Open1031 Branding Guide
How the Open1031 brand shows up — the logo and its usage, brand colors, typography, voice, and Neela, our AI assistant. The Existing vs New section below shows what the redesign changed (dark-default chrome, the white-chip white-label pattern, Neela as a named assistant) versus what stayed the same (the logo, teal, and Inter). Open1031 is the software platform licensed Qualified Intermediaries run on. The brand should feel trustworthy, expert, and plain-spoken — never hype.
Existing vs New
The Open1031 brand itself is not being rebranded. The redesign uses the real brand — the logo, the teal, and Inter are unchanged. What's new is how the brand is presented: dark as the default theme, a white-chip tenant-logo pattern for white-label partners, and Neela presented as Open1031's named assistant.
Default theme — light → dark
The biggest brand-presentation change: the app now defaults to dark. Same logo (its white finish), same teal accent — the navy anchor moves from "type only" to the primary surface. A light toggle remains for users who prefer it.
White surface by default; the dark wordmark on white.
Dark navy surface by default, white wordmark, same teal accent. The light toggle (top-right of every page) still works.
White-label — tenant-logo chip NEW
A new pattern with no current-app equivalent. White-label partners (QIs, advisors) place their logo in a white chip that reads cleanly on the dark chrome, with a quiet "Powered by Open1031" attribution — always the doorway icon before the wordmark, never text alone. This keeps any tenant logo legible regardless of its own color.
The white chip is the only place a non-Open1031 logo appears. Open1031's own logo never sits in the chip — it uses the standard finishes shown below.
Neela — now a named brand asset
Previously in-product guidance was generic system copy. Neela is now presented as Open1031's assistant — the canonical NeelaMark on its avatar disc, and a named voice. (Full Neela guidance is in the section below.)
You have 14 days left to identify your replacement property.
Anonymous system tip — no assistant identity.
You have 14 days left to identify. Paste a listing link and I'll pre-fill the details.
Named, branded assistant — spark agent with eyes + orbiting task-moons, teal voice. Neela is Open1031's assistant, not a generic chatbot.
Logo · Unchanged from the real brand
There is one logo, in two finishes. Always place it as the real image asset — never recreate it as type or a vector mark. The wordmark carries the brand; the teal anchors it.
Light vs dark usage
logo.png (dark wordmark)logo_white.png (white wordmark)Clear space
Keep a minimum margin equal to the cap-height of the wordmark on all sides. Nothing — type, icons, or edges — enters this zone.
Minimum & recommended sizing
Do & don't
- Use the supplied PNG asset at its native aspect ratio.
- Pick the finish for contrast:
logo.pngon light,logo_white.pngon dark. - Preserve the clear-space margin around it.
- Keep it above the 20px minimum height.
- In tight spaces, crop to the doorway icon alone with an
overflow:hiddenspan (the mobile.m-marktechnique). - Set an explicit height per asset — the PNGs carry different intrinsic padding (712×288 light, 772×245 dark), so the light asset needs ≈1.3× the dark asset’s CSS height to render the same visual size.
- Never recolor, re-stroke, or apply effects to the wordmark.
- Never fake a mark or rebuild the logo as live type or SVG.
- Never stretch, skew, or rotate it; never crop except the sanctioned doorway-icon crop above.
- Never place the light logo on a busy or low-contrast background.
- Never substitute the stroked-arc glyph (the old
logo.svgarc) — the mark is the filled doorway.
Brand colors
Two brand colors carry Open1031: teal and navy. Teal is the active, trustworthy primary; navy is the calm, authoritative anchor. Neutrals and semantics support; they never compete with the brand.
Primary actions, links, focus rings, Neela, active states, and key accents. The one color a user should follow to know what to do next.
High-contrast type, dark surfaces, and the default dark theme background. Conveys stability and fiduciary seriousness.
Usage rule: teal is the only color used to signal interactivity. Reserve red/amber/green strictly for destructive, warning, and success states — never decoration. Full token values and the neutral and per-hub scales live in the Style Guide.
Typography
Open1031 uses Inter across product and marketing — nothing else. Bold, tightly-tracked headlines for confidence; regular 16px+ body at 1.6 leading for readability. Inter keeps numbers, dates, and dollar figures clean and legible, which matters in a deadline-driven product.
Voice & tone
We speak as a trusted Qualified Intermediary: plain-language, accurate, and calm. We explain the hard parts of a 1031 exchange in clear English. We are expert, not hype.
Short sentences, everyday words. Explain "45-day identification" before assuming it's understood. No unnecessary jargon.
The QI of record holds client funds in segregated qualified escrow; we never do. Tone is precise and reassuring — we never overpromise or hand-wave on money or deadlines.
Confidence comes from accuracy, not adjectives. No "revolutionary," no exclamation marks, no growth-hacking copy. Cite the rule, state the deadline.
Open1031 is the software platform licensed QIs run on. It is not a Qualified Intermediary and not an RIA. The QI of record holds escrow; we do not give tax, legal, or investment advice.
- "You have 14 days left to identify your replacement property."
- "Your QI holds your $850,000 in segregated qualified escrow."
- "A DST is one replacement option you can identify."
- "This is binding under the 45-day rule and can't change after the deadline."
- "Don't worry, there's plenty of time!"
- "We're your trusted financial advisor." (Open1031 is neither a QI nor an RIA.)
- "Pick a DST exchange." (DST is an option, not an exchange type.)
- "Our revolutionary AI handles everything automatically!"
Neela — the AI assistant
Neela
Neela is Open1031's AI assistant — the friendly, knowledgeable guide who walks an exchanger through every step. She is warm but precise, proactive about deadlines, and always plain-spoken. She explains the 1031 rules, pre-fills forms from listings and documents, and tells you exactly what to do next.
Canonical avatar
A four-pointed spark agent with two calm eyes and orbiting task-moons, rendered on its avatar disc — sapphire radial in dark, mint radial in light, never teal (the spark gradient is teal-led and vanishes on a teal ground). Never a photo, never a letter glyph, never a generic sparkle or robot icon, never a third-party illustration. Three sizes:
Personality
Approachable and encouraging, never cold or robotic. She greets you by name.
Exact on dates, dollar amounts, and rules. She never rounds away a deadline.
She surfaces the next step and flags deadlines before they become urgent.
Explains 1031 mechanics in clear English, never burying you in jargon.