This is Dissent.
Voice, type, palette, and the mark.
The brand,
in three words.
Dissent is a counterculture financial, risk, and legal advisory practice. We treat clients as peers. Everything we write comes from these three words.
Against the default of how advisory is sold, billed, and delivered. Small founder over institutional client. Built work over billed hours.
CA-trained and audit-grade. Every number and recommendation is reviewed for its commercial, financial, and tax consequence before it leaves the firm.
No advisory fog. No founder-hero language. If we are not the right fit, we say so before anyone signs.
Brand voice · sounds like / never sounds like
- Direct sentences. Subject, verb, outcome.
- Real numbers. Named mandates. ICAI registered.
- Italic emphasis on the contrarian half of a contrast.
- Trade-offs named, not smoothed over.
- Peer to peer. "You get this. By this date. For this price."
- One wry line a page. Not two.
- Transform your business.
- Empower founders.
- Unlock your potential.
- AI-powered solution.
- World-class team of experts.
- Trusted by leading enterprises, with no count.
- Emoji, on any official surface.
Sora.
Almost everywhere.
Sora sets body, UI, labels, eyebrows, and most headings. Playfair Display is reserved for the cover title and a short italic. Both are SIL Open Font License.
Specimen · the roles we actually set
Sora · 600From both sides of the table.
Playfair · 400Not just contracts.
Sora · 400A serious audit runs for months. The information it needs comes from the same people who run the business. We coordinate that process so management stays on the work.
Sora · 500 capsHow we work
Ink. Paper.
Cyprus.
Three structural neutrals (ink, paper, off-white) plus one signal hue (Cyprus blue) and its tonal family. Cyprus appears in roughly 5–10% of pixel weight — accents, callouts, italic emphasis, status panels. The other 90–95% is ink, paper, and the b-family neutrals.
Contrast · WCAG AA target = 4.5:1 for body text
| Pair | Use | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Ink on DA White | Body text on light sections (default) | 15.2 : 1 ✓ |
| Cyprus Blue on DA White | Italic emphasis · links · eyebrow | 8.1 : 1 ✓ |
| Cyprus 20 on DA White | Secondary type on light | 5.0 : 1 ✓ |
| DA White on Ink | Body text on dark cover/footer | 15.2 : 1 ✓ |
| Cyprus 60 on Ink | Eyebrows on dark | 7.8 : 1 ✓ |
| DA White on Cyprus Blue | Type on Cyprus CTA / accent panel | 8.1 : 1 ✓ |
85 / 10 / 5
DA White and ink own ~85% of pixel weight (surfaces, body, structure). Black, Cyprus 60, and supporting greys own ~10%. Cyprus Blue owns no more than 5% — accents, italic emphasis, CTA buttons, callout left-borders. Accents work because they are rare.
Light surface · dark anchor
Reference documents (this brand book) live on light. Service pages live on dark for atmosphere. The cover, nav, and footer of every page stay dark — they bookend and ground the document regardless of which surface the body uses.
No pure colors.
#000 and #fff never appear in our system. DA Black is warm. DA White is warm. Both are tinted; the whole system is warm-tinted to feel human and considered.
No gradients on type.
Cyprus is solid. Italic, weight, and size carry emphasis — never a gradient fill. Gradient text is an AI-slop tell and immediately reads as generic SaaS.
Status colours,
used sparingly.
Three semantic hues for status communication — green, amber, red. Used only on status pills, audit badges, and category tags. Never on body type, never on hero panels, never as a decoration. The semantic palette earns its meaning by appearing only where status is actually being communicated.
Green · deliverables
Outputs, deliverables, completed states, deadlines met. The colour of "this is what you get."
Amber · emphasis
Findings, notes, things that need attention but are not red flags. Also used for timeline indicators on Startups cards (2–3 weeks).
Red · risk
Risks, triggers, defaults, urgent matters. The rarest of the three — appears mostly on Forensic Audit triggers and "Never sounds like" columns.
One monogram.
Two lockups.
The mark is a drawn monogram, not type set in a box. White on dark. Black on light. Do not redraw it, recolor it, or substitute a font.
Monogram
The DA mark alone. Navigation, favicon, and any space too small for the wordmark.
Primary
Monogram with the Dissent Advisory wordmark. Footer, opening splash, and formal documents.
Secondary
Ruled wordmark for editorial covers and light surfaces. The black file only. Do not invert it by hand.
Use
- Colour
- White mark on dark. Black mark on light. No Cyprus fill, no gradient, no outline version.
- Files
- logo-svg-notext.svg for the monogram, logo-svg.svg for the primary lockup, Secondary_Black.svg for the editorial wordmark.
- Clear space
- Keep clear space around the mark equal to the height of the inner counter. Do not lock type or another mark into that space.
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