Brand Record

The visual identity system. Palette, type, tokens, and image style. The universal carrier for anything DH generates.

The DH Brand Record is the file to paste into any AI before it writes or designs anything for Design Hacker. It carries who we are, who we serve, the voice (see Voice Rules for the full writing law), the proof, and the look. This page covers the visual half: palette, type, tokens, and image style.

Who we are, compressed

Design Hacker LLC, San Diego. Founder Andrew Lane. Tagline: “Structure is what turns AI from a novelty into actual leverage.” One Truth: structure beats intelligence, build the brain, then ship. Category owned: the structured brand brain for AI, the system big businesses already have, productized for solo founders. Reach: 50,000+ entrepreneurs served, $4M+ in digital product revenue.

Palette

Near-black #010001 carries body text and the dark base. Typography is Poppins, exclusively, display weight 800+ for headlines, 600-700 for subheads, 400-500 for body.

Design tokens

The canonical brand palette resolves into CSS custom properties, semantic aliases first, so nothing downstream hardcodes a hex:

--dh-magenta-plum: #A5205B; /* primary: buttons, headers, accents */
--dh-dark-plum:    #45123B; /* deep brand / dark anchor */
--dh-coral-red:    #EB5E55; /* accent: highlights, CTAs */
--dh-blush-linen:  #EEE4E8; /* light base / soft tint */
--dh-near-black:   #010001; /* body text / dark base */

--color-primary:      var(--dh-magenta-plum);
--color-primary-deep: var(--dh-dark-plum);
--color-accent:        var(--dh-coral-red);
--color-surface-soft:  var(--dh-blush-linen);
--color-text:          var(--dh-near-black);

Two surface modes ride on top: [data-surface="signature"] (dark plum background, coral action color, the dark cinematic hero look) and [data-surface="light"] (blush linen background, magenta-plum action color, the clean teaching mode).

Two visual modes

Dark cinematic (signature): dark plum / near-black backgrounds, magenta-plum and coral glow, editorial depth of field. The hero look.

Clean light (teaching): blush linen backgrounds, generous whitespace, near-black text, magenta-plum accents. For tutorials, docs, how-tos.

Image style

Photorealistic and editorial. References: Monocle magazine, Apple campaigns. Real founders and customers, or real product screenshots (Notion screenshots are on-brand, the system in action). Brand-color overlays on photography. Punchy single-word ALL-CAPS emphasis when text sits in frame.

Buddy, the mascot

Anthropomorphic white llama, effortlessly cool. Black-frame wayfarer sunglasses, chunky gold chain, rust-burgundy satin bomber jacket with a subtle magenta-plum glow along the seams, dark grey slim jeans, all-white high-tops. Premium 3D render, cinematic realism, Gorillaz-character-meets-Nike/Adidas-campaign energy. Buddy bylines BUILDING topics; Andrew bylines LIVED topics.

Proof (verified, safe to quote)

22Social: co-built a 7-figure software company, 50,000 users, $50K/mo, under $1,000 in ads, first to live stream on Facebook. Copy.ai: helped scale 28,000 to 10M+ users, #1 affiliate worldwide. Two $600K Kickstarter launches, zero to $600K in 30 days each. Mood Board Method: 500+ students, 100+ five-star reviews.

Frameworks (the moat, always capitalized)

The Brand Brain Methodology, The 3-Phase Brand Brain Builder, The 90/10 Principle, The Authenticity Tier System (LIVED/BUILDING/CURATED), Internal Podcast Simulation, The Mood Board Method, The Cowork + Notion Combo, The Prompt Engineering Standard, The 30-Day Brand Builder Sprint.

Boundaries

Income disclaimer on any revenue mention. AI disclosure on AI-drafted content. Critique behavior, not brands. No income, health, financial, or legal claims. Route BUILDING content through Buddy, never Andrew.