SS-GALLERY · Brand Guidelines Version 1.0 · August 2026
Direction A

Minimalist Luxury

Restraint as a signal of price.

DisciplineSports Event Photography
TypefacesBodoni Moda · Jost
Brand colour#4C6B4F
01

The direction

What this identity claims, and where it stops working.

This direction treats sport photography the way a jeweller treats a display case: almost nothing on the surface, and everything in the quality of the object. The mark is a high-contrast Didone monogram — hairlines against heavy stems — set with the kind of letter-spacing that only works when there is room to spare.

Tone of voice

  • Short sentences. Full stops, not exclamation marks.
  • Name the discipline, the venue and the date. Let those carry the weight.
  • Never “amazing”, “epic”, “insane”. The images make the claim.
  • First person singular when it is one photographer. Never “we” for a team of one.

Use this direction for

  • Equestrian, sailing, golf, tennis, alpine
  • Private clubs and member events
  • Luxury sponsor activations
  • Print sales, framed editions, portfolio books

Do not use it for

  • Youth leagues and grassroots tournaments
  • High-tempo social content with heavy captions
  • Anything needing a loud, legible-at-40-metres mark
02

The logo

Four arrangements of one mark. Everything else is a variation of these.

Primary lockup, on the brand surface. This is the default.
Primary lockup, on paper. Identical geometry, inverted values.
Horizontal lockup — for wide, shallow spaces: headers, signatures, banners.
Monogram — avatars, favicons, watermarks, embroidery, stamps.
03

Construction & clear space

The geometry the mark is built on, and the space it needs to hold.

Construction grid. The module is X/2, where X is a quarter of the monogram height. Every terminal, gap and rule lands on this grid.
Clear space. X on every side, measured from the outermost point of the mark — not from the edge of an export file.
MeasurementDefinitionValue in this mark
XMonogram height ÷ 458.1 units at the drawn size
Clear spaceX on all four sides25% of mark height
Monogram ratioWidth : height1.24 : 1
Optical centreVertical placement in a square52% from the top, not 50%

Nothing enters the clear-space box: no type, no rule, no image edge, no other logo. When the mark sits in a corner, the box defines the margin.

04

Versions

One file per situation. Pick by surface and by reproduction method.

Full colour · darkDefault. Brand surface or photography.
Full colour · lightPaper, white UI, light photography.
One colour · whiteSingle-ink print, embroidery, etching, video overlay.
One colour · blackFax-grade reproduction, newsprint, stamps, legal documents.
Monogram · darkAvatar, favicon, watermark, badge.
Monogram · one colourFoil, deboss, laser, single-needle embroidery.
05

Minimum sizes

The point where each asset stops reproducing, and what replaces it.

Primary lockup

260 px — comfortable
170 px — minimum digital
120 px — below minimum, descriptor must be dropped

Monogram

96 px
48 px
32 px — minimum
AssetMinimum digitalMinimum printBelow that
Primary lockup170 px wide32 mm wideUse the horizontal lockup
Horizontal lockup200 px wide40 mm wideUse the monogram
Monogram32 px10 mmNothing. Do not go smaller.
Embroidery30 mmSingle-colour monogram only
06

Backgrounds

Approved surfaces, and the contrast floor every placement must clear.

Brand surfaceyes
Paperyes
Brand colourwhite only
Pure blackwhite only
Over photography: place the mark only where the underlying image is even in tone. If it is not, add a scrim rather than moving to a second colour.

Contrast floor

Every placement must clear 4.5:1. Measured in this system:

Ink on brand surface17.1 : 1
Ink on paper17.1 : 1
White on brand colour6.0 : 1

The descriptor line is the first thing to fail. When it does, drop it rather than enlarging it.

07

Misuse

Eight things that will happen if this page is not read.

Do not stretchScale proportionally. Hold Shift.
Do not squashVertical distortion breaks the stroke contrast.
Do not rotateThe lockup sits on the horizontal. Always.
Do not recolourOnly the palette on the colour page is approved.
Do not add effectsNo shadows, bevels, glows or gradients on the mark.
Do not redrawNever hollow it, thicken it or thin it. Use the supplied file.
SPONSOR
Do not crowdRespect the clear space. Nothing enters the box.
Do not drop contrastMinimum 4.5:1 against its background.
08

Colour

Five colours, fixed values, and the proportion they hold across a campaign.

Onyx Primary surface. Every hero frame starts here.
HEX
#0E100F
RGB
14, 16, 15
CMYK
12, 0, 6, 94
Pantone
Black 6 C
Ivory Primary ink on dark. Never pure white.
HEX
#F4F2ED
RGB
244, 242, 237
CMYK
0, 1, 3, 4
Pantone
11-0602 TCX
Sage Forest The brand colour. Rules, descriptors, the second S.
HEX
#4C6B4F
RGB
76, 107, 79
CMYK
29, 0, 26, 58
Pantone
5535 C
Stone Secondary text, captions, metadata.
HEX
#8C8C84
RGB
140, 140, 132
CMYK
0, 0, 6, 45
Pantone
Warm Gray 8 C
Champagne Print-only accent: foil, edge paint, invitations.
HEX
#C8B79A
RGB
200, 183, 154
CMYK
0, 8, 23, 22
Pantone
4535 C

Proportion

Hold these ratios across a full campaign, not inside a single frame.

CMYK values are an uncoated-stock starting point converted from RGB without an ICC profile, and the Pantone entries are nearest visual matches — approve both against a printed proof before any production run.

09

Typography

Two families, both open-licensed, with the scale that ties them together.

Display
Aa

Bodoni Moda

Variable Didone, optical size 11 for sturdier hairlines at small sizes.

SIL Open Font Licence 1.1 — free for commercial use, embeddable in apps and documents, redistributable with the licence file.

Text
Aa

Jost

Geometric sans. Light and Regular only — never Bold in this direction.

SIL Open Font Licence 1.1 — free for commercial use, embeddable in apps and documents, redistributable with the licence file.

Type scale

RoleFamilySize / lineTrackingCase
DisplayBodoni Moda72 / 76 px−0.01emSentence
Heading 1Bodoni Moda44 / 50 px0Sentence
Heading 2Jost26 / 34 px0.02emSentence
Standing labelJost12 / 16 px0.28emUppercase
BodyJost16 / 27 px0Sentence
CaptionJost13 / 20 px0.01emSentence
Frame the moment
SPORTS EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY

Two hundred frames from the second half, culled to eleven, graded overnight and delivered before the morning briefing. The archive holds every match since the club's first season, catalogued by fixture, minute and shirt number.

Baku · 14 March · 1/2000s at f/2.8, 400 mm

10

Photography

The look the mark was designed to sit on.

GradeLow saturation, lifted blacks, warm highlights. Green channel pulled toward sage.
FramingSingle subject, generous negative space, horizon or rail as the only strong line.
MomentThe pause, not the peak. Between events rather than mid-action.
Crop3:2 and 4:5 only. No square unless the platform forces it.

Watermark

Bottom-right, monogram only, Ivory at 40% opacity, clear space respected.

A watermark is a signature, not a security device. If an image genuinely must be protected, deliver it at a lower resolution instead.

The tiles above are grading targets, not photographs — match real frames to these tonal ranges before they enter the brand library.

11

Applications

The mark in the places it will actually be used.

Social avatarMonogram only, centred optically at 52% from the top. 1024 × 1024 px master.
Business card, face85 × 55 mm. Lockup at 40 mm, clear space held on all sides.
Studio
hello@ss-gallery.com
ss-gallery.com
Business card, reverseContact set in the text face, monogram bottom-right at 10 mm.
Delivered frameWatermark placement on a client gallery image. One placement only — never repeated across the frame.
Backdrop / accreditation wallMark repeated on a grid of 4X, staggered by half a step on alternate rows.
12

Asset index

Everything in this folder, and what each file is for.

The typefaces sit in the fonts/ folder alongside this one, each with its SIL Open Font Licence. Send that folder to any collaborator who needs to set type in the brand.