House of Goods is a Swiss venture studio that builds and runs multiple brands, from online retail to software. This project fills the gap around an already settled logo and colour palette, giving the internal team and their freelancers a working type system, a clear rule for when a portfolio brand may carry the House of Goods mark, and a template for what a document from the house looks like. It is an extension, not a redesign.
Overview & Goals
- Build a type system on the existing fonts, with clear rules for scale, pairing and usage.
- Write the definitive rule for when a portfolio brand may show the House of Goods mark and when it may not.
- Define what a document from the house looks like, through a stationery and template system.
- Deliver a Figma library a freelancer can work from without reading a page of instructions.
Budget & Timeline
A first draft comes together in six weeks, then moves through review to agreement and publication within three months.
Brand programme
- Situation
- Extending an existing brand
- Logo
- Keep the logo as it is
- Deliverables
- Brand guidelines, Type system, Color system, Stationery
- Naming
- Name exists
- Handover
- Plus templates our team can edit
- Voice
- Trustworthy, Confident
- Guide format
- PDF, Figma library, Web page
- What exists
- Logo files, Color codes, Fonts
- Print colors
- Only screen colors
Brand Story & Voice
House of Goods speaks as the studio behind the studios: steady, self-assured, and clear about where its authority begins and ends. The voice needs to settle a recurring question, when a portfolio brand may borrow the house mark, without sounding bureaucratic about it.
Target Audience
The guidelines serve two groups who need to move fast without asking questions: the internal House of Goods team and the freelancers hired to work on portfolio brands.
Logo & Style
Logo stays as it is
Typography
Keep the current type
- InterHeadlines · Google Fonts, free to use
- InterBody text · Google Fonts, free to use
Colour
Colors to use
Measured on the material that was sent.
For print
- 1a1a1aC0 M0 Y0 K93
- f1efeaC0 M0 Y0 K5
- 6f6b63C0 M0 Y0 K66
- ffffffC0 M0 Y0 K0
Print definitions: Only screen colors
CMYK values are starting points for coated paper. The printer's own profile decides.
References & Moodboard
1 source captured. Click any of them to see it full size.
In the client's own words
House of Goods is a Swiss venture studio. We build and run several brands at once, and every one of them is designed by somebody different, at a different time, with a different idea of what our own house style is. The logo and the colours are settled and we are not touching them. What is missing is everything around them: how the type system works, when a portfolio brand may show our mark and when it may not, and what a document from us looks like. The audience is our own people and the freelancers we hire.
Scope & Deliverables
- Brand guidelines published as a web page, PDF and Figma library
- Type system built on the existing fonts
- Color system using the existing screen palette
- Stationery and document templates
- Editable Figma templates handed over for internal and freelance use
Do's & Don'ts
Do
- Write the explicit rule for when a portfolio brand may carry the House of Goods mark, since that question comes up every month.
- Build the Figma library so a freelancer can start work without reading anything first.
- Keep the guidelines short enough that people actually open them.
- Prioritise the web page version, since freelancers are sent a link, not an attachment.
Don't
- Do not redesign the logo, it is settled and out of scope for this project.
- Do not produce a hundred page document nobody opens.
- Do not introduce print colors, this covers screen colors only.
- Do not bury the mark usage rule in dense prose, it needs to be found in seconds.