BigStep Branding — Design System

This skill makes BigStep deliverables look like they came from one studio: premium, consistent, and unmistakably BigStep. It is a design system, not a logo-on-text layer. Pair it with the format skill (docx, pptx, pdf, xlsx, frontend-design) for mechanics; this supplies the brand layer.

The non-negotiables (what makes it BigStep)

1. Poppins everywhere. Poppins is the brand typeface (it's literally the font embedded in the corporate deck). The six weights ship in assets/fonts/. In Office formats (docx/pptx) use the SINGLE family "Poppins" + bold for weight (weight-named families like "Poppins SemiBold" don’t resolve in Word and fall back). In PDF the module registers each weight as a real embedded TTF. Never substitute another face. Keep the design FLAT — no drop shadows in any format.
2. Two-tone titles — lead word(s) Deep Navy #041342, emphasis phrase BigStep Blue #1C62EC, with a short cyan underline beneath. White on blue/dark surfaces.
3. Blue-only. The whole system is blue / navy / cyan + neutrals. NEVER use purple or lavender. Panels & zebra rows use the two BLUE tints #E4F2FF and #D4E6FF.
4. No grey header line. Interior page headers use a short blue accent segment only. The full-width grey/tint rule is removed.
5. The blue + rings system. Covers, section dividers and closing pages are full-bleed #1C62EC with the faint concentric-ring motif in a corner and the white logo. Interior pages are white with a header band (logo + accent rule) and a footer (mark + www.bigsteptech.com + page no.).
6. Designed components, not paragraphs. Use stat cards, callout panels (rounded, tinted, colored left rule), label chips, and branded tables (blue header row, blue #D4E6FF zebra) — see the primitives below.
7. Logo on every page/slide, every format. Color on light, white on dark, mark for tight spots.
8. Bullets are body text. List items use the same Poppins Regular / slate / 10–11pt as body copy. They are NEVER bold or emphasised. Only component titles (callout title, card title, table header) may be bold.
9. Embed the font in Word. Poppins falls back to Calibri in Word if not installed, so .docx output embeds the TTFs (see scripts/embed_fonts.py). PDF embeds fonts inherently; pptx/xlsx rely on the bundled TTFs being installed (Calibri fallback).

How to build (PDF — full design control)

scripts/bigstep_brand.py is the engine. It exposes the palette, fonts, logo loader, and ReportLab primitives.

import sys; sys.path.insert(0, "<skill>/scripts")
import bigstep_brand as bs
bs.register_fonts()                       # registers Poppins with ReportLab
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import A4
c = canvas.Canvas("out.pdf", pagesize=A4); PW, PH = A4

bs.cover_page(c, PW, PH, title="...", subtitle="...", kicker="...",
              footer_chips=["AI & Gen AI", "Product Engineering", ...]); c.showPage()
bs.page_frame(c, PW, PH, page_no=2, header_label="Executive Summary")
bs.two_tone(c, 18*bs.mm, PH-42*bs.mm, "Executive ", "Summary", size=22)
bs.stat_card(c, x, y, w, h, "700+", "Apps & solutions shipped")
bs.callout(c, x, y, w, "Squad-as-a-Service", ["..."], fill=bs.C.TINT)
# branded table: Table(...).setStyle(bs.branded_table_style())
bs.section_divider(c, PW, PH, 1, "Engagement Snapshot"); c.showPage()
bs.closing_page(c, PW, PH, ["Let's build", "your next big step."],
               contact={"title":"Contact Us","lines":[...]})  # accent ABOVE title
c.save()

Always use bs.draw_logo(...) for logos in ReportLab — never bare drawImage with only a width (it mis-positions the image; the helper passes explicit width+height and flattens transparency so it always renders).

A complete, working reference deck is in examples/sample_pdf.py — read it first; it composes every primitive into a CEO-ready document.

How to build (PowerPoint & Word)

Slides and docs use the same palette, fonts, logo, two-tone titles, stat cards, callout panels, and branded tables — rebuilt with native shapes/tables. Working, rendered references:

• examples/sample_pptx.py — cover, content (stat cards + callout), closing.
• examples/sample_docx.py — header band, stat cards, callout, branded table.

Set fonts to the family name Poppins (install assets/fonts/*.ttf on the machine that opens the file) with Calibri as the only fallback. Detailed recipes: references/pptx_branding.md, references/docx_branding.md, references/pdf_branding.md.

Reference files

• references/brand_guidelines.md — canonical palette, type scale, logo rules, component specs, voice. Read this first.
• references/{pdf,pptx,docx,xlsx}_branding.md — per-format recipes + checklists.

Palette (exact, sampled from the deck)

#1C62EC primary blue · #0F3FA6 deep blue (depth) · #3FC7F2 cyan accent · #041342 heading navy · #2B3D4F body slate · #E4F2FF light tint · #D4E6FF blue tint 2 (zebra) · #FDCA0E gold (rare) · #FFFFFF white · #6B7A8D muted.

Assets

• assets/bigstep_logo_color.png / _white.png / bigstep_mark.png
• assets/fonts/Poppins-*.ttf (+ OFL.txt license)

Companion skill

tech-doc builds a technical documentation deliverable end to end — the section outline, the evidence rules, and a markdown → branded DOCX → PDF pipeline that already carries these styles. Use it for the document; use this skill for the design layer around it.