You probably already know a cool habit we have at Latitud: building in public. (If you didn't, hey, join our next Public All Hands this Wednesday and see what all the buzz is about!)
Our marketing team is no exception to this rule – and that's why we decided to share Latitud's brand guide. We hope that it will provide some inspiration for you to create your startup's own rules for designing marketing materials. Here we go!
If you missed the memo, marketing’s toxic trait is wanting everything at 120% perfection. But we're not here to slow anyone down and we don't mean to be an agency, but rather a strategic ally – we know it’s important to give the team more tools so everyone can become a Latitud brand ambassador and create their own pretty things.
Does that mean they're all gonna be 120% perfect? No. But hopefully, you can get closer on your own and count on us to run the last mile with you.
Well, my dear Padawan, I’m glad you asked. Branding is how we communicate our identity and control how we want to be perceived. When it comes to it, consistency is everything! People value what's familiar to them, so deviating from our established visual components, voice and tone, and quality standards breaks a pattern of recognition and trust.
But even if they aren't familiar with Latitud yet, it works the same way. Think of any email, for example: it’s easy for people to have an inbox full of trash. When they see a compelling subject line, with copy that engages them, graphics that are pleasing, and all packed into an easy-to-understand message, there are higher chances we'll stand out enough for them to open, consume it, and then associate us with positive adjectives.
The opposite will happen if the text is poorly written and the images have a low resolution or a chaotic composition.
To put it bluntly:
We make sure to always go the extra mile so everything we make is top-notch and people can recognize us for it.
This brand guide will help you understand a little bit more about Latitud’s brand applications and get tips that might help you when designing.
But remember, even if you have the freedom to create your own assets, the marketing team should still approve them BEFORE they're public.
You can create your own designs using Canva! Need some quick tips on how to make your designs better? You’re in the right place.
Besides the dark grey version of our logo, you can also use it as full black and full white. They have a transparent background to be applied on any background as long as it's not too busy – the entire logo needs to be readable and have enough contrast. Not to state the obvious here, but if the background is black, that means you use the white version, not the dark grey.
Besides the company general logo, we also have every arm’s logo. This one you can also use it full black & full white.
Our icon is a shorter version of our logo. While the icon can exist without the wordmark, the wordmark should never exist without the icon.
The logo and the icon’s exclusion zone are equal to the height of the icon. That means other images, logos or text should not come closer to it than this total area. Give it space to breathe, people.
Want an easy copy + paste of our colors? Check this out!
You can find our official fonts here:
✨ This font is not available on the platform you're using, and you can't import downloaded fonts 🙀? Go with Arial, Helvetica or Inter.
Use them with parsimony or avoid them altogether as these are more associated with the old brand. This section will be updated soon. Illustrations are used as a visual break. Don’t reduce opacity or use them as a background.
If you’re thinking about adding some pictures of the team/founders/investors in your design, feel free! Try making the corners rounded, that usually makes them look much better.
But if you thought about going to Adobe Stock to get a generic picture, I have to stop you right there. 🔫 We do not use stock photos for our brand, so go search for an illustration instead.
Titles: Appearing + disappearing after a few seconds.
The time it stays on depends on how long the title might be, i.e. we need to give people time to read it.
Use Carbona Black (talic or not, up to editor) for titles + Carbona Mono (regular/medium/semibold, also up to editor) for subtitles.
If the video calls for a background in the title, make it either white or dark grey (#0d1717).
⚠️ Very important
It's very easy to make it look unpolished, so let's not risk it.
You can check a full Presentation Masterslides here!
Kindly use this as your template and avoid deviating from the pre-made graphics too much.
⚠️ Need something special and very different from the master slides? Please ask in advance!
Leave the other Latitud Colors for Title Backgrounds or details on the slide!
You can find tons of icons here!
💡 At the top right corner of FlatIcons, you can “Edit Icon” and change the color to whichever you want, then save it as PNG 512px.
You can find previously used icons here: Icons.
Make them either White or Latitud Colors.
💡 Inside Google Slides, you can make it White inside Format Image - Recolor - Negative.
Feel free to leave a comment on which type of gifs you’d like when asking for a design!
Some previously used gifs can be found here:
If you want to be independent, you can find gifs here! Make sure to apply Latitud colors to the gifs.
We welcome any ideas you might have for Latitud's channels! If you're keen on producing something to communicate your idea better, or want to design something for your own channels, here's something that might help:
Most common size for social media:
Setting up emails on Hubspot can be tricky, but there's no need to fear it.
Here's a cheat sheet:
When creating a new Paperform, make sure to always edit settings in the “Configure” tab:
Don't forget to edit your success page!