One logo, one palette, one type system.
Design vocabulary, defined once so nothing here depends on knowing the jargon.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Wordmark | The company name drawn as a graphic — the word CIGAER itself, with its custom A and E. Not a font you can type. |
| Mark / symbol | A graphic that stands for the company without spelling it out. Ours is the hexagon. |
| Strapline | The short line locked into the logo artwork: Actionable Intelligence. Part of the drawing, not editable copy. |
| Master artwork | The single approved original every use is copied from. Never rebuilt by hand, never retyped. |
| Cap height | The height of a capital letter. The measuring unit for the whole logo — “1 cap”. Every other dimension is a multiple of it. |
| Clear space | Empty margin that must stay around the logo. Nothing comes inside it. |
| Reverse | The version drawn for dark backgrounds: white letterforms instead of graphite. |
| Positive / negative | In single-colour printing: positive is dark ink on light; negative is the light shape left on dark. |
| Vector / raster | Vector (SVG, EPS) is maths and stays sharp at any size. Raster (PNG, JPG) is pixels and blurs when enlarged. |
| Knockout | Cutting the logo shape out of a solid block so the background shows through. |
| Tracking | Even spacing added across a run of letters. Uppercase labels only, never body text. |
| Contrast ratio | How far apart two colours are in lightness, 1:1 to 21:1. 4.5:1 is the minimum for normal text, 3:1 for large. Every pairing in §2 is measured. |
| WCAG AA | The accessibility standard those ratios are tested against. |
The wordmark is the master artwork exactly as it appears in the header of cigaer.com — a transparent PNG in Graphite #494949 and Red #DD1010. Nothing in this document alters it. There are two approved looks: the wordmark on its own, and the wordmark with the hexagon mark. Everything else is a misuse.
The master artwork, unmodified. The default for the website, where the mark is already established.
The same artwork, untouched, with the hexagon mark placed to its left. Six sides for the six pillars, closing on a target’s innermost ring — the mark makes the acronym visible at sizes where the strapline cannot be read, and gives the brand something ownable in a square. Use where a symbol is needed: avatars, app icons, document covers, signage, merchandise, and any placement where the wordmark alone is too wide.
| Form | Regular hexagon, pointy-top. Six equal sides — one per pillar. |
| Proportion | height = width × 1.155 |
| Outline | Graphite #494949, stroke 7% of hexagon width. |
| Inner form | A red #DD1010 bull at 22% of the outer width, inside a graphite ring at 44% of the outer width. Ring stroke 2.5% of hexagon width — the “thin” weight. Hexagon, ring and bull share one centre. |
| Height in look | Matches the cap height of CIGAER plus the strapline — the full ink height of the artwork. |
| Gap to wordmark | 0.5 × the CIGAER cap height, measured to the artwork’s ink edge. |
A heavy geometric sans with two deliberate modifications, and a widely tracked classical serif strapline. Both modifications are load-bearing — they are why the mark cannot be reproduced by typing.
Drawn as a chevron — two diagonals meeting at a point, no crossbar. It reads as an upward mark.
Three detached bars, no vertical stem — five equal bands, three inked, two open. The middle bar is 7% shorter, all three flush left.
One terminal letter in red, carrying the whole accent — 15% of the wordmark’s width. This is why red is the brand’s accent.
All values against the cap height of CIGAER, the master unit — 1 cap. Measured from the master artwork served by cigaer.com at 775 × 209 px, where 1 cap = 148 px.
| Measure | In caps | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cap height | 1.000 | 148 px in the master. Everything derives from this. |
| Wordmark width | 5.236 | “CIGAER” spans 5.24 × its own cap height. |
| Vertical stroke | 0.250 | Exactly one quarter of the cap height. |
| Horizontal stroke | 0.196 | Lighter than the verticals — an optical correction, not an error. |
| C width | 0.980 | The round letters are true circles. The mark’s geometric signature. |
| G width | 1.000 | |
| A width | 1.014 | The widest letter — the chevron splays slightly past the circles. |
| E width | 0.615 | Bars at 0.196 cap; middle bar 6.6% shorter, all three flush left. |
| R width | 0.791 | 15.1% of the wordmark width. The only coloured letter. |
| Strapline cap height | 0.209 | Roughly one fifth of the wordmark. |
| Baseline to strapline | 0.203 | The gap and the strapline cap height are the same measure. |
| Strapline width | 4.932 | 94.2% of the wordmark width, optically centred beneath it. |
Letter gaps are optical, not metric: C→I 0.142, I→G 0.128, G→A 0.061, A→E 0.101, E→R 0.155 cap. They are tightest around the A, whose diagonals already create space. Do not normalise them.
The strapline is a fine classical serif with hairline strokes and is the first thing to break. Digital minimum 180 px wide; print minimum 45 mm wide. Below those, use the wordmark-only crop — never a shrunken look with an unreadable strapline.
Every mark exists in four colour treatments. Which one you use is decided entirely by the background — there is no aesthetic choice involved.
| Treatment | Use on | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| Full colour | White, Card #F7F7F7, Fill #ECECEC | Graphite letterforms, red R. The default. |
| Reverse | Ink #090909 and dark surfaces | White letterforms, red R retained. The dark-mode default. |
| All white | Red #DD1010, photography, video | Single colour. The red R would vanish against a red ground, so the whole mark goes white. |
| All black | Fax, stamps, engraving, single-colour print, legal filings | Single colour. The black-and-white positive. |
For single-colour reproduction — engraving, stamps, fax, legal filings, newsprint, embroidery. Every mark has a positive (black on light) and a negative (white on dark). The red is not converted to grey; it is dropped entirely, because a grey R reads as a printing error rather than a design decision.
Single-colour graphite (#494949 throughout, red dropped) is also approved where a document is set entirely in graphite and a black logo would be too hard against it — running heads, letterhead footers, watermarks.
The hexagon is the only mark that survives at icon sizes. Ship the full set from the vector master.
At 16 px the inner hexagon fills in and stops reading — drop it and use the outline alone on a red tile, as shown. Stroke weight thickens as the icon shrinks: 7% of width at 512 px, 9% at 32 px, 12% at 16 px.
Two colours do the work — the graphite of the letterforms and the red of the R — on white, with a short ladder of greys for structure. There is no second palette. If a colour is not on this page, it is not a CIGAER colour.
#494949 and #DD1010, and the website stylesheet specifies #DD1010 — the mark and the site already agree. Graphite is the only value here that was never written down before; adopting it as the body-copy colour is what makes the page match its own logo.White carries the page. Graphite carries the reading. Red carries one thing at a time.
WCAG 2.1 ratios computed for every pairing in regular use. Normal text needs 4.5:1; text at 24 px / 18.5 pt bold or larger needs 3:1.
| Pairing | Ratio | Rating | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| #090909 on #FFFFFF | 19.91:1 | AAA | Headlines and high-contrast type. |
| #FFFFFF on #090909 | 19.91:1 | AAA | Reverse sections, footers. |
| #090909 on #F7F7F7 | 18.59:1 | AAA | Text on cards. |
| #494949 on #FFFFFF | 9.00:1 | AAA | Default body copy pairing. |
| #FFFFFF on #494949 | 9.00:1 | AAA | Reverse panels. |
| #494949 on #F7F7F7 | 8.40:1 | AAA | Body copy on cards. |
| #6C6C6C on #FFFFFF | 5.25:1 | AA | Captions and secondary text. |
| #DD1010 on #FFFFFF | 5.05:1 | AA | Links and buttons on white. |
| #FFFFFF on #DD1010 | 5.05:1 | AA | Button labels. Keep at 14 px / 600 or heavier. |
| #6C6C6C on #F7F7F7 | 4.90:1 | AA | Captions on cards. |
| #DD1010 on #F7F7F7 | 4.72:1 | AA | Compliant, but close to the floor. Prefer white behind red text. |
| #6C6C6C on #ECECEC | 4.44:1 | AA large only | Headings ≥24 px. Darken to Graphite for body. |
| #DD1010 on #ECECEC | 4.28:1 | AA large only | Large text and rules only, never links or body. |
| #DD1010 on #090909 | 3.94:1 | AA large only | Large headings and rules only. Never links or body. |
| #B9B9B9 on #FFFFFF | 1.96:1 | Fails | Dividers only. Never text, never placeholders, never captions. |
| #DD1010 on #494949 | 1.78:1 | Fails | Never put red on graphite. The logo keeps them apart with white; so should you. |
Dark mode is the same palette, re-grounded. Red stays red, the greys invert, and one new value is introduced — a brightened red for text and links, because #DD1010 on #090909 reaches only 3.94:1 and fails for anything at body size.
#F7F7F7.#6C6C6C, which is too dark to invert cleanly.#DD1010 with white labels, because white on Red Light drops to 3.71:1 and fails. Fill and text pull in opposite directions; that is why there are two reds and only two.| Role | Light | Dark |
|---|---|---|
| Page ground | #FFFFFF | #090909 |
| Raised surface | #ECECEC | #141414 |
| Card | #F7F7F7 | #1E1E1E |
| Divider | #D1D1D1 | #2E2E2E |
| Headline | #090909 | #FFFFFF |
| Body copy | #494949 | #D1D1D1 |
| Caption / secondary | #6C6C6C | #8A8A8A |
| Link / red text | #DD1010 | #FF2D2D |
| Button fill | #DD1010 + #FFFFFF | #DD1010 + #FFFFFF |
| Logo | Full colour | Reverse |
| Pairing | Ratio | Rating | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| #FFFFFF on #090909 | 19.91:1 | AAA | Headlines. |
| #FFFFFF on #1E1E1E | 16.67:1 | AAA | Headlines on cards. |
| #D1D1D1 on #090909 | 13.04:1 | AAA | Body copy. |
| #D1D1D1 on #1E1E1E | 10.92:1 | AAA | Body copy on cards. |
| #8A8A8A on #090909 | 5.77:1 | AA | Captions. |
| #FF2D2D on #090909 | 5.37:1 | AA | Links and red text. |
| #FF2D2D on #141414 | 4.97:1 | AA | Links on raised surfaces. |
| #8A8A8A on #1E1E1E | 4.83:1 | AA | Captions on cards. |
| #FF2D2D on #1E1E1E | 4.50:1 | AA | Links on cards — exactly at the floor. Do not darken the card further. |
| #FFFFFF on #DD1010 | 5.05:1 | AA | Button labels. Keep 14 px / 600 or heavier. |
| #DD1010 on #090909 | 3.94:1 | AA large only | Rules and large display only. Use Red Light for text. |
| #FFFFFF on #FF2D2D | 3.71:1 | Fails | Never fill a button with Red Light. Fills stay #DD1010. |
| #6C6C6C on #090909 | 3.79:1 | Fails | The light-mode grey does not survive inversion. Use #8A8A8A. |
Poppins reads; Montserrat labels. Both are already live on cigaer.com, both are on Google Fonts, both are free to license, and both are available as web fonts and desktop files. Nothing else is a CIGAER typeface.
Headlines and body. Geometric, open, unfussy at small sizes — and the closest relative to the logo’s own circular letterforms. Weights: 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 900.
Navigation, buttons, category tags, uppercase eyebrows, table heads. Always tracked, usually uppercase, never body copy. Weights: 600, 700.
| Rule | Specification |
|---|---|
| Measure | 55–75 characters per line for body copy. Break to two columns rather than run past 90. |
| Line height | Body 1.7. Sub-headings 1.4. Display 0.95–1.2. Never below 1.4 for anything read at length. |
| Letter-spacing | Positive tracking is for uppercase labels only (0.16em–0.32em). Never track lowercase body. Display type takes −0.02em to −0.035em. |
| Alignment | Left-aligned, ragged right. No justified text. |
| Emphasis | Weight, not colour. Bold for emphasis; never underline anything that isn’t a link; italics sparingly. |
| All caps | Labels and eyebrows only, four or five words maximum. Never a headline, never a sentence. |
| Numerals | Lining figures in tables and data. Non-breaking space between figure and unit — “14 days”, “200+ years”. |
| Fallbacks | Poppins, -apple-system, 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif and Montserrat, 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif. In Office where Poppins is unavailable, substitute Century Gothic, then Arial. Never Calibri. |
A forensics report that looks improvised reads as improvised. Consistent spacing, predictable components and generous margins are part of the argument.
One 5 px base unit, matching the 5 px corner radius already in use. Every margin, padding and gap is a multiple of it.
| Context | Specification |
|---|---|
| Container | Max content width 1180 px, 40 px side padding, 12-column grid, 20–30 px gutters. |
| Breakpoints | Mobile 300–480 px · Tablet 481–1200 px · Desktop 1201 px+. Headings step down 20–30% below 880 px. |
| Header | 40 px padding top and bottom, 1 px #D1D1D1 rule beneath, logo top-left, Montserrat navigation right. |
| Documents | A4 portrait. Margins 20 mm outer, 25 mm top, 22 mm foot. Single column at 64ch, or two at 34ch with a 10 mm gutter. |
| Document furniture | Running head: CIGAER · [Document title] in Montserrat 9 px, Grey, tracked 0.22em. Foot: page number right, confidentiality mark left. |
| Slides | 16:9. Safe area inset 60 px. One idea per slide; the title is a claim, not a topic. |
Radius: 5 px on buttons, cards, inputs and tooltips. 10 px on process cards. 15 px on social wrappers. Nothing else — no pills, no fully rounded containers. Transitions: 0.5s ease on every interactive element.
Every finding block carries three parts: a status label (Established / Indicative / Unverified), the finding, and a sourcing footer. A finding without a sourcing footer does not ship.
Every CIGAER artefact — digital or print, internal or client-facing — is governed by this document. There is no separate print identity, no campaign palette, no deck theme. The medium changes the format; it never changes the brand.
| Artefact | Specification |
|---|---|
| cigaer.com — all pages | Look A in the header, 1180 px container, Poppins body at 16 px / 1.7 in Graphite, red for interaction only. |
| Landing and campaign pages | Match the site exactly. No bespoke palette or type per campaign. |
| Social graphics, LinkedIn images | Ink or white ground, Look B, one Montserrat label, one Poppins line. Red on one element only. |
| HTML email, newsletter | System fallbacks — Poppins may not render in Outlook. Logo as a hosted image, never retyped. |
| Client reports, findings memos | Ink cover band with a 5 px red rule, Look A on a white panel, finding blocks per §4. |
| Proposals, engagement notes, fee schedules | Cover band, then single column at 64ch. Fee tables in Montserrat heads, Poppins figures. |
| Corporate overview, capability sheets | Same system as reports. Photography leads; text follows. |
| Decks (.pptx) | 16:9, white or Ink slides, Poppins headings at 32 pt+, body at 16 pt minimum. Look B bottom-right on the closing slide only. |
| One-pagers, leave-behinds | A4, one column, one proof point per block. |
| LinkedIn articles | Poppins throughout. Voice per the Brand Overview — candid and specific. |
| Letterhead, business cards, signage | Look B. Nothing else on the surface competing with it. |
One approved signature format across the firm: name, role, a red rule, the logo as a hosted image, then one address, one phone and one email. No quotes, no images beyond the logo, no legal wall of text, no “please consider the environment”. Never retype the wordmark in place of the logo image, and never add a second typeface.
The full specification, the copy-ready HTML and the variants live in a separate document: CIGAER Email Signature →
One convention across the library, so files sort and search predictably:
CIGAER_[Type]_[Subject]_[YYYY-MM-DD]_v[N].[ext]
Examples: CIGAER_Report_Counterparty-Verification_2026-06-12_v2.pdf · CIGAER_Proposal_Asset-Tracing-BD_2026-08-01_v1.docx. Confidentiality marking goes inside the document, never in the filename.