Brand guidelines
Melted Axis is a design studio working in impossible architecture. This is the system that goes with it: the mark, the colour, the type, the grid, and the rules that keep it all looking like one studio.
The mark
A three-dimensional emblem of nested triangular frames - an axis built from rules - with a chevron falling through its centre and out below the base. The metal is chrome; the cut edges throw a spectrum, cool at the top and warm where the light strikes. The wordmark sits beneath in extruded chrome, on a black ground.
Clear space. The clear space equals the height of the wordmark's cap height, on every side. Nothing enters it - not type, not a rule, not the edge of a picture.
Minimum size. The emblem is never used below 48px tall. Below 120px, use the emblem alone. The wordmark is never set below 24px tall.
Colour
The palette is sampled from the emblem itself, so the print and the screen come out of the same place.
Type
| Display | Space Grotesk | Headlines, the wordmark, section titles. Geometric, slightly industrial, holds up at large sizes. |
| Text | Inter | Body copy, UI, long-form. Neutral and very legible. |
| Data | IBM Plex Mono | Prices, specs, captions, technical annotation, anything that is a number. |
Grid
| Columns | 12 | With a 24px gutter. Fluid from 1024px up. |
| Margin | 64px | Desktop, dropping to 20px below 640px. |
| Baseline | 8px | Everything lands on it. |
| Max width | 1200px | Read at 68 characters for long text. |
Motion
Every film and every animation opens the same way. The emblem rises out of the black, a band of light crosses the metal, and the name sets beneath it.
The full sequence and its timings
Tone of voice
- Precise, not theatrical. We describe the work, not the process.
- Short sentences. No exclamation marks.
- We name the deliverable, the price and the date. Nothing else.
- We never say we are cheap. We never say the work is free.
- We say what a thing is, where it came from, and what it is for.