# Bloom — Brand Guidelines

> Make it bloom.™ — the Bloom brand, in one page. Everything you need to apply it consistently.

Bloom is a performance-marketing and growth partner. Voice: confident, direct, practical — a smart partner, not a hype machine. Anchor: Ink + one accent.

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## 01 — Color

A small, deliberate palette: a near-black anchor, three saturated accents, and a neutral gray stack. One lead accent per surface — Bloom Black (Ink) + Bloom Red (Flare) is the default pairing. Never mix accents as peers.

### Anchor & neutrals
- Bloom Black (Ink) — `#1B2126` — type, logo, photo backgrounds, dark panels. Not pure black; slightly cool.
- Bloom Light Grey (Paper) — `#EEEEEE` — primary light surface for sections, cards, statement slides.
- Bloom White — `#FFFFFF` — default background; large clean areas where type does the work.
- Bloom Grey (Ash) — `#C0C0C0` — dividers, hairline rules, borders. Structure only, never a text colour.

> Slate (#626567) is retired — grey is no longer a text colour.

### Accents — light surfaces only, used sparingly
- Bloom Red (Flare) — `#EC4C33` — primary CTA, emphasis, brand moments, accent bars. The lead accent.
- Bloom Green (Leaf) — `#3EB54A` — success, positive deltas, “bloom” moments.
- Bloom Blue (Sky) — `#2C8BCB` — links, neutral info callouts, chart series.
- Bloom Grey (Ash) — `#C0C0C0` — dividers, hairline rules, mid-neutral structure.

### Rule — accents are forbidden on Ink or black
Bloom Red, Green, and Blue are reserved for Bloom Light Grey (Paper) and White. On dark surfaces, emphasis comes from white or weight — never the accent palette. Enforced in tokens: `.bloom-dark` remaps accents to white.

### Contrast
- Bloom Black (Ink) on Bloom White — 15.3:1 — all text
- Bloom White on Bloom Black (Ink) — 15.3:1 — all text
- Bloom Black (Ink) on Bloom Light Grey (Paper) — 13.0:1 — all text
- Bloom Red (Flare) on Bloom White — 3.5:1 — large text / UI only

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## 02 — Typography

A strong two-family pairing. Never set body in Poppins or headings in PT Serif — that inversion breaks the brand rhythm.

- Poppins — all headings, subheads, UI labels, buttons. Weights 500 / 600 / 700, occasionally 800 for display. ALL CAPS + wide tracking for subheads.
- PT Serif — all body copy. Weights 400 + 700, italics allowed. Measured, editorial counterweight.

### Scale
- Display — Poppins Bold — 64px — -0.02em
- Heading 1 — Poppins Bold — 40px
- Heading 2 — Poppins Bold — 32px
- Heading 3 — Poppins Bold — 24px
- Subhead / Eyebrow — Poppins Bold — 14px — 0em — Ink (white on dark), never an accent color
- Body Large / Lead — PT Serif Regular — 19px
- Body / Default — PT Serif Regular — 17px
- Body Small — PT Serif Regular — 15px
- Body italic — PT Serif Italic — 17px

### Typography rules
- All text is Bloom Black — never coloured, never grey.
- On a non-white or non-paper background, never use a font colour other than Bloom White.
- Eyebrow headers always use a letter-spacing of 0em.
- Eyebrows are always Poppins, never PT Serif — whether the element is a paragraph or a heading.
- PT Serif is never set in ALL CAPS — uppercase is for Poppins only.

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## 03 — Logo

Use the white wordmark on Ink, the dark wordmark on light surfaces, and the B-monogram only where the full wordmark already appears or space is tight.

### Do
- Keep clear space around the mark equal to the height of the “b”.
- Use the white wordmark on Ink or over treated photography.
- Use the dark wordmark on white, Paper, or other light surfaces.
- Reserve the monogram for tight spaces or repeat appearances.

### Don't
- Recolor, distort, rotate, or add effects to the logo.
- Place the dark wordmark on Ink, or the white one on light.
- Set “Bloom” as plain type in place of the wordmark.
- Crowd the mark or shrink it below legibility.

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## 04 — Imagery

Real, in-motion, human photography — never staged stock. Every photo gets Bloom's signature treatment so headlines read cleanly over it.
- Background color behind every photo: `#1B2126`.
- Photo overlay opacity: 50% (±10% for legibility).
- No gradients, patterns, or textures. Flat, typographic, editorial.

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## 05 — Design Principles

- Spacing — 4pt grid (4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 48 / 64 / 96). Marketing layouts breathe.
- Corners — modest: 2 / 4 / 6 / 10px, plus pill for tags. Large radii (16px+) are off-brand.
- Shadows — soft, neutral, Ink-tinted (not black). Light border or shadow, never both.
- Motion — 140–400ms, standard ease in, ease-out. Fade + small translate (≤8px). No bounces.
- Buttons — solid (Flare or Ink) or outline (2px Ink). 4px radius max — never pill-shaped buttons.
- Layout — sticky nav, content caps at 760 / 1040 / 1280 / 1440px. 12-col grid, left-aligned.

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## 06 — Voice & Tone

Confident, direct, practical. “Make it bloom” is about results, not gardening — avoid flower puns. Evidence over enthusiasm.

### Core traits
- Confident, not boastful — states results plainly and lets evidence carry the weight. Claims are backed by real numbers and account experience (“tested across a dozen accounts” beats any superlative). Prove it; don't sell it.
- Direct & practical — short, active sentences in sentence case with a hard period (“Accelerating growth.”). Plain words beat jargon; name what something is, don't dress it up. No fluff, no buzzwords.
- Challenger mindset — pushes to challenge the status quo and outperform the goal. Ambitious and growth-minded on the client's behalf; questions the default and backs a sharper way forward.
- Grounded & editorial — restrained in look and tone. Energy comes from typographic weight and contrast, never effects or theatrics. Reads like a sharp colleague, not a press release, and is secure enough to say when something missed. Modest, deliberate, mature.

### Do
- “We help you scale what works.”
- “Testing, learning, iteration — every week.”
- Sentence-case headlines with a hard period. Active voice, short sentences.

### Don't
- “We sprinkle growth magic.” / “Guaranteed viral results.”
- Hype, exclamation marks, or emoji in decks and on the website.
- Avoid: petals, sprinkle, blossom magic, game-changing, synergy, unlock potential, secret sauce.

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## 07 — Slides

Before building a deck, decide the track. If it ends in an ask for money or a signature, it's Sales; if it ends in “here's where we are,” it's Internal.

### Track A — Sales (win the business)
Audience: a prospect deciding whether to hire Bloom.
- Tier System + Bloom Storyline + the pitch chassis.
- Full polish — it's a first impression.
- Capability decks, pitches, proposals, RFP responses.

### Track B — Internal (inform & align)
Audience: a client we already serve, or our own team.
- Two simple recipes + lighter reporting layouts.
- Fewer rules, faster to fill — still on brand.
- Client reports, status updates, QBRs, team decks.

### Quality gate — “What's Not Bloom”
Both tracks must pass before leaving the building: no gradients, no Inter, no emoji, no pill or tinted cards, no accent color on dark, no heavy horizontal divider rules, left-aligned, real photography. If a slide trips the five-second sniff test, it isn't on brand yet.

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## 08 — Data Table

One table style for reports, scorecards, and decks. Figures carry the weight.
- Header — Bloom Black fill, Bloom White text, Roboto SemiBold uppercase.
- Figures — Roboto, tabular. Row labels and totals share the same face.
- Structure — 1px Bloom Black border, hairline row rules, 10/20 cell padding, Paper total row.
- Change — numbers stay Bloom Black; colour appears only in the ▲ (up) / ▼ (down) / — (flat) marker.

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## 09 — Grid

One grid pattern for capability spreads, channel breakdowns, and comparison layouts. Boxes share a 20px gutter and a 1px Bloom Black border; the content body is white.
- Columns — 2, 3, or 4 across, all on the 20px Bloom-standard gutter.
- Header cycle — Bloom Black → Bloom Red (Flare) → Paper, applied automatically when a component has more than one box. A single grid uses the Bloom Black header.
- One accent — Flare appears once per cycle, so even a 4-box grid never shows more than one accent header. Text is Bloom White on Ink/Flare, Bloom Black on Paper.

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Bloom Brand Guidelines · 2026 · Confidential — internal & partner use · Make it bloom.™