Internal reference

Brand guidelines

How the mark, the colours and the type work — and the handful of rules that keep them working. Everything here is measured, not asserted: every contrast figure below was computed when this page was built.

The mark

The seal came to us as raster artwork, not vector, so every placement is a fixed-size export rather than something that scales for free. The masthead uses RWU_2, the simplified disc, at 80 pixels on desktop and 48 on mobile — the outer ring type on RWU_1 is unreadable at that size, so the variant without it is the honest choice. The footer uses RWU_3, the inverted variant, larger. Two different marks in two different registers, both on cream.

The full RWU-STR seal, red disc with a bilingual outer ring — Full seal · `RWU_1`
On cream. Print, letterhead, share cards.

On-page maximum · 64 px
Masthead and footer use this size or smaller.

The inverted RWU-STR seal, red keyline on a white field — Inverted · `RWU_3`
The only variant that survives a coloured ground.

Clear space

Keep clear space equal to a quarter of the seal's diameter on every side. Nothing sits inside it.

The fist

An end mark, and the source of the fist inside every seal. Note it is drawn in #ca0000, which is not the brand crimson #b90e0a — worth correcting the next time the artwork is opened.

Do and don't

Do
Put the seal on cream, or use the inverted variant on colour.
Do
Set both halves of the name at the same size. The bilingual lockup is the identity.
Do
Let one colour do the punctuation. A band is one flat field, not a gradient.
Do
Use ink for type on flame, and cream for type on crimson or navy.
Do
Keep radii at 3px. Rules are 1px.

Don’t
Don’t put the solid red seal (RWU_1 / RWU_2) on a crimson band — it disappears. Use RWU_3.
Don’t
Don’t set cream type on flame. It measures 2.93:1 and fails.
Don’t
Don’t stretch, recolour, rotate or add effects to the seal.
Don’t
Don’t use white as a page background. The reading ground is cream.
Don’t
Don’t shrink the Spanish. It sets at the same size as the English, always.

Colour

Crimson comes from the usage guide. Everything else was sampled from the covers of the union's own organizing pamphlets — this palette is not invented, it is the one already in print.

Bands

Four saturated grounds, each with a fixed job. Band colour is a fixed value per section type in code — never a CMS dropdown.

crimson

#b90e0a

oklch(49.79% 0.198 29.02)

Primary band, CTA fill, the one accent doing the punctuation

RWU_USAGE_GUIDE.pdf
navy

#17077d

oklch(28.30% 0.1742 271.96)

Second band — rights and legal sections

Sampled from the ULP pamphlet cover
flame

#f35227

oklch(65.47% 0.2044 35.29)

Third band — actions and alerts

Sampled from the 7-Steps cover
green

#698759

oklch(58.79% 0.0757 135.12)

Fourth band, used sparingly

Sampled from the 7-Steps cover type

Surface and ink

The page is cream. White appears only as type on crimson, and in print.

ground

#f0ecd8

oklch(94.09% 0.0268 97.62)

The reading ground. The page is cream, never white

Sampled from the 7-Steps cover slab
ink

#141018

oklch(18.18% 0.0172 307.41)

All running text on cream

Derived
muted

#5e5a50

oklch(46.82% 0.0165 88.77)

Secondary text, metadata

Derived
paper

#ffffff

oklch(100% 0 0)

Type on crimson, and print only

—

Lines

Two values, and they are not interchangeable.

rule

#c1beb0

oklch(80.00% 0.0196 96.92)

Decorative hairlines ONLY. Never marks a control

Derived
edge

#7d786b

oklch(57.33% 0.0203 89.44)

Every boundary a reader can focus or click

Derived

Darkened cuts

For when a band colour cannot legally carry text.

green-deep

#3f5635

oklch(42.48% 0.0596 136.55)

Green that can carry a sentence on cream

Darkened from green
flame-deep

#c23a13

oklch(54.59% 0.1788 35.33)

Flame that can carry a sentence on cream

Darkened from flame

Contrast

Measured at build time. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text and for any boundary marking a control.

Pairing	Sample	Ratio	Grade	Where
ink on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	15.84:1	AAA	All body copy
muted on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	5.79:1	AA	Metadata, secondary text
crimson on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	5.65:1	AA	Links, category labels
green-deep on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	6.82:1	AA	Tertiary accent
edge on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	3.71:1	AA Large	Control boundaries (3:1 needed)
rule on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	1.57:1	Fail	Decorative hairline — NOT a control boundary
ground on crimson	Aa ¿Qué?	5.65:1	AA	Crimson band type, focus ring
ground on navy	Aa ¿Qué?	12.98:1	AAA	Navy band type, focus ring
ink on flame	Aa ¿Qué?	5.41:1	AA	Flame band type
ground on flame	Aa ¿Qué?	2.93:1	Fail	NEVER — this is why flame bands set type in ink
green on ground	Aa ¿Qué?	3.40:1	AA Large	Large display only

Type

The usage guide specifies Stolzl at −40 tracking. Stolzl is licensed, so the seal keeps it and the web uses a geometric substitute at the same tracking. Body copy is Libre Franklin — the Franklin Gothic lineage, which is picket signs and newspapers rather than software.

Display · uppercase on bands, sentence case on cream: Strength through struggle; H1 · clamp(2.75rem, 6vw, 6.5rem) · line-height 1.04 · tracking −0.04em
Display · H2: ¿Qué es un sindicato?; line-height 1.06. Not tighter — Spanish uppercase carries accents above the cap line, and at 0.96 a wrapped headline puts them into the line above.
Body · Libre Franklin: A trade union is a mass economic organization that unites workers in the same branch of the economy. Compared to their non-unionized counterparts, unionized workers enjoy higher and better pay, benefits, job conditions, and job security.; 17 → 19px · line-height 1.65 · measure ~68ch
Eyebrow and meta: Worker basics · Basicos obreros; Set in the body face at 600 with wide tracking, not in a mono family — that is the union's own habit on both pamphlet covers, and it saves a font request.