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B R A N D B O O K 2 0 2 6

BRAND BOOK Created by UNTINGED DESIGNS

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This is the working reference for who Untinged is, not a complete identity, but the clearest shape it’s taken yet. It exists because good decisions, once made, are easy to forget the reason for. So, along with every rule, this book keeps the reasoning behind it, the why, not just the what, so that anyone picking it up can extend it correctly to situations these pages don’t cover. This edition is shorter to read and more readily usable than the one before it. The identity isn’t changed. How clearly we can explain it is.

A Note From Us! This book exists because we grew out of our own explanations. For a while there, if you asked any of us what Untinged was, you’d get a different answer depending on who you asked. A photography page, a film crew, a design studio... or just a running joke that got out of hand. All of these were true, but none were the whole story. This is us documenting the whole story, not so that it might be set in stone, but rather so that it can be given a shape sturdy enough to grow from. Think of this as a working understanding. Give it proper scrutiny. See what else there is. ~Untinged

What’s in this BOOK?

Untinged? A creative studio built on one idea: creativity knows no bounds. Frames | Designs | Comics Each tells unique stories but in similar ways, exploring the same things, all art. When they come together to make something greater than themselves, they are called by a different name: Untinged Studios. 10

Three disciplines. One studio.The U ntinged B rand B ook 11

Place. Time. People. RIGHTUNTINGED_ARCHIVES_IMG_20210917_173205 12

It started with a group of friends from CMS College, Kottayam. Sharing a room, a restlessness, and a habit of capturing everything around them. Not for anyone else. Just for themselves. When they ran out of space to keep it all, they opened an Instagram page to back it up. Nothing more considered than that. But it didn’t stay private for long. They found that their friends were enjoying all of it, then friends of friends did too. That’s when the question changed from “where do we save this” to “why not make this a real page.” That became Untinged Frames. Photography pulled the work toward film. Film needed storyboards and posters, which pulled in design. Design’s habit of sketching pulled in comics. None of it was planned; it happened because the group kept creating. In September 2022, that expanding practice got a name, Untinged Studios.The Untinged Brand Book 13

Purpose VisionA creative world where nuance gets noticed, not overlooked. MissionTo turn curiosity into work across photography, film, design, and comics that never loses the reason it was made. 14

UNTINGED_ARCHIVES_IMG_20210919_165908The Untinged Brand Book15

Not the loudest idea in the room. The one hiding in the details a shift in framing, timing, colour, or word choice that changes how something is felt entirely. The core of a thing can stay the same while its meaning shifts in shade from person to person. We don’t try to erase that difference. We think it’s the whole point. The Art in Nuance 16

Look again. There’s more to it. The Art in NuanceUNTINGED_ARCHIVES_IMG_20210929_160309The Untinged Brand Book 17

Brand Archetype Primary - The Explorer Curious first, certain later. The Explorer tries things without needing to know exactly where they lead because the not-knowing is usually where the interesting part is. Secondary - The Creator Exploring is only half of it. The Creator turns what's found into something that didn't exist before — a photograph, a film, a poster, a page. 18

Explore Discover Create Reveal Learn Explore again.The Untinged Brand Book 19

Not every project is for us. That's not arrogance, it's focus.

Who We Do Not Chase • Projects where price is the only thing being decided. • Work that treats creativity as decoration, not substance. • Clients who want full creative control without the budget to support it. • Concepts so worn out there's no new way left to tell them.The Untinged Brand Book 21

LOGO

Purpose of the New Look As Untinged grew from one discipline into several, the mark needed to grow with into something solid enough to travel across every kind of work, and simple enough to sit inside a collaboration instead of standing apart from it. 24

Old Brandmark New BrandmarkThe U ntinged Brand Book 25

う The hiragana for the vowel sound “u.” A quiet nod to the name, hidden in plain sight for anyone who looks closely enough to notice it. The Heron Patient and still, right up until the moment it isn’t. The mark traces that same gesture: a body poised, a neck curving into sudden motion. The Brush Stroke A single, imperfect, hand-drawn gesture. Not smoothed into a template, not generated in a second. In an era where almost anything can be produced instantly, a visible brush stroke is proof a hand actually made this. The Mark’s Origin 26

The Untinged Brand Book27

The Logotype The Logomark 28

Logo Elements The Logomark The brush-stroke shape itself. The part that has to survive alone — at a small size, on a strange background, with no name written next to it. The Logotype UNTINGED, set in full caps with generous spacing. Even cap-height, no mixed case, nothing decorative — legible at a glance, confident without needing to raise its voice. Two elements, working as one.The Untinged Brand Book 29

Logo Variations Brandmark The mark alone, no wordmark. Used once recognition doesn’t need the name spelt out anymore: social avatars, favicons, a stamp on the corner of a finished piece. Horizontal Mark beside the wordmark. The default lockup, wherever there’s room to let both sit side by side. Vertical Mark above the wordmark. For anywhere horizontal space runs out before the width does — a narrow column, a tall format, a portrait canvas. Same mark, same wordmark, three shapes for three constraints. 30

Horizontal Logo Vertical Logo BrandmarkThe Untinged Brand Book 31

Proportional Grid System Clear space isn’t a fixed number of pixels; it’s built from the mark itself. Take the height of the flick and call that X. Give each side of the mark 1X of breathing room, measured fresh at whatever size the mark is used. That’s the whole rule: X changes with the mark, so the formula scales with it — a business card and a billboard use the same math, just different absolute numbers. 32

X X XThe Untinged Brand Book 33

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Digital Print 70 px Horizontal 15mm Horizontal 24px Brandmark 6px W in an emergency (favicon only, not the target) 0.25 inch (≈6.4mm) Brandmark 35 px Vertical 25mm Vertical 36

Digital and Print Usage Smudge-free, pixel-perfect Tested the honest way: shrinking the real file down to 200, 128, 64, 32, and 16px and looking at what survived. The two-part shape — dash and hook — held up further than expected; it never blurred into a blob. What goes first is the frayed texture at the tail, and that’s fine — it’s a large-size detail, not what makes the mark recognisable.The Untinged Brand Book 37

The Art in NuanceUNTINGED_ARCHIVES_20231028_164223 38

Logo Placements Three ways the mark shows up in a composition. With an Image Tucked into a corner of a photograph or artwork, small enough to sit quietly on top of the work rather than competing with it. With Typography Paired with a headline or caption, usually at a corner or edge of the layout, doing the job of signing the piece rather than announcing it. As the Primary Element The mark itself is the composition. Centred, with room to breathe. Used sparingly, for moments that are actually about the brand rather than about a specific piece of work.The Untinged Brand Book 39

Three ways the mark is finished, depending on what it’s sitting on. Primary Light Dark mark on a light background. The default for most everyday use. Primary Dark Light mark on a dark background. Not an inverted afterthought — tested and locked as its own proper variant, not just “the light one, flipped.” Monochrome Pure single colour, no gradients, no shading. Because the mark is built from solid fills with no soft edges, this version costs nothing to reproduce: a stamp, an engraving, a screen-print, a fax all work without redrawing anything. Logo Variations 40

Lockups White Shadow SilhouetteThe U ntinged Brand Book 41

Across the Disciplines Frames, Designs, Comics, and Studios all sign their work with the same lockup, under the same rules. There’s no separate version per discipline, and there never has been. What changes is the work around it, not the mark itself. A Frames photograph, a Designs poster, and a Comics page can look nothing alike — and the one thing tying them together, quietly, is the same mark in the same corner. 42

One mark, used the same way everywhere Designs Comics FramesThe Untinged Brand Book 43

Logo With Slogan The mark, the wordmark, and “The Art in Nuance” set together — the lockup for materials that need to introduce the brand and its idea in one breath, not just its name. Proposals, title cards, the closing frame of a video, anywhere a first impression has to do double duty. The tagline always stays smaller and quieter than the wordmark — a companion, not a co-lead. 44

The Untinged Brand Book45

Do’s • Use it in the palette colours, or pure black/white. • Give it real contrast against whatever it sits on. • Respect the clear space, every time. • Let it live in any orientation — portrait, landscape, corner, centre — as long as there’s room to breathe. 46

Don’ts • Stretch or compress it. • Rotate it. • Crop it — not even a little. • Add a shadow, outline, or gradient. • Rebuild the wordmark in another typeface. • Place it over an image too busy to see it clearly.The Untinged Brand Book 47

Letter Casing • In running text: Untinged. • In the wordmark: UNTINGED. • Nothing in between. • Mixed case like “UnTinged” or “UNtinged” visually splits the word into two ideas — Un- and -Tinged — which isn’t how it’s meant to be read. It’s one word, not a prefix bolted onto another. Lowercase “untinged” undersells it: no presence, no confidence. • Correct: Untinged, UNTINGED • Incorrect: UnTinged, UNtinged, untinged 48

The Untinged Brand Book49

COLOURS

What We Picked, and Why? Three do the real work. Three support them. 52

Hex #EEE6D9 RGB 238, 230, 217 CMYK 0, 3, 9, 7 HSB 37°, 9%, 93% Hex #EFF2F5 RGB 239, 242, 245 CMYK 2, 1, 0, 4 HSB 210°, 2%, 96% Hex #8F1D21 RGB 143, 29, 33 CMYK 0, 80, 77, 44 HSB 358°, 80%, 56% Hex #5B7C99 RGB 91, 124, 153 CMYK 41, 19, 0, 40 HSB 208°, 41%, 60% Hex #252322 RGB 37, 35, 34 CMYK 0, 5, 8, 85 HSB 20°, 8%, 15% Hex #1C3563 RGB 28, 53, 99 CMYK 72, 46, 0, 61 HSB 219°, 72%, 39% Bone Cloud Tinge Mist Raw HeronThe Untinged Brand Book 53

BONE The Default Background Warmer than white, because white is a hospital wall and Bone is paper. Hex #EEE6D9 RGB 238, 230, 217 CMYK 0, 3, 9, 7 HSB 37°, 9%, 93% 54

The Goat Life (2024)The Untinged Brand Book 55

BONE Hex #EEE6D9 RGB 238, 230, 217 CMYK 0, 3, 9, 7 HSB 37°, 9%, 93% 3ᵒ Hex #9D988F RGB 157 152 143 CMYK 0 3 9 38 HSB 39° 9% 62% Hex #C3BDB2 RGB 195, 189, 178 CMYK 0, 3, 9, 24 HSB 39°, 9%, 76% 56

Hex #77736C RGB 119 115 108 CMYK 0 3 9 53 HSB 38° 9% 47% Hex #514E4A RGB 81 78 74 CMYK 0 4 9 68 HSB 34° 9% 32%The Untinged Brand Book 57

RAW The Default Ink Not black — black is absolute, and this brand isn’t interested in absolutes. Raw reads closer to charcoal: something drawn or burned, not manufactured. Hex #252322 RGB 37, 35, 34 CMYK 0, 5, 8, 85 HSB 20°, 8%, 15% 58

Bhramayugham (2024)The Untinged Brand Book 59

TINGE The Accent The accent, and the one word the whole name plays against. Untinged doesn’t mean colourless — it means the tinge shows up on purpose, not by default. So Tinge gets used exactly the way its name suggests: rarely, and only when it means something Hex #8F1D21 RGB 143, 29, 33 CMYK 0, 80, 77, 44 HSB 358°, 80%, 56% 60

Solo (2017)The Untinged Brand Book 61

Hex #8F1D21 RGB 143, 29, 33 CMYK 0, 80, 77, 44 HSB 358°, 80%, 56% 3ᵒ Hex #D9B2B4 RGB 217, 178, 180 CMYK 0, 18, 17, 15 HSB 357°, 18%, 85% Hex #EBD6D RGB 235, 214, 215 CMYK 70, 9, 9, 8 HSB 357°, 9%, 92% TINGE 62

Hex #C78E90 RGB 199, 142, 144 CMYK 0, 29, 28, 22 HSB 358°, 29%, 78% Hex #B56A6C RGB 181, 106, 108 CMYK 0, 41, 40, 29 HSB 358°, 41%, 71% Hex #5E1316 RGB 94, 19, 22 CMYK 0, 80, 77, 63 HSB 358°, 80%, 37% Hex #A34649 RGB 163, 70, 73 CMYK 0, 57, 55, 36 HSB 358°, 57%, 64% Hex #75181B RGB 117, 24, 27 CMYK 0, 79, 77, 54 HSB 358°, 79%, 46%The Untinged Brand Book 63

CLOUD Bone’s cool counterpart. Where Bone is paper, Cloud is morning light: a pale, slightly blue white for separating one surface from another when Bone alone can’t. A supporting surface, never the default. Hex #EFF2F5 RGB 239, 242, 245 CMYK 2, 1, 0, 4 HSB 210°, 2%, 96% 64

Iyobinte Pusthakam (2014)The Untinged Brand Book 65

HERON The Mark’s Own Reference A real, distinct colour in its own right — a deep, cooler register for anything that needs more atmosphere than Tinge’s warmth allows. Hex #1C3563 RGB 28, 53, 99 CMYK 72, 46, 0, 61 HSB 219°, 72%, 39% 66

Kumbalangi Nights (2019)The Untinged Brand Book 67

HERON Hex #1C3563 RGB 28, 53, 99 CMYK 72, 46, 0, 61 HSB 219°, 72%, 39% 3ᵒ Hex #B2BACA RGB 178, 186, 202 CMYK 12, 8, 0, 21 HSB 220°, 12%, 79% Hex #D6DBE3 RGB 214, 219, 227 CMYK 6, 4, 0, 11 HSB 217°, 6%, 89% 68

Hex #8E9AB1 RGB 142, 154, 177 CMYK 20, 13, 0, 31 HSB 219°, 20%, 9% Hex #697A98 RGB 105, 122, 152 CMYK 31, 20, 0, 40 HSB 218°, 31%, 60% Hex #45597F RGB 69, 89, 127 CMYK 46, 30, 0, 50 HSB 219°, 46%, 50% Hex #172B51 RGB 23, 43, 81 CMYK 72, 47, 0, 68 HSB 219°, 72%, 32% Hex #122341 RGB 18, 35, 65 CMYK 72, 46, 0, 75 HSB 218°, 72%, 25%The Untinged Brand Book 69

MIST Heron’s Lighter Counterpart, NOT It’s TWIN Distinguishable at a glance, reserved for supporting detail rather than anything carrying the whole composition. Hex #5B7C99 RGB 91, 124, 153 CMYK 41, 19, 0, 40 HSB 208°, 41%, 60% 70

Idukki Gold (2013)The Untinged Brand Book 71

MIST Hex #5B7C99 RGB 91, 124, 153 CMYK 41, 19, 0, 40 HSB 208°, 41%, 60% 3ᵒ Hex #C7D2DC RGB 199, 210, 220 CMYK 10, 5, 0, 14 HSB 209°, 10%, 86% Hex #E1E7ED RGB 225, 231, 237 CMYK 5, 3, 0, 7 HSB 210°, 5%, 93% 72

Hex #ADBECC RGB 173, 190, 204 CMYK 15, 7, 0, 20 HSB 207°, 15%, 80% Hex #93A9BC RGB 147, 169, 188 CMYK 22, 10, 0, 26 HSB 208°, 22%, 74% Hex #4B667D RGB 75, 102, 125 CMYK 40, 18, 0, 51 HSB 208°, 40%, 49% Hex #7994AB RGB 121, 148, 171 CMYK 29, 13, 0, 33 HSB 208°, 29%, 67% Hex #3C5265 RGB 60, 82, 101 CMYK 41, 19, 0, 60 HSB 208°, 41%, 40%The Untinged Brand Book 73

TYPO GRAPHY

CORE — Inter The everyday voice. Body copy, captions, documents, interfaces — anywhere clarity matters more than character. NUANCE — Cormorant Garamond The expressive voice. Headlines, statements, editorial and campaign work — anywhere the words deserve a little more presence. EXPLORE A flexible library for individual projects — not permanent brand fonts, just room to experiment when a specific piece of work calls for something else. In functional work — documents, proposals, the app — everything stays in Inter. In expressive work, Cormorant Garamond takes the headline and display roles while body copy stays in Inter, so it never sacrifices readability for character. Two typefaces, doing two different jobs. 76

Aa The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance The Art in Nuance Aa Inter Cormorant GaramondThe Untinged Brand Book 77

PHOTO GRAPHY

UNTINGED_ARCHIVES_20231028_16422380

The approach prioritises seeing over staging Look for what exists, then think of how the image should be framed. Colour is a choice and not a necessity. Black and white comes as part of the origin and is available for use and will be used when stripping away of colour is required to enhance the image and not as a default filter. Grain and faults can be included as long as they add to the image and not used as a default setting to simulate it. Do not just take what exists but look for what others may miss. Where the journey actually started, and still one of the ways this studio observes the world.The Untinged Brand Book 81

ILLUSTRATION

Comics is still finding its own visual language, and locking one in now would work against the same principle already governing everything else here: consistency is a way of thinking, not a formula. What stays constant is the intent behind it: Simple Recognisable at first glance, not decoded. Expressive Gesture and body language can exaggerate where it helps a feeling land. Relatable Closer to real life than to trend, even when the style stays loose. The visual style is free to develop. These three aren’t. No fixed style ,The Untinged Brand Book 83

Illustration done by Danbo 84

All the measurements on the page are based off of one number: 8px All margins, paddings, and gaps are multiples of it: 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128. There is no “it looks about right” spacing. Documents and the web are made up of 12 columns, 24px gutter, 1200px max-width. Social posts have an 8% safe margin on all sides, with an optional 4 column inset. A single scale means no more second-guessing. Composition GridThe Untinged Brand Book 85

GRAPHIC PATTERNS

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• Water The ripple in Heron blue, the moment before the heron reacts, repeated. Four patterns, all of which are taken from an existing design in this book rather than created separately.The Untinged Brand Book 89

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• The Flick The mark’s own accent stroke scattered and rotated. The smallest part the logo takes has been given space to expand.The Untinged Brand Book 91

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• The Heron The five poses, from standing to flying, which make up the animation, still on a page rather than flicking through.The Untinged Brand Book 93

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• Nuance The subtle diamonds and dots that could be missed if you were not looking closely. The pattern doesn’t give its presence away.The Untinged Brand Book 95

TONE OF VOICE

Four things make our writing instantly familiar, whoever the author. • Clear Say what you mean, when what you mean needs to be said. Mystery is for the meaning, never for the pricing, deadlines or instruction. • Curious Ask more than you declare. ‘What are we really saying?’ is better than ‘here’s what we did.’ • Restrained Leave the silence alone. Say something, then let the work do the talking. • Human Talk like a person talking to another person, as opposed to a company making a statement. • The Mystery Rule Be mysterious about the meaning, and clear about the message. Mystery is for curiosity and discovery, never for the meaning of price, deadlines or instruction. No customer should ever think “I’m confused about what this costs/when it’s due” - that’s not intrigue, that’s confusion. We sound so much like us! 98

Not cool: “We deliver innovative creative solutions tailored to your needs.” Cool: “Tell us what you need. We’ll tell you what we actually think.” Not cool: “No one does it quite like us.” Cool: “We don’t know exactly where this goes. That’s usually where it gets interesting.” Not cool: “The latest revolution in visual storytelling.” Cool: “Nothing revolutionary here. Just paying closer attention.”The Untinged Brand Book 99

Five types of content, that’s it. • THE WORK: completed projects. • THE PROCESS: sketches, trials and errors. • THE THOUGHT: inquiries, observations and sources. • THE PEOPLE: collaborators. This is where individual names or credit matters, not the origin story or this book itself, in contrast to below. • THE WORLD: the wider realm of culture, music, film it exists in. A sequence when sharing any of it might look like this: HIDE → HINT → REVEAL → REFLECT Not all at once, but in a progression. The idea is to withhold information and intrigue, then present it clearly, and finally reveal what was learned or what still needs to be discovered. What We Post, and Why? 100

Any rule in this book can be broken — as long as breaking it improves the work somehow, and not just makes it easier for the author. A campaign might use a seventh colour. A movie might ignore type hierarchy completely. When to Break the Rules! Break a rule to serve an idea, not to avoid one. “The Untinged Brand Book 101

Before anything ships, ask yourself: • Is the name cased correctly (Untinged in text, UNTINGED in the wordmark)? • Is your logo properly proportioned with enough spacing and the correct variation? • Are you using Tinge as an accent rather than a default? • Is the type hierarchy intact, and are you licensing anything outside Inter and Cormorant Garamond? • Does the overall layout have a clear point of view? Are you adding elements just because you have space? • Does it sound like Untinged and not a generic studio name? And most importantly, • why are you making these decisions? If the answer is because it looks nice, then you should continue to explore those options. If you can clearly explain why something is the way it is, then you’re probably in good. Brand Checklist 102

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This book doesn’t try to close anything down. New mediums, new collaborators, new mistakes, new discoveries — all of that is still coming, and none of it needs to be predicted here. What it does try to do is make sure that whatever comes next still sounds, looks, and feels like the same way of looking at things. This is Untinged. The beginning is still happening....The Untinged Brand Book 105

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