Brand guidelines

Brand

Tagline

Powering the Web3 economy

Mission

Make Web3 easy

Descriptor

Uphold is a Web3 financial platform that makes trading and managing digital assets easy for consumers, enterprises and institutions. The Uphold platform offers our customers the ability to move value seamlessly between fiat and crypto as well across multiple blockchain networks. Uphold never loans out customer assets and is always 100% reserved. The company has pioneered radical transparency and uniquely publishes its assets and liabilities in real-time.

Tone of voice

Easy
Transparent
Cutting-edge
Reliable
Sleek
Professional
Fun
Geeky

Brand personality

Uphold's personality is easy, transparent, cutting-edge, reliable, sleek, professional, fun, and geeky, with a stylish but never sloppy approach.

Our tone of voice should reflect these attributes in all communications.

Use of direct speech

We encourage the use of "you" and "we" in Uphold's communications to create a more personal and conversational tone.

Focus on technology

Uphold should focus on the technology behind the platform, highlighting its unique features and benefits.

These include our unique platform architecture, the largest asset offering, our patented "Anything to Anything" interface, our proven platform APIs, the best-in-class fiat on-ramp for Web3 projects, our self-custody option, our commitment to full transparency, our seasoned blockchain team, our market insights, our trading tools, and our institutional-grade research.

Audience

Uphold reaches a broad audience, including those who may be less familiar with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Our communications should be accessible and easy to understand for all.

Example tone of voice for Uphold

“Easy, Accessible, and Transparent”

At Uphold, we're on a mission to make Web3 easy and accessible for everyone.

We believe in radical transparency, which is why we're proud to publish our reserves and never lend out customer assets. With our unique platform architecture, you'll have seamless access to more than 260 digital assets across both CeFi and DeFi venues, giving you the deepest liquidity and optimal execution. Plus, our patented "Anything to Anything" interface makes discovering and executing on these assets easy. Our self-custodial wallet ensures that your assets are always protected, and our institutional-grade research can help you make better trading decisions. We believe in being fully transparent with our users and always putting their needs first. Join us and experience the future of finance with Uphold.

Brand architecture

Conventions

Date & Time Formats

Our brand is committed to clear and consistent communication. To achieve this, we have established standard conventions for presenting dates and times.

These conventions should be followed in all communications unless there's a compelling reason to deviate.

Exceptions to the Rule

Should there be a strong reason to deviate from these conventions (e.g., international audience, specific industry standards), ensure that the alternative format is clear and consistent throughout the communication piece.


Consistency is Key

Always apply these conventions uniformly across all mediums - digital, print, and verbal communications - to maintain brand integrity and ease of understanding.

Date Format

January 1, 2024

Use the month-day-year format.

Abbreviate months only when space is limited (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.).

Do not use numerical formats (e.g., 01/01/2024) to avoid confusion with international date formats.

Time Format

9:00 AM, 5:30 PM

Express time using the 12-hour clock followed by AM or PM, with a space in between.

For exact times, use colon to separate hours and minutes  (e.g., 3:45 PM); for approximate times, use ‘around’ or ‘about’ (e.g., around 3 PM).

Avoid using military or 24-hour time format.

Day and Date Combinations

Thursday, March 4

When referring to a specific day and date, use the format: day of the week, month, date.

Avoid using dates without days or vice versa unless the context is clear.

Numerical Date Formats in Tables or Charts

03/27/2024

If space constraints require numerical dates in tables or charts, use MM/DD/YYYY format.

Number formats

In our communications, clear and consistent representation of numbers is crucial. The following guidelines provide a standard approach to numerical formatting, which should be used unless specific circumstances dictate otherwise.

Commas and decimals

1,000; 100,000; 1,000,000

Use commas to separate thousands, millions, etc.

Use a period (.) to indicate decimal points (e.g., 3.75).

Currency

$20

When referencing U.S. dollars, use the dollar sign ($) followed by the numeral.

For international currencies, use the appropriate currency symbol or abbreviation and numerals (e.g., €50, £40, JPY 1,000).

Large numbers:

$1.5 million, 2.3 billion

For large numbers (in millions, billions, etc.), you may simplify them in text , as well as use abbreviations (M for million, B for billion) for space efficiency.

Timezone

When communicating to our audience, and to keep a consistent and clear time reference for everyone, we use Eastern Time Zone (ET) across our communications.

Timezone reference

New York

Eastern Standard Time (EST)

UTC-5

Observed during the non-Daylight Saving period.

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

UTC-4

Observed during Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Note: Daylight Saving Time in New York begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

English language

To maintain clarity and consistency in our communications, all written and verbal content should adhere to the standards of U.S. English.

Language

U.S. English

This encompasses spelling, grammar, punctuation, and terminology.

Brand signatures

Brand Signatures

The Uphold Signatures are designed for flexibility and recognition across a variety of scenarios. Each variation is crafted to meet specific brand communication and positioning needs.

Branded house
Endorsement
Sub-brands

Branded house

The logo and visual identity of the parent company are prominently used, emphasizing a consistent and unified brand experience.

This strategy is ideal when we aim to reinforce the identity and values of Uphold, even when presenting different services or products.

An example of this is 'Uphold Institutional', where, despite being a distinct service, the connection and presence of the Uphold brand are clearly emphasized.

Branded House
Main Version
Branded House
Horizontal
Branded House
Vertical

Endorsed brand

Offers a balance between leveraging the Uphold's credibility and allowing the endorsed brand to develop its unique brand identity.

This approach is suitable when the product or service has its own identity but benefits from the recognition and credibility of Uphold.

Download Logos

For example, 'ascent with the balloon' or 'Topper by Uphold' are distinct products that, at the same time, benefit from the reputation of the Uphold brand.

Endorsement
Main Version
Endorsement
Minimal

Sub-brand

Sub-brands, although distinct visually, share the essence of Uphold’s branding and integrate harmoniously into its brand universe.

This option is ideal for products or services that need their own identity, but still align with the values and aesthetics of the parent brand.

Download Logos

For example, 'ascent with the balloon' or 'Topper by Uphold' are distinct products that, at the same time, benefit from the reputation of the Uphold brand.

Sub-brand
UPHODL
Sub-brand
Topper
Sub-brand
Optimus

Typography

Proxima Nova is our type family

Proxima Nova is the brand font used for print and graphic executions.

Aa

Light
Regular
Medium
Semibold
Bold

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVSXZ
abcdefghijklmnoptqrstuvsxz
123456789@#$%&*

Font style

We use these weights as a rule, allowing a high flexibility in its use.

Regular
Medium
Semibold
Bold

Although different applications require different typographical structures.

Font style

Although you can use all caps for small captions, or for visuals, we recommend using all sentence case in most typographic applications.

Align
Keep it flush left

Headline styles

Here we have the headline styles to understand the relation between size and leading.

All values must be scaled according to the support to be used.

Size 44

Leading 56

Hero

Size 32

Leading 40

Heading 1

Size 28

Leading 36

Heading 2

Size 24

Leading 32

Heading 3

Size 20

Leading 28

Heading 4

Size 18

Leading 26

Paragraph

Size 14

Leading 24

Body 1

Size 12

Leading 20

Body 2

Size 10

Leading 12

Tag

Hierarchy of information

Typographic hierarchy is the navigational system that renders complex information accessible.

Think of a book outline; the size, style, and position of type not only inform what order it should be read, but also describe the parent-child relationships of the content.

One clear spaces have been developed that shift in size depending on the size of the mark. Everything starts with the logo.

Paragraph break

A paragraph break is a single line space marking the division between one paragraph and the next in a body of text.

We use at least the same font size as the paragraph we are breaking.

Example pairings

Here are some examples of typographic pairs that we commonly use. Limit type sizes to three.

Headline with subheading and paragraphs

Limit type sizes to three, it will ensure your design can be easily navigated and understood.

Here are some examples of typographic pairs that we commonly use on our communication.

Color

Brand colors

The Uphold brand uses 3 colors as its primary colors and their variations across all platforms and communications.

Primary for Dark

primary-for-dark-20
HEX #84FB7F
RGB 132  251  127
CMYK 75  0  71  0
PANTONE 7480C

Primary for Light

primary-for-light-40
HEX #49CC68
RGB 73  204  104
CMYK 90  0  93  0
PANTONE 7482C

Neutral

neutral-100
HEX #090D14
RGB 9  13  20
CMYK 88  76  30  82
PANTONE 532C

Base White

base-white
HEX #FFFFFF
RGB 255  255  255
CMYK 0  0  0  0
PANTONE White

Base Black

base-black
HEX #000000
RGB 0  0  0  0
CMYK 30  0  0  100  
PANTONE Black 6C
Use Primary for Dark for content on dark backgrounds.
Use Primary for Light for content on Light backgrounds.

An exception can be made, when using the Primary color as a background for an element that lives inside a light background itself. It is up to the designer to see which Primary variation works best as the element background (Primary for Light or Primary for Dark), as long as that doesn’t compromise the legibility or overall experience, while benefiting the visual aesthetics.

Content with highlight text

Content with highlight text

Color scheme B03

B03 Background
N01 Content
P05 Highlights

Color scheme P05

P05 Background
B03 Content
N01 Highlights

Color scheme N01

N01 Background
B03 Content
P06 Highlights

For Interface Applications, Please Refer to the Design System

Grids

Grids provide organization.

We use numbers that are multiples of 10 to simplify the system. Always keep it in mind to rescale to different formats.

This is the underlying structure of all Uphold design, grids help balance your layout, creating the spacing and information organization that will guide customers to the most important visual elements and messages.

Application

Application

A simple walkthrough for typical application of the brand to communication elements.

Set the format

Use the grid

Align the content

Apply visuals

Set the format

Choose the right size for the platform you are communicating on.

As an example, we'll use the square format 1:1.

Use the grid

Choose the right grid or follow the rules to create a new one for spacing and information organization.

Align the content

Keep content aligned with the grid.

Apply visuals

Apply the visuals from Uphold assets.

Some items positions may be fine tuned to maintain a visual balance, but only as a final resource, as was the case of this "next" arrow, which goes beyond the grid, but is vertically aligned with the "What the Web3 economy?" text.

Visuals

3D

Isometric view

Motion visuals

Kinetic typography

Photography halftone effect

When using photographic material outside of our control, in which quality or look and feel is too different from ours, consider using this style as a way of unifying and making it more consistent with the Uphold brand.

Halftone effect

Photography duotone effect

Uphold aesthetic mood

Avoid lifestyle images

Duotone effect

Photography dark overlay

When needing to communicate text on top of an image, you can consider using this technique, of overlaying the original or duotone image with a black overlay, which can be flat or a very subtle gradient

Uphold aesthetic mood

Dark overlay 10% -75%

Showcase

Changelog

v2024.11.29

Applying learnings & online manual

  • Transformed manual into website
  • Introduced Changelog
  • introduced logo system
  • Introduced downloadable Resources
  • Unified colors with product
  • Improved marketing / positioning elements
  • Introduced regional conventions

v2023.07.26

Product & marketing alignment

  • Included Uphold marketing elements
  • Removed “brand signatures”
  • Changed leading system rule from 4 to 5px
  • Re-introduced P06 color to improve contrast
  • Removed variation colors
  • Renamed “Design system” to “Application”
  • Removed Infographics guidelines

v2023.03.28

Initial release