Maple & Stone Brand Guidelines

Version: 1.0 Last updated: 4 June 2026 Owner: Priya Nair, Brand Lead

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1. Brand story & values

Who we are: Maple & Stone makes sustainable homewares — ceramics, textiles, and small furniture — for people who want their home to feel calm, lasting, and honestly made.

What we believe: A home should be built to keep, not to replace. We design for decades, not for trends.

Our promise: Every piece is made from responsibly sourced materials and built to outlive the fashion that inspired it.

Our values

• Made to last — we choose durability over novelty in every design decision.
• Honest materials — we name what things are made of and where they come from.
• Quiet by design — our products and our marketing are calm, never shouty.

In a sentence: Calm, durable homewares made honestly and meant to be kept.

2. Logo usage

Primary logo: The "Maple & Stone" wordmark in Forest Green, paired with the leaf-and-pebble icon. Variations: Horizontal wordmark for headers; stacked version for square spaces; icon-only for favicons and social avatars. Clear space: Keep clear space equal to the height of the leaf icon on all sides. Minimum size: 28px tall on screen; 12mm tall in print. Approved colour versions: Forest Green on light, Bone White reversed on dark, single-colour black for faxes and stamps.

Do

• Use the supplied logo files exactly as provided.
• Reverse to Bone White on dark or photographic backgrounds.
• Keep the full clear space, even in tight layouts.

Don't

• Stretch, rotate, or recolour the wordmark.
• Recreate the logo in a different font.
• Add shadows, gradients, or outlines.
• Place it on a busy photo without a solid panel behind it.

3. Colour palette

Colour name	Use	Hex
Forest Green	Primary — logo, headings, key buttons	#2F4733
Clay	Secondary — accents, highlights, links	#C97B5A
Bone White	Backgrounds and surfaces	#F4F0E8
Ink	Body text and headings on light	#1E1B17
Sage	Soft fills and dividers	#A9B9A0

Usage: Forest Green leads and Bone White carries most surfaces. Clay is an accent — use it on no more than about ten percent of any layout. Never put Forest Green text on Sage; the contrast is too low to read.

4. Typography

Headings: Fraunces, Semibold. Warm and characterful, used large. Body: Inter, Regular, 16px base with 1.6 line height. Clean and highly legible. Accent / UI: Inter, Medium, all caps with wide letter-spacing for small labels. Web fallbacks: Fraunces falls back to Georgia, serif; Inter falls back to system-ui, sans-serif.

Hierarchy: H1 large Fraunces Semibold; H2 about two-thirds of H1; body Inter Regular; captions Inter at 13px in Ink at 70 percent opacity.

5. Voice & tone

Voice (always): Warm (we sound like a knowledgeable friend), grounded (plain words over hype), and unhurried (we never use false urgency).

Tone (flexes): Marketing is gently inviting; product care guides are clear and practical; sold-out and error messages stay calm and apologetic, never jokey.

We say: "made to keep", "honestly made", "for years to come", "everyday". We avoid: "luxury", "game-changing", "must-have", "sale ends tonight", exclamation marks in body copy.

Before / after

• Before: "Grab our BEST-SELLING mug before it's GONE forever!!"
• After: "Our most-loved mug is back in stock — made to be your everyday favourite for years."

6. Imagery & graphics

Photography: Natural daylight, real homes, and lived-in scenes. Products in use, slightly imperfect, never sterile. Warm, muted tones that sit beside the palette. Illustration / icons: Simple single-weight line icons in Forest Green or Ink. No filled or multicoloured icons. Patterns / graphics: A subtle leaf-and-pebble line motif for dividers and packaging, used sparingly.

Avoid: Bright studio backdrops, heavy filters, staged "perfect" interiors, and any stock photo that looks like a stock photo.

7. Examples in use

• Instagram post: A Bone White background, a single ceramic bowl shot in daylight, one line of Fraunces copy ("Made to keep."), and the Forest Green icon bottom-right.
• Email header: Forest Green band, Bone White reversed logo left-aligned, Clay button reading "See the new collection".