Official brand
guidelines

Fifteen chapters.
One brand.

Read it cover to cover, or jump to the chapter you need. Every chapter ends with a "rules" block so the right answer is one scroll away.

The mission, in one sentence.
Reunite a generation with itself.

UbuntuCare exists because diaspora families in the UK shouldn't have to choose between professional childcare and cultural continuity. We are the platform that gives them both.

Mission

To make every family in the UK feel culturally and emotionally safe in the care of someone outside their bloodline.

Vision

By 2031, UbuntuCare is how a million British families experience childcare — not just safer and faster than the system they grew up with, but warmer and truer than they imagined possible.

The four strategic pillars

Who we serve — the six communities

• Families. Diaspora and culturally-rooted households across the UK who want care that reflects who they are.
• Carers. Vetted childminders, nannies, and trainee caregivers building a livelihood with dignity.
• Training partners. Academies and colleges feeding a pipeline of certified caregivers into the network.
• Communities. Cultural and faith-based collectives who use UbuntuCare as their care infrastructure.
• Employers. Companies offering workplace childcare benefits to retain diaspora talent.
• Government & local authorities. Councils and ministries partnering on safeguarding, training, and outcomes data.

What we are not

• Not a generic caregiver marketplace. We are a culturally intelligent care network.
• Not a discount childcare app. We are a quality and safety standard.
• Not a saviour brand. We do not "rescue" anyone. We restore something that already belongs to families.
• Not a token diversity gesture. Culture is the product, not the marketing.

One master.
Five focused expressions.

UbuntuCare is the master brand. Beneath it sit four named programmes and one community membership tier — each with its own page and audience but visually unified under the master.

Naming conventions

• The master brand is always written as one word, sentence case: UbuntuCare. Never "Ubuntu Care," "ubuntu care," or "UBUNTU CARE."
• Sub-brands take their own name, never hyphenated to the master: Ubuntu Academy, The Village, For Families, For Carers.
• In a sentence we say "UbuntuCare's Ubuntu Academy" — never "UbuntuCare Academy."
• Legal entity: UbuntuCare Ltd. Use the full legal name only in contracts, T&Cs, and footers.

Sub-brand colour ownership

What we feel like, in 60 seconds.

If a designer or writer has only one page to absorb us, this is that page.

Brand personality

UbuntuCare is the friend who happens to be a midwife. Warm enough to hold your hand, sharp enough to spot what's wrong, calm enough to make you feel safe in any room. Confident without being loud. Cultural without being performative.

Five adjectives

• Warm — never cold, clinical, or transactional.
• Rigorous — every claim is backed by evidence; every promise is backed by checks.
• Culturally fluent — we move between Yoruba, Shona, Punjabi, Somali, Cantonese, and a hundred more.
• Modern — designed for a phone, written for a working parent, built for 2026.
• Familial — we treat carers and families like extended kin, not contractors and customers.

What we sound like in one paragraph

"Care is one of the most intimate decisions a family makes. So we built a platform that respects that. Every carer is enhanced DBS-checked. Every family is matched on values, not just availability. And every conversation is held in the language that feels most like home."

Calm authority.
Familial warmth.

We never raise our voice. We never sound corporate. We sound like the most trusted adult in the room.

The four voice principles

Dos and don'ts — headline copy

Words we use

Carer · caregiver · family · village · home · heritage · language · tradition · trust · evidence · safeguarding · enhanced DBS · reference · identity verified · vetted · matched · culturally aligned · diaspora · community · partnership.

Words we avoid

Babysitter · nanny-share marketplace · ethnic minorities · BAME · multicultural (as a noun) · disruptive · revolutionary · game-changing · best-in-class · world-class · synergy · seamless · unique · empower (as a verb applied to families).

Rhythm rules

• Lead with the answer. The first sentence carries the meaning.
• One idea per sentence. Stack short, then breathe with one longer.
• Read it aloud. If it doesn't sound like a person, rewrite it.
• Never start with "We" twice in a row. Vary subject.
• Avoid the construction "we are not just X, we are Y." It is a tic.

One mark.
Two forms.

The logo is the most disciplined element in the system. Treat it with the respect of a signature. Never recreate it — always pull from the source files.

Primary Wordmark

The U Mark

The "U" letterform is our compact mark — used at mobile sizes, favicons, app icons, social avatars, and as a graphic element.

Slice: 7Use: App icon, favicons, light backgrounds

Slice: 9Use: Dark surfaces

PNG Application Rules

Always use source PNG files — never screenshot or re-save compressed. We only use slices 6, 7, 9, and 12.

Clear space

Always leave a clear space equal to the height of the dot on all four sides of the logo. Nothing — text, image, edge, or button — enters this zone.

CLEAR SPACE

Misuse — never do these

Brand Blue on coloured backgrounds

Rotation or skew

Drop shadows or effects

Reduced opacity

Stretching or squashing

Off-brand colours

One signature.
A disciplined supporting cast.

Brand Blue carries the brand. Ink Black holds the structure. The neutrals do the quiet work. Status colours are used only for meaning, never for decoration.

Primary

Neutrals

Status

Usage ratio

Across any layout — homepage, ad, deck, app screen — the colour ratio should feel like this:

Brand Blue is the accent — not the wallpaper. If a layout is mostly blue, redesign it.

Accessibility

• Brand Blue (#006FD9) on White passes WCAG AA for body text and controls.
• Brand Blue on Ink Black passes AA — it's the only place we put coloured type on a dark surface.
• Never rely on colour alone to convey meaning. Pair colour with an icon, a label, or a tag.

Two fonts.
Infinite voice.

Manrope Bold carries our headlines. Inter does the heavy lifting everywhere else. Both are free, open-source, and licensed under the SIL Open Font License — production-safe everywhere.

Type rules

• Manrope Bold is for display headlines only. Cover, hero, and large-format moments. Never body.
• Inter does everything else — H1 through caption, button labels, body, navigation.
• Never use more than three sizes in a single composition. Discipline reads as confidence.
• Letter-spacing tightens as size grows. Below 18px, tracking is normal. Above 32px, tracking is negative.
• Line-length cap: 720px. Beyond that, body type becomes hard to read.
• Italics: use sparingly, only for emphasis or quoted speech.

The U is more than a letter.
It's a holding shape.

The U-mark, soft rounded rectangles, dotted patterns, and brand-tint blocks form a small library of expressive elements that signal UbuntuCare without using the logo.

The four element families

• The U-shape. The descender of the wordmark, used as a frame, a container, a punctuation mark.
• Soft rounded rectangles. 10px radius cards, 100px radius buttons. Nothing sharp. Nothing aggressive.
• Dotted patterns. Brand Blue dots at 18% opacity. Used as a texture inside tint blocks or as a connecting motif.
• Tint blocks. Brand Blue at 8–14% opacity. A way to introduce colour without shouting.

Photography overlays

When pairing photography with graphic elements, layer photos at full opacity over Brand Blue tint blocks (8–14% opacity) or anchor them inside clean 10px-radius cards. Never apply Brand Blue as a colour-tint overlay on top of a photo — it kills skin tones. Use Ink Black gradients instead for legibility.

People first.
Always in motion.

Our visuals show real diaspora families and carers in real British homes — never staged, never generic. Photography is the heart of how UbuntuCare looks. Every image earns its place by showing a moment that could not happen anywhere else.

Subject

• Caregivers and families together — never one without the other.
• Children at play, reading, eating, learning a language, in a faith ritual, hugging a grandparent.
• Specific cultural moments: jollof being stirred, Diwali lamps being lit, a Shona lullaby being sung, hijab being adjusted before school.
• UK settings — Croydon flats, Birmingham terraces, Manchester semis. Never aspirational US suburbs.

Mood

Warm natural light. Soft shadows. Slight overcast where possible. We avoid the over-saturated, over-stylised look of stock photography. Every frame should feel like a moment captured, not a moment composed.

The four visual subjects

Caregiver + child · the core relationship4:3 · warm light

The Village · community made visible4:3 · group framing

Home · where care belongs4:3 · natural light

Learning · Academy & storytelling4:3 · focused moment

What we don't do

• No stock-photo "happy families" with bleached teeth and matching cardigans.
• No close-ups of caregivers smiling alone — the relationship is always the subject.
• No black-and-white photography. Our brand lives in colour.
• No filters, no heavy retouching, no skin smoothing.

Air over noise.
Always.

Our pages breathe. We use full viewport widths with disciplined internal padding so type can take its space and images can hold their weight.

Spacing scale

Container rules

• Containers are always 100vw. Padding lives inside.
• Mobile: 20px horizontal padding. Desktop (≥768px): 40px.
• Text content max-width: 720px for body, 880px for hero headlines.
• Sections separate through contrast shifts, with page gutters controlled by --pad.

Radii

Shadows

Calm motion.
Never anxious.

Motion is a quiet host. It shows what's interactive, where attention should go, and what just changed — without showing off.

Motion principles

• Purposeful. Every animation explains a change. Decorative motion is banned.
• Fast. Most transitions are 150–200ms. Reveals up to 500ms. Anything longer feels heavy.
• Easing. cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) for entrances. ease for everyday transitions.
• Respect prefers-reduced-motion. Always provide a still alternative.

One style.
Stroke, not fill.

All icons are 24×24px stroked outlines at 2px weight, round caps, round joins. We use the Lucide icon set as our canonical library. Custom icons must match this style precisely.

Icon rules

• 24×24px viewBox, 2px stroke, round caps and joins.
• Use currentColor so icons inherit text colour automatically.
• Icons sit inside a tinted 48px square — brand-tint background, brand-blue stroke — at standard size.
• No mixed styles. No fills. No two-tone icons. No emoji as icons.

The pieces
that build everything.

Components are the lowest layer of the design system. Every page is assembled from these. Build them once. Use them everywhere.

Buttons

Tags

Forms

Cards

Choice tiles

Empty state

Words that are
already true.

A working library of taglines, CTAs, and standing copy that's been pressure-tested against the voice principles. Use these directly. Adapt only if you must.

Brand statements

• "It takes a village. So we built one."
• "Care that understands your family."
• "Together, we raise the next generation."
• "Trusted carers. Devoted families. One village."
• "Care, the way it was always meant to be — held by the community that knows you."

Headlines

• "Carers who feel like home."
• "The UK's culturally intelligent care network."
• "Designed around who you are — not just where you live."
• "Care, in the language your child dreams in."

CTAs

• "Get started" — universal sign-up
• "Join the waitlist" — pre-launch
• "Find a carer" — family-facing
• "Apply as a carer" — caregiver-facing
• "See the standard" — safeguarding / vetting

Standing copy — vetting promise

"Every carer is Enhanced DBS-checked, references-verified, identity-confirmed, and safeguarding-trained before they appear on the platform. We don't take shortcuts. Neither do you."

Standing copy — cultural promise

"Match by language, heritage, faith, and family tradition. Whether you're Yoruba, Shona, Punjabi, Cantonese, Somali, Akan, or somewhere in between — your child grows up seen."

Standing copy — the village promise

"The Village isn't a marketing term. It's a real community of families and carers who share meals, mind each other's kids on a Saturday, and show up. Joining UbuntuCare means joining people who recognise you."

Take it with you.

Everything you need to brand-correctly produce a deck, a poster, a contract, or a press release. If something is missing, email admin@ubuntucare.uk.