Why avoid keylines in a logo?

A keyline is a third element that only exists to separate two others. Reverse the mark or run it in one colour and it usually disappears or doubles up.

Does negative space work on kraft stock?

Well, as long as the gaps are wide enough. Kraft's fibre spreads ink slightly, so narrow knockouts need a little more room than on coated.

How wide should the knockout gap be?

One consistent width, set above the stock's ink-spread tolerance. Here that is the same gap everywhere around the blade.

Hartwell

Butchery

Brand guidelines
Version 1.0
↓ scroll

01 — The idea

The cleaver is cut into the H as negative space, so the mark holds in one colour with no keylines.

Client

A butchery

Construction

One solid chamfered H with the cleaver existing only as an absence — blade spanning the stems, handle running right.

02 — Primary lockupStacked · symbol over wordmark

Butchery

03 — On light

Butchery

Ink on Kraft

03 — On dark

Butchery

Iron Red on Ink

04 — One colourFor fax, engraving, foil dies and single-plate letterpress

05 — Clear space

Clear space equals the H's stem width on all four sides.
Minimum 16 mm wide.

06 — Scale

48 MM

24 MM

12 MM

FAVICON

Favicon: the H alone, cleaver intact. Below 12 mm the wordmark is dropped and the symbol stands alone.

07 — ColourPantone from the Solid Uncoated book

Kraft#D9C0A0RGB 217 192 160CMYK 0 12 26 15

Ink#1C1A18RGB 28 26 24CMYK 0 7 14 89

Iron Red#B4492BRGB 180 73 43CMYK 0 59 76 29

08 — Typography

Oswald · display

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789

Work Sans · text

Body copy is set at 16–18 px on screen and 9.5–10.5 pt in print, sentence case, with a maximum measure of 66 characters. Never letter-space lowercase body text.

Spline Sans Mono · labels

Labels · captions · specification lines

09 — Do and do not

✓Draw the cleaver as negative space, never a shape

✓Hold one even white gap around the blade

✓Keep all four chamfers identical

✕Never add a keyline to separate blade from letter

✕Never outline the cleaver

✕Never narrow the knockout below the stock's ink spread

10 — In application

A studio identity exercise. Mark, palette, type system and usage rules by the Print Peppermint design team.

Every identity we build ships with the file the press needs: vector mark, one-colour version, favicon set, Pantone Uncoated references and a guide like this one.

Start a brand project →

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A studio exercise. Hartwell, and every brand in this series, is invented — no client commissioned it and none of it was ever sold.