Real public brand decks we can steal structure from. Glossier / Oatly / Allbirds / Liquid Death / Olipop do not publish theirs — ignore the Pinterest PDFs.
Pulled for the massive TTSS book. Local copies of two PDFs live in this folder. Everything else is a live HTML book — open it, then tell me which chapter to build next.
Gander 2024. Positioning, voice with THIS/NOT THAT lines, logo, color, type, illustration, pattern, photography, packaging, application. The section list we should copy.
live.standards.site/keepyourcadence2024
Five chapters only: Framework · Voice · Graphic identity · Brand photography · The Showcase. Showcase = real pieces working together. TTSS has shot IDs, not a showcase.
live.standards.site/happyviking2023 · Gander case
Venus Williams protein. Flavor-anchored color system. Pack leads with experience photography, not ingredient dump. Personality in clusters (Brave / Knowledgeable / Authentic / Optimistic).
Category-adjacent snack energy. Positioning, personality, voice, headlines, logo on color, scaling. Small brand, complete book. Good length target.
live.standards.site/botanicaelixirs
Voice rules for slang / emoji / social. Tiny, but the “how we sound on IG vs email” split is missing from TTSS.
live.standards.site/choco-latte
Four-color function map (hero / contrast / backgrounds). Logo min sizes in px and inches. Type don’ts (leading, tracking, effects).
live.standards.site/theultimatehuman
Color proportion: primary vs secondary applications. “Signature color only for headlines.” TTSS chartreuse needs this rule written.
pdfs/athletic-brewing-claims.pdf
What CPG actually publishes to talent: banned phrases (“healthy”, “alcohol-free”), nutrition lock, FTC influencer disclosure, trademark as adjective. This is the missing TTSS legal chapter.
Gold standard. Voice, logo, color, type, UI, illustration, photography, layouts, motion, accessibility, applications. Illustration tied to emotional state. Accessibility is its own chapter.
brand.klarna.com · How we speak · How we look
Opens as a campaign. Pink is the positioning, not a swatch. Billboard / product / still life all argue the same color. Closest analog for TTSS magenta.
Framework, voice, logo, type, iconography, color, imagery, motion. Motion as a first-class section.
Nine elements + “most requested assets” on screen one. Downloads before philosophy.
styleguide.mailchimp.com · logo kit
Voice is constant. Tone changes by situation (success, something broke, legal). Adjective lists are useless. Write TTSS as homepage / PDP / pack / influencer / delay.
Pictured don’ts: stretch, rotate, old logo, busy background, low contrast, gradients, stack, custom version. Clearspace + min size. Ecommerce-native.
One color (Blurple). Do/don’t legal. Symbol vs wordmark when the brand is already established. Short and finishable.
Character personality rules, not pose sheets. What Duo would / would not do. Map onto Mia / Jordan / Sol.
One dated PDF + web summary. Version on the file (FY27). Put a date on every TTSS ship.
brand.netflix.com · IBM Design Language · atlassian.design · brand.mozilla.com
Single-mark discipline, open type systems, design tokens, published reasoning. Steal governance, not look.
developer.spotify.com/documentation/design
How to lock one color across thousands of third-party surfaces. Over-document the one thing you cannot afford to have misused (TTSS: bottle type / Soona pixels).
Naming and positioning before the logotype. No official book exists. Student PDFs are fakes.
Refused coil-count language. Wrote what the brand will not talk about. TTSS needs a “never say the category’s default medical script” page — we have a Never list; make it a chapter.
takeagander.com/project/happy-viking
Front of pack = experience photo, not the 60 superfoods. “Tastes like a burger-joint milkshake.” Lead with desire, prove with facts in the back panel.
liquiddeath.com/pages/manifesto
The brand lives in one paragraph + can lock. Wordmark never restyled. Three background colors. Ad templates, not creative briefs. Steal discipline, not skulls.
| File | What it is | Steal |
|---|---|---|
| athletic-brewing-claims.pdf | Official influencer / claims guide (4p) | Banned phrases, nutrition lock, FTC #ad rules, trademark as adjective |
| shopify-brand-guidelines-template.pdf | Shopify’s blank merchant template | Section order: Intro · Logos · Type · Colors · Imagery · Voice · Resources |
Do not download these from FlipHTML5 / Scribd / Pinterest. They are student recreations and they contradict each other.
| Brand | Status | Use instead |
|---|---|---|
| Glossier | Never published | Treat UGC as a brand asset. Identity simple enough that customer photos sit inside it. |
| Oatly | Never published | Packaging copy as the primary identity channel. |
| Allbirds | Never published | Red Antler case study. |
| Casper | Never published | Red Antler case study. |
| Ben & Jerry’s | Never published | Activism = identity, not decoration. |
| Liquid Death / Olipop / Poppi / Graza / Magic Spoon | No book | Can/pack + manifesto + ad templates. Build the system from the product, not a PDF. |
| Native / Lume / Billie / Honey Pot / Cora / Thinx | No book | Category neighbors. Steal from live sites + claims language, not fake decks. |
Live at /tastethesweetspot/brand/. Spec sheet, not a working book yet.
Red Bull of self-care. Lemme / Uro / Love Wellness table.
Always / Never word lists. Not yet by situation.
Hexes. No proportion, pairings, or type scale.
Lighting intent. No do/don’t photo pairs.
Cast descriptions. No personality rules.
HP/HER/HIM/WP/WASH/CP. Prompts live in imagery bible.
Synthesized from Headspace + OKO + Cadence + Klarna + Mailchimp + Athletic Brewing + Shopify. This is what we build. Current book covers maybe 8 of 22.
00 assets on the first screen.
05 claims/legal (category risk).
10 photography do/don’t + 11 product lock.
04 voice by situation.
14 website showcase using real shop pages.
Another adjective page.
Another hex table.
Fake Glossier PDFs.
80-page monuments nobody opens.
Point at a chapter number. I’ll write it into the live HTML book next.