Here you’ll learn how to express our brand and follow our design philosophy to uniquely distinguish us from the competitors.
We like to think that we’re not your traditional technology services provider. It’s important that our brand reflects this in everything we do.
Our proactive service approach drives us to challenge the status quo with modern design thinking and innovation.
Logo
We are proud of our logo it’s the foundation of our brand identity.
Consistent use of our logo helps strengthen the recognition of our brand wherever it’s used and ensures we stand out from our competition when we communicate.
We pride ourselves on quality and attention to detail, please follow these guidelines to ensure our logo always looks its best wherever its displayed.
Logo Elements
The logo is composed of two elements, an icon and a wordmark.
Icon
The icon is visually based on the H from our company name and shows four individual elements coming together to form a solid structure.
It’s designed to expresses the seamless use of our products to improve productivity and communication.
Wordmark
The wordmark is based on a Sans Serif typeface and should be included with the brandmark at all times unless otherwise specified. (logo usage)
Exclusion Zone
The logo and the icon’s exclusion zone is equal to height of the letter H in the logo (as shown in the diagram below).
Minimum Size
Establishing a minimum size ensures that the impact and legibility of the logo aren’t compromised.
Icon
Minimum Size: 144px x 144px
Logo
Minimum Size: 200px x 40px
Logo Usage
It’s important that the appearance of the logo remains consistent. The logo should not be misinterpreted, modified, or added to.
The orientation, colour, and composition of the logo and icon should remain as indicated in this document — there are no exceptions.
Icon Usage
Use of our icon is restricted unless you do not have enough room for the full logo or when the Hixon Group brand has already been established.
Care should be taken to ensure exclusion zones and minimum sizes are applied at all times.
Logo Usage
While the icon can exist without the wordmark, the wordmark should never exist without the icon.
Care should be taken to ensure exclusion zones and minimum size is applied at all times.
Colours
We use a simple colour system to guide our users, create a branded look-and-feel, draw attention to important information, and make content more accessible.
Palette
Our primary and secondary colours are Cerulian and Mirage. They should be used in all applications within the brand with more weight than other colours.
Cerulian
HEX 034FCA
RGB 3, 79, 202
CMYK 98, 60, 0, 20
Mirage
HEX 15181B
RGB 21, 24, 27
CMYK 22, 11, 0, 89
Charcoal
HEX 36454F
RGB 54, 69, 79
CMYK 31, 12, 0, 69
Slate
HEX 667680
RGB 102, 118, 128
CMYK 20, 7, 0, 49
Gainsboro
HEX D8DEE4
RGB 216, 222, 228
CMYK 5, 2, 0, 10
Cultured
HEX F2F5F9
RGB 242, 245, 249
CMYK 2, 1, 0, 2
White
HEX FFFFFF
RGB 255, 255, 255
CMYK 0, 0, 0, 0
Shamrock
HEX 009F65
RGB 0, 159, 101
CMYK 100, 0, 36, 37
Gradients
Gradients add depth when we want to keep some touchpoints simplistic and not too colourful. It’s important these are only used in digital applications as they may not be accurate when printed.
Primary Gradient
Gradient Type: Linear
Angle: 160°
Colours #034FCA to #021B79
Typography
We use a purposeful set of typographic styles that we use to present user interface and content as clearly and efficiently as possible.
The fonts we have selected are an integral piece of our brand style. Our choice of text style also has a huge impact on the ‘feel’ of our business. It also helps connect our audience to the very core of our brand style.
Primary Font
We use a typeface called Montserrat for almost everything related to our brand and marketing — this includes banner ads, print materials, websites and apps.
Montserrat: A geometric typeface that stems from the sans-serif family and released in 2011.
Principal Designer: Julieta Ulanovsky
Download Font: Google Fonts – Montserrat
Web Safe Font
In circumstances where the Hixon Group font, (Monserrat) cannot be used, the web safe font Arial is used.
Arial: Arial is a neo-grotesque style font from the sans-serif family and was released in 1982.
Principal Designer: Robin Nicholas, Patricia Saunders
Download Font: Microsoft – Arial
Typographic scale
We use the following typographic scale to communicate visual hierarchy in text and to create a predictable sizing for headers and text content.
Iconography
We use icons to provide clarity and where a text label doesn’t fit. They communicate messages at a glance and demand attention.
Besides being more aesthetically pleasing, the consistency in our icons removes ambiguity and helps users distinguish an icon with which they can interact from a graphic or background image with which they cannot.
Icon Examples
Our icons are designed to be used at small sizes and large sizes, built on a 10px grid which ensures that they render well when used with inline text or inside small interface items and buttons.
The design language is friendly and matches closely the shape and thickness of our fonts used on digital and in print media.
Photography
“An image is worth a thousand words.” In the super fast paced world that we live in today, that phrase couldn’t be more true.
Good quality photography is more important than ever before, it helps us to tell our story, and connect with customers. It also helps us build brand trust and recognition
Guidance
Finding the right image to include can be a headache, so we have provided a few helpful tips and things to avoid when choosing the right photo. We have also provided a few great example images of people, places and products to inspire you.
Please use:
Photographs that include products or services should be shown in active use by people
Photos should be carefully selected to match the target audience and demographic
Photographs should be corporate, fun and unique to help us stand out amongst competitors
Images should be cropped in to create a more dynamic shot
Where possible incorporate an element of blue regardless of size and impact.
Avoid using:
Staged photographs of people looking directly into the camera
Photographs with filters, lens flairs, overlays or excessive blurring
Photographs that do not cater to the overall aesthetic of the brand
Photographs that contain excessively bright colours that are not in the colour palette
Manufacturer images and unlicensed stock images from the internet
People
When choosing an image containing people, it should be modern, show action and be captured in the moment.
Places
When choosing an image of a place or location, it should be modern, clean and bright.
Products
When choosing product images the product should be clearly shown, in active use and where possible show action.
Social Media
Introduction
