Logo or brand identity system: what a lender or panel reads

A founder sends a bank a letter, a company profile and an invoice. The logo appears on all three, in three shades of the same colour, two typefaces and three margins. Each document is competent. Together they read as a company that has not decided what it looks like.

This note separates a logo from a brand identity system, sets out what the system contains, what a lender, a tender panel or a foreign buyer can check from it, how colour contrast is audited to the WCAG formula, and how a designer is briefed so that the result can be used by staff who are not designers.

What is the difference between a logo and a brand identity system?

A logo is one mark, supplied as files. A brand identity system is the set of decisions that applies the mark across every document and screen: colour tokens, type, spacing, voice, templates and accessibility rules. The logo is one input to the system, and the system is what staff apply without asking a designer.

What does an identity system contain?

A system holds six parts, each a decision written down once. Colour is held as tokens. A design token is information associated with a human-readable name, at minimum a name and value pair, which lets one decision be shared across tools and code ⁸. The tokens are the point of the system, because a changed value updates every template that names it.

• Colour tokens: text, surface, accent and action colours, each with a hex value and a use.
• Type: the typefaces, the sizes and the weights for headings, body and figures.
• Spacing: margins and spacing steps, so a letter and an invoice share one grid.
• Voice: the register of the copy and the terms used, written for each language.
• Templates: the documents staff produce weekly, issued as editable files.
• Accessibility: contrast targets checked before the colours are fixed.

The brand desk lists the same parts: name check, logo direction, colours, type and the voice the copy is written in ¹. The letterhead desk delivers seven header styles and six type pairs ², and the signature desk returns one design for the whole team ³.

What does a lender, tender panel or foreign buyer read from consistency?

A reader who handles many files compares documents from the same company and checks that they agree. Consistency in the name, the registration details, the colour and the layout lets the reader treat the documents as one set.

• A lender checks that the legal name, address and signatory on the letterhead match the invoice and the plan.
• A tender evaluator checks that the profile, the references and the forms present one company.
• A foreign buyer checks that the website, the email signature and the quotation carry one identity and one set of contact details.

How is colour contrast audited?

Contrast is audited with the WCAG ratio (L1 + 0.05) divided by (L2 + 0.05), where L1 is the relative luminance of the lighter colour and L2 that of the darker, and values run from 1:1 to 21:1 ⁴. Normal text needs 4.5:1 and large text 3:1 under success criterion 1.4.3 ⁴. Values are not rounded, so 4.499:1 fails ⁴.

Large text is at least 18 point, or 14 point bold ⁴. Criterion 1.4.11 sets 3:1 for the parts of interface components and graphics needed to identify them ⁵. Criterion 1.4.6 sets 7:1 for normal text at level AAA ⁶. Apple states a 4.5:1 minimum for text and 3:1 for non-text elements such as a checkbox state, and asks that contrast is checked in both light and dark appearances ⁷.

Logos are exempt from the text rule ⁴⁵. The exemption does not extend to a logo used as a control, and a low-contrast logo chosen by the author, not required by brand guidelines, is not exempt ⁵.

What does the audit show for a five-pair palette?

How is a designer briefed?

1. Legal and trading names State the registered name, the trading name and the registration details that appear on every document.
2. Existing marks Supply the logo in SVG or EPS, the current palette and any type licence.
3. Colour targets Require contrast of 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for large text and controls, audited and listed per pair.
4. Templates List the documents staff produce each week, in order of use, and ask for editable files.
5. Voice Ask for voice rules in English and Kiswahili, each written, with the terms the company uses.
6. Ownership Confirm that the company holds the files, the fonts' licences and the source of every template.

Does registration of the mark belong in the brief?

Registration of a mark is a separate step from the identity system. The Business Registrations and Licensing Agency publishes the application form for registering a mark in the register (Form TM/SM 2), the fee form (Form TM/SM 8), and forms for opposition and renewal ⁹. The Client confirms the current fee and procedure with the agency before filing.

What the NEMBO desk prepares

The brand desk returns a customised plan after the brief, with scope, schedule and fee in writing before any work starts, quoted in writing, not from a list ¹. It covers the name check, logo direction, colours, type and voice, with the Client's details, in English and Kiswahili, each written. Zatra Consultants authors and checks the content and the figures, and NEMBO designs and delivers. No outcome with a bank, a panel or a buyer is promised.