Brand guide · v1.0
The Unite Recruitment brand, in one place.
Everything a designer, printer, or partner needs to use our identity well — colours, type, the wordmark, the illustration system, voice, and motion.
01 · Overview
A boutique brand for a boutique service.
Unite Recruitment is human, considered, and quietly confident. Our identity is built around a single idea — uniting — and we express it through a tall, elegant serif wordmark, a warm earthy palette, and hand-drawn line illustrations that feel touched by a real person.
Three rules sit above all others: restraint, warmth, and craft. If a design decision doesn't honour all three, it isn't us.
02 · Logo
The wordmark.
Stacked, tall, serif. "Unite" leads; "Recruitment" sits beneath as a quiet, spaced uppercase label. Never set the wordmark in a single line.
Clear space
Give it room to breathe.
Minimum clear space around the wordmark is equal to the cap-height of the "U" in Unite. Nothing competes inside that frame.
- Use the stacked lockup at all sizes.
- Keep "Recruitment" in spaced uppercase (0.35em tracking).
- Place on ink, stone, mint, or cream surfaces only.
- Allow generous clear space — at least 1× cap-height.
- Don't set Unite + Recruitment on one line.
- Don't recolour the wordmark outside the approved palette.
- Don't outline, drop-shadow, or skew it.
- Don't place it on busy photography without a stone overlay.
03 · Colour
Two anchors, four supports.
Mint and stone carry the brand. Ink handles type and CTAs. Everything else is a quiet support.
Mint
Primary brand accent
- HEX
- #C2FFE1
- RGB
- 194, 255, 225
Use on dark surfaces. Reserve for headlines, the infinity loop, and key highlights — not body copy.
Stone
Primary dark surface
- HEX
- #939597
- RGB
- 147, 149, 151
Hero panels, photo overlays, and feature backgrounds. The 'serious' counterweight to mint.
Ink
Body text & primary buttons
- HEX
- #2D3033
- RGB
- 45, 48, 51
Default for all body type on cream. Primary CTA fill. Never use pure black.
Cream
Body background
- HEX
- #F4F2ED
- RGB
- 244, 242, 237
Page background and quiet sections. Slightly warm to humanise the brand.
Mint Soft
Tertiary surface
- HEX
- #E5FBEF
- RGB
- 229, 251, 239
Light section dividers, form fields, and subtle backgrounds. Use sparingly.
Mint Deep
Hover & accessibility-tightened mint
- HEX
- #9CE8C2
- RGB
- 156, 232, 194
Button hover states and any large mint type that needs WCAG AA contrast on stone.
Pair · Hero
Mint on stone
Signature combination. Used in the hero wordmark.
Pair · Highlight
Ink on mint
For value cards, stats bands, and accent panels.
Pair · Body
Ink on cream
Default reading combination across every page.
04 · Typography
Editorial serif. Modern sans. Nothing else.
Display
Aa
Playfair Display
Weights 400–700. Use 400 for display sizes (it's calmer); 600+ only for emphasis under 24px.
Body & UI
Aa
Outfit
Weights 300–700. 400 for body, 300 for lead paragraphs, 500 for overlines and buttons.
Display H1
Playfair Display · 400 · -0.02em
Heading H2
Playfair Display · 400 · -0.02em
Heading H3
Playfair Display · 400
Lead paragraph
Outfit · 300 · 1.6 line-height
Body
Outfit · 400 · 1.6 line-height
Overline / label
Outfit · 500 · 0.25em tracking · uppercase
05 · Illustration
One continuous line.
All Unite illustrations are single-line drawings — drawn (or feeling drawn) in one stroke. They humanise the brand and reinforce the idea of connection without explaining it.
Infinity Loop
Unity & continuity
United Figures
Candidate × Employer
Smile Figure
Welcoming candidate
House & Heart
Community & home
- Stroke colour: mint #C2FFE1 on stone or ink; ink #2D3033 on mint.
- Stroke width: 4–6 px, rounded caps and joins.
- Treat illustrations as a single continuous line wherever possible.
- Don't fill the shapes — they are line art only.
- Don't add drop shadows, gradients, or 3-D effects.
- Don't combine with stock photography in the same frame.
06 · Voice & tone
Honest, human, gently witty.
We talk to humans, not personas. We're warm but not chummy. We respect the reader's time, but we don't strip the personality out.
Do
Honest, human, gently witty.
Don't
Corporate, jargon-heavy, hyperbolic.
Do
“We listen first. Then we open doors.”
Don't
“Synergistic talent acquisition partner.”
Do
Specific verbs: shortlist, brief, place, listen.
Don't
Vague nouns: solutions, ecosystems, leverage.
Do
Lowercase 'unite' as a verb in copy.
Don't
Capitalised 'Unite' inside running sentences.
07 · Motion & sound
One signature gesture, drawn once per page.
The infinity loop is the brand's one piece of motion. It draws itself in mint over a stone panel during every route change, accompanied (optionally) by a soft brushstroke whoosh. Nothing else animates with the same authority.
- · Duration: ~1.1 s draw, ~2 s total transition.
- · Easing: cubic-bezier(0.65, 0, 0.35, 1).
- · Sound: opt-in via footer toggle, persisted in localStorage.
- · Reduced-motion users: panel without the draw animation.
08 · Use the brand
Building something for us, with us, or about us?
This page is the source of truth. Bookmark it, share the URL, and email Bronwyn@uniterecruitment.co.nz if you need source files (SVG logos, font licences, illustration files).