BRAND IDENTITY GUIDELINES

SOUNDZIPPER BRAND
GUIDELINES
2013 Soundzipper
All rights reserved
The current version of this document
has been published September 6 2013.
To download the most recent version
of these guidelines, please refer to
Soundzippers corporate website.
The Soundzipper brand and guidelines
have been designed in 2013 by
Eduardo Nunes, in collaboration with
Soundzippers inhouse design team,
under supervision from its creative
director, Tah Wei Hoon.

THE
SOUNDZIPPER
BRAND.
This document defines the major usage guidelines
for Soundzippers visual identity. It should be seen as
the ultimate resource for designers and collaborators
looking to make use of our brand, as it allows everyone
to take part in shaping the values and principles the
company exudes to its current and future partners.
All collaborators working with the Soundzipper brand
should seek to always adhere to the guidelines set forth
by this document. However, because our company is
a living thing, that we do expect to evolve, we know
this book may fail to account for all possible future
use cases. Whenever that happens, we ask that you
please refer to the last section of this document, where
instructions on how to proceed in those situations are
provided.
Because these guidelines are subject to change over
time, we also advise that you seek to download the
most up-to-date version of these guidelines from
Soundzippers website.

TABLE OF
CONTENTS.

THE SOUNDZIPPER BRAND. 

FONT WEIGHT AND TRACKING  22

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

READY-MADES 

INTRODUCING SOUNDZIPPER. 

HOW DID WE GET HERE? 

KEEPING IT BALANCED 

28

HERES TO A BRAND NEW FACE 

ACOUSTICS ILLUSTRATED. 

30

AND A MATCHING TYPE(FACE) 

11

ILLUSTRATION GUIDELINES 

32

ALL TOGETHER NOW 

12

BEHAVIOR ON BACKGROUNDS  36

BUILDING OUR LOGO. 

15

COMBINING ILLUSTRATIONS 

38

COMMON VARIATIONS 

16

ILLUSTRATION ARCHIVE 

43

CONSTRUCTION RULES 

17

SAY IT IN WRITTING. 

45

MARK STROKE WEIGHT 

20

CORPORATE FONT 

46

IN GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR. 

24
26

BODY COPY AND SUBHEADINGS  49

ONE MORE FOR ADDED CLASS  53
MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL. 

56

SLOGANS & SUBHEADINGS 

58

PROTECTION AREAS 

60

MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE SIZE 

62

USE OVER BACKGROUNDS 

63

WHAT NOT TO DO 

64

EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS 

68

GETTING IN TOUCH. 

80

INTRODUCING
SOUNDZIPPER.
HOW DID WE
GET HERE?
Soundzippers logo consists of an abstraction of two
different types of sound waves (a sine and a sawtooth),
which resemble, respectively, an uppercase S and a
Z (as in SoundZipper... get it?). These two shapes are
superimposed and enclosed together in an open circle.

Sine

Triangle

Square

Sawtooth

HERES TO A
BRAND NEW FACE
Its around the combination of these three elements
that Soundzippers new visual identity is built: a
strictly geometric shape, inspired by traditional visual
depictions of sound waves, that come together to form
a stencil-friendly and unique seal.
Although it uses single-width strokes, the generous
spacing on the inside allows for very flexible uses: the
strokes weight can be freely adjusted (but hey, be
reasonable!) according to the features of each specific
medium for more on how to do that, you can skip a
few pages ahead.

10

MAKING
LIFE SOUND
BETTER.

VERLAG BOOK & BLACK

AND A MATCHING
TYPE(FACE)
Our font says just as much about our company as
our logo does. Thats why weve chosen, as our main
corporate typeface, a fresh, nocompromise, modern
sans-serif, designed by Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias
Frere-Jones, two of the worlds most renowned living
typographers.
Soundzipper, please meet the extremely charming

VERLAG FAMILY

Verlag a very complete and fine-tuned family of

fonts, suitable mainly for large type, in both digital and

EXTRA LIGHT

print use. Its what well be using for our logotype, titles

EXTRA LIGHT ITALIC

and very big applications (like the one right there to

LIGHT

the left, see?). Dont worry, though, it can serve other

LIGHT ITALIC

purposes as well tread lightly, be sure to follow our

BOOK

advice and youll be just fine!

BOOK ITALIC
BOLD
BOLD ITALIC
BLACK
BLACK ITALIC

11

12

ALL TOGETHER
NOW
Because both the type and logo are essentially
geometric-based and present little to no stroke
variation, the final lock-up makes for a fairly balanced
composition. Considering how spacious the mark is,
weve decided to loosen the texts tracking quite a

Tracking is the name given to the space in

bit, to allow the composition to breathe freely. This

between the various characters in a word.

ensures the text is perfectly readable, even though its

substantially smaller than the mark itself.
The final, official logotype does not include any slogans,
but fear not: youll find instructions on how to add
subtext to the composition (Slogans & Subheadings
section, page 58).
Read on...

13

14

BUILDING
OUR LOGO.
Right now, you should be saying thats all fine and
dandy, but how do I use this thing?. Its a good
question but, really, who says things like fine and dandy
anymore?! Fear not, though, our dear idiomatically
obsolete friend, were here to help!
We understand a good logo should stand its ground
on any occasion, regardless of medium, scale, context
and orientation. Thats why were not just offering
you logo variations for the most popular use cases, we
want to teach you how to account for those unforeseen
situations, when you just have to take matters into
your own hands. Simply follow our lead and youll
be applying the logo blindfolded in no time. Just

Just kidding, please do not attempt to use

remember: in case something goes wrong, be quick to

our logo while blindfolded.

hide all evidence you tried and politely ask someone

else do it for you.

15

16

COMMON
VARIATIONS
Before we start, lets list the main variables we can
manipulate in our logo: these are features you can
tweak, according to the needs of each specific use case.
Although there are many more possible variations, well
just take into account the ones you can actually mess
around with. If you thought of an awesome tweak that

POSSIBLE LOGO VARIATIONS

would make the logo heaps better, but it isnt accounted

for in this list, you can safely assume we dont want you

SCALE

to do it, so please dont.

STROKE WEIGHT
POSITION

Some of these variations are, as youll learn, linked

together. For example, everytime you mess around with

POSSIBLE TYPE VARIATIONS

the logos scale, it might be a good idea to make sure the

strokes weight is adjusted accordingly.

TEXT SIZE
FONT WEIGHT

As a general rule, we could say our logotype has two

POSITION

different versions: horizontal and vertical, the first

TRACKING

one of which comes in two flavors: large and small. To

design one from scratch, we start out by defining the
size of the type, and then scale and position the mark
accordingly, following these rules...

CONSTRUCTION
RULES
5x

8y

LARGE HORIZONTAL LOCK-UP

Marks diameter should be 8x the height of the
capital E;
The horizontal space between mark and type
should be 5x the width of the capital E;
Both elements vertical centers should be aligned
across an horizontal axis.

17

18

2x

3y

SMALL HORIZONTAL LOCK-UP

Marks diameter should be 3x the height of the
capital E;
The horizontal space between mark and type
should be 2x the width of the capital E;
Both elements vertical centers should be aligned
across an horizontal axis.

8y

8y

3y
y

VERTICAL LOCK-UP
Marks diameter should be 8x the height of the
capital E;
The vertical space between mark and type should
be 3x the height of the capital E;
Both elements horizontal centers should be
aligned across a vertical axis.

19

20

MARK STROKE
WEIGHT
Although you can change the marks stroke weight, we
reccomend that you do this sparingly, and only if faced
with no other choice is firing the designer completely
out of the question? Just kidding, we can all get along!
Weve provided with you an expanded vector version

The expanded vector version uses closed

of the mark, that you can freely scale up and down

shapes, instead of single strokes, for the

(within the logos own scalability limits, remember)

mark. This means whenever you scale it,

without having to worry about anything else. For some

the strokes weight scales accordingly.

cases, however, you might need to adjust the strokes

weight to account for specific features of the medium
(e.g. thermal printers or low pixel-density screens).
For these cases, youll find an Adobe Illustrator file
featuring a single-stroke version you can adjust.
The chart to the right shows the range of acceptable
stroke weights for a mark with 20x20mm. To calculate
the equivalent to these stroke weights (STROKE, in pt)
for a mark with any other size (SIZE, in mm), it just takes
some basic math:
SIZE x STROKE
20

0.5pt

0.75pt

1pt

2pt

3pt

4pt

These look alright! Go ahead and use

them, no one will come chase after you.
These could do the trick, but youll
have to be careful. Make sure the final
reproduction size and the mediums
features will not distort the shape (you
should, for example, make sure the final
medium can handle really thin strokes,
or that both halves of the circumference
dont touch each other).
What were you thinking?! These are
definitely NOT OK!

21

FONT WEIGHT
AND TRACKING
We really shouldnt be saying this, but weve met more
than twenty pages ago, so what the hell: there will be
times when youll want to trash this logo completely.
Thats just the way it is. Weve tried to think about all
potential use case scenarios, but were only human
...or are we?! Just kidding, we are... so its more than
likely that, sometimes, those large spaces in between
all of the letters just seem like a terrible idea. Like,
for example, when youre trying to cram it into a tiny
space on the bottom of some poster youre designing
were sure its turning out really nice, by the way! Well,
we wouldnt want to just go ahead and destroy your

VERLAG BOOK

120
140

TRACKING

22

160
180
200

SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER

S
S
S
S
S

R
R
ER
ER
ER

wonderful work, so heres the deal: if youre really,

really cautious with our baby, you can go ahead and
tweak the tracking a little bit and, if you really feel like
theres absolutely no other way, you can even bring
the text weight up or down a little bit.
Of course, there are a few rules. First of all, you cant
do this for really large applications, or situations
where the logo is being shown for the first time or
any application in which the Soundzipper logo plays a
central role (e.g. business cards, social media profiles,
our own website, etc.) Secondly, you should only
manipulate the tracking, and not the spacing between
each individual character (also known as kerning). And,
finally, to ensure the final result is within the limits of
brand recognition, you should only use combinations
of font weight + tracking within the following chart:

VERLAG BOLD

SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER

VERLAG BLACK

SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
SOUNDZIPPER
23

24

READY-MADES
Because we dont want your head to explode everytime
you need to use our logo, weve put together a set of
readymades you can safely use in the most common
situations. Depending on where you got this document
from, youll probably find these files attached if not,
please contact us, and well be happy to send any files

Youll find our contacts in the last couple

you need your way.

of pages of this document.

This works pretty much like a mail order catalog: just

have a look at these logos and, if it looks like any of
them fits your needs, feel free to go ahead and use it.
Please be reminded, however, that you cannot tweak
them in any way (except, maybe, adjusting the scale
ever so slightly, obviously making sure not to change
the aspect ratio), and that their use must still adhere to
the rules defined further down on this document.

HORIZONTAL

REF. HL
WHEN TO USE >
Total logo width is larger than 400px
AND the brand protection area is
at least equal to the diameter of the
circle.

REF. HS

REF. HXS

WHEN TO USE >

WHEN TO USE >

Total logo width is between 200px and

Total logo width is smaller than 100px.

400px OR it is not possible to ensure

a sufficient amount of white space
around the logo.

VERTICAL

SOUNDZIPPER

REF. VL

REF. VS

WHEN TO USE >

WHEN TO USE >

Total logo width is larger than 100px

Total logo height is smaller than

AND the brand protection area is at

100px OR it is not possible to ensure

least equal to the radius of the circle.

a sufficient amount of white space

around the logo.
25

26

IN GLORIOUS
TECHNICOLOR.
Our brand new corporate color scheme draws
inspiration from what has long been our legacy:
brown and beige. Its worked fine for us in the past,
because it portrays us as a serious, dedicated and
very professional bunch of people. So were keeping
that. But because were also fun and easy-going, and
because we truly love what we do, weve introduced the
wonderful, bright yolky yellow youll find in the cover of
this document and made it our main corporate color.
We spent a good deal of time finding the color
combination that we believed portrays our companys
core values, so feel free to use any of these colours any
way you like, when youre working our brand. If youre
unsure, this very simple motto will help you in your
journey: if it looks good, it probably is but, when in
doubt, you can always ask around.

It doesnt rhyme, but its true nonetheless.

YOLK YELLOW

SULFUR BEIGE

PANTONE: 7548 C

PANTONE: 50/50 7548 C + White

HEX : #FFC600

HEX : #FFF0A6

R: 255 G: 198 B: 0

R: 255 G: 240 B: 166

C: 0 M: 22 Y: 100 K: 0

C: 1 M: 2 Y: 43 K: 0

LIGHT IVORY

CLAY BROWN

PANTONE: 70/30 4545 C + White

PANTONE: 7505 C

HEX : #E3D9BA

HEX : #83603F

R: 227 G: 217 B: 186

R: 131 G: 96 B: 63

C: 11 M: 11 Y: 28 K: 0

C: 40 M: 57 Y: 78 K: 25

DARK NUT BROWN

PURE BLACK

PANTONE: 7533 C

HEX : #000000

HEX : #483627

R: 0 G: 0 B: 0

R: 72 G: 54 B: 39

C: 70 M: 50 Y: 30 K: 100

C: 53 M: 64 Y: 76 K: 57

27

28

KEEPING IT
BALANCED

DARK NUT BROWN 15%

Good choice as a complementary
color to yellow highlights.

Heres the deal: if were to enforce our brand through

color-use, we need to make sure we keep some level
of hierarchy. This means we need to make sure certain
colors are regarded as really important, and should be
used whenever possible, while others provide ways
for us to introduce balance and contrast, but should be
used sparingly. To help you make sense of all of this, we
created this useful infographic, thats supposed to help
you understand the relation between these different
colors .
The bigger the circle, the more you should try to use
its color in our visual communication. The closer the
circles, the more you can combine their colors.

SULFUR BEIGE 10%

Nice to use as a light background
LIGHT IVORY 10%
Potential choice for background
highlighting.

for highlighted areas.

CLAY BROWN 10%

Good for subtle text highlighting,
especially on white backgrounds.

YOLK YELLOW 30%

Great for backgrounds and as first
choice for highlighting text and titles.
Number one choice for illustration
detail highlighting.

BLACK 25%
First choice for text color and illustration stroke.

It should go without saying, but whites

our main choice for backgrounds
especially if you intend to use text.

29

30

ACOUSTICS
ILLUSTRATED.
Were in the business of making rooms sound
absolutely flawless. Its something were incredibly
passionate about, and something we really know
how to do well. Unfortunately, reaching out to our
customers through sound-based communication isnt
always practical, so were going for the next best thing
illustration.
Because ours is such a complex craft, weve had our
share of hard times trying to explain it to people at
parties and family gatherings alike. So were introducing
a level of visual communication thats crisp and clear,
without getting overly technical.
Please meet Soundzippers clear, striking,
quasimetaphorical visual grammar.

31

32

ILLUSTRATION
GUIDELINES
This is fairly simple: illustrations should always be
strippeddown depictions of real objects, having to
do with whatever it is were trying to depict. The
connections established between the matter in
question and the illustrations should be clear enough as
to be immediately understood by the target audience,
but not blatantly obvious (e.g. if you need to depict

Spelling out any word and calling it an

social networking, a like hand is nice, a network of

illustration is, of course, not ok!

computers is ok if slightly meh , a collage of social

networks logos is a major no) or technical depictions
(e.g. actual audiowaves extracted from a digital sound
file to represent sound).
If you need one rule of thumb, this would be it: simple,
stripped-down, duotone depictions of real-world
objects used as simple metaphors, with clear relations
to the subject matter.
To make it even clearer, lets have a look at some
examples. These are all actual illustrations were
using for several communication materials, and are all
included as fully editable vector files, that you can use
as visual reference and even as starting point for your
own creations.

HEADPHONES
Universal symbol for studio-quality audio and a tool
under any audiophiles (i.e. our clients) belt.

No matter how complex the objects

were depicting are, illustrations
should always be completely flat and
bidimensional. This means no shadows,
blurs, bevels, reflections and absolutely
no tridimensional views.
33

34

SOUND MIXER
A nice metaphor for sound treatment and equalization.

Every object should have at least one

detail in yolk yellow.
Depending on the size of the object,
more than one detail could be
highlighted. As a general rule, between
5% to 10% of the entire object should
have a yellow background.

LIGHT BULB
An acceptable (if slightly clich) metaphor for ideas and
creativity in general.
Black, mediumweight stroke,
with white fill (even on white
backgrounds).

Make sure theres consistency in

both form and size of all objects. This
is particularly important for objects
with curves.
35

36

BEHAVIOR ON
BACKGROUNDS
Illustrations will often be the most striking visual
feature of our brand communication, so please make
sure to only use them when its safe. And, in this case,
the rule is simple: these can only be used on white or
yolk yellow backgrounds no exceptions.
When using them over yellow backgrounds, make sure
the insides are filled with white.

37

38

COMBINING
ILLUSTRATIONS
Because sometimes one single illustration isnt enough,
you can combine various objects into one massive
illustration. We only need you to follow a couple of
rules we know, we know, all these rules are really
annoying, but please bear with us, were almost done.

1. DONT BE A SQUARE!
If youre using more than two objects in the same
illustration, try to include some with curves you
know, to balance things out. So, while the illustration
to the left is still pretty ok, wed like it better if it mixed
things up a little bit, like the one on this page.

39

40

2. GET A GRIP ON THAT SPACING

Try not to leave objects randomly flying around on the
page (or screen, mind you). Its better that you make
everything tidier by having all of the objects equally
spaced from each other. Check the mad spacing skills of
the designer who put together the one to the right...

y
41

42

3. SPICE IT UP JUST A LITTLE BIT

To make things just that little bit more interesting,
we suggest you consider adding these nice little
shapes wherever you think they fit. Because they help

We dont want to shut your creativity

disrupt the illustration symmetry, they ensure a more

down or anything, but we ran some tests

interesting composition.

and think circles and squares work best.

ILLUSTRATION
ARCHIVE
We hope these guidelines help you design your own
objects, that seamlessly match our style, whenever
you need to. However, keep in mind thats now always
going to be the case! Lets say, for example, you needed
an illustration of a microphone. Chances are someone
needed a similar one in the past, and had to design
it, so why not just reuse it? To make things easier for

In fact, we even think reusing illustrations

everyone, weve put together an illustration repository,

on different communication materials

from which you can download objects weve needed

helps reinforce brand recognition, so dont

in the past, to use however you see fit. You can even

feel bad about it...

upload your own, in case you really couldnt find that

mic you were looking for...
Access to the repository is, for obvious reasons, limited,
so please contact Soundzippers graphics department
and theyll be happy to set you up with a password to
access our wonderful world of flat, yellow-ish acoustics.
We feel this should almost go without saying, but here
goes anyway: use of these illustrations is exclusively
granted for the purpose of portraying Soundzippers
brand within its own (or its partners) official
communications.

43

44

SOUND

SAY IT IN
WRITTING.
Picture this: youre at a club, trying to make your way
through the dancefloor, and you stumble into this guy
dancing aimlessly in front of you. You want to ask him
to move, but the musics really loud, so its hard to get
to him. Youre not mad or anything, but youre probably
gonna have to scream right at the guys ear, if you want
him to even notice youre there. Now imagine youre in
one of our own expertly designed, acoustically perfect
rooms, and youre trying to say something to a friend
sitting across the room. Anything slightly louder than a
whisper will probably do the trick.
Moral of the story is: different conditions call for
different approaches. And thats as true for your tone
of voice, as it is for our style of writing and typefaces.
Thats why we have not one, but three different
typefaces: so our brand can scream just as much as it

Dont take it literally screaming is rude.

can whisper.

45

46

CORPORATE
FONT
As you should know by know, Verlags our main
corporate font. Its in our logo and in most of our
printed communication (usually in the headings).
You can safely use any of these weights, whenever you
feel like they fit, as long as you make sure to match
the font weight to their purpose and media do not
use Extra Light with very small text, nor Black text for
subheadings.
As a rule of thumb, you should just stay away from
italics altogether, but there is one exception: if you want
to make one single word (or, at best, a couple) within a
heading stand out, but you cant change the font weight,
then its ok.

Sixty zippers were

quickly picked from
the woven jute bag.

Verlag Extra Light & Extra Light Italic

Crazy Fredrick
bought many very
exquisite opal jewels.
The quick brown
fox jumps over
the lazy dog.
Pack my box
with five dozen
liquor jugs.
Sphinx of black
quartz: judge
my vow.

Verlag Light & Light Italic

Verlag Book & Book Italic

Verlag Bold & Bold Italic

Verlag Black & Black Italic

47

48

When using Verlag for headings, we think it works

better if you use all caps, or capitalize sentences (not
words). Were not just being picky: because Verlag has
a relatively small x-height, mixing upper and lowercase

x-height is the value used to define the

a lot causes sentences to produce uneven shapes, that

lower-case characters height, and is

look unbalanced and, most of the time, require the

usually defined by the height of the

brain to work harder to read the text.

lowercase x.

Sixty Zippers Were Quickly

Picked From the Woven Jute Bag
This is nasty. Theres a huge contrast between upper
and lowercase characters heights, so stay away.

Sixty zippers were quickly picked

from the woven jute bag
Thats nice. Theres a very tall capital S at the start, but
the sentence is, overall, very balanced.

SIXTY QUICK ZIPPERS

For smaller sentences, or for very small uses, consider
using all-caps. It looks good and makes for a very
uniform outline. Keep in mind, however, that itll take
up more space than a lower-cased sentence.

BODY COPY AND

SUBHEADINGS
Despite being a charming and efficient modern sans,
Verlag doesnt just work everywhere, so we need
something else: a typeface for body copy, that works
in print as it does on the Web, and that is balanced
and readable at tiny sizes. For that, we chose Lato,
an opensource sans-serif with a considerably larger
x-height and a couple of features that make it quirky
yet highly flexible.
Use it for body copy, in print or on the Web. It can go
up to relatively large sizes, but try not to use it for
headings. Also, whenever possible, do not leave it all by
itself; try to pair it up with one of our other typefaces.

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke

from troubled dreams, he found himself
transformed in his bed into a horrible
vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and
if he lifted his head a little he could see his
brown belly, slightly domed and divided by
arches into stiff sections.

Lato Hairline

49

50

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning

from uneasy dreams he found himself
transformed in his bed into a gigantic
insect.

Lato Light

He was lying on his hard, as it were

armor-plated, back and when he
lifted his head a little he could see his
domelike brown belly divided into stiff
arched segments on top of which the bed
quilt could hardly stay in place and was
about to slide off completely.

Lato Regular & Italic

His numerous legs, which were

pitifully thin compared to the rest of
his bulk, waved helplessly before his
eyes. What has happened to me? he
thought. It was no dream. His room, a
regular human bedroom, only rather too
small, lay quiet within its four familiar
walls.

Lato Bold & Bold Italic

Above the table on which a collection

of cloth samples was unpacked and
spread outSamsa was a traveling
salesmanhung the picture which he
had recently cut out of an illustrated
magazine and put into a pretty gilt
frame.

Lato Black & Black Italic

Lato is a pretty nice fit for most informational text

or body copy, and it could just as well be used for
subheadings. Besides the very text youre reading
(which is set in Lato Regular), here are some other
examples, to get you going...

THIS IS A HEADING

Verlag Black + Lato Italic

It works fine with this sub-heading

Nice contrast and hierarchy: heading is larger and
heavier than the sub-heading...

This is a heading

Verlag Light+ Lato Black

IT LOOKS KINDA AWFUL

All messed up! Sub-heading is not only heavier than the
heading, making it all-caps draws attention to it first,
when it should be the other way around.

51

52

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from

uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
in his bed into a gigantic insect.

Lato Regular 12/18pt

This body copy looks real nifty. Its set in Lato Regular,
with 1.5x spacing (in this case, 12pt spaced at 18pt).

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from

Lato Regular 12/24pt

uneasy dreams he found himself transformed

in his bed into a gigantic insect.

This one, spaced at 2x (12/24pt) barely holds itself

together. Notice how the sidenote is starting to mess
up the composition. This is acceptable, just as long as
elements around the text are not closer to it than lines
are between each other.

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from

uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
in his bed into a gigantic insect.
Setting text with any line-spacing below 1.5x is
definitely a major no.

Lato Regular 12/12pt

ONE MORE FOR

ADDED CLASS
It wont be often youll need a third font but, when
you do, weve got your back covered with a classy,
transitional serif called Playfair Display.
Its tailored for screen-use, but that doesnt mean
you cant occasionally use it in print. It shouldnt be
used for small body copy or any body copy at all,
for that matter. It shines as an occasional stylistically
complement to the rationality of our sans serifs, and
it can even be mixed and matched with them, if used
carefully.

Grumpy wizards
make toxic brew
for the evil Queen
and Jack.

Playfair Display Regular & Italic

53

54

Grumpy wizards
make toxic brew
for the evil Queen
and Jack.
Grumpy wizards
make toxic brew
for the evil Queen
and Jack.

&&&

Playfair Display Bold & Bold Italic

Playfair Display Black & Black Italic

Playfair Display Regular, Bold & Black

Use Playfair sparingly, and only in very specific use

cases quotations, large slogans, headings or tiny
details come to mind.

SOUNDZIPPER

Verlag Light + Playfair Display Black

Making life
sound better.
A balanced lock-up of our name and slogan. Because
the fonts have contrasting features and weights, they
complement each other nicely.

TIPS & TRICKS

Verlag Black + Playfair Display Black

One lone ampersand set in Playfair, in an otherwise

Verlag text, can make all the difference, adding a dash
of unexpected sophistication.

HERES SOUNDZIPPER

Verlag Black + Playfair Italic

Ouch! We did say contrast is nice, but this is just

ridiculous. Tone it down a little bit, please. Also, dont
use Playfair in all-caps especially in italic! Ugh...

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56

MAKING SENSE
OF IT ALL.
We understand all of the stuff weve covered so far
may be a bit overwhelming, so allow us to try and
make things easier on you. This section will hopefully
help you make sense of all the information weve been
bombing you with, so you can go and do amazing things
with our brand.
Besides laying out the DOs and DONTs, were going to
put the brand in context, so you can see how all of this is
actually used in real-world scenarios. Well even throw
in a couple of application examples, so you can see how
weve done it in the past. Make us proud!

57

58

SLOGANS &
SUBHEADINGS
Wed prefer it if you didnt combine slogans with our
logo, but if you really need to, you still can.

Making life sound better

Slogan should be set in Lato Italic, at a ratio of 2/3 the

main face (in the example, Soundzipper is set at 24pt and
slogan at 16pt) and spaced at 1.5x the height of a capital
M set in Lato. Same rules apply for the vertical version.
Making life
sound better

Making life sound better

Dont set type next to any of the smaller versions of the

logo, no matter how much you want (or need) to.

Making life sound better

Making life sound better

SOUNDZIPPER

Making life sound better

SOUNDZIPPER

Making life sound better

59

PROTECTION
AREAS

60

Our brand is sensitive, so wed appreciate it if you could

give it some space to breath. When using it next to
text, images or other logos, you can make sure ours is
comfortable by keeping a safe distance. And the rules
are simple: you should keep a distance equivalent to the
marks radius from the outermost point on each side,
regardless of the logo version youre using.

LOGO

LOGO

LOGO

LOGO

61

62

MINIMUM
ACCEPTABLE SIZE
Whenever space is extremely limited, you can scale
down the logotype to its minimum acceptable size. We
reccomend, however, that you seek to use it at larger
sizes whenever possible.

SOUNDZIPPER

20mm

34mm

60px

80px

Please bear in mind that, at such a small scale, you

should always use the S (REF. VS) version of the vertical
lockup and the XS version (REF. HXS) of the horizontal
lockup. If you have no idea what were talking about,
please refer to the Ready Mades section on page 24.

USE OVER
BACKGROUNDS
When using the logo over photo or color backgrounds,
always make sure our logos perfectly readable.

If the photo has such a hue and contrast variation,

that you cant seem to find a way to add our logo, you
may add a background frame, at least the size of the
logotypes protection area (see page 60).

63

64

WHAT NOT
TO DO
Were fairly flexible with our brand, but theres some
stuff you simply shouldnt do.

Do not stretch our logo or change its proportions in any

way. If you need to change the size, make sure it scales
proportionally.

Do not mix colors; logo and type should be the exact

same color at all times.

soundzipper

soundzipper
Do not set our name in any font other than Verlag (not
even our two other official fonts) nor in lower-case.

soundzipper

Do not add drop shadows, bevels or any other type of

special effect to our logo. Flats just fine, thank you.
65

66

Do not use a logotype scale ratio not covered under

Construction Rules (page 17).

Do not mix type and mark in any way.

Do not position our logo within rules or frames.

soundzipper

Do not create an outline around the logo or type.

soundzipper

Do not rotate, skew or otherwise distort the logo shape

or the type in any way.

Because orientation is important to decoding the logo,

try not to use it on its side.

67

68

EXAMPLE
APPLICATIONS
Seeing our logo in place, and in context, is probably
the best way to understand what all of these rules and
reccomendations amount to. Use these as inspiration,
or in case you just need that extra push to get you going.

69

70

< PREVIOUS SPREAD

Left: Envelope
Right: Custom business cards

THIS SPREAD >

Right: Custom business cards

71

72

< THIS SPREAD

Left: Envelope & Letterhead

NEXT SPREAD >

Brand guidelines book, business card,
letterhead and folder

73

74

75

76

< THIS SPREAD

Left: Use on social media platform

NEXT SPREAD >

Use on corporate website

77

78

79

80

GETTING
IN TOUCH.
If you got this far without skimming though the
document too much, you should be prepared to tackle
the challenge of using our visual identity. However,

We hereby award you the honorary, and

because there will always be those cases when you

very fictional, title of Soundzipper Brand

cant tell whether some idea youve just come up with

Expert.

is ok or not, you can be sure well be around to help you

out. Just get in touch, using one of the contacts to the
right, and well do our best to work through your doubts
and suggestions together.
We truly respect and appreciate anyone whos willing
to tackle the challenge of helping shape our companys
future, and were eager to see what you make of it.
Thank you!

GENERAL ENQUIRIES
acoustics@soundzipper.com
8 Ubi Road 2
Zervex Industrial Building, #08-03
Singapore, 408538
(65) 6509 3529

GRAPHICS DEPARTMENT
Tah Wei Hoon
Soundzipper Creative Director
tahwei@soundzipper.com
Eduardo Nunes
Visual Identity Designer
helpme@eduardonunes.me
(351) 93 480 81 91

81