Essential
One idea per section. Clear hierarchy. No decoration added to make an ordinary point feel important.
ORCA IQ brand identity
Win the floor
with every call.
Every vacancy and BD conversation, scored against your own standard of best practice.
Professional. Commercial. Conversational. Short.
The system in one line
Calm, precise and built for people who carry the revenue number.
ORCA IQ makes unseen call quality visible. The identity follows the same logic. Teal Black carries the page. Card Teal lifts the panels. Signal Teal is the one bright colour, and it glows only where a visitor should look: the ask bar, the product window, the action.
The writing stays direct. We talk about vacancy quality, BD conversations, fees and revenue at risk. The technology never becomes the story.
Foundation
Three working principles.
The layout is spare because the content is useful. The system is dark because the subject lives below the surface. Every decision has a job.
Commercial
Start with the recruitment problem. Quality, consistency and revenue earn attention. Software features follow.
Engineered
Use the grid, the tokens and the type scale. Nothing is eyeballed. Repetition creates trust.
Foundation
Where ORCA IQ sits in the family.
Three brands share a surname. The rules that keep them apart are not stylistic preferences.
ORCA IQ is a teal brand
Signal Teal #2ED3C0 is the one bright colour: pills, the marked word, the glow. Oceanic Teal #026B7E and Fjord Cyan #0F91B2 survive inside the product app and in gradient stops within art, never as the lead on a marketing surface.
Purple is retired
#7C3AED and its family are dead. Bringing purple back as a legacy or heritage accent is a violation, not a nod.
Blue belongs to the parent
ORCA Blue #1B9FE8 is the trainwithorca brand, Call Coach heritage. ORCA IQ never leads with blue. The Powered by ORCA lockup is the only place parent branding appears.
No serif, ever
Serif belongs to Bamboo, a different brand in the family. Inter and Space Grotesk are also banned. General Sans is the face on every marketing surface from 5 September 2026; Archivo and Lato remain inside the product app until it migrates.
Foundation
The wordmark.
Lowercase orca. Uppercase IQ. Quiet confidence, with the intelligence layer picked out in Signal Teal. It may sit inline in a headline.
ORCA IQ
Primary treatmentIce White / Signal Teal / Deep Side
Do
- Lead with the light-on-dark lockup.
- Keep clear space equal to the height of the I.
- Use Fjord Cyan for IQ and high-value moments.
Do not
- Bring purple back as a legacy accent.
- Place the mark on a busy image.
- Turn the wordmark into a decorative gradient.
Logo rules
- Wordmark styling: orca lowercase white, IQ in the cyan gradient. Never set the name in a different face or colour scheme.
- The mark was remapped to teal on 27 July 2026, pixel by pixel, so the cyan-to-violet ramp became cyan-to-teal. Any copy still showing a violet brain or IQ is the old file.
- The logo ships light-on-dark. On light collateral, place it inside a dark panel or ask before inverting anything.
- Never retint a client's own logo to match ours. When a client mark sits beside ORCA IQ, theirs stays exactly as supplied.
- The wordmark may sit inline in a headline at cap height (Win the floor with ORCA IQ), with a soft Signal Teal drop shadow. Nowhere else does it get a glow.
Files
Masterassets/orca-iq-logo-full.png
Trimmed web-readyassets/orca-iq-logo.png
Vectorassets/logo.svg
Powered by ORCAassets/powered-by-orca.svg
Visual system
Teal in the ground. Light in the moments.
The brand hue lives in the page itself, never a neutral black. Signal Teal is the one bright colour: pills, the marked word, the glow.
Dark mode working palette
Three teal-black grounds by depth, one card colour with a hairline, one bright teal for every action and every light, and two whites. Orange appears once, on the IQ badge and product names, the way a superscript does.
Ground
Teal Black. The page. Never neutral black: the brand hue is in the ground itself.
Side
Deep Side. The fixed sidebar and the hero, one step darker than the page.
Deep
Seabed. Footer and the darkest band.
Card
Card Teal. Cards and raised panels, with a 1px Signal Teal hairline at 16 to 28 per cent.
Primary
Signal Teal. The one bright colour. Filled pills, the marked word in a headline, the submit disc, and every glow.
Text
Ice White. Headlines and primary copy. Headlines may go to pure #FFFFFF.
Muted
Dim Teal. Captions, rules, sidebar links at rest. Body copy runs Ice White at 70 per cent.
Light mode tokens
For high-glare working environments and long-form documents. Teal remains an action colour. It never floods the canvas.
Ground lightGlacial white base background.
Surface lightPure white raised containers.
Text lightDorsal Black for maximum readability.
Muted lightDeep slate for supporting copy.
Action accentContrast-adjusted teal for light mode.
Colour ruling
No purple. No neutral black. No second bright colour beside Signal Teal except the orange badge. Glow belongs to the hero light, the ask bar and the product window, nowhere else.
Visual system
General Sans. One face, one ladder.
General Sans replaced Archivo and Lato on marketing surfaces on 5 September 2026. Weight 600 for display with tight negative tracking, 400 for copy, 500 for controls, 700 for card titles and big numbers.
Display / General Sans 600
Win the floor with every call.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
0123456789 £ % & ?
0123456789 £ % & ?
Body / General Sans 400
Every conversation scored against your own standard of best practice. Managers see what was missed and where to act.
WHAT ORCA FOUND THIS WEEK
HeroGeneral Sans 60060px, -1.5px tracking, line-height 75px; 38px on mobile
Section titleGeneral Sans 60048px, -1.2px tracking, line-height 1.15; 34px on mobile
Card titleGeneral Sans 70024px, -0.3px tracking; course cards 22px
Panel titleGeneral Sans 60020px
LeadGeneral Sans 40018px, line-height 1.6, Ice White at 70 per cent, max 720px
BodyGeneral Sans 40014 to 16px, line-height 1.55
Big statGeneral Sans 70046 to 84px, tabular nums, checked visually at size
Label / sidebarGeneral Sans 50012 to 15px; kickers 11px uppercase
ButtonsGeneral Sans 50014px, pill, 40 to 44px tall
The numeral rule
One face. General Sans carries the words and the numbers.
General Sans ships tabular figures. Always pair numerals with font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums, and check any stat above 40px visually before it ships. Inside the product app, Lato still carries the numbers until the app migrates.
Why Raleway went, and why Lato followed
Raleway was retired on 28 July 2026. It ships no tnum table and its digit advances vary 18.5 per cent, from 518 to 614 units, so the brand's own rule that every numeral is tabular was impossible to execute in it. At 50px in the product's KPI strip the glyphs of 312 physically overlapped. Its heavy weights also compress counters rather than widening them, so it collided with itself above roughly 40px.
Visual system
The grid stays visible.
Borrow the discipline of an engineering manual. Keep the work open, aligned and deliberate.
123456789101112
12 columns on desktop
The navigation rail occupies its own field. Content uses repeatable 4 / 8 and 3 / 9 relationships.
4 columns on mobile
Collapse structure, not hierarchy. Labels lead. Specimens span the available width.
2x spacing rhythm
Start at 8px. Use 16, 24, 32, 48, 64 and 96. Break the rhythm only when the content explains why.
Space and structure
Centred sections, 96 or 112px of padding, content at 1184px max. A 208px fixed sidebar carries the navigation and the copyright; actions sit top right. One idea per band: heading, lead, one control, then the exhibit.
Corners
24px on cards, images and windows. 999 on pills, inputs and the submit disc. Square corners are retired on every marketing surface from 5 September 2026. The product app still carries the v1 radii of 16, 11 and 9px until it migrates.
Light
One radial Signal Teal light behind the hero; a glow on the ask bar (40px at 40 per cent, 120px at 25 per cent) and on the product window. Nothing else casts light. Cards use a hairline, not a shadow.
Stat groups
One joined panel with internal dividers, never separate floating stat cards.
Contrast lists
Checkmark and cross lists for can-see versus cannot-answer are a house pattern: green ticks, red crosses inside a red-tinted panel.
Fictional data
Mock data must look plausible and stay internally consistent. Never present it as customer data. The house fictional tenant is Northline Search, with consultants Maya Ellison, Josh Bracewell, Priya Anand, Callum Reid and Sofia Nkemi.
Imagery ruling
Product UI is the hero image.
Show the actual product: a report window with the six-pillar radar, the Field, a scored call, the Library. Illustrated art in the brand grade (silk, wireframe brains, boards) is allowed on cards and covers. No stock photography, no team-at-whiteboard imagery.
Visual system
Components, live.
Working specimens of the v4 system as built on the website. Figures are fictional and exist only to show the system.
Actions
Specific, commercial and easy to recognise.
Art and exhibits
Silk in the brand grade; the map with the UK lit. 24px corners, no shadow.
The v4 component set
Every pattern on the website, with the numbers that build it.
Filled pillSignal Teal #2ED3C0 fill, #031A16 text, General Sans 500 14px, 44px tall, 24px side padding, radius 999, glow 0 0 30px Signal Teal at 35 per cent. Hover #4FE0CF. The primary action everywhere.
Outline pillSignal Teal at 10 per cent fill, 1px Signal Teal at 40 per cent border, Ice White text, 40px tall. The top-right action beside Login, and secondary actions such as View more.
Ask bar576 by 54px pill, #04222A fill, 1px #113A44 border, glow 0 0 40px Signal Teal at 40 per cent plus 0 0 120px at 25 per cent. Placeholder is a real question in Ice White at 70 per cent, rotating every 3.2 seconds. Submit is a 40px Signal Teal disc with an up arrow. On scroll the bar docks to the bottom of the viewport and its question follows the band in view.
Report windowUp to 1064px wide, radius 24, 1px Signal Teal at 28 per cent, radial fill from #0B3A40 at the top to #041A20, glow 0 0 120px Signal Teal at 25 per cent. Wordmark top left at 30px. Inside: a written answer, a six-pillar radar of this call against the team average, the follow-up questions, one question pill.
Story cardImage at 16:10 with radius 24 (silk art with a product screen set at a slight perspective), then a 24px 700 title, a 15px standfirst at 70 per cent, and a Signal Teal Read story link. 2 by 2 grid, 24px gaps.
Course cardImage at 16:10 with radius 24, 22px title, a 14px date line in Dim Teal, a 30px avatar with the instructor name, a 14px description. Three across.
Product cardCard Teal panel, radius 24, a 240px circle with a radial gradient (teal, orange or blue) holding the product glyph, an orange IQ badge at the circle's edge, 20px title, 14px body, Read more link.
MarqueeA single row of 56px pills at 6 per cent white, General Sans 600 15px, scrolling at 52 seconds per loop with faded edges. Carries rubric names where a logo strip would sit.
Newsletter band48px title with two words in Signal Teal, an 18px lead, a 300px email input with a filled pill beside it, a soft teal light rising from the bottom edge.
FooterSeabed #030F14, five columns: brand block with company line and social, then Product, Stories, Courses, About. Email addresses in a final row.
KPI strip
One joined panel. Internal dividers. No floating tile set.
Avg qual score71+4 this week
Vacancies flagged62 need requalifying
Calls scored312+12%
Watch list3Flat trend
Language
Write like an operator.
Experienced recruitment people do not need software theatre. Name the problem. Show the commercial logic. Stop.
How ORCA IQ sounds
Professional. Commercial. Conversational. Short. Write like an experienced recruitment operator talking to another, not a software company talking to a market. Concrete nouns. Numbers where they earn their place. Confident, never hyped. Plain-spoken about limitations; trust is the product.
Activity is measured.
But quality is invisible.
The language ruling
We sell performance intelligence and revenue. Coaching is the mechanism, never the headline. AI never appears in a headline, hook or subject line.
We say
vacancy qualification / qualification call / BD call / scored / consistency / quality and quantity / billing managers / placements / revenue at risk / blind spots / best practice
We never say
AI-powered / revolutionary / game-changing / cutting-edge / next-generation / disruptive / leverage / unlock / supercharge / seamless / robust / holistic
Dashes
No em dashes or en dashes in any copy that ships. Use periods, commas, colons, parentheses.
Quadrant language
Quadrant language is locked: Busy Fool, Lazy Expert, Perfect Consultant, At Risk Consultant. These four names are the only labels used, in the product and in every asset. Do not paraphrase them.
Approved CTAsBook a demoBook a 20-minute walkthrough
CTAs by channel
EmailWorth 20 minutes to see it on your own numbers?
LinkedIn organicHappy to show anyone how we score this
LinkedIn paidBook a 20-minute walkthrough
WhatsApp / warm networkHappy to show you if you are curious.
Loom outreachIf it is interesting, 20 minutes and I will show you it live.
Visual system
Two grounds, one brand.
Dark is the default. Light is where the work happens.
Dark, and this is the default
Everything a prospect or a market sees: the website, ads, decks, carousels, social artefacts, covers, demo mini-sites and this site. Teal Black #061C22 page, Deep Side #04151B sidebar and hero, Card Teal #082A33 panels with a Signal Teal hairline, one radial teal light behind the hero, white headlines with one word in Signal Teal.
Light, and only where it is named
Two places: the product app, which is light-first at #F0F6F7 page, white cards, teal as accent only; and long-form documents, which may run light with dark panels as deliberate contrast moments. Nothing else. An internal tool being looked at all day is not a reason to go light.
The test
Dark is the default and the answer unless there is a reason otherwise. Light is not earned by how long a screen is looked at: internal tools, dashboards and team surfaces stay dark. Light is reserved for the product app, which is light-first, and for long-form documents. Anything else starts dark.
Signal colours
GreenPositive: high band, upward trend, wins (#5FE0A0 on dark)
AmberMedium: watch band, flat or mixed
RedRisk only: low band, decline, alerts
Signal law
Green, amber and red encode performance state and nothing else. Red is never a decorative accent, never a heading colour. Fjord Cyan is never a score band; it is the brand. If something needs emphasis but carries no performance meaning, use cyan.
Accessibility
Darren is colour-blind and reads red and amber as near-identical. The analytics layer carries a colour-blind-safe toggle which swaps the ramp for a magenta, yellow and teal triad that separates by lightness as well as hue. It is a viewer preference, not a default.
Still open
Signal colours were chosen against the purple system and have not been re-picked for the teal ground. They work. They were not designed for it.
Tints
Teal tintPairs with #026B7E or #08728C text
Green tintPairs with #15A05A or #16794A text
Amber tintPairs with #F0962B text
Red tintPairs with #F9314A text
Collateral
One domain per prospect.
The link you send never changes. It becomes the post-demo page after the meeting.
How it works
One domain per prospect, live for the whole cycle. The client URL never changes: it serves the pre-demo page before the meeting and is rebuilt from the post-demo template afterwards, so the prospect keeps a single link that evolves.
Cross-pollination
Improve a client site and the improvement belongs back in the template. Improve a template and it flows to the next client. The template domains are the source of truth.
Collateral
Ads and social.
One emphasis per asset. The CTA mirrors the product, never a generic SaaS button.
- Teal Black surface, white headline with one word in Signal Teal, a product window or a silk art tile, logo small.
- One emphasis treatment per asset: one teal phrase, or one number set large. Not both.
- CTA mirrors the website exactly: Signal Teal filled pill, dark text, General Sans 500, Book a demo or Book a 20-minute walkthrough.
Carousel pack
brand/carousel-pack/
Do not use until migrated. It is still purple and still Raleway.
Governance
Reject on sight.
The tells that an asset was made without thought. Naming them means nobody has to debate them later.
Always
- Ground the work in Teal Black, never neutral black.
- Use Signal Teal for actions, the marked word and the glow only.
- Set every numeral tabular and check it at size.
- Round every card to 24px and every action to a pill.
- Use recruitment language and concrete commercial nouns.
- Keep one idea per section.
Reject on sight
- Rainbow or per-category palettes; pastel KPI tiles; coloured score-tile washes. Signal colours are for dots, arrows and numbers, not washes.
- Emoji as data indicators. Fake precision such as 47.3 per cent better.
- Generic template layouts: three-card hero rows, Get Started buttons, the gradient-on-white SaaS look.
- Inter by default; any serif; neutral black or grey-black backgrounds. The ground carries teal.
- Any purple at all. The whole family is retired: #7C3AED, #6D28D9, #8b5cf6, #A78BFA, the #150a32 and #1d0f44 midnights, and the older homepage #8b3ce0.
- Raleway. Retired 28 July 2026.
- Square-cornered cards or square buttons on a marketing surface. Archivo 800 heavy headlines. A glow on anything that is not the hero light, the ask bar or the product window.
- Anything that makes ORCA IQ look like every other software company. The bar is category leader: if it could be any SaaS brand's asset, it fails.
Known misalignments
The live trainwithorca.com homepage still carries retired purple tokens (#8b3ce0, #150f22 navy).Charlotte / Dom
The product app uses the v1 corner radii (16 / 11 / 9px) while this site and the demo sites are square. Nobody has decided which is right.Open
Signal colours were chosen against purple and have not been re-picked for the teal ground.Open
The carousel pack is still purple and still Raleway. Do not use it until migrated.Open
Any asset made before 27 July 2026 is purple; anything before 28 July is Raleway. Re-make or re-tint before reuse.Everyone
The demo sites deploy by direct upload, not from git. Connecting them needs the Cloudflare GitHub App authorised in the dashboard.Open
The product app, the decks, the demo mini-sites and the carousel pack still run the v3 system (Archivo, Lato, Dorsal Black, square corners). v4 is live on the website draft and this site only. Migration is a sprint, not a retint.Dan / Dom
No image-generation key exists on the build machine, so the illustrated art the v4 direction calls for (the brain, the boards, the course covers) is procedural silk and SVG until a fal or Gemini key lands.Dan
The claim 25+ million-dollar billers developed from scratch is not in proof-points.md and stays off every surface until Dualta or Charlotte tags it.Dualta / Charlotte
Decision log
13 July 2026v1 agreed as a proposal: purple #7C3AED, Lato and Raleway, light-first product.
24 July 2026The June keynote locked as the gold standard for decks. Deck discipline: about thirteen slides, one idea each, no product screenshots. Demo mini-sites ruled light-first (reversed 28 July). Signal-colour law restated. Quadrant language locked.
27 July 2026Purple retired. ORCA IQ becomes a teal brand. The product, decks, standalone pages and the logo raster were all migrated the same day.
28 July 2026Raleway retired, Archivo replaces it for display. Raleway ships no tnum table, its digit advances vary 18.5 per cent, and its heavy weights collide above 40px.
28 July 2026Demo mini-sites are dark, reversing the 24 July ruling. Both versions were built and compared: the light canvas fought the deep teal, with white panels reading as cut-outs rather than surfaces.
29 July 2026This site becomes the single source of truth. brand.md is generated from it and it is the brand book. The PDF is retired: it was a duplicate that drifted.
29 July 2026The used-all-day test for light surfaces is dropped. It read as a rule and would have been broken constantly. Dark is simply the default; light is named surface by surface, and today that means the product app and long-form documents only. Called by Dan while brand-checking the ORCA Hub.
4 September 2026The bar is raised. Dan, after a deep dive on twelve.football: world class, enterprise-ready production, quality is the most important part of everything. The reference artefact for web surfaces is twelve.football. Smaller and finished beats bigger at seven out of ten.
5 September 2026Canonical v4. The home page is rebuilt as a band-for-band clone of twelve.football in teal with ORCA's content, on Dan's instruction to set the v3 rules aside. What that ruled: General Sans replaces Archivo and Lato on marketing surfaces; the ground is teal-tinted, never neutral black; Signal Teal #2ED3C0 is the one bright colour and it glows; corners are 24px on cards and 999 on pills, square is retired; the shell is a 208px fixed sidebar; illustrated art in the brand grade is allowed and expected; the product wordmark may sit inline in a headline. Headlines may run pure white.
The final test
Improve every vacancy.
Coach the floor better.
Make more money.