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IntelBrand Guide Data Entry

Building Brand Guides in CHERP

CHERP renders brand guides automatically from structured data you enter. This guide covers how to populate brand information so it appears correctly on the public brand guide.

Overview

A brand guide in CHERP has two types of content:

  • Canonical content - Structured data that renders automatically: logos, colors, typography, strategy fields
  • Editorial content - Explanatory pages you build manually: usage rules, demonstrations, applications

The rule of thumb: if it offers a downloadable asset, it’s canonical. If it demonstrates or explains, it’s a Page.

Step 1: Create the Brand Record

  1. Go to Brands Intel → click Add Brand
  2. Enter the brand name (required field)
  3. Set Record Type to portal (this enables the public URL)
  4. Set Status to draft
  5. Save

Step 2: Add Strategy Content

Enter the brand’s verbal identity:

  • Mission, vision, positioning
  • Brand personality and pillars
  • Voice and tone guidelines
  • Brand story and narrative

You can enter these manually in the Editor tab, or import from a Figma deck using the FigML importer.

Step 3: Upload Logos

The brand-asset system has two concepts:

  • Slide — one row on the brand guide (a heading + optional description, plus one or more elements). Carries an Asset Class (Logo / Pattern / Illustration). Slide order on the guide is controlled by sort order.
  • Element — an individual master file that lives under a slide. Carries its own bold label and light description rendered on multi-element slides.

Hierarchy intent is conveyed by the slide title (“Primary Wordmark”, “Secondary Marks”, “Sub-mark”, etc.); there’s no discrete hierarchy field. Element kind is conveyed by the element label (“Vertical Wordmark”, “Horizontal Lockup”, etc.); there’s no discrete logo-type field.

Logos must be uploaded as single-color SVG files.

Add a new slide

  1. Go to Assets → Logos → Edit → Add Brand Asset
  2. The dialog opens in new-slide mode
  3. Upload the SVG (single color per file)
  4. Set Asset Class to Logo (or Pattern / Illustration)
  5. Set the Slide title — this is the heading users see on the guide (“Primary Wordmark”, “Additional Marks”, etc.)
  6. Optionally add a Slide description — when filled in, the live guide renders the slide as a text-left / image-right row instead of a tile
  7. If you’re starting a multi-element slide, optionally set this first element’s label and description now (otherwise leave blank)
  8. Set background preference (light/dark/any) — only shown on reference brands

Add another element to an existing slide

  1. On the brand admin page, find the slide you want to extend
  2. Click + Add element next to the slide title
  3. The dialog opens in add-element mode with the parent slide locked in
  4. Upload the new SVG
  5. Set the Element label (e.g. “Vertical Wordmark”) — this becomes the bold heading shown above the element on the published guide
  6. Optionally set the Element description (e.g. “Use only for vertical placements”)

Reorder slides

Use the up/down arrows on each slide heading to reorder. Slide order is the only mechanism for conveying hierarchy intent on the live guide — drag the most important slides to the top.

Edit an element

Click any element tile in edit mode to open the Edit Element dialog. From there you can:

  • Change the element’s label, description, or background
  • Replace the master file in place (the History tab records the change and the public guide shows an “Updated” pill on that element for 90 days)
  • Move the element to a different slide, or split it out into a brand-new slide

Step 4: Add Colors

Use the Extract from Image tool:

  1. Export the color palette slide from your source as a 2x PNG
  2. Go to Assets → Colors → Extract from Image
  3. Drag or paste the PNG
  4. Review the extracted colors (names, hex, RGB, CMYK, Pantone)
  5. Verify Primary/Secondary classification
  6. Save

CHERP automatically generates a color proportions visualization based on your classification.

Step 5: Add Typography

Canonical Type Families

Import or enter the primary type families:

  1. Add family name, weights, and role (display/heading/body)
  2. Upload specimen images (typeface name set in itself, and character grid)
  3. Bind images to each typography entry

Typography Support Pages

Create pages for alternate fonts, misuse examples, hierarchy, and pairing guidelines. These are editorial pages, not canonical data.

Step 6: Patterns and Illustrations

The brand-asset system has three classes: Logo, Pattern, and Illustration. All three are renderable vector assets — the rendition pipeline can colorise and format-convert them. Pick the class that best fits the asset’s role on the guide:

  • Pattern — repeating decorative surface (textile-style swatches, backgrounds)
  • Illustration — standalone illustrative artwork (spot illustrations, icon sets, brand elements, secondary marks that aren’t logos)

For each:

  • If downloadable as SVG — Upload to Brand Assets via Add Brand Asset, set the Asset Class to Pattern or Illustration
  • If only demonstrative — Create as editorial Pages instead

There is no separate “Icon Set” or “Brand Element” class — both fold into Illustration. If you have a set of related marks (e.g. four spot illustrations), create one slide titled “Wildlife Illustrations” and add each mark as a separate element under it. The slide will render as a multi-element row on the live guide.

Step 7: Applications

The “Brand in Use” section shows application mockups (signage, uniforms, menus, etc.):

  1. Export each application slide as a 2x PNG or JPG
  2. Go to Pages → Bulk Add
  3. Set Anchor to Applications, Template to Full-Width Image
  4. Title each page and commit

Step 8: Add Downloads

Upload downloadable files in Assets → Files:

  • Brand kit PDFs
  • Source files (Figma, Illustrator, InDesign)
  • Print-ready files
  • Font or photography licenses

Step 9: Enable Public URL

  1. Scroll to the Sharing section on the brand page
  2. Toggle Public URL on
  3. Review the auto-generated slug (edit if needed)
  4. Copy the link: https://brands.cooper.house/{slug}
  5. Open in a browser to review

Step 10: Review and Publish

Walk through the rendered guide end-to-end:

  • All sections from the source guide are present
  • Canonical content renders correctly (logos, colors, typography)
  • Editorial pages have proper imagery
  • Downloads are accessible
  • Public URL works

When satisfied, change Brand Status from draft to active.

Tips

  • Always export images at 2x scale from Figma
  • Use PNG for type and flat graphics, JPG for photographs
  • Name slides explicitly (e.g., “Primary Wordmark” not “Logo 1”) — the slide title is what users read on the guide
  • For multi-element slides, name elements distinctly (e.g., “Vertical Wordmark”, “Horizontal Lockup”) — these become the bold per-element headings
  • Slide and element descriptions appear in the published guide — write them for your audience
  • Don’t duplicate canonical content as Pages (e.g., no “Color Palette” Page next to the canonical color section)
  • Use Replace File on the Edit Element dialog when you’re swapping a master in place (preserves the brand-thumbnail link and triggers the public “Updated” pill); use Add Brand Asset when you’re adding a genuinely new slide or element
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