Brand Guide

The Brand Guide in Kinabase lets you define your organisation's visual identity - including logos, colour palettes, and typography - and share it with your team. Your brand settings are automatically applied to document templates and portals, ensuring consistent, professional output.

1. What Is the Brand Guide?

The Brand Guide serves two purposes:

1. Configuration: Administrators define brand identities with logos, colours, and fonts
2. Reference: All users can view the Brand Guide to access approved colours, fonts, and usage guidelines

Your brand settings are used throughout Kinabase:

• Document Templates: Automatic styling with brand fonts and colours
• Portals: Consistent branding for external-facing pages
• Brand Fields: Tag records with specific brand identities

2. Accessing the Brand Guide

For All Users (Viewing)

1. Click your user icon
   • In the bottom-left corner of Kinabase, click your name or avatar.
2. Select 'Brand Guide'
   • The Brand Guide opens, displaying your organisation's brand identity.

For Administrators (Configuring)

1. Open Settings
   • Click your name in the bottom-left corner and select Settings.
2. Select 'Branding'
   • Under Organisation, choose Branding to manage brand identities.

3. Creating a Brand Identity

3.1 Add a New Brand

1. Open Branding settings
   • Go to Settings → Branding.
2. Click 'Add Brand'
   • The brand editor opens with three tabs: Details, Colours, and Typography.

3.2 Brand Details

In the Details tab:

• Brand Name: Enter a descriptive name (e.g., 'Corporate Brand', 'Product Line A').
• Brand Description: Optionally describe when this brand should be used.
• Brand Logo: Upload your logo image.
  • Recommended size: 512 × 512 pixels
  • Maximum file size: 1 MB
  • Supported formats: PNG, JPG, SVG

When you upload a logo, Kinabase automatically generates a colour palette based on the image colours.

3.3 Colour Palette

In the Colours tab, configure your brand's colour scheme:

System Colours

These six colours are used throughout the system:

For each colour, you can:

• Pick a colour using the colour picker
• Enter a specific HEX code
• Give the colour a custom name

Custom Colours

Click Add Custom Colour to add additional brand-specific colours beyond the system palette. These appear in the Brand Guide and can be referenced by your team.

3.4 Typography

In the Typography tab, configure your brand's fonts:

Font Family

1. Select a base font
   • Choose from system fonts (Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana, Courier New) or browse Google Fonts.
2. Preview your selection
   • The preview box shows how your chosen font appears.

Visit Google Fonts to explore available options.

Typography Styles

Customise the appearance of each text style:

For each style, you can adjust:

• Font size (in points)
• Font weight (100-900)
• Letter spacing
• Line height
• Italic styling

Bullet Point Style

Choose the default bullet style for lists:

• Disc (filled circle)
• Circle (hollow)
• Square
• Dash

3.5 Save Your Brand

Click Save (or Add for new brands) to save your brand identity.

4. Viewing the Brand Guide

The Brand Guide provides a comprehensive reference for your brand identity.

4.1 Accessing Colour Codes

In the Colours section:

1. View colour swatches
   • Each colour displays with its name and colour variations (9 shades from 100-900).
2. Copy colour codes
   • Click any swatch to copy its HEX code.
   • Click the HEX, RGB, or HSL labels to copy that specific format.
3. View custom colours
   • Scroll to the Custom Colours section for additional brand colours.

4.2 Typography Reference

In the Typography section:

1. Font Usage Guidelines
   • View recommendations for using your brand fonts.
2. Primary Brand Font
   • See the selected font family and where to obtain it.
3. Typography Specimens
   • Preview each heading and paragraph style with actual rendering.
4. Technical Specifications
   • View detailed specs: font family, size, line height, letter spacing, weight, and variable axes.

5. Managing Multiple Brands

Your organisation can have multiple brand identities for different purposes (e.g., corporate brand, product lines, regional variations).

5.1 Switching Brands

1. Open the Brand Guide
   • Click your user icon and select Brand Guide.
2. Use the brand switcher
   • If multiple brands exist, tabs appear in the toolbar.
   • Click a tab to view that brand's guide.

5.2 Editing or Deleting Brands

From Settings → Branding:

• Edit: Click the Edit button (pencil icon) or right-click and select Edit.
• Duplicate: Right-click a brand and select Duplicate to create a copy.
• Delete: Right-click and select Delete. Confirm the deletion in the dialog.

Deleting a brand cannot be undone. Ensure it's not in use before removing it.

6. Using Brands in Your Data

6.1 Brand Field Type

Add a Brand field

1. Open Collection Configuration
   • Right-click your collection and select Configure.
2. Add a Field
   • Under Fields, click + Add Field.
3. Select 'Brand'
   • Choose the Brand field type.
4. Save
   • Users can now select a brand when creating or editing records.

The brand field displays the logo and name, making it easy to identify which brand a record belongs to.

6.2 Brand in Document Templates

Document templates automatically apply the primary brand identity:

• Typography: All headings and paragraphs use brand fonts
• Logo element: Insert your brand logo using the toolbar
• Colours: Access brand colours when styling text

Read our Document Templates guide for more on creating branded documents.

7. Best Practices

Troubleshooting

The Brand Guide ensures everyone in your organisation has access to approved brand assets and guidelines. Combined with document templates, it helps maintain a professional, consistent identity across all your outputs.

If you need assistance, contact your System Admin or our Support Team.