Understate Brand Guidelines

BRAND GUIDELINES

THE FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN AND THE END IS ALWAYS NEAR.

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Contents Our Brand - 4 Our Message - 5 Brand Platform - 6 Masterbrand - 7 Exclusion Zone - 11 Do not - 12 Color - 14 Typography - 15 Imagery - 17

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Our brand Understate is a contempory streetwear brand with a strong emphasis on structure, texture and typography, coupling the highest quality materials with a stripped back design culture and modern identity.

At the heart of any brand is a big idea. Simple.

Memorable. True.

For Understate this big idea is The future is uncertain and the end is always near.

These famous lyrics from Jim Morrison of The Doors encompass Understate’s philosophy of valuing the life that we have been given, while being wary of those that seek to manipulate and control us.

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Our message Inspired by the numerous visions of the future that have been developed over the years by artists, writers, filmmakers and designers, Understate explores the possible permutations of streetwear in a future where mankind has continued down its current path of continual growth at all costs, leaving heaving metropolis’s of inequality and a bloated state that invades every aspect of its citizen’s lives. Much of the population is docile thanks to reality TV shows and a media monopoly that continues to pump out state sanctioned propaganda. Jobs are scarce and wages stagnant while the cost of living continues to increase, many people both employed and unemployed now rely on the state for their continued survival, the rest are taxed to the point that there is almost no incentive to work. Starting a business is next to impossible, independent small to mid sized businesses are going under in record numbers, leaving corporations and market leaders to dominate the market. Corruption and nepotism are rife, with whole families of career politicians living the life of luxury on the back of other

UNDERSTATE | Brand Guidelines

citizen’s endeavours. The situation has prompted the rise of an underclass that aims to dismantle the construct, by moving away from the current debt based economy built on the fiat monetary system to a more sustainable one that focuses on the quality of life rather than profits and economic growth.

Understate is a libertarian brand commenting on the inadequacies and dangers of our current economic and political models, use of technology and ethics. We are apolitical and do not conform to the divide and rule tactics of left vs. right. We offer no wholesale solution to the issues that are highlighted, our sole aim is to stimulate discourse with the hope of fomenting positive change for the majority of earth’s population, not just the few.

Despite the bleak picture painted, Understate is not overtly serious. We like to have fun and joke around just as much as anyone else and believe that life should be lived to its fullest

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Brand platform Our brand platform is a summary of all the elements that make Understate special. Central to the platform is our big idea The future is uncertain and the end is always near.

Our vision for the future is about the impact we want to make.

Our positioning is the unique place we occupy in the world.

Our vision A sustainable economic and political environment that benefits the majority, not just the rich minority.

Our positioning

Our values

Understate is an independant streetwear brand that provides a thought-provoking look at humanities development

Liberty Sustainabilty Creativity Collaboration Honesty

The future is uncertain and the end is always near

Our offer describes what we do for all our audiences.

Our values are the things we believe in that drive the way we do things.

Our personality is the image we want to project.

Our personality

Our offer

Rebelious & thought-provoking Subtle & intellignet Apolitical & honest Creative & insightful

Understate provides quality clothing to those unafraid of challenging the status quo

The Brand Platform is the essential tool to help us make the right decisions in everything we do.

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Masterbrand The brands most recognizable element is the logotype which conveys being below or under the established power structure. It seeks to remind the majority of their place as serfs to the state, designated by politicians and their puppet masters.

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Exclusion zone The masterbrand logo should always have breathing space. This can be determined by a square equal to the height of the logotype itself.

The minimum recomended size for the masterbrand logo is 30mm wide (150 pixels online). It should never be used below 20mm wide (100 pixels).

30mm (150 pixels)

20mm (100 pixels)

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X - Do nots

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Do not try to recreate the masterbrand logo

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Do not stretch or compress the masterbrand logo

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Do not distort the masterbrand logo

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Do not put the masterbrand logo in a box or any other shape

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Do not put the masterbrand logo on an overcomplicated background where it becomes illegible

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Do not use the masterbrand logo in other colours (that have not been specified in these guidelines)

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Do not add a suffix to the masterbrand logo

A P PA R E L

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Primary

Secondary

Colour At Understate we understand not everything is black and white but we love monochrome and feel that it works well with the rest of our identity.

Colours from the secondary pallet should be used sparingly if at all in brand communication, slowly but surely colour will be injected into the Understate brand as it develops over time.

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Typography Our brand typefaces are Dense for impact areas like headers and title, and Helvetica for all body copy/large areas of text. Both fonts come in a variety of different weights to suit all of the brands needs.

The combination of Dense and Helvetica should be used wherever possible, in the absence of Dense, Helvetica is the go to substitute.

Keep typography simple. Do not overcrowd layouts and do not use too many type sizes. Use weight to draw emphasis instead.

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Dense - Regular Helvetica - Regular

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Dense - Regular abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvxyz 123456789 £&*?!

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ Helvetica - Regular abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvxyz 123456789 £&*?!

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ

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Imagery Use simple, engaging, high quality imagery. A wide range of imagery is suitable to express the personality of the brand. Example themes will be shown over the following pages. Illustration and typographic treatments are also options. When using any of these types of imagery, ensure that the logo is fully legible.

The imagery used reflects aspects of modern and future life such as architecture, technology, mass transport systems and urban environments, as well as textures, patterns, graffiti and decay. We seek to explore both the utopian and dystopian aspects of modern day life as well as references to both in popular culture.

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Abstract/texture

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Close up/detail

Modern architecture

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Manipulated photography

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Graffiti

Desolation/decay

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Graphic illustration

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Urban environments

Geometric

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