This guide is a work-in-progress reflection of the culture, voice, personality, and visual nuance of our brand and the people behind it.
>Story, logos, color, and type. All the junk that makes us, us.
Go to Brand section ->
The stuff that guides the way we talk, write, and interact with others
Go to Personality section ->
The way we think and work when making stuff look good.
Go to Design section ->
At Column Five, we care about our culture. It’s something that we’ve worked on for years. The heart of this company is our people, and how we work with each other is what makes us special.
Everyone wants to be remembered. To make an impression. We want to connect with each other in lasting and impactful ways. For brands, these goals are equally as important but increasingly difficult to achieve.
What does "Column Five" mean? It's a nod to the "Fifth Column," and it sounded cool to our 28-year-old selves...
Column Five’s logo was created using an inverted triangle as the template. The inverted triangle represents a “V” for the roman numeral “5” and the word “visual.”
Column Five’s color primary color palette consists of black and white, with red accents as needed. Consistent color use strengthens our brand identitiy.
Column Five’s brand typeface is Hurme Geometric Sans. To add flexibility, the full Hurme family can be used in any materials.
Column Five’s voice is human. It’s self-aware, good-natured, and frank.
Column Five’s tone is informal.
What does that mean? It means we’re not writing generic marketing speak for search engines (Hi, Google:)). It means we do everything within our power to write engaging content that people can connect with, which provides them with something of value. We’re encouraging, helpful, and willing to make (or take) a joke or two.
The way we talk about ourselves should be consistent but not robotic.
Column Five’s color primary color palette consists of black and white, with red accents as needed. Consistent color use strengthens our brand identitiy.
Although we sometimes lend our services to select political and/or religious organizations that we believe do good work, we tend to avoid discussing politics and religion in our content. In other words, we’ve adopted bar conversation etiquette.
Why did you choose to make the background blue instead of green? How does a circular diagram best represent the process we're trying to visualize? Why did you include 1 CTA instead of 2?
Yes, less is more—but not less clarity, less comprehension, and less accessibility.
Take a step back from the computer and get your drawing pad out for some sketches.