One system.
Three modes.
This document defines the LG Studio master identity and the direction for new work. It covers how the marks are used, how the voice sounds, what the palette carries, and how the system changes mode according to what the experience is doing. Existing canonical product systems and established surfaces remain valid until intentionally migrated.
Find the frame that makes the essential visible.
LG Studio is a strategy and creative direction practice. It reads what's there, frames what matters, and builds what follows.
Most marketing is decoration. LG Studio is architecture. The work begins with a read: what the market is doing, what the brand is saying, and what's actually underneath the noise. Only then does anything get made.
LG Studio is also the master brand. StrategyIQ and Insights are not competing identities. They are modes of the same practice, doing different work. A diagnostic instrument and a long essay should not be asked to look the same, and this system does not ask them to.
What holds it together is a discipline more than a look. The system resists the standard tells of an agency identity: gradient overuse, layout theatrics, decorative iconography. It holds a small set of materials, gives each one a job rather than a territory, and asks each to work harder than it has to.
Every design decision should feel authored, considered, and specific to the moment it appears in. Nothing is placed by default.
Three verbs. In order.
READ. The situation before the solution. Category dynamics, audience truths, brand history, and the friction between what's said and what's felt.
DIRECT. The idea before the artifact. Positioning, narrative, tone, and the strategic frame that makes the next move obvious.
BUILD. The work that follows. Campaigns, systems, editorial, product surface — designed to be durable, not just delivered.
One system. Three modes.
The objective is not visual uniformity across LG Studio, StrategyIQ and Insights. The objective is recognizable kinship: one underlying system capable of changing mode according to what the experience is doing.
LG Studio is the master brand. Beneath it sits a shared core that creates family resemblance. Above it sit three modes of expression. A property is recognizably LG Studio because of what it shares, not because it looks identical to everything else in the ecosystem.
Editorial
The authored practice itself: positioning, methodology, creative reads, case studies, engagement, presentations, and the main studio site.
Dominant surface · PaperInstrument
Diagnostic product experiences: structured reads, readouts, workflows, signals, decisions, and operational interfaces.
Dominant surface · InkPublishing
Essays, observations, strategic writing, frameworks, journals, long-form thought, and editorial artifacts.
Dominant surface · PaperThe current visual language of luis-gilberto.com is a legacy implementation, not a mode of the brand. It hosts the ecosystem, and it has its own established palette and type. It does not get promoted to a fourth expression mode, and it does not get retrofitted.
What is shared, and what is allowed to vary
The shared core does not mean every property uses the same page composition, the same dominant background, or the same typographic implementation. It means the family resemblance is carried by principle and token, not by template.
| 01 · Practice / Editorial | 02 · StrategyIQ / Instrument | 03 · Insights / Publishing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dominant surface | Paper, with deliberate Ink sections | Ink-led, substantially and by design | Paper, with dark editorial interruptions |
| Density | Spacious. Generous section breaks. | Information-dense where the read requires it | Reading-led. Measure disciplined to 62ch. |
| Typography | Editorial role leads. Fraunces carries the argument. | Canonical product typography holds. Structural and system roles lead. | Editorial and body roles lead. Existing faces may remain. |
| Imagery | Atmospheric, architectural, image-aware composition | Rare. Diagrams and data displace photography. | Editorial and supporting. Never decorative. |
| Components | Editorial cards, hairline rules, near-square corners | Existing product components remain canonical | Article furniture, annotations, structured metadata |
| Always shared | Logo system · semantic color roles · spacing logic · hairline behavior · interaction principles · voice · CTA philosophy · accessibility expectations | ||
| Allowed to vary | Page composition · dominant surface · density · typographic implementation · component interiors · image weight | ||
StrategyIQ is an instrument, not a second brand
StrategyIQ has an existing canonical product system. That system remains valid. This document does not prescribe a retrofit, does not overwrite product typography, and does not ask StrategyIQ to be rebuilt to match the editorial Practice mode.
StrategyIQ participates in the ecosystem through shared principles and carefully selected shared tokens: the logo system, the semantic color roles, the spacing logic, the hairline behavior, the voice. It should feel related to LG Studio. It should not be dressed like the LG Studio homepage.
Insights moves toward kinship over time
Insights is the publishing mode. Over time it should gain greater family resemblance with the Practice: shared shell behaviors, shared navigation and footer, shared semantic tokens, shared CTA behavior.
Existing Insights pages are not obsolete and do not require redesign. New editorial work uses the shared system. When an older page is substantially revisited for a legitimate reason, it may migrate opportunistically.
Unify the edges first.
Preserve existing interiors until they need to change.
This is the migration principle for the whole ecosystem. There is no mandatory global retrofit. Existing work is not automatically obsolete. The system improves at the seams, where consistency is felt most and costs least.
Identity and logo usage. Shell behaviors. Navigation. Footer. Semantic tokens. CTA behaviors. Spacing logic. Interaction standards. These are the elements a person moves through between properties, so they carry the family resemblance.
Existing product and page interiors remain in their established visual language until they are naturally revisited. A working interior is not a defect. Rewriting one without cause spends attention that new work needs more.
Anything built from here forward uses the shared core and the correct mode. Migration happens opportunistically, when a surface is already open for a legitimate reason, never as a scheduled sweep.
This applies to the legacy host surface as well. The existing luis-gilberto.com implementation keeps its established visual language. When one of its surfaces is substantially redesigned anyway, it migrates to the master system at that moment. That is the only trigger.
Long-form to think. Short-form to signal.
LG Studio writes in two registers. Long, considered sentences when we're arguing an idea. Short, declarative lines when we're marking a decision. Both are always specific. Neither is ever loud.
The tone is editorial — closer to a masthead statement than a landing-page headline. It assumes an intelligent reader. It resists hedging. It doesn't chase energy, it earns it.
Words to favor
- read
- frame
- authored
- architecture
- direction
- specific
- essential
- considered
- signal
- practice
- editorial
- craft
- durable
Words to avoid
- unlock
- crush it
- solutions
- synergy
- disrupt
- drive results
- full-service
- passionate
- rockstar
- simply
- just
- actually
House rules
Sentence case for headlines. Never title case. Uppercase is reserved for structural labels and the practice signature.
No exclamation marks. Not in copy. Not in decks. Not in emails.
No emoji. Ever. The system carries feeling in its restraint.
Numbers as numerals when they carry weight. "3 phases," "7-day sprint," "Volume 01."
One mark. A clear hierarchy.
The bracketed monogram is the anchor. The wordmark carries the name. Each variant exists for a specific moment. Never mix them incorrectly, never redraw them, never regenerate them.
READ / DIRECT / BUILD is a signature of the practice, not a mandatory logo tagline. The monogram and the wordmark are each allowed to stand entirely on their own.
| Tier | Variants | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Horizontal LG Studio lockup · monogram + wordmark | The default identity. Site headers, covers, credits, decks, documents. |
| Secondary | Wordmark only · monogram only · stacked lockup | Where space, hierarchy or repetition make the full lockup redundant. Each stands on its own. |
| Environmental | Reversed versions for Ink and other dark surfaces | Ink-led sections, StrategyIQ product surfaces, film credits, cover pages. |
| Extension | Partnership and co-brand lockup templates | An extension of the identity, never a primary identity variant. See the next chapter. |
Clear space · Minimum
Clear space equals the height of the wordmark's "S" (x) on all four sides. No competing content, texture, or edge enters this frame — ever.
Don'ts
Where the signature belongs
READ / DIRECT / BUILD is the architecture and the signature of the practice. It is important, and it is flexible. It belongs in the full signature lockup, in opening and closing moments, in section wayfinding, in decks, in case studies, in methodology diagrams, in footer moments, and on selected branded artifacts.
Where it does not
It does not need to appear with every logo, on every page, in every navigation, in every application, or underneath the wordmark by default. Repetition dulls a signature. Used at the right moments, it reads as an argument. Used everywhere, it reads as a tagline, which is exactly what it is not.
A partnership is a pairing, not a merger.
Partnership lockups are an extension of the LG Studio identity, not a primary identity variant. When LG Studio appears next to a partner brand, both marks hold their own weight, separated by a thin vertical rule. Use the horizontal lockup when the partnership is credited long-form. Use the monogram alone when space or hierarchy demands it.
Format A · Full lockup + Full lockup — for credits, case studies, splash pages
Format B · Monogram × Partner — social, favicons, tight applications
Format C · Reversed — for dark surfaces, film credits, cover pages
Two surfaces. Two accents. Nothing else.
The palette is intentionally narrow. Deep Ink and Warm Ivory carry the frame. Terracotta marks human intervention. Teal marks signal and structure. There is no fifth. Click any swatch to copy its hex.
The system separates raw palette values from semantic roles. The raw value is the vocabulary. The role is the job. New work references the role, so a mode can change what a surface is made of without changing what it means.
Surfaces · Compositional tools inside one identity
Warm, editorial, reading-led. The default ground for the Practice and for Insights. Long-form lives here. Alt Ivory carries subtle section shifts without introducing a second color temperature.
Immersive, diagnostic, high-focus. The default ground for StrategyIQ, and a deliberate anchor inside Practice and Insights. Never pure black. The warmth of Deep Ink is what keeps it in the family.
These are not light mode and dark mode. Neither is primary and neither is secondary. Practice and Insights are generally Paper-led with deliberate Ink sections. StrategyIQ may remain substantially Ink-led. Both surfaces are first-class parts of the same identity.
Terracotta · --accent-action
Human intervention, emphasis, action, authored decision. The primary CTA. The moment a person enters the system and makes a call. In StrategyIQ it marks the human read, never the machine output.
Teal · --accent-signal
Signal, structure, system, analytical precision. Diagrams, data, wayfinding, structural markers. It describes what the system found, not what a person decided about it.
Neither accent becomes decorative confetti
Used sparingly, and never on the same surface at full weight. If a page has more than one Terracotta moment, one of them is not the most important action. If Teal appears without structure underneath it, it is decoration wearing the costume of a signal.
Four roles. Not four brands.
A role describes the job the type is doing, not the territory a typeface owns. This is what lets one system change mode without forking its identity.
The master system defines four semantic roles. Practice mode maps them to Fraunces, Inter, Big Shoulders Display and JetBrains Mono. A different mode may map a role to a different family and still be recognizably LG Studio, because the role, the scale, the tracking and the spacing logic are what carry the resemblance.
| Role | Practice mapping | The job it does |
|---|---|---|
| --font-editorial | Fraunces | Editorial thought. Large propositions. Essay and display headlines. Names. Moments where the studio is making an authored argument. |
| --font-body | Inter | The universal readable layer. Body copy. Interface. Navigation where appropriate. Buttons where readability matters more than editorial character. Forms. Descriptions. |
| --font-structural | Big Shoulders Display | The structural voice. Section labels. Taxonomy. Indexes. Chapter identifiers. Wayfinding. Compact structural moments. Used selectively, with tracking and restraint. |
| --font-system | JetBrains Mono | System and technical metadata only. Coordinates. Token names. Diagnostic metadata. Code. Instrument-like annotations. Not a fourth expressive headline family. |
Typography compatibility
Existing pages may retain their current editorial typeface until they are substantially revisited.
Fraunces is the preferred editorial voice for new LG Studio Practice work. It is not a requirement applied backwards. The broader ecosystem has legacy editorial and display treatments that continue to work, and there is no historical typography migration.
StrategyIQ keeps its canonical product typography. Insights keeps its existing article faces until an article is substantially revisited. What travels between them is the role structure, the scale, the tracking discipline and the restraint, which is what makes the family legible from the outside.
Type Scale
Rhythm is a feeling. Give it a number.
Modular Scale
How to use it
Micro (8 / 16). Text-to-eyebrow, chip padding, small stack rhythm.
Component (24 / 40). Card interiors, form field spacing, subsection breaks.
Section (64 / 96). Between blocks of content. The default breath.
Chapter (144). Between major thematic shifts. Used sparingly. Announces a change.
Grid
12-column grid with a 32px gutter on desktop. Type sits on a 1240px content max with a tight 960px measure for editorial reading. Line length caps at 62 characters; captions cap at 44.
Small parts. Serious intent.
Components are printed, not rendered. Corners are near-square. Borders are hairline. Shadows are rare. Hover states shift color, not depth. The system should feel like an editorial page you can also click.
A brand that stands apart
Identity and expression system designed to be durable across every channel — with rules that actually get used.
Read the situation
A diagnostic read of the market, category, and audience shaping the challenge — before any output is committed to.
Photography participates in meaning.
Imagery is atmospheric, architectural, and quiet. It should feel like a film still or a Kinfolk spread — not a stock photo. Light does most of the work. People appear as silhouettes and gestures more than portraits. Objects are shown in context, not on white.
Light is the subject
Shadow, cast light, and edge define the frame. Overhead studio light and product-on-white are retired.
Silhouette over portrait
When people appear, favor gesture, back-of-head, or shadow. The subject stays the idea, not the individual.
Never compete with the readout
Imagery sets tone; the artifact — the writing, the diagram, the deck — remains the point of focus.
Never
Operator-at-laptop stock. Handshake close-ups. Generic gradient blobs. Isometric SaaS illustrations. Emoji or badge overlays. Anything that could appear on a series-B pitch deck.
The same system, in three registers.
Three specimens. One system. Read them side by side and the kinship should be obvious without any two of them looking alike.
What travels: the hairline rules, the near-square corners, the spacing rhythm, the semantic accent roles, the structural label discipline, the restraint. What changes: the dominant surface, the density, which typographic role leads, and how much room the image gets.
Practice · Selected Work · Insights · Engagement
Good marketing isn’t decoration. It’s architecture.
It begins with a read. We make what matters visible. Then we direct the strategy and build what lasts.
Creative Director
LG Studio
Editorial composition. Editorial role leads. Paper ground with a deliberate Ink hero. One Terracotta action per view.
Pattern Readout
Eight structural patterns evaluated against the intake. The system maps the pattern. The Second Read interprets what it means.
The stall isn’t a capacity problem. It’s a decision that never got made.
Name the owner of the blocked decision. Set a date. Everything downstream is waiting on that one line.
Compatibility specimen only. This is not a redesign of the StrategyIQ product, and StrategyIQ’s canonical product system remains in force.
What makes it read as family: the same hairline rules and near-square corners, the same spacing rhythm, the same structural label discipline, the same semantic accent roles. Teal carries what the system found. Terracotta carries the human read. The mark appears in its environmental reversed form.
What is allowed to differ: the Ink ground is dominant rather than an anchor. Density is high. The structural and system roles lead instead of the editorial role. There is no photography. It is an instrument, and it looks like one.
The brief is rarely the problem.
Most engagements arrive with a request attached: a campaign, a site, a deck, a rebrand. The request is real, and it is almost never the thing that needs solving. Underneath it sits a decision someone has been avoiding, and the artifact is what avoidance looks like when it has a budget.
This is why the read comes first. Not as a discovery ritual, and not as a way to bill for thinking. It comes first because the shape of the answer is already sitting in the situation, and the fastest route to it is to stop negotiating with the symptom.
Structured metadata in the margin. Editorial hierarchy in the body. Measure held at 62 characters.
This shows how Insights gains family resemblance without requiring an immediate rebuild. The shell, the navigation, the footer, the semantic tokens and the CTA behavior unify first. The article interiors follow when they are next opened for a legitimate reason.
Application principles
Web. Choose the dominant surface by mode, not by habit. Terracotta for the primary action, once. Everything else lives in text hierarchy.
Print. Uncoated ivory stock (Neenah Classic Crest or similar). Two colors maximum. Fraunces at optical size 60+ for covers, 14 for body.
Social. One idea per post. Editorial headline. Structural signature at the bottom where it earns the space. Terracotta or Deep Ink as the ground, never neutral grey.
Decks. One slide, one thought. Read / Direct / Build works well as section wayfinding, which is exactly the kind of moment the signature is for.
Product. StrategyIQ keeps its canonical component set. Shared tokens and shell behaviors carry the relationship. Do not port editorial page composition into an instrument.