# Veriom brand guide v1.1

True as of 2 September 2026. The brand guide is the source of truth for product, website, documentation, admin, and company communication.

## Foundation

Veriom makes complex software systems understandable enough to trust what happens next.

This is not a cybersecurity identity. Security is the first commercial wedge because the need is acute. The permanent belief is larger: you cannot reliably build on, change, operate, or secure a system you do not sufficiently understand.

The public narrative is **Darkness → Light → Truth**. Darkness is the problem, not the aesthetic. The brand lives in light.

**Truth = Reality + Intent + Evidence + Time.** A correct representation without freshness becomes tomorrow's false assumption.

The enemy is assumption without understanding. The desired outcome is assurance through current, evidenced knowledge—not false certainty.

## Pillars

1. **Truth.** Reality matters more than assumption. We earn truth through evidence.
2. **Understanding.** Understanding precedes trustworthy action.
3. **Intentionality.** Give every important element a purpose.
4. **Excellence and care.** Move quickly without becoming careless.
5. **Stewardship.** Build what matters to outlive a person, campaign, or trend.

## Positioning

- Master brand: the lowercase `veriom.` wordmark with a round yellow full stop.
- Company territory: system understanding.
- Product descriptor when precision is needed: Architectural Intelligence.
- Commercial wedge: security.
- Expansion: engineering, AI agents, change governance, and broader system action.
- The tagline remains unlocked. Do not present a phrase as Veriom's tagline until it is formally approved.

In running text, write **Veriom**—capitalised, without the full stop.

### Working boilerplate

**One line:** Veriom makes complex software systems understandable enough to trust what happens next.

**Short:** Veriom maintains a current, evidence-backed model of what a software system actually is: what exists, how it fits together, what was intended, and what changed. The people and AI agents making the next change can act with understanding rather than assumption.

## Voice

Clear, not clever. Certain, not aggressive. Human, not “cyber.” Calm, not fear-based.

- Start with the universal truth, then explain the product, then show technical evidence.
- Say what is observed, measured, inferred, or believed.
- Name source, scope, confidence, limitation, and freshness where they matter.
- Use sentence case everywhere, including headlines and buttons.
- No all-caps labels or decorative technical language.
- Prefer “You always know where you stand” to claims of infallibility.
- Never use “AI-powered,” “next-generation,” “revolutionary,” “single pane of glass,” “attack surface explosion,” “cyber visibility,” “AI-native cybersecurity,” or “all-in-one security platform.”

## Logo

The canonical form is the wordmark alone. **The icon and wordmark never appear together.** Use either the compact mark or the name.

The wordmark ends in a perfect round full stop. The stop is part of the wordmark and the one place yellow may appear at any size. It never follows the name in running prose.

- Use the wordmark for navigation, editorial, press, and partnership contexts.
- Use the compact mark only for favicons, avatars, and constrained interfaces.
- Preserve clear space and proportions.
- Never stretch, rotate, outline, add effects, or place either asset on noisy imagery.

## Colour

| Token | Value | Function |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Space White | `#FDFDFB` | Default surface and environment of Light |
| Ink | `#191914` | All primary text |
| Veriom Yellow | `#FACC15` | Primary action, illumination, highlights, markers, and the full stop |
| Veriom Teal | `#0E6E68` | Links, informational UI states, selected states, and the semantic colour of knowing |
| Stone | `#6B6452` | Supporting text and captions |
| Stone Tint | `#F4F2EB` | Alternate background rhythm |
| Light Tint | `#FEF9E3` | Truth-state and quiet highlighted surfaces |
| Deep Yellow | `#B98D00` | Accessible yellow-toned text or fine detail on white |

Use no more than three colours in a single interface view, excluding white, Ink, and Stone as structure. Teal is functional, never decorative. Yellow on white fails text contrast; use it as a material behind Ink, or use Deep Yellow for small yellow-toned detail.

## Typography

- **Instrument Sans:** all display, body, navigation, labels, buttons, and controls.
- **IBM Plex Mono:** genuine machine-derived evidence such as timestamps, provenance, identifiers, confidence, and cost.
- Never introduce a serif.
- Display type may use restrained negative tracking. Body type remains comfortably readable.

## Layout, imagery, and motion

Whitespace is the first expression of Light. Use generous margins, a strong reading column, and left alignment. Structure comes from hierarchy and space; borders appear when they encode information. Avoid card grids for their own sake.

Use small radii and restrained shadows. Use either an outline or a shadow for a surface, not both. Decorative gradients, template-style glows, neon grids, particle fields, shields, locks, threat maps, green terminals, and dark-mode-as-identity do not belong.

Motion must explain discovery, connection, resolution, drift, or cause and effect. If movement does not improve understanding, remove it. Respect reduced-motion preferences.

Prefer real product, systems, people building, physical infrastructure, materials, light, and structure. Abstract imagery must communicate a specific concept.

## Evidence and claims

No permanent market claim without evidence. No evidence without a date. Classify important claims as observed, measured, inferred, or believed, and label them honestly. Keep counter-evidence visible and review changing claims regularly.

## Decision test

Before approving a major product, marketing, or design decision, ask:

1. Does it make something easier to understand?
2. Does it reveal truth or add noise?
3. Can someone outside cybersecurity understand it?
4. Is every element intentional?
5. Can the claim be substantiated?
6. Would it still feel like Veriom without the cybersecurity context?
7. Does it make the brand more durable rather than merely fashionable?

## Implementation

The shared implementation contract is `packages/brand/veriom-tokens.css`. Web, admin, and docs import that file. Update shared primitives first and do not fork the identity inside an application.

Assets:

- `/brand/veriom-wordmark.svg`
- `/brand/veriom-monogram.svg`
- `/brand/veriom-lockup.svg` (compatibility filename; contains the wordmark only)