This document provides branding guidelines for Simple Energy, including their positioning, mission, and vision statements. It outlines their logo, typography, and color palette. It also provides guidance on using icons and imagery in marketing materials consistently with the Simple Energy brand. The document is intended as a reference for creating marketing collateral, presentations, and other materials that align with their branding.
2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Brand Architecture
Positioning
Mission
Vision
Visuals
Principal Characteristics
Logo
Typography
Color Palette
Iconography
Customer Photos
Product Photos
Resources
Microsoft Office Templates
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4. POSITIONING
What you do and for whom
Describes in clear terms (no marketing
language) what you do. Makes clear
your target market, what problems
they face and how your company
solves it.
MISSION
What you do and why
Similar to your positioning statement
but with marketing language. Describes
the company, what it does and its overall
intention (its reason for existence).
Supports the vision and communicates
how you’re going to get there.
POSITIONING
Where you’re headed
Where you want to be in 5-10 years
Includes reason for being, core values
and BHAG (big hairy audacious goal)
Establishes company standards and
provide focus on a set goal.
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5. SIMPLE ENERGY’S POSITIONING
What we do for whom
Software as a service (SaaS) company providing utilities
the best motivational and engagement tools to deliver
energy savings and customer satisfaction to help them
meet growing regulatory and customer demands.
In short:
Deliver energy savings for utilities by engaging and
motivating their users through dynamic and personal
digital communications.
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6. SIMPLE ENERGY’S MISSION
What we do and why we do it
We motivate people to save energy.
We use data science, behavioral psychology, and energy analytics to
build software that makes saving energy social, fun, and simple. We
do this to create a more sustainable future.
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7. SIMPLE ENERGY’S VISION
Where we’re headed
In 10 years, we will be the largest provider of energy-related goods,
services, and software in the world.
In 10 years, we will reduce energy consumption by X% in the US
and be an irreplaceable partner for utilities.
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9. PRINCIPLE CHARACTERISTICS
All visuals should reflect the established
identity of the Simple Energy Brand:
• Simple
• Approachable
• Professional
• Dynamic
• New
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11. THE LOGO
LOGO MARK
Avoid white circle on dark gray or black. It looks like
Sparky is howling at the moon.
FONT: Smythe Sans Light
All Simple Energy logos can be found at:
Dropbox (Simple Energy)/Design/Simple Energy Collateral/Branding/Logos
-OR-
https://brandfolder.com/simpleenergy
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12. LOGO DOs & DON’Ts
DO use ample space around the logo
Surround the logo with a lot of white space
so it can breathe. Use a white background
whenever possible.
DON’T place the logo on
top of busy photos
Highly contrasted/textured
photos can make the logo
hard to read.
DON’T rotate the logo
The logo should always
remain horizontal.
DON’T add drop
shadows to the logo
All designs should look
as “flat” as possible,
within reason.
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13. www.SimpleEnergy.com
LOGO LOCKUPS
In certain contexts, the logo can be “locked up” with some other elements. Meaning that they
are locked into this specific relationship to one another and form a single unit.
This lock-up is typically used
at the bottom of a corporate
marketing 1-pager.
The link below the logo can
be changed depending on the
audience that the piece is for.
This example shows a link to
a page we constructed for
European Utility Week.
The B Corp Logo is optional.
This lock-up is used to represent our
Marketplace Software As a Service.
This lock-up is typically used at the bottom of
a consumer marketing paper report or email.
www.SimpleEnergy.com/EUW
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15. TYPOGRAPHY
80% Opacity, Multiply
THIS IS A HEADLINE, OPEN
SANS BOLD 22/24, ALL CAPS
This is an introduction paragraph, or larger option
for body copy over all. 11/13
This is a subhead, Open Sans Bold 11/12
THIS IS A SMALL TITLE, OPEN SANS BOLD 9/12, ALL CAPS
This is a body paragraph, Open Sans Regular 9/12
• These are bullets, Open Sans Regular 9/13 and 9/19
• The top line of the bulleted list should have a line height of 19 pts.
The remaining lines in the paragraph should have a line height of 13 pts.
This creates more space between bullets.
This is a callout, Open Sans Light Italic 13/17
This is a secondary callout, Open Sans Light Italic 9/13
This is a call to action, or CTA.
Open Sans Light 20/22
*This is fine print, Open Sans Regular, 5/6
Used to introduce the overall piece
Used to introduce the overall piece,
or for the whole peice for content-light pieces
Used to introduce the section
Used to describe the paragraph, flow chart, or graph following
Bullets are used for a list of points/items
Use custom spacing
Used to highlight the main idea
An option for a more subtle callout
Inspire your customers to take action. Period at the end, always.
This is used for citations. Should always be at the bottom.
“This is a customer testimonial.
Open Sans Italic 12/14”
–This is the person who said it,
a real Simple Energy user
Open Sans Regular 12/14
When starting from scratch, copy & paste the paragraph above
into new, standard sized InDesign documents. Paragraph styles
will populate automatically.
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18. SECONDARY COLOR PALETTE
RGB
194, 28, 77
HEX
#c11c4c
CMYK
18, 100, 62, 5
RGB
247, 148, 28
HEX
#f7941c
CMYK
0, 50, 100, 0
RGB
255, 194, 13
HEX
#ffc20d
CMYK
0, 25, 100, 0
RGB
140, 48, 130
HEX
#8c3082
CMYK
50, 95, 13, 0
RGB
38, 176, 222
HEX
#26afdd
CMYK
70, 10, 5, 0
RGB
23, 87, 148
HEX
#165693
CMYK
88, 64, 22, 4
RGB
117, 191, 68
HEX
#75bf44
CMYK
59, 0, 99, 0
PANTONE
376
ALWAYS use these colors to define the specific aspects of
the product shown above. For example, orange is used to
define the Data Warehouse.
DO use these colors to provide clarity for the reader.
If all aspects of the product are discussed on the same
page, these colors will help visually define them.
DON’T use these colors to define other things.
For example, don’t use Marketplace Blue when
creating a piece about email tags.
DON’T use these colors unless you must
provide clarity to the reader.
UtilityCo
Navy Blue
Engagement Platform
Green
Data Warehouse
Orange
Marketplace
Light Blue
Communications
Purple
When mapping out the Simple Energy product life cycle, use the following colors to define the different features:
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23. ICONS: HOW TO DESIGN
AVOID making icons that are hard to
see at a small size
Often times logos can be used at a very small
size. Details can get lost if not designed with
this in mind. The simpler the better!
DON’T create a scene
Icons are used to represent a concept, not
to create a scene. (The same is not true for
consumer facing marketing.)
DO use rounded corners
Rounded corners invoke the logo.
DO use two grays
Dark gray and medium gray are used for added
depth and interest.
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24. ICONS: HOW USE
Icons can be placed within circles to generate visual
interest if the piece calls for it. The icons should be
all white. There should be plenty of negative space
surrounding the icon. Please refer to the color guidelines
to ensure appropriate color usage.
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26. CUSTOMER PHOTOGRAPHY
Images should evoke refreshing, hopeful feelings.
DO use a full bleed
Often times when photography is included,
it is full bleed.
DO crop the blue circle
When including quotes, be sure to partially crop
the blue circle.
BUILDING CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS IS
GOOD BUSINESS
“My attitude toward my utility
fundamentally changed: now I
feel like they are with us, instead
of against us.”
–Linda H., a real
Simple Energy customer
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27. PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY
When creating product photos, there are two methods:
• Placeit shots, where the screenshot is
placed within a photograph.
• In a device, where the screenshot is
more straightforward.
DON’T lie
While it’s okay to adjust designs to be more readable,
do not add features that do not exist.
DO be selective about which photo to use
When possible, choose photographs where the screen is easy
to read. Make sure the context of the image matches the
context of our customers and the product.
DO adjust the design to be readable
If needed, create a “marketing version” of a web design
that is adjusted for maximum readability.
Flat device templates can be found here:
Dropbox (Simple Energy)/Design/Design Assets/Templates
Placeit shots can be created on www.placeit.net
-OR-
Dropbox (Simple Energy)/Design/Design Assets/Product Photos (placeit)
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29. MICROSOFT OFFICE TEMPLATES
Microsoft Word Document templates can be found here:
Dropbox (Simple Energy)/Designers Share Things/Templates/Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word Document templates can be found here:
Dropbox (Simple Energy)/Designers Share Things/Templates/Power Point
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