Brand kit

Turn what a brand looks like into a file other work can rely on. The tokens at the top are the source of truth: when a later page needs the primary colour, it reads the hex value from here instead of approximating it from a description. The prose underneath explains why each choice exists and how to use it.

When to use it

• Building the context folder, before any visual output.
• When the team keeps producing off-brand pages, decks or ads.
• When a brand guide exists as a PDF nobody opens, and you want it in a form AI tools can read.

Don't use it for voice (/tov-guidelines), for messaging (/messaging), or to design a new identity from scratch unless that's explicitly what the user asked for.

Inputs

Required: one visual source and the company name. The visual source is either:

• 3 to 5 screenshots: homepage, about, pricing, a feature page. This gives the highest fidelity.
• a website URL, where you capture screenshots yourself if you can.
• a brand PDF.

Optional: the website URL alongside screenshots (to read exact hex codes and font names from the CSS), a Figma file, logo files, an existing brand guide.

Decide the job first: apply the brand as it is (most common), fill in only the missing pieces, or create a new identity (only when asked).

Paths. Write to context/brand/MMYY-brand-kit.md. Agency or consultant? Swap context/ for clients/<client>/context/ throughout.

Tools. Your own vision on screenshots does most of the work. Page fetching or Firecrawl can read CSS for exact values. A browser automation tool can take screenshots from a URL if you have one.

Steps

1. Capture. Get the screenshots, including pages that show icons, illustrations and photos in context, not just the logo.
2. Analyse. Colours (primary, secondary, accent, background, text), fonts and sizes, spacing rhythm, corner radius, buttons and cards, imagery style.
3. Cross-check against the CSS if you have the URL. When the CSS and the screenshot disagree, trust the screenshot.
4. Score confidence 0 to 5 on every token, and note where it came from.
5. Write the tokens. A YAML block at the top of the file:
   • colors: at least a primary, plus secondary, accent, background, surface, text, muted. Hex values.
   • typography: heading and body font families, weights, a size scale.
   • spacing: a base unit and scale.
   • rounded: corner radius values.
   • logo: which file to use on light and dark backgrounds, minimum size, clear space.
   • Refer to other tokens as {colors.primary} rather than repeating the hex.
6. Write the prose sections, in this order:
   • overview and mood
   • logo usage
   • colours, with what each is for
   • typography
   • layout and spacing
   • shapes
   • imagery
   • do's and don'ts
7. Make the do's and don'ts quantitative. Accent colour on no more than about 10% of a screen. No more than two font weights per screen. One primary action per screen. Name the brand's one signature element and limit it to one use per surface.
8. Check the file.
   • every {token} reference resolves
   • a primary colour exists
   • text and background pairs meet WCAG AA contrast
   • every colour token is used somewhere
9. Mark gaps as [NEEDS VERIFICATION] with your best estimate.

What good looks like

• Every hex value was seen in a screenshot or the CSS. Nothing is guessed.
• Font names are confirmed, or described by shape with likely candidates flagged.
• Logo rules only describe files that exist.
• A designer, or an AI building a landing page, could produce an on-brand page from this file alone.
• The do's and don'ts are specific to this brand, not generic design advice.

Mistakes to avoid

• Inventing an icon set or illustration style the brand doesn't have. "No icon set" is a valid finding.
• Approximating colours from a description ("a warm red") instead of extracting the value.
• Describing the brand in adjectives with no tokens.
• Letting the signature element creep into every section.

Chain

Step 7 of the suggested chain: /company-context → /icp-research → /competitor-research → /win-loss → /expert-pov → /tov-guidelines → brand-kit → /positioning → /messaging → /funnel-strategy → /goals.