Skip to content
Mandate SA — home
Search
Find my wardHow we work
Theme

Brand guidelines

The brand story

Public power, on the record.

Mandate SA brings South Africa's public record into view. Like pages of an open book, its evidence draws from manifestos, official records, public statements and independent sources. Together, these pages create a foundation for understanding what was promised, what happened and what remains to be done.

And the underlying principle is simple:

  • The wordmark represents the mandate.
  • The pages represent the evidence.
  • The open book represents transparency.
  • The South African colours represent the people and country the platform serves.

“Public power, on the record.” is the single official brand line. It is used as a plain statement of what Mandate SA is, never with an exclamation, a lock-up of slogans or an animated treatment.

Logo meaning and symbolism

  1. The wordmark represents the mandate.
  2. The pages represent the evidence.
  3. The open book represents transparency.
  4. The South African colours represent the people and country the platform serves.

Beneath the wordmark, four tapering strokes fan out from the edges like the pages of a book falling open. Each page is a single source of evidence — a manifesto, an official record, a public statement, an independent report — and together they carry the name above them: the mandate rests on the record.

The pages take yellow, red, green and black, colours that together evoke South Africa. That is Mandate SA’s own reading of its identity, not a claim about what any single colour officially means — and none of them is ever used to signal a verdict, a status or a political side.

Colour palette

Six official colours. Navy carries the identity; the four page colours are accents, used sparingly and never for text on white or to mean success, failure or progress.

  • Navy

    #00138C

    Primary wordmark, authority, clarity and trust

    On white
    14,3:1 · text and graphics

  • Yellow

    #FDB91A

    South African identity and page accent

    On white
    1,7:1 · accents only — never text
    On navy
    8,2:1 · text and graphics

  • Green

    #00794B

    South African identity and page accent

    On white
    5,5:1 · text and graphics
    On navy
    2,6:1 · accents only — never text

  • Red

    #B41F21

    South African identity and page accent

    On white
    6,6:1 · text and graphics
    On navy
    2,1:1 · accents only — never text

  • Black

    #000000

    Contrast, grounding and page accent

    On white
    21,0:1 · text and graphics
    On navy
    1,5:1 · accents only — never text

  • White

    #FFFFFF

    Space, legibility and clean presentation

    On navy
    14,3:1 · text and graphics

Contrast ratios are calculated from the hex values (WCAG 2.2: 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text and graphics). Select a value to copy it.

Navy on white

Headings, the wordmark and key statements. 14,3:1

White on navy

Navy panels and the app icon. 14,3:1

Navy with restrained accents

Page stripes as a divider

At their own proportions, opening a section — never stretched to the full width or recoloured.

The interface keeps its own functional blue for links, buttons and selections, and its own status tones; those are interface colours, not the identity, and the identity colours are never used in their place.

Typography

Logo

Montserrat-Arabic SemiBold

The typeface the wordmark was drawn in, as confirmed by the brand owner. In the official files the lettering is outlined artwork, so it is preserved exactly and never retyped; the font file is not part of this website.

Headings and figures

Plus Jakarta Sans

A geometric sans that sits close to the wordmark’s round, open letters. Headings, statements and key figures.

Interface and reading

Inter

Body text, navigation, buttons, tables, charts, captions and citations — chosen for legibility at small sizes. Both faces are open source and served from Mandate SA’s own domain.

The type scale
StyleUseFamilySizeSample
displayPage statementPlus Jakarta Sans40–64 pxOn the record
h1Section titlePlus Jakarta Sans34–48 pxOn the record
h2Sub-sectionPlus Jakarta Sans24–32 pxPublic power, on the record
h3Card and panel titlePlus Jakarta Sans18–20 pxPublic power, on the record
leadLead paragraphInter17–20 pxPublic power, on the record
bodyBody textInter16 pxPublic power, on the record
body-smallSecondary textInter14 pxPublic power, on the record
labelLabels and table headsInter13 pxPublic power, on the record
overlineOverlines and eyebrowsInter13 pxPublic power, on the record
metadataCaptions, dates and source citationsInter13 pxPublic power, on the record

Navigation and buttons

Primary actionSecondary actionNavigation item

Captions and source citations

Source: the publisher, the document’s title and page · published and retrieved dates · a link to the archived copy.

Citations are always set in the metadata style, directly beneath the figure or statement they support.

Logo usage rules

Clear space

Keep a margin on every side at least equal to the height of the page stripes — about 30% of the logo’s height. Nothing enters it: no text, edges or images.

Minimum sizes by context
ContextSmallest size
Wordmark on screens20 px high (≈ 100 px wide); at 16 px the four pages merge into one line
Site header24 px on phones, 28 px from 1 200 px
Mark (favicon, app icon)16 px; prefer 32 px or more
Below 20 px for the wordmarkuse the mark instead

Dark surfaces: use “Light on Black” (navy fourth page) on near-black and the white version (black fourth page) on navy, so that all four pages always read.

  • CorrectKeep the proportions; scale by height.

  • CorrectOn navy, the white version (black fourth page); on near-black, Light on Black.

  • 32 px

    CorrectUse the mark where the wordmark would be under 20 px.

  • CorrectGive it a plain, calm background with strong contrast.

  • IncorrectDo not stretch or compress it.

  • IncorrectDo not recolour the lettering or the pages.

  • IncorrectDo not flip, reorder or redraw the page stripes.

  • IncorrectNo shadows, gradients, glows or 3D effects.

  • IncorrectNot on busy photography without a calm, dark area.

  • IncorrectNever smaller than 20 px high.

  • IncorrectNo ticks, verification badges, seals or party symbols beside or on it.

  • IncorrectNot the navy version on navy or dark surfaces.

Brand applications

How the identity appears across Mandate SA. The header, footer and icons are the live site; the cover and citation card are illustrative layouts with no real content.

Website header

The wordmark alone, 28 px high, left-aligned and centred in the bar — navy on light pages, white over the homepage photograph and in the dark theme. This page’s own header is the live version.

Compact mobile header

The wordmark at 24 px, the smallest header size.

Footer

The Light on Black version on the footer band, in both themes, left-aligned above the brand line.

Favicon and app icons

The mark on the navy tile: the browser tab (16 and 32 px), the home-screen icon and the web app manifest.

Promises and actions tracker

PromisesIn ProgressCompletedNot Started
Supported by official recordsIndependently reportedParty claim · not independently verifiedDisputed

Statuses and verification labels use the interface’s status tones and always carry their words — never the flag colours. See the tracker

Evidence and citation card · illustrative

SourceTitle of the document, page numberPublisher · published date · retrieved dateArchived copy

No logo on evidence: the source, not Mandate SA, is the subject.

Report and document cover · illustrative

The wordmark top left, the title in navy, the page stripes closing the cover.

  • Party profiles and project pages carry the identity in the header and footer only. Party logos and colours remain the parties’ own and are never mixed with the Mandate SA palette. Parties
  • Javi, the research assistant, keeps its own interface and names Mandate SA in text (“Powered by Javi Intelligence · Mandate SA”).
  • Emails are plain text by policy — no images or remote content — and are signed “Mandate SA”.
  • Social previews show the wordmark on white (1200 × 630).

Brand principles

These complement the brand story; they describe how the identity behaves.

  1. Evidence before assertion

    A figure, status or claim appears with its source, or not at all.

  2. Transparency over opacity

    Methods, sources, corrections and history stay open to inspection.

  3. Political neutrality

    The same rules for every party and every person; no party colours, symbols or rankings in the identity.

  4. Public accessibility

    Plain language, readable contrast and layouts that work on any phone, for everyone.

  5. Clear attribution

    Who said it, who did it, who is officially responsible and who claims credit are kept apart.

  6. Accountability with fair review

    Every record is reviewed by someone other than its author, and anyone may ask for a correction.

Brand assets

Official artwork

The approved files, unchanged.

Exported from the official vectors

Raster sizes generated from the official SVG files (never enlarged from a small PNG). The maskable icon scales the official artwork into Android’s safe zone.

Proposals (not approved)

For the brand owner’s decision. Not approved artwork; do not use as the logo.