Brand guidelines · September 2026
The frame you notice second.
One green family. One warm accent. White space, a modernist grotesk, and a script for the human moments. The art is always the hero.
Knowing what to ask is the product.
Framed LA has never been about four sticks of wood. It is about knowing what questions to ask, understanding what actually matters about the piece, and finding the right way for it to live on a wall. What the shop sells is knowledge, design thinking, preservation, technical problem solving and the confidence of being guided by someone who has seen thousands of objects and knows what will happen to yours in ten years.
The finished frame is where all of that thinking becomes visible. That is why the work costs what it costs, and why the brand never has to argue about price.
Mission
To help people discover how the things that matter to them should live on their walls.
The line that runs through everything
Guide, not decide.
Expertise offered, never imposed. The client makes the decision, better informed than when they walked in.
Clients arrive saying, “I don’t know how to frame this.” Good. That is a perfectly normal place to start. Our job is to help them recognize what feels right.
Four pillars, and one that keeps the brand from taking itself too seriously.
Guide, not decide
Real expertise, offered as a conversation. We show options, explain trade offs and say what we would do. The client chooses.
Everything has a story
The object matters because of where it came from, who was there and what it brings back. We ask before we measure.
Knowledge without intimidation
Art history, design, preservation and technique explained the way you would explain it to a friend, not the way a catalog explains it.
Built here, for you
Made in the shop, with a material range and a willingness to solve problems that an online pick and pay service cannot match.
Los Angeles curiosity
Art, architecture, music, travel, makers and the cultural life around the shop. Rap and punk and the fifties and Mozart. This is the pillar that keeps Framed LA warm, and it is optional in any single piece of work but never absent from the brand.
Modernist structure. Warm materials. Nothing decorative for decoration’s sake.
Deep green and gilding. Raking light on a corner. Clean walls, real rooms, a hang that is generous rather than crowded. This is the register the photography, the website and the social feed all live in.
An important distinction. The brand system is restrained. The work does not have to be. Framed LA frames ornate, gilded, historic and maximalist objects, and the identity exists to sit quietly behind all of it. The visual system should never compete with the client’s art.
Exclusive and approachable
Serious about the craft, never serious about itself.
Elegant and bohemian
A modernist frame around a room full of interests.
Worldly and local
Paris, Berlin and the Valley, in the same conversation.
Knowledgeable and unpretentious
Expertise as one plain reason, never a lecture.
One horizontal lockup. One square mark.
The existing Framed LA logo is retained without redrawing. The horizontal lockup is the default in almost every situation. The LA square works on its own only where the full name is already present or obvious, such as a profile picture, a stamp on the back of a frame, or the last card of a carousel.
The gray corner brackets inside the LA square are the only decorative device in the identity, and they stay inside the logo. They are not a page graphic.
Horizontal lockup, full color. Default.
Square mark. Secondary use only.
Six combinations, in background order.
White ground, full color. The gray frame around LA is used on white only.
White ground, all black. Print, press and single color work.
White ground, all Framed LA Green.
Framed LA Green ground, all white.
Deep Forest ground, all white.
Saffron ground, all black. White also works. Never full color on saffron.
The logo file is always transparent. A white box is added only when the logo has to sit on an image and no other placement works, and then it is a deliberate white field with proper clear space, not a tight crop.
- Clear space
- On all four sides, keep clear space equal to the height of the LA square. Nothing enters it: no type, no rule, no image edge, no other logo.
- Minimum size, digital
- 180px wide for the full lockup with the descriptor. Below that the descriptor closes up and stops being readable.
- Minimum size, print
- 38mm wide for the full lockup with the descriptor.
- Below minimum
- Use the wordmark without the “Custom Framing & Printing” descriptor, or the LA square alone. Do not shrink an illegible descriptor onto a small item. Verify legibility on the actual substrate before a production run.
Do not
- Stretch, compress or rotate the logo
- Add shadows, glows, outlines or bevels
- Recolor outside the six approved combinations
- Rebuild or reset the wordmark in another typeface
- Change the proportions between wordmark, descriptor and square
- Separate arbitrary pieces of the lockup
- Place it on busy imagery without clear space and contrast
- Put it in an unnecessary white box
- Use the LA frame device as loose page decoration
One green family, one warm accent, and a great deal of white.
Ten values, and only four of them do heavy lifting. The rest exist so the system has somewhere to go on a long page without reaching for a new color.
Framed LA Green
#20563C
Primary. Brand green, buttons, headings on white.
Deep Forest
#0D3412
Full bleed sections, business card back, depth.
Moss
#3C4E32
Third green. Quiet surfaces and dividers.
Saffron
#E3A72F
The warm accent. One saffron surface per view.
Mustard
#A8791F
Saffron’s darker partner. Script accents on white.
White
#FFFFFF
The dominant surface. Space is part of the identity.
Light Warm Gray
#EBEBE6
Image placeholders and quiet panels.
Linen
#F1F2E4
Warm paper tone for print and soft sections.
Ink
#141414
All body copy. Not pure black.
Logo Gray
#A09F9B
The corner brackets inside the LA square. Nothing else.
Where these values came from
Framed LA Green is a working digital brand value read from the current logo master supplied by the client. It is accurate to that file, and it should be confirmed against the original vector artwork or the brand notebook if one exists. No Pantone or CMYK values are published in this guide, because none have been supplied. When they are needed, the closest Pantone reference will be proposed and confirmed against a physical swatch before any production run.
Neue Haas Grotesk
Christian Schwartz’s restoration of Max Miedinger’s 1957 original, before it became Helvetica. Display for anything 20px and up, Text for body, labels and interface. It carries every headline, every paragraph and every button in the brand.
Licensing. Available through Adobe Fonts, which Squarespace supports natively. Confirm the web license covers framedla.com before launch.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & , . : ; ! ?
Display 95 Black, 44px
To help people discover how the things that matter to them should live on their walls.
Text 55 Regular, 18px
To help people discover how the things that matter to them should live on their walls.
Text 65 Medium, label
To help people discover how the things that matter to them should live on their walls.
Raillouise
A high contrast script by Nofi Sofyan Hadi for Heinzel Std. It is the human voice in the system: one expressive word, a short phrase, a review in someone’s own words.
Licensing. A commercial font, not on Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts. A desktop license and a webfont license are both required before anything public.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & , . : ; ! ?
The default style is the whole system
Raillouise is set with its own kerning and ligatures switched on, no letterspacing, and no stylistic sets. That is all it needs. The font carries more than five thousand kerning pairs, and left alone it handles any word correctly.
Memories Beautiful Interesting Restoration
Default glyphs. No adjustment of any kind. This is what every future word gets.
Where is it going to live?
Tell us about it.
Trust your eye.
Whole phrases, same setting. The system has to carry sentences, not three chosen words.
The swash alternates are terminal letters
The stylistic sets in this font are not a general swash mode. ss01 replaces exactly three glyphs, lowercase e, lowercase l and capital R. ss03 replaces lowercase l. Each alternate draws a flourish that extends well past its own width, so it only works as the last letter of a word, with clear space after it.
Love Frame Style
Swash Accent, on words that end in e. Applied to a word with an interior e or l, the flourish collides with the next letter, which is why it is never the default.
Specific beats general. Invite, never push.
Framed LA sounds like a knowledgeable person who is genuinely interested in what you brought in, and who would happily talk about the record sleeve on the wall behind you for twenty minutes.
- Do
- Ask about the object before talking about the frame. Give one plain reason for a recommendation. Use humor when it is natural, usually at our own expense. Say what we would do, then leave the choice open.
- Don’t
- Sell. Lecture. Hedge. Apologize for price. Reach for a luxury adjective when a specific noun would do.
- Never write
- elevated · curated · bespoke · timeless sophistication · unparalleled · luxury · premium · exceptional quality · where artistry meets craftsmanship · journey · solutions · we pride ourselves · em dashes
Sounds like us. Doesn’t sound like us.
Sounds like us
- What’s the story behind this one? curious
- Were you there? interested in the person
- Simple doesn’t have to mean boring. opinionated, not precious
- Trust your eye. We’ll help with the rest. reassuring
- We have opinions. Yours matters more. expert, not overbearing
- You don’t have to know how to frame it. removes the intimidation
- Bring us the weird one. funny, a little irreverent
- Sometimes we’ll tell you not to frame it. honest before commercial
- Come in for a chat. the invitation, always
Doesn’t sound like us
- Elevate your space with bespoke framing.
- Our curated collection of premium mouldings.
- Where artistry meets craftsmanship.
- Begin your framing journey with us today.
- We pride ourselves on unparalleled quality.
- Timeless sophistication for the discerning collector.
- Custom framing solutions tailored to you.
- Book your complimentary design consultation.
- Contact us to learn more.
Nine lines, nine different sides of the same person. That range is the point. The column on the left is not a script to recite, it is the register to write in, and the pages that follow set out the language the brand already owns.
The True Love Guarantee
Nothing hangs in your house that you don’t love.
It is the clearest expression of Guide, not decide. The client is not being sold a frame, they are being helped to arrive at the right one, and the business stands behind that.
The frame isn’t finished until you love it.
One secondary expression, for signage, packaging or a follow up email. The guarantee needs a name and a promise, not a paragraph of variations.
Proposed language, pending final confirmation
The concept is approved as a brand idea. The operational terms behind it are not written here, because they have not been supplied. No time limit, exclusion, remake policy or refund term should be published anywhere until Framed LA has confirmed exactly what the business is willing to stand behind. Until then the phrase is used as a promise of intent, not as a warranty.
How it looks once it is made.
The pages that follow show the identity applied across stationery, folders, packaging, event pieces, display, gifts and finishing details. They exist so that whoever produces any of it can see the intended result rather than infer it from rules.
Concept mockups
These are generated visualizations made to show direction. They are not photographs of produced work, and none of them should ever be published as Framed LA work or used in a portfolio. Once the real pieces are printed, they get photographed and these are replaced.
Letterhead, envelope, business card, estimate and thank you card. The system holds on paper: white ground, Framed LA Green as the only field, one gray corner device.
The identical system printed on linen and warm stock, with saffron carrying the script line. Proof that the palette survives a change of paper.
Presentation folder, certificate sleeve, care guide, installation notes and authenticity sheet. Everything a finished piece leaves with, in one visual family.
The same collateral in Deep Forest and Moss. Where it goes darker the type reverses to white and saffron and the logo becomes the reversed mark. No other change is needed.
Outer box, inner tissue, seal and card. The packaging protects the piece and extends the experience without competing with what is inside it.
Kraft and uncoated board with a single green seal. Restraint on the outside is what makes the object inside feel considered.
Round seals, tissue stickers, closure labels and thank you seals. This is where the short brand lines live, one per sticker, never crowded.
Card holder, gift card sleeve, mini print sleeve and thank you tag for openings, festivals and community events.
Wooden card frames, a mini floor frame, easel signs and table pieces. Framing used as the display system for framing, which is the most natural product demonstration there is.
Miniature framed signs carrying pricing, event details, QR prompts and collection names. Information becomes an object, and the object demonstrates the product. Prices shown are placeholders and must be confirmed before anything is printed.
A wooden card holder, a framed contact card and a printed frame-edge card. The names, titles and numbers in this mockup are placeholders. Real contact details are verified before any print run.
Miniature framed pins and magnets for clients, openings and artist collaborations. Small in scale, and made with the same care as the custom work, which is the whole point of them.
Gift card frames, mini desk frames, frame ornaments and event keepsakes. These carry the brand past the transaction and keep a wall connected to the shop.
September 2026
Guide, not decide.
Brand and assets
Tina Hobbs, SweSoul
tinadavar@gmail.com
Detail documents
Color, typography and photography systems in full, in Framed LA Brand Assets.
Status
Proposed for approval. Nothing in this guide is live until Framed LA signs off.