.
- Action. One CTA. Verb + outcome. No second CTA.
Whitespace as discipline. If the page feels crowded, the page is crowded. The rule of thumb: a section header should have at least 64px of clear space above it, and the next block at least 32px below the lede.
Verification.
Two states. Green check. Red X. There is no third state. There is no maybe.
Verified or Invalid. Nothing in between.
The verification system is intentionally binary. A maybe is a failure. An "expired but recently active" is a failure. The product reduces a complicated answer to one of two outcomes, every time.
The card is the brand.
This is what a member sees on their phone. It is what a rep sees when scanning. It is the most-used surface of the entire product. Treat it accordingly.
One tap. No app. The card stays current.
Six elements. No more.
- Mark + organisation. The local. Not "The Union Hub" branding — the user is in their union.
- Member name. Playfair 700. The largest type on the surface.
- Membership meta. Active member since · Member ID. Mono numerals.
- Status pill. Verified, always shown. Single source of truth.
- QR. Quiet zone full. Plain instruction beside it.
- Sync stamp. Last sync time. Visible, not hidden in a tooltip.
Black on Off White. Square caps. No fashion.
- QR colour
- Always Near Black on Off White. No brand-coloured QR codes — they fail at low-light scans.
- QR quiet zone
- Full default quiet zone. No logo overlay inside the QR — it lowers scan reliability and gains nothing.
- Icon stroke
- 1.5px, square caps, miter joins. Strokes only — except for the two filled status icons.
- Icon grid
- 24×24 base, 16×16 dense.
- Icon colour
- Forest on light, Off White on dark. Never coloured by category.
Voice in Use.
The brand isn't the headline. The brand is what the button says.
The opening sentence is load-bearing.
Your union card is a piece of paper. That ends now.
Real-time digital membership for unions. Instant verification. No apps. No passwords. No bullshit.
Verb plus outcome. That's the whole rule.
Banned: Learn more · Click here · Sign up · Submit · Get started
Short labels. No asterisks.
The local that will hold the roster.
Specific, present-tense, never apologetic.
- Success
- Verified. Active member since 2019.
- Error
- Not in roster. Last sync was 4 minutes ago. Ask the local to refresh.
- Empty
- No members yet. Upload a CSV to get started.
- SMS
- Your Union Hub card is ready. One link, no app: uh.link/m/abc123
- Email subject
- "Your card is ready." — five words, no exclamation, no emoji.
In Use.
The product is mostly seen on a phone, in a hallway, by a person with thirty seconds. Designed accordingly.
The first frame the visitor sees.
Your union card is a piece of paper. That ends now.
Real-time digital membership for unions. Instant verification. No apps. No passwords. No bullshit.
What it looks like at the door.
- Member walks up. Phone in hand. Card already on screen.
- Rep raises phone. Camera open. Scans the QR.
- Screen turns green. Verified — Active member since 2019.
- Member moves through. Total time: 12 seconds.
The on-prem ask.
Your card is now digital.
Watch your phone for a text from the local. One tap. No app. The card stays current — even if you lose your phone, log into another, and reload the link.
Questions → local416@theunionhub.app- Stock
- Uncoated, off-white. 100lb cover or matte vinyl for hall walls.
- Sizes
- 11×17 hall poster. 5×8 cheat-sheet for reps.
- Inks
- Forest spot recommended. CMYK build acceptable.
- Bleed
- 0.125" all sides. Safety 0.25".
Governance.
Who owns the brand, what triggers a review, and where the open questions live.
One owner. Versioned source of truth.
- Brand owner
- The Union Hub Founding Team. Until a brand lead is hired, all visual and verbal exceptions route through the founder.
- Source of truth
- This document, version-controlled in the project repository at /brand.
- Last review
- 2026 · v1.0
When the brand has to be re-examined.
- Mandatory
- New product surface (rep-side tool, admin dashboard). New audience (employers, regulators). New geography. Major policy change (privacy, data residency).
- Optional
- New campaign, new typeface request, new colour proposal. The default answer to all three is no — write a one-page argument first.
What we'll settle next.
- Co-branding rules with locals. When does a CUPE 416 card show The Union Hub mark, and at what scale?
- Internationalisation. Type stack and tone shifts for French Canada and Spanish.
- Accessibility audit beyond colour. Screen-reader script for the card and the verify screen.
- Print collateral kit. A finished, mailable poster + cheat-sheet card for reps.
- Crisis comms voice. A short appendix for the day a roster sync fails publicly.
When in doubt, do less. Cut the line in half. Then cut that line in half. The brand is what survives.
One book. One brand.
Set in Playfair Display and DM Sans. Eyebrows in DM Mono. All typefaces from Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License. Drawn on an off-white field with hairline borders at fifteen percent black, and not a single shadow anywhere in the file.
This document is the system of record for what The Union Hub looks like, sounds like, and refuses to be. It is updated — never edited quietly. When a rule changes, the version number changes with it.