How the Bradawl logo, colours, type and voice are used. For the sign-writer, the printer, whoever builds the next website, and Rob.
Issue 1, October 2026. Designed by Shopbell for Rob.Bradawl is a made‑up business, and these are sample brand guidelines, made by Shopbell to show what its £350 branding package delivers.
Rob is a time-served joiner, working on his own as a handyman in Chester. He had a van, a phone number and a good name with the people he’d worked for, and nothing with that name on it.
The brand had to look trustworthy and practical wherever it turns up: on the side of a van, on a card left on the kitchen table, and on a phone screen while somebody decides who to ring.
Readable across a street, on a van that’s moving.
Clear on a card or a quote printed in one colour.
Still a bradawl at the size of a thumbnail.
And not: No cartoon handyman, no crossed hammer and spanner, and nothing that looks like a franchise.
Three directions for the first look, each drawn as a finished logo so it could be judged as one. Rob chose the badge, and it was refined from there.
A bradawl lying corner to corner in a square of chalk blue: a tool anyone can picture, in a shape that holds its own on a van door and in a row of app icons.
Chosen, and refined from there.
The name on a leaf of a folding rule, brass joint and all, for a joiner who measures twice.
Set aside: long and thin, it shrinks to a blue stripe at the size of a phone icon.
A round stamp, like the mark a cabinet-maker burns into the back of finished work.
Set aside: it promised fine furniture rather than a door that shuts, and its lettering filled in when small.
A bradawl, the joiner’s spike for starting a screw hole, lying corner to corner in a square of chalk blue, and the name beside it in heavy capitals. It’s drawn, not typed: always use the artwork, and never redraw it.
Keep half the badge’s width clear on every side. Nothing else goes in that space, the edge of a van door included.
Full logo 30mm wide in print, 120 pixels on a screen.
The mark 8mm, or 25 pixels.
Below that the small mark: no edge, and the bradawl drawn bigger.
Six versions, and between them they cover everything. Use the full logo wherever there’s room for it.
The first choice, wherever there’s room: the van, a quote, the top of the website.
For square or upright spaces: the front of the card, a board by the gate.
Where the name is already said, or there’s no room for it: a profile picture, a tape measure.
Unchanged. On its own colour the badge is held by its edge.
Ink alone, for a job printed in one colour: a rubber stamp, a receipt book, an engraved tag.
The badge stays chalk blue and the name turns paper. For ink, or anything as dark.
Three colours do nearly all the work: chalk blue, ink and paper. Pencil is for notes, and the rest are for when something needs to be quieter.
#A8D2FF RGB 168 210 255
The blue of a joiner’s chalk line. The badge, and the brand’s one bright colour: the van’s rule stripe, buttons, the front of the card. Something to put words on, and never the words themselves on paper.
#1C1B19 RGB 28 27 25
The bradawl, the name and nearly all the words. A warm near-black, never a grey.
#F6FAFD RGB 246 250 253
Behind almost everything, and the words on ink. On a white van, the van’s own white stands in for it.
#0E2350 RGB 14 35 80
Small labels, crosses, ticks and links: the marks a joiner makes in blue pencil. Never in the logo.
#E1EAF4 RGB 225 234 244
Panels that need to stand apart from the paper.
#57534A RGB 87 83 74
Quieter words on paper: hints and small print.
#C1CCD7 RGB 193 204 215
Quieter words on ink.
What colour words can be, and on what, so that everybody can read them. Ink and paper carry most of it.
Every figure is a contrast ratio, worked out the way the web’s accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.2) say. They ask for at least 4.5 to 1 for ordinary words, and the brand keeps to that everywhere, on paper too. Nothing here comes between that and 3 to 1, the least for large headings, so there’s no in-between to remember.
| Words in | On paper | On shavings | On chalk blue | On ink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ink | 16.4 to 1: fine for any words | 14.1 to 1: fine for any words | 10.9 to 1: fine for any words | The same colour |
| Graphite | 7.2 to 1: fine for any words | 6.3 to 1: fine for any words | 4.8 to 1: fine for any words | 2.2 to 1: never |
| Pencil | 14.5 to 1: fine for any words | 12.5 to 1: fine for any words | 9.6 to 1: fine for any words | 1.1 to 1: never |
| Paper | The same colour | 1.1 to 1: never | 1.5 to 1: never | 16.4 to 1: fine for any words |
| Sawdust | 1.5 to 1: never | 1.3 to 1: never | 1.0 to 1: never | 10.5 to 1: fine for any words |
| Chalk blue | 1.5 to 1: never | 1.2 to 1: never | The same colour | 10.9 to 1: fine for any words |
One typeface, Inter, in three weights. Headings are heavy and in capitals, like lettering on a van; everything else is set plainly, to be read.
Designed by Rasmus Andersson, and free to use anywhere under the SIL Open Font License. Where it isn’t to hand, in Word or an email, use Arial Black for headings and Arial for text: close enough that nobody will mind.
Like Rob on the doorstep: plain, specific and a little dry. Short sentences, numbers rather than adjectives, and nothing he wouldn’t say out loud.
It’s one man and a van. People are letting Rob into the house, not a company.
I’m Rob. It’s just me and the van.
A price, a day, a two-hour slot. Vagueness is what people are afraid of.
£45 for the first hour, £32 an hour after
Most people ring a handyman worried about mess, money or being let down. Say it before they have to ask.
Dust sheets go down before the drill comes out, and there’s a hoover in the van.
Turning down the jobs he shouldn’t do is part of why people trust him with the ones he does.
They need a specialist, and I’d rather say so than have a go.
One aside is plenty, and it should be true.
Up to eight hours. I bring my own sandwiches.
| Say | Not |
|---|---|
| a job | a project |
| the bill | your invoice |
| a look at the job | a free consultation |
| I’ll ring you back | A member of the team will contact you |
| If it takes an hour, it’s a job. | No job too small. |
Every example on this sheet is from the website, word for word.
The van is the biggest advert Rob has, and it’s read in the time it takes to drive past. So: the logo, the number, what he does and where, and nothing else.
A card for the kitchen table, and a quote that looks like it came from the same person who drove up in the van.
Rob
Joiner and handyman, Chester
01632 960 417
hello@bradawl.example
bradawl.example
Quote
Four small jobs in Handbridge: a curtain pole, a loose stair spindle, a sticking back door and a new loo seat. Two and a half hours.
| First hour | £45.00 |
| Next hour and a half, at £32 | £48.00 |
| Loo seat, hinges and fixings, at cost | £27.40 |
| Call-out charge | £0.00 |
| VAT | £0.00 |
| Total | £120.40 |
|---|
The price on this quote is the price you pay.
On a screen the brand has the least room and the most competition. The website opens with the logo and the number; everywhere smaller gets the mark.
Most of what goes wrong with a logo is somebody trying to help. A few rules, with pictures.
Do give it room: half a badge all round.
Do put it on paper, chalk blue or ink, and nothing else.
Don’t stretch it or squash it to fit.
Don’t turn the badge or the bradawl. Point down to the left, every time.
Don’t set words in chalk blue on paper. At 1.5 to 1, nobody can read them.
Don’t retype the name in another typeface, or in small letters.
Don’t add shadows, outlines, glows or a gradient.
Don’t recolour it, even in the brand’s own blue.