Introduction
Welcome to the CBI brand guidelines. This document provides the essential guidelines for working with our visual identity. Our identity is made up up of our logo, alongside other visual elements including colour, type, and imagery. All work together to reinforce the brand – where consistency is key. This guide will assist you in designing and producing compelling communications with creative flexibility.
Our purpose, mission and values
Our purpose
To be the collective voice of business, achieving sustainable growth.
Our mission
We serve as the catalyst between industry and government to drive positive change, speaking for businesses of all sizes and sectors across the whole economy, in every UK region and nation, ensuring sustainable growth for the benefit of society. Our voice represents 170,000 businesses. This includes over 1,100 corporate members, plus nearly 150 trade associations. Our corporate members alone employ over 2.3 million private sector workers.
Values
Integrity
We lead honestly, holding ourselves and others accountable to our values, eunsuring we are open, consistent and thoughtful in everything we do.
Respect
We behave inclusively, embracing diversity of all kinds, creating a fair and supportive environment, treating each other kindness and empathy.
Brilliance
We deliver collaboratively, bringing together the brightest minds, continually learning and seeking ways to create impactful solutions we are proud of.
Courage
We challenge confidently, building a trusted environment, daring to do things differently, and empowering people to speak up and create the change they want to see.
Logo
The logo
The CBI logo is the primary visual representation of our brand. It’s vital that we use it correctly and consistently. It should never be altered, modified, or redrawn.
Primary logo
Prioritise the use of the CBI Navy logo to build brand consistency and recognition.
If you need the CBI logo to be provided to an external company please fill out the logo request form and submit it to the Design Team.
Exclusion zone & minimum size
The exclusion zone ensures legibility and impact of the logo by isolating it from competing visual elements; such as text and supporting graphics. This zone should be considered the absolute minimum safe distance, ensuring the logo has plenty of room to breathe.
The exclusion zone is equal to half the height of the logo (marked as x in the diagram).
Establishing a minimum size ensures that the impact and legibility of the logo is not compromised in application. Use the minimum sizes for small-scale applications of the logo.
Maximum Size
There is no maximum size - the logo should appear proportionally correct within all creative.
Minimum Size
Print: 10mm wide
Digital: 46px wide
Logo variation
When the primary navy logo isn’t suited to a particular application, prioritise the white logo - it works universally.
A On CBI navy
B On secondary colours
C On imagery
Mono
The mono (black) version of the logo should only be used if the production process only allows for one colour. It should never be used for digital.
When using the logo on secondary colour or photography please ensure you have referred to the colour and image guidelines before application.
Logo placement
Our prefered logo position is always top-left on all printed and digital communications. In some cases for digital only, the logo can be positioned centrally.
Please see following section for guidelines on central alignment.
Central logo alignment
When positioning the logo centrally, the alignment
needs to be corrected optically using the following method.
1. Align logo centrally
2. Take the measurement of the first line in the logo
3. Nudge the logo to the left using that measurement
Favicon
A unique simplifed version of the logo has been created for the favicon.
Note: the favicon can be as small as 16 x 16px.
Sponsorship
When partnering with sponsors on CBI initiatives, our logo must be the most prominent. Sponsor logos should be a maximum of 80% the size of the CBI characters in our logo (not the vertical lines) and should be positioned to the bottom of the page or right corner of the page, along with an appropriate descriptor - ie ‘sponsored by’.
Sponsor logos usually range from left to right and are ordered alphabetically, or in hierarchical order in accordance with sponsorship agreements. Certain outputs (such as emails and pull up banners) require that sponsor logos are stacked.
When a sponsor has equal ownership of a CBI initiative, sponsor logos can have equal prominence and be positioned next to the CBI logo.
As logos can vary in size and composition care should be taken to ensure that sponsorship logos appear to be the correct size visually rather than just by size as a percentage.
CBI as a sponsor
We require completion of a logo licence before we allow our brand to be associated with a third party initiative. If the association is approved by our governance team and the logo licence is complete, the marketing and design team will provide the logo in the required format.
Logo misuse
It is important that the appearance of the logo remains consistent. The logo should not be misinterpreted, modified, or extended. No attempt should be made to alter the logo in any way. Its orientation, colour and composition should remain as indicated in this document - there are no exceptions. To illustrate this point, some of the more likely mistakes are shown on this page.
Colour
Primary colour palette
Our brand is underpinned with a colour palette designed to be fresh, modern and distinctive. Different combinations of colour can dramatically change the tone and appearance of a document, so it is important to consider how they work together. To help achieve greater brand recognition it is important that our colour palette is applied consistently.
Our brand colours have been carefully selected to convey the perfect tone for us. Navy is our primary brand colour - accompanied by a set of secondary colours that create contrast, giving energy to our brand.
Neutral, white and black, may also be used alongside the primary colours, mainly for text or areas of white space. Black should never be used as a background.
Navy
White (Neutral)
Glacier
Black (Neutral)
Secondary colour palette
It’s important that our colours are as distinctive as the rest of our brand.
All the colours in our secondary palette compliment our signature colour, and give us flexibility across all communications, they are not restricted to being accent colours. Our secondary colours are to be used in situations where multiple colours are needed to create optimal impact.
Secondary colours can be used as tints if more shades are required to show data on graphs and infographics.
Purple
Aqua
Lime
Violet
Teal
Amber
Colour accessibility
We have put our colour palette through accessibility testing and the following table explains best use for each colour.
Where possible we recommend always using colour parings which are marked AAA to ensure optimal use.
Type on colour
These are the recommend colour pairings. In some instances if using larger copy more colours may be available - please refer
to the previous accessibility
chart for best practice.
Logo on colour
The CBI logo must only be used in either Navy or White. Please refer to the following colour combinations to ensure best use.
In rare instances, the logo may be used in black for printed materials only, never on digital materials.
Colour gradients
Background gradients
There are three pre-set background gradients which have been curated from the secondary colours. These are to be used as background colours on digital and print backdrops. All gradients are made from secondary colours. Background gradients may be used at a 0° angle or 45° angle and must not be reversed.
Accent gradient
We have created an accent gradient, which can be used for print and digital collateral as a graphic device to create compelling designs. This gradient must not be used for large block colour, text, or backgrounds. Use is limited to lines, outline shapes, and infographics. The accent gradient must always be used left to right or top to bottom and ideally at a 45 degree angle, and must not be reversed.
All gradients should only use the colours outlined, and may not be altered or merged with other gradients or additional colour. Avoid using more than one gradient colour at once.
Gradient angles
Background Gradients (digital only)
Our background gradients may only be used at 0 degree and 45 degree angles to ensure best practice.
On some applications where content is going down the page the gradients can be used at 90 degree.
Gradient accessibility
Background gradients (digital only)
Our background gradients must only be used in accordance to accessibility guidelines. If using text or the CBI logo over a gradient they must follow the approved pairings listed here.
Accent gradients
Accent gradients must never be used as block backgrounds, so should never have copy or logos overlayed.
Correct and incorrect uses:
Digital
This is a quick guide to ensure best colour use:
• Do not use solid colours outside
of the brand colour palette
• Do not use illegible colour combinations
• Do not use black as a background colour
• Do not adjust the transparency of colours
• Do not use illegible colour combinations
over photography
• Do not use logo on colours outside of colour palette
Correct and incorrect uses:
Gradients
This is a quick guide to ensure best colour use:
• Only use accessibility approved colour pairings
• Do not alter the gradient in any way
• Do not use unapproved colour gradients
• Only use the permitted angles for background gradients
• Never use accent gradients as backgrounds
• Never use gradients for text
Typography
Primary typeface
Our primary typeface is RM Pro. We use it everywhere possible. It is a simple, clean and legible typeface that compliments our logo. As a sans-serif, it is bold and modern, classic and friendly. It makes an unmistakable statement, and works as functional typography across digital platforms and print materials.
Alternative typeface
In situations where it is not possible to use RM Pro, Arial can be used. We only use it when RM Pro is not available, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word or Outlook. This avoids any incompatibility issues when documents are sent out to third parties who do not have RM Pro as Arial is a Microsoft font. It ensures documents are seen as we intend them. Do not use Arial on professionally designed materials.
Typeface weights
Secondary typeface
Our headline typeface is Acumin Pro Condensed Bold. We use it in headings, for short statements and bold headings on documents in block capitals, either filled or outlined. It is used for sub headings, in sentence case. It should not be used for body copy. We only use it in one weight - bold.
Acumin Pro Condensed is an Adobe font, that can be installed and used by design and marketing team members.
Alternative typeface
In situations where it is not possible to use Acumin, Trade Gothic Next - Condensed Bold can be used. We only use it when Acumin is not available, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word or Outlook. This avoids any incompatibility issues when documents are sent out to third parties who do not have Acumin as Trade Gothic Next is a Microsoft font. It ensures documents are seen as we intend them. Do not use Trade Gothic Next - Condensed Bold on professionally designed materials.
Typography - Hierarchy and use
The hierarchy of type is clear.
The use of all caps is reserved to the highest level of communications and only for short headings.
Outlined all caps is used to pop content out the page or highlight a word, it should not be used outside of designed materials.
All secondary headings use sentence case to make sure maximum legibility is maintained.
It is recommended that you use a font size between 9pt and 12pt for body copy, avoid long-line lengths and unnecessary use of italics.
We range all text left unless there is a strong design rationale to centre text.
Graphic device
Graphic device
Curved angle
• Using the curve as inspiration from the CBI logo
to further brand recognisability
• Can be used for blocks of colour, gradients
and image frames
• The curve must only be used on the top left corner
Grid
To maintain a consistency of logo application we have developed a grid that our logo and curve sits in.
This grid can be flexibly scaled up and scaled down to common paper and digital sizes, whilst maintaining a ratio that keep proportions balanced. The grid is not a visible part of our brand, it sits in the background, as a working layer in our artwork.
The grid is a 16 by 16 square grid, that is expanded to meet the edge of the page. On landscape pages it is generally expanded to meet the horizontal edge and on portrait pages it is expanded to meet the vertical edge.
The logo and the grid
The logo is then sized to be the height of one square and placed 1 by 1 square away from the top left edge.
If the curve is used as a border the border should be 1 square from the edges and the logo should be place 1 by 1 square in from the curve. The curve should be between 1 to 1.5 squares in curvature.
There may be some particularly narrow applications, such as email banners, where we need to use a 16 x 6 square grid.
Grid templates
The design team have created a range of ready to use templates with the logo size and position have been worked out using the grid. These should be used as the starting point for all design work.
Photography
Photography principles
In order to ensure our photography is cohesive and high quality, our imagery utilises a set of three guiding principles.
Use these principles as a checklist when capturing photos or selecting imagery to be used for the brand.
All photographs should have an editorial feel. They should capture a moment, tell a story, and feel natural. They should not appear overly stock or disingenuous.
Our three guiding principles:
• Optimistic
• Authentic
• Engaging
Photos can either be from Shutterstock, (the Design Team have an account) or from CBI's Asset Bank.
Asset Bank is a Digital Asset Management platform that the design team has relaunched to helps us easily manage, showcase, and share our content, such as photos and graphics, with staff. Asset Bank contains photos and videos from recent CBI events, staff headshots, relevant stock photography and on brand icons.
As a general rule, photos from events from over 3 years ago should not be used.
Optimistic
We’re positive about the future of business and our images should reflect this. We embrace an optimistic tone by appearing human and welcoming. Our images should not feel cold
or too dark.
Key elements:
Warm, natural lighting / human-centric / intimate cropping / positive facial expressions / welcoming and relaxed poses
Authentic
We want business to feel tangible. We’re a real company delivering real services to real people, so our images should capture this.
Key elements:
Candid moments in a journalistic style / images tell a story / natural styling / attention to detail / transparent, shows process and imperfections / diversity within casting
Engaging
Dynamic imagery is about being optimistic and energetic with movement. Select images that grab and hold people’s attention. The CBI is ‘the voice of business’ and aims to champion the private sector. Imagery should be fresh and captivating, never dull or stale.
Key elements:
Showing scale on different levels and complexity from close detail shots to wider landscapes / different perspectives: in the air, on the ground / interesting and unexpected cropping or framing / shallow depth of field
Photography categories
Lifestyle
When capturing or selecting photos, look for warm lighting and candid moments that feel relatable and human-centric.
Photography categories
Members, staff and speakers
Photographs of our members, staff and speakers should look like a candid moment in time — as if they don’t realise they are being photographed. Use warm, natural lighting and atypical angles and compositions to convey the scene. Aim for a more photo-journalistic style rather than a staged production. Consider the environment of each photo. Look for visual rhythm or graphic shapes to create interesting compositions.
Photography misuse
Do not use:
• Colour washes
• Graphic overlays
• Cliché images
• Illustration stock imagery
• Dual image overlays
Photography overlays
When the logo, graphics or type needs to be used over imagery, a black overlay can be applied on top for contrast.
The overlay should always be set to 100% black with a multiply. The opacity can be anything between 10% and 40%, depending on the image.
Iconography
Iconography
Furthering brand cohension, we include the subtle visual cue of our curved angle into the top left corner of our icons.
We have an ownable set of icons for use across digital and print touchpoints.
Illustrations
Illustrations
Our illustration style is composite collage, which combines photographic elements with brand shapes and colours creates a strong, expressive illustration style that is versatile and can be used to communicate a variety of concepts and ideas.
Illustrations should be used sparingly as hero content to create visual impact such as on a report cover, social media graphics, animation or a large website banner.
The illustration style can be dialled up and dialled down to compliment our messaging and audience.
Illustration considerations
It is essential that when we are composing new visuals in this style we anchor them in the main brand.
We can visualise complex ideas though juxtaposition of simple assets. We use brand colours, shapes, and textures together with content specific shapes, cut outs and photography to create college compositions that are tangile and unique.
Bringing it all together
Below is a snapshot of some recent examples that we created in 2023, these examples demonstrate how the various elements of our brand can be combined together to create an exciting and flexible visual identity.
Video and animation
Video
As with all CBI outputs, we use techniques, style and components to ensure our video content is consistent and brand compliant.
On all video and animations we should include the following elements; a short outro logo endslate, lower thirds for talking heads, subtitles and a logo watermark.
Outro logo endslate
We have a quick and slower animated logo endslate.
Lower thirds
A lower third is a graphic placed in the bottom part of the screen during a video. It can be used to identify people, locations, and events. The sample to the right, shows our template for how names and job titles should appear on videos.
Subtitles and captioning
Captioning settings
Font: RM Pro, Regular
Font size: 60
Text colour: White
No drop shadow
A black background at 85% opacity, 27 padding
Aligned -47 from the bottom.
A maximum of two lines.
Logo Watermark
The logo watermark should appear in the top left corner of the video. The logo should be either white or navy, whichever stands out best on the background, and proportioned to fit our standard logo size for the format.
Animation
Animations should lean in to our illustration style, and use vectors and photo cut outs alongside our typefaces and colour palette.
CBI Economics
CBI Economics
CBI Economics is the economic consultancy division of the CBI, offering products and services to empower businesses with the information they need to succeed and grow.
CBI Economics logo
The branding falls under the master CBI brand. CBI Economics logo is a branded house logo, with its indicative name next to the CBI logo.
The CBI Economics logo should be placed on a page using the grid, so that the 'CBI' part is two square wide. This is smaller than the master CBI logo and allows space for the name to follow on from the logo.
CBI Economics Colours
We have focused our colour palette for CBI Economics on our Navy, Grey, White, Black and Amber for core design element. This give the CBI Economics some level of brand distinction whilst still clearly being part of the master CBI brand. We do use the other colours and gradients for CBI Economics when needed.
Navy
Glacier
Black (Neutral)
Amber
White (Neutral)
Examples of CBI Economics
These examples show CBI Economics in use, for marketing for CBI Economics this should lean more into our master brand, use playful typography, icons and use our master illustration and photo style.
For economic information products that are communicating technical information the brand it is often bit more parred back and toned down.
