01 / Master Y
The everyday signature.
The exact original geometry remains the default identity. Purple and gold arms converge into the full green stem, held around a silver centre.
Brand system · final identity
A clear identity for a place of many encounters. Explore the Y on streets and vehicles, then the lockups, colour, typography and application artwork behind it.

00 / In context
Ten encounters with the identity
At street level, on a moving vehicle, at an arrival. The same signature makes each encounter feel connected.
Swipe to explore · select an image to enlarge
Supplied AI-generated campaign concepts. These are illustrative scenes, not photographs of existing installations or exact geographic views. Embedded logo renderings are conceptual; the vector master below governs production. The 30-year treatment is an unapproved commemorative exploration. Image credits.
The identity family
One geometry · three expressions
The Union Buildings gain a deliberate place in the system, with scale deciding when the detail appears.
01 / Master Y
The exact original geometry remains the default identity. Purple and gold arms converge into the full green stem, held around a silver centre.
02 / Signature Y
Two towers and a connecting arc bring the Union Buildings into the centre. The outer Y is unchanged. Reserved for display scale: 128 px or larger.
03 / Micro Y
The original geometry at small sizes. Prefer 24 px or more; 16 px is a fallback. The symbol never needs architectural detail to remain recognisable.
01 / The master and the lockups
brand/master · brand/logo-suite
The master Y is the single source of truth. It was checked against the first raster artwork: 97.9% overlap, largest deviation 2.2 units of 500, the soft edge of that raster. One reconstruction error, the gold arm’s inner edge, was corrected to match; nothing else changed.
One stem width (X) on every side of every lockup, built into every file. Nothing enters it.
Y-only 5 mm tall / 16 px tall · Primary 30 mm wide / 160 px wide · Vertical 25 mm wide / 140 px wide · Horizontal and secondary 40 mm wide / 130 px wide · Compact 35 mm wide / 200 px wide · Payoff 30 mm wide / 160 px wide · 30 Years 40 mm wide / 180 px wide · Experience lockups 60 mm wide / 240 px wide. Minimums keep the smallest words (DESTINATION, the payoff, experience names) at about 1.3 mm cap height in print. Below a minimum, switch to the next smaller lockup; below the compact, use the Y alone.
Full colour on white, cream and stone only. On purple, green, night or photography use the white lockup. Purple on deep purple is 1.7:1 and is never used.
Primary → secondary → horizontal → compact → Y-only as space shrinks. Never scale a larger lockup below its minimum; switch to the next.
02 / Colour
Core, neutral and thematic
The core colours come from the 30 Years artwork and name the parts of the Y. The purple sits naturally in a jacaranda city; that is an observation about the place, not a meaning given to the mark. No cultural or flag meaning is attached to the colours. CMYK values are ICC conversions to FOGRA39 (coated); Pantone matches are to be made physically against a press proof, so no Pantone numbers are asserted here.
Primary brand colour. Headings, large colour fields, dark grounds.
Arrival and action: highlights, rules, calls to action on dark grounds. Never for text on light grounds.
Neutral common ground: dividers, meeting points, quiet fills. Never for text.
The continuing path: secondary dark grounds, wayfinding direction, text on light grounds.
Five families from things visitors see in Tshwane, each with a text-safe deep tone, a mid tone for fills and a light tint. They mark experiences; they never replace the core colours or appear in the Y.
| Family | Drawn from | Experiences | Deep (text, bands) | Mid | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacaranda | Tshwane’s jacaranda season, from late September into November and peaking in October: the city’s best-known visual moment. | Culture, Events, Nightlife | #5B3F8C · CMYK 79 88 0 10 7.4:1 on cream · text-safe | #8E6BBE CMYK 56 64 0 0 · fills and icons only | #E9E0F4 CMYK 11 13 4 0 · backgrounds |
| Sandstone | The sandstone of the Union Buildings and the granite and stone of the city’s heritage architecture. | Heritage, Diplomacy | #7A5530 · CMYK 41 60 92 40 5.9:1 on cream · text-safe | #B8875A CMYK 25 46 69 13 · fills and icons only | #F1E6D8 CMYK 7 10 17 0 · backgrounds |
| Bushveld | Highveld grassland, koppies and bushveld, from the city’s ridges to Dinokeng. | Nature, Wildlife, Family | #46592A · CMYK 59 27 95 58 6.9:1 on cream · text-safe | #7C8F45 CMYK 54 24 87 18 · fills and icons only | #E7ECD9 CMYK 11 5 18 0 · backgrounds |
| Highveld sky | The clear, deep-blue winter sky over the Highveld. | Business, Education | #1F4E7A · CMYK 90 53 4 44 7.7:1 on cream · text-safe | #4F86B8 CMYK 69 34 2 15 · fills and icons only | #E1ECF6 CMYK 13 6 5 0 · backgrounds |
| Aloe | Winter-flowering aloes in the city’s gardens and on its ridges. | Food, Sport | #9A3A1F · CMYK 11 86 96 38 6.2:1 on cream · text-safe | #D9603B CMYK 0 73 82 11 · fills and icons only | #FBE4DA CMYK 5 13 14 0 · backgrounds |
03 / Typography
Poppins · SIL Open Font License
Poppins is the closest open match to the first raster wordmark: geometric, flat vertices, a wide W and one stroke weight. The whole system uses Regular 400 and Medium 500, with Light and Bold held back. Its figures are proportional, so tables right-align numbers.
| Role | Specimen | Weight | Tracking | Leading | Case | Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | Meet the capital. | Medium 500 | −0.025 em | 1.0 | Sentence case | 40 px / 28 pt |
| H1 | Church Square at first light. | Medium 500 | −0.02 em | 1.05 | Sentence case | 32 px / 22 pt |
| H2 | Three days under the jacarandas. | Medium 500 | −0.015 em | 1.1 | Sentence case | 24 px / 16 pt |
| H3 | Union Buildings | Medium 500 | 0 | 1.25 | Sentence case | 18 px / 11 pt |
| Body | Herbert Baker’s sandstone Union Buildings, completed in 1913. | Regular 400 | 0 | 1.5–1.6 | Sentence case | 16 px / 9 pt |
| Caption | Concept image · to be replaced by commissioned photography | Regular 400 | +0.01 em | 1.4 | Sentence case | 12 px / 7 pt |
| Label | HERITAGE · CHURCH SQUARE | Medium 500 | +0.16 em | 1.2 | Capitals | 11 px / 6 pt |
| UI | Add to my day | Medium 500 | +0.01 em | 1.2 | Sentence case | 14 px |
| Navigation | Explore · Plan · Events | Medium 500 | +0.01 em | 1.2 | Sentence case | 15 px |
| Wayfinding | Freedom Park 35 min | Medium 500 | +0.01 em | 1.1 | Sentence case | 25 mm cap height per 10 m viewing |
| Numerals | 08:00 – 17:00 | Medium 500 | −0.01 em | 1.0 | — | — |
| Data | R 9 430,00 · 12 · 1 250,00 | Regular 400 | 0 | 1.3 | — | 12 px / 7 pt |
| CTA | Plan your day ↗ | Medium 500 | +0.01 em | 1.2 | Sentence case | 16 px |
Body text at least 16 px on screen and 9 pt in print; contrast at least 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for large text and icons. Gold and silver are never text on light grounds.
Poppins covers English, Afrikaans, Sepedi (š), Setswana, isiZulu, Xitsonga and the other Latin-script languages used here, but not Tshivenda’s ḓ ḽ ṅ ṋ ṱ. Set a Tshivenda line wholly in Noto Sans; never mix fonts inside a word.
Web: Poppins, then system sans-serif. Office documents: Poppins where installed, otherwise Arial. The files are in the logo suite.
04 / Experience architecture
One brand, many experiences
Every experience uses the same horizontal lockup, a silver divider and its name in the colour of its family. A new category needs a name and a family, not a designer. Campaign lines extend the payoff: Meet culture. Meet nature. Meet history. Meet wildlife. Meet the capital. Meet the night. Meet the people. Meet possibility. They never replace Where we meet.
05 / Graphic language and photography
Recognisable without the logo
Lines run straight or at the Y’s 43° arm angle and meet at silver points. Photographs lose one corner at the same angle. A thin colour sequence, purple to green, closes edges and skirts. The complete Y appears once per surface at most.
Tshwane first. Brand second. Photography shows real places and people, documentary and warm. Images with invented architecture, fake text, generic skylines or AI-drawn marks are removed. Every photograph in this proposal is concept imagery until commissioned photography replaces it.

06 / Applications
Editable application studies · vector PDFs in the pack
Each piece is built from the master logo files and the colour, type and graphic rules above, at true physical size.

Institutional and destination contexts, from a business card to a media release. Restrained: one lockup, the colour sequence, clear hierarchy.

















Guides, maps, cards, passes and credentials. The photograph leads; experience colour tells the visitor which story they are in.























Eight sign types drawn to scale with type sizes for real viewing distances. The Y signs the network; it is never decoration.
Five vehicles, one path system. Generic outlines: no vehicle mock-ups were supplied, so final artwork is fitted to each fleet template.
A commemorative template for any civic anniversary, shown with the 30 Years artwork. It sits beside Destination Tshwane, never instead of it.
Posters, billboard, social, merchandise, a permanent meeting point and the scale test.
07 / Technical standards
Reproduction and incorrect use
SVG for every screen use; PNG only where SVG is not supported. sRGB. The favicon switches to the white colourway on dark browser chrome.
PDF or EPS vector files; CMYK from the FOGRA39 conversion on coated stock, proofed before a run. Uncoated stock and spot colours are matched physically.
Cut vinyl or print from vector only. About 25 mm of cap height per 10 m of viewing distance; verify contrast under installed lighting.
Use the single-colour master. No stitched or traced approximations.
08 / Governance
A system, not a campaign
Production artwork derives from the canonical master files. Campaign visualisations show proposed settings; final applications must use the supplied vector artwork. The hierarchy says which mark to use; the rules keep it intact when a department, printer or partner uses it without a designer.
The Y alone. The master symbol; every other mark contains it unchanged.
Use once the name is established nearby: app headers, pins, seals, closing frames.
DESTINATION TSHWANE in outlined Poppins Medium. It has no file of its own and is never set as live type.
Appears only inside a lockup; shown here in the compact lockup.
Y, wordmark and payoff in fixed relationships: primary, secondary, horizontal, vertical, compact.
The default choice. Pick by space, never by taste.
The horizontal lockup without payoff, in full colour or black on white.
Correspondence, reports, invoices, forms and office printers; survives monochrome copying.
The lockup with the payoff or an experience name in its family colour.
Visitor-facing campaigns, signs and places. Twelve experiences, no new logos.
The Y on its cream tile: app icon, favicon, social avatar.
From 16 px. Below the Y-only minimum, the favicon file replaces it.
| Master assets | One source: brand/master and the logo suite ZIP. Files are downloaded, never rebuilt, traced or regenerated. A named brand owner keeps the set and its version date. |
|---|---|
| Misuse | The Do not set above. Any variant not in the suite is misuse, including stretched, recoloured, rearranged, outlined or AI-approximated marks. |
| Clear space and size | One stem width (X = 76 of 500 units) on every side, built into each file. Minimum sizes per lockup, in print and on screen. |
| Colour | Four core colours in the mark; five thematic families for experiences only. Use black or white artwork for genuine one-ink reproduction. Greyscale is a separate tonal treatment. |
| Typography | Poppins Regular and Medium (SIL Open Font License), free to install on every municipal machine; Noto Sans for Tshivenda. |
| Photography | Tshwane first, brand second: real places and people, natural light, releases and consent. No logos on landmarks. |
| Sub-branding | Experiences, regions and places take the experience slot of the lockup. Partners use “[Business] · Part of Destination Tshwane”, with permission. |
| Institutional use | Word and PowerPoint templates carry the institutional mark; departments fill templates rather than design pages. |
| Digital | SVG first; the favicon switches to white on dark chrome. The implementation targets WCAG 2.2 AA, with keyboard focus, reduced-motion support and responsive layouts. A complete accessibility audit remains part of production acceptance. |
| Accessibility | Text 4.5:1, large text and icons 3:1; gold and silver never carry text on light grounds; translations by qualified language practitioners. |
| Motion | Five verbs: converge, meet, connect, reveal, flow. Short, purposeful, and removed entirely under reduced-motion settings. |
09 / Downloads
Open and vector files
PNG and JPEG exports of every lockup, and editable application PDFs for adaptation and production proofing, are in the submission pack.