BotsLabs · Brand Guide v4 · 2026-08-08
BotsLabs is where the thinking gets worked out, before it becomes the system a business runs on. The brand is graphite, paper and notes: black and white, no color at all. The parent stays neutral so every product it endorses can carry the color.
01 · The idea
Restraint is the strategy.
BotsLabs owns the IP, frameworks, infrastructure and thinking behind the systems it creates.
It operates in two roles.
Every system starts as a note.
Then it gets built.
The parent
The systems lab behind Market Bots, Emily and the vertical products built from the same underlying infrastructure.
The practice
The customer-facing custom lane for organizations that need a website, AI system, workflow, automation, data layer or digital experience designed around their specific problem.
The transformation
NOTE → MODEL → SYSTEM → OPERATION. The thinking becomes the infrastructure a business runs on.
02 · The philosophy
BOTS.
BOTS describes what the lab builds. Not bots as characters. Not automation for automation's sake. Business Operations Transformation Systems are connected systems designed to change how an organization operates.
The result is not simply a new tool. It is a better operating system for the business.
BOTS
= BUSINESS OPERATIONS
TRANSFORMATION SYSTEMS
Process
How the work moves.
Technology
What enables, automates and measures it.
// RULE Use it once, prominently, right here. Don't force the acronym into every headline, and never use BOTS as shorthand for chatbots or AI bots.
03 · The mark
Three readings, all true.
A B built from three chevron stripes driving right. It resolves three ways at once, and the three together are the brand story: thinking becomes infrastructure.
A "B"
BOTSLabs. The letter is the mark.
Three sharpened pencils
The lab notebook: the thinking and the working-out. The chevron tips are the sharpened points.
Three stacked server blades
AI infrastructure: the stack the thinking gets built into.
// RULE Explain them in that order. Never illustrate them literally: no pencil drawings, no server icons. The mark carries all three on its own, which is the point.
Construction
Drawn on a 12-unit grid, viewBox 0 0 92 100. Bars 26u tall with 9u gaps; body ends at 62u, tip extends 24u to a point. Left edge flush at 6u.
B
BOTSLabs: the letter is the mark.
3 stripes
Systems: People · Process · Technology.
The chevron
Forward motion: every system moves the business.
Flush left
Structure: one hard edge holds all three in line.
Equal bars
Growth: the layers are equal partners, never ranked.
3 stripes = systems. Keep it simple.
BotsLabs. The B is the mark. BOTS is the systems philosophy: Business Operations Transformation Systems.
04 · Logo variations
Primary · horizontal
The default. Use wherever width allows.
Stacked
Square-ish spaces, merch, profile images.
Mark only
Favicon, app icon, stamp. Only once the brand is known.
Layers variant
Middle stripe in graphite. For the layers story and diagrams only. Never the primary.
Clear space
Equal to one bar height (26u) on all sides. Nothing enters it.
Minimum size
Horizontal 120px / 30mm · stacked 64px / 16mm · mark alone 16px / 4mm (proofed).
Colorways
White on obsidian (default) · ink #0E0E10 on paper. Nothing else.
05 · Color
There is no accent color.
Graphite is the accent. The ramp runs obsidian to paper and nothing leaves it.
Obsidian#0E0E10
Ink#2E2E30
Graphite#5A5A5E
Pencil#9C9C9F
Rule#D5D5D1
Paper#F3F3F1
Ground
Obsidian on screen. Paper for editorial + print surfaces.
Body text
#2E2E30 on paper, #EAEAEC on obsidian. Pencil grays are for rules and marks only. They fail contrast as text.
Semantic color
Data / Intelligence / Action / Success / Attention / Critical exist only inside dashboards and diagrams. Never brand surfaces.
Retired
- ×Blueprint blue #2E63C4: the last remaining accent. Retired 2026-07-22: "No color."
- ×Copper #C97945 / Bronze #E6B07A: collided with Market Bots clay #B94534.
- ×The rainbow "dynamic" accent: no recall color, dies in one-color print, reads generic-AI.
- ×Verdigris · Satoshi · General Sans: off-system.
06 · Typography
Aa
Geist: Display 700/800, Body 400/500
Geist
House typeface, shared with Market Bots. Display, body and UI.
Aa
// SYSTEM · LAYERS · SPEC
Geist Mono
Labels, data, spec captions, the // tick. Keeps the hand layer credible.
Aa
the pencil hand
Architects Daughter
The pencil. A drafting hand, not a cursive script, so it never collides with Emily's signature. SIL OFL.
Hierarchy
From size and weight only, never color. One dominant idea per surface.
Wordmark
Geist Medium, 0.22em tracking, all caps. Supplied as outlines, never re-typed.
The pencil hand
Architects Daughter, only for genuine notes, stickies and annotations. Never headlines, never UI, never the wordmark.
07 · The notebook kit
Four devices. Use one at a time.
One engine. Skinned per niche.
Ruled paper
The writing ground: quotes, principles, editorial sections.
construction · diagrams
Graph paper
The engineering ground: logo construction, specs, system diagrams.
People. Process. Technology.
Sticky note
The idea card. Gray/white only, never yellow.
Pencil annotation
Hand underline or circle. Emphasis and corrections. Sparingly.
08 · Brand architecture
Five names, one system.
BotsLabs sits above a house that is already warm and getting warmer: clay, blush, honey. Neutral is what lets one mark sit beside all of them, including ~53 vertical skins, without a single clash.
Master · clay
#B94534. No conflict.
Persona · blush + seal
#DD7A6E, seal #D69A4C. No conflict.
Verticals · own accent
Each skin brings its own color, warm or cool. Still no conflict.
BotsLabs
Parent systems lab + custom systems practice.
Market Bots
Productized systems for local businesses.
Emily
AI employee / persona. Can operate within Market Bots, BotsLabs systems, or future products.
Vertical products
Industry-specific expressions built on shared infrastructure.
BotsLabs custom
Bespoke work that requires discovery, design, engineering, integration or systems architecture beyond a standardized product.
Lockup
Endorsement reads "A BotsLabs company" in Geist Mono caps, 0.2em tracking, pencil gray. Mark height = 1× the cap height of the line.
Repeatable problem
↓ Product. If Market Bots or another standardized product solves it cleanly, route the client there.
Bespoke problem
↓ BotsLabs. If the problem requires something more specific, BotsLabs builds it.
09 · Customer-facing role
The lab is now visible.
BotsLabs can work directly with clients when an engagement requires discovery, design, systems thinking and custom implementation. Market Bots remains the productized system for local businesses; BotsLabs is the premium, custom-flexibility lane.
The posture
- ✓"Tell us the problem. We'll determine whether we can help."
Not the posture
- ×"Choose from our menu of services."
BotsLabs stays selective. If Market Bots or another standardized product solves the problem cleanly, route the client there. If the problem requires something specific, BotsLabs builds it. This distinction protects both brands.
10 · Voice
Precise. Curious. Calm. Capable.
Never perform intelligence. Demonstrate it through clarity of thought and quality of work.
Preferred
- ✓"Every system starts as a note. Then it gets built."
- ✓"People. Process. Technology."
- ✓"Understand the problem before designing the system."
- ✓"Build what the organization actually needs."
- ✓"The work should make the system clearer, not more complicated."
Avoid
- ×Generic AI futurism.
- ×"Revolutionary," "game-changing," "cutting-edge" without evidence.
- ×Agency clichés and unnecessary technical jargon.
- ×Exaggerated claims.
11 · Applications
App icon / favicon
Mark only, white on obsidian, 12/64 corner radius.
Kim
FOUNDER // BOTSLABS.COM
Business card
Obsidian stock, white foil mark, mono detail line. No color anywhere.
Signage
Flat obsidian, brushed-steel or white lettering. No paper texture at architectural scale.
BotsLabs also appears directly in proposals, assessments, audits, system plans, project portals, case studies, client presentations, custom project websites and project documentation. These should read as working documents refined to presentation quality: paper or obsidian, strong typography, hard rules, Geist Mono system labels, diagrams, restrained notebook annotations, generous whitespace.
Case studies
OBSERVED → UNDERSTOOD → DESIGNED → BUILT → OPERATING. What was happening, what the actual problem was, what system was proposed, what changed, how the organization works now. The work is the proof.
12 · Guardrails
How this stays premium, not scrapbook.
Do
- ✓Keep paper cool #F3F3F1. Never warm cream.
- ✓Pair every hand element with a hard grid + mono labels. That's what says lab notebook, not notepad.
- ✓One hand element per view: a single annotation or one sticky.
- ✓Let client and product environments carry their own color. The parent stays neutral, even when it's directly customer-facing.
- ✓Use the notebook metaphor to reveal thinking, not decorate surfaces.
- ✓Make diagrams feel engineered.
- ✓Let whitespace do work.
Don't
- ×Don't add an accent color, gradient or glow to the mark.
- ×Don't outline, skew, rotate, restretch or reorder the stripes.
- ×Don't use paper texture at architectural scale or on app icons.
- ×Don't scatter stickies and scribbles. That's whiteboard-startup cliché.
- ×Don't set the wordmark or the pencil hand in live text where outlines are required.
- ×Don't make BotsLabs look like a generic AI startup.
- ×Don't make BotsLabs look like a conventional creative agency.
- ×Don't force BotsLabs branding onto a client's finished customer-facing system when the client's identity should lead.
- ×Don't use BOTS as shorthand for chatbots or AI bots.
13 · Downloads
Take the kit.
Everything here is production-ready. The wordmark is supplied as outlines, so no font install is needed to use the logo.