BRAND
GUIDELINES
Version 1.0 - June 2022
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKHello
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKWelcome to our new brand guidelines. Although, in truth, while they may be
called ‘guide’lines, they are actually a stringent set of rules that everyone
needs to follow. “Oh, boring, I despise rules. Tell me why I have to follow them?”
Well, since you asked, if we want to be a world-class and, more importantly,
a world-famous brand, then, put simply, we need to be designed like one.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKNow, you’re probably not wondering how all the best brands in the world
are designed. But, just in case we still have your attention...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKThey are clean, not cluttered.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKThey are ruthlessly consistent.
They are ruthlessly consistent.
They are ruthlessly consistent.
They are ruthlessly consistent.
They are ruthlessly consistent.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKThey have one or two colours.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKThey talk like human
beings, not like a
product or robot.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIf we want people #Customers to remember and recognise us and if we want
to stand out from the thousands of other brands, then it’s best that we don’t
change our design look too often. And buy ‘often’, we’re talking at least...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK...the next 10 years.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKExample 1: Consistent since 1997
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKExample 2: Consistent since 2009
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKExample 3: Consistent since 2014
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKToday, not many brands in the region would be considered world-class
from a design and branding POV.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBecause most brands
are incredibly inconsistent.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKFrom tomorrow, let’s be the first to stand out from the poor quality
design and branding work by simply being cleaner, more consistent,
and, of course, more...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK...GORGEOUS.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBut before we get to what gorgeous looks like, let’s look at our new brand
purpose and brand line #ImportantBit.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur Brand Ambition
To transform a retail resort to an urban lifestyle destination that offers 360°
living
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur Brand Purpose
To make communities flourish
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur Brand Values
• Democratic
• Empathetic
• Imaginative
• Optimistic
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur Brand Personality
You’ll know us by our C: Our brand mark is fresh, approachable, flexible and
scalable. Our colours are bluebird, flame and saffron, colours that signal
fun-loving, happy, inclusive, playful and optimistic. Quicksand is our go-to font
because it gives us a friendly personality that lives well in the on and offline
worlds.
When we talk, it’s always natural, approachable, and friendly – with a dash
of wit.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur Brand
Equity
The malls
that customers built
Pyramid
Community-Centric
By celebrating localised connections
that promote commitment to shared
outcomes, we help to enable our
customers to engage in discussions
and activities that work towards
creating communities that are
unified by a common purpose.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOK, let’s get back
to our gorgeous new
brand identity.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBrand Guideline
section:
Section 1. Our new logo lock-up
Section 2. Our new colours
Section 3. Our new fonts
Section 4. Our new tone of voice
Section 5. Our new photographic style
Section 6. Our new design approach
Section 7. The Big CC Vote
Section 8. Golden rules
Section 9. Contact
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 1
Our new
logo lock-up
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIntroduction
To create a sense of belonging
We can’t tell our customers, tenants, and partners to belong, they have to feel it.
We don’t set out to create brand loyalists, but rather mall loyalists. We create
deeper, more personal relationships through community co-creation, creating
meaningful connections and empowerment in everything we do.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKMaster CC logo
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSafe space guide
The logo safe space comes from the height of the uppercase 'C' of 'City Centre'.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKLegibility guide
Below are some examples of how NOT to use the logo. These examples apply to all formats.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKEnglish, Arabic and bilingual logos
Master CC Arabic logo
Master CC bilingual logo
Master CC logo
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSecondary logos
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKPartnership logos
External partnership brands
MAF partnership brands
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 2
Our new colours
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIntroduction
Colours and emotions are closely linked. By adding colours into the mix,
we can further establish our brand identity, eliciting the right emotions and
familiarity.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKPrimary colour palette
Pantone 136C A colourful update
Pantone 171C A red-based orange,
Pantone 3115C can be associated
with friendship, love, joy, intuition,
Pantone Flame is gregarious and
that adds brilliance to the palette, this
pungent shade brings out optimism,
fun-loving. The strong magenta value
loyalty, emotional balance, spiritual
brings in empathy combined with the
inclusivity, and playfulness.
grounding, patience, wisdom, energy,
creativity, wholeness, and youth.
happiness of its yellow values.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKExceptions
The below colours could be used to support content or to highlight different
occasions for functional reasons.
For example: Breast Cancer Month, Earth Hour, Mourning Periods, Silver and
Golden Anniversaries, etc.
MOURNING
PERIODS
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 3
Our new fonts
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK
THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIntroduction
We need to refresh our fonts
so that they are even more
approachable and friendly.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd yes, a font can be
approachable :)
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOr
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOr
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd many other things too...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIn the past, we have used the font Gotham, which has nothing
to do with Batman, or his scary adversaries.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKWe have selected a new, modern and approachable font called Quicksand.
The rounded terminals of the font give it a friendly personality. Its design is
great for legibility, even at tiny sizes. Plus, it’s a Google font, which makes it
perfect for social/digital.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKQuicksand
01
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the
printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum
has been the industry's standard dummy text
Quicksand Light
ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer
took a galley of type and scrambled it to make
a type specimen book. It has survived not only
five centuries, but also the leap into electronic
Quicksand Regular
typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
It was popularised in the 1960s with the release
of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum
passages, and more recently with desktop
Quicksand Medium
publishing software like Aldus PageMaker
including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Quicksand SemiBold
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
Quicksand Bold
Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 4
Our new tone
of voice
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKLet's talk tone of voice. In the past, we've been guilty of being overly verbose
and somewhat inconsistent. This issue has arisen from having too many
writers and not enough writing rules. A great brand tone of voice is like any
great book – it should only have one author and maybe a good proofreader.
The same is true for all brands and their communications.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKA few golden writing rules:
• Cut once, twice and thrice if necessary.
• Write the way you talk. Naturally.
• There’s no need to exaggerate or use exclamation marks!!
• Write in an approachable and friendly way.
• Be playful, fun and a little witty.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur new copy rules are simple:
10 words for headlines
20 words for body copy
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAdcept example:
I’m a headline,
and never more
than ten words.
I’m body copy. Unfortunately, 80% of people never
read me. So the shorter you keep me, the better!
One more thing, never use exclamation marks.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 5
Our new
photographic style
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIntroduction
Great photographers and retouchers can help to increase your brand value
by adding a quality look and feel to everything. Our challenge is that we don’t
always have the time or the big budgets to hire world-class photographers.
Instead, we tend to rely on stock libraries for our images.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSo how can we ensure our communications ooze quality when we don’t have
the highest quality photographs or images?
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBy applying a few more
simple rules:
• Keep the composition clean and simple.
• Use a maximum of one or two models or one or two products per ad.
• Allow plenty of breathing space around models/products.
• Find strong, bold, graphical props for models/products.
• Ensure images are retouched professionally and to a high standard.
• Ensure images are retouched to sit, reflect and blend with our brand colours.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKWhen we apply these golden
rules, we ooze quality and
look more sophisticated.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBefore
After
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBefore
After
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKNow let’s add our copy and
messaging into the mix.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKModel reference
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKProduct reference
Product reference
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 6
Our new
design approach
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIntroduction
Let’s look back before we look forward...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKHere’s a snapshot of the last eight or so years.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKToday, 3D renders are a little old-fashioned from a design point of view.
You might say it’s a design trend, much like a fashion trend, that’s had its day.
One day, like many fashion trends, it may come back into style.
But for now, it’s a bit like polka dot dresses and stonewashed jeans.
So it’s time to move to something simpler, cleaner and more stylish that’s
more fitting for today and for an aspiring world-class brand.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKImportant bit:
Our new ‘C’ shouldn’t ever need to shout. Shouting is rude, whether you are
a person or a brand. Instead, let’s make our C the foundation and building block
for all our communications, an omnipresent brand mark that is endlessly flexible,
fresh and fun. Its job is to support our advertising messages, deals and offers
without overpowering them or, worse still, constraining our creativity. Our new
C is a super stylish background element that complements our foreground
campaign assets and ideas, whether they be fashion items, models, products
or SHARE offers/deals.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOk, let’s bring everything that we’ve seen to life...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKRule 01
Our background is always our new primary blue.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKRule 02
Our C is always our new primary orange.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBut, our C is endlessly flexible.
So we can crop it, bend it, and flip it to turn one simple C into a hundred
different yet instantly recognisable templates.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIt can be obviously, visibly, clearly a C.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOr more subtle and just a shape, template or background.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSample guide to play around with the different parts of the C
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKIt can also be a pattern for fashionable bags that our customers will love to keep...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK...or stylish wrapping paper for that perfect gift.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOr even a 3D rendered catwalk for models to strut on.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd it can be a brand mascot at events for kids.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd a digital character for a thousand different messages that are super
socially friendly and just perfect for in-mall digital screens.
Here’s a few examples, but feel free to ask us to make more!
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKRule 03
Our foreground images... our photographic elements should always
be cutouts.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKRemember:
Our C’s job is to support our advertising messages, deals and offers without
overpowering them or, worse still, constraining our creativity. Our new C is a
super stylish background element that complements our foreground campaign
assets and ideas, whether they be fashion items, models, products, or SHARE
offers/deals.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKBut our cutouts, whether they be for fashions, food, products, or SHARE offers/
deals, need to look amazing. So wherever possible, they should always be just
one carefully selected complementary colour as
1. They look a lot more stylish that way, and
2. It gives us a ‘look’ and it gives our ads consistency.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSo, for example:
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOur spring-summer tactical campaign messages, deals and offers could have a vibrant, complementary sunny yellow
with eye-catching beach cutouts.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKOr equally, summer messaging could be as simple as an eye-catching and mouth-watering vibrant yellow set
of popsicle cutouts.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAutumn-winter messaging could be a simple, autumnal leaf.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKPre-travel season shopping deals and offers could look as simple and stylish as this.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd cosmetics messaging could look as luscious, red and sexy as this.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKGift-related messaging could be like this...
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK...or, equally, like this.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKShopping deals and rewards should be as simple and as easy to understand at a glance as this.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKF&B cutouts can make burgers or any other food look way more delicious.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKL&E cutouts can make our cinema ads, messages and deals pop a little more than our competition's.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKAnd our tech messaging could easily look slicker, simpler and more stylish.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 7
The Big CC Vote
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKWhat is the perfect positioning for City Centre that will create a powerful
'Why us' that we can own for the next decade? Imagine if we started thinking
of our customers and tenants as partners who can help to build our malls and
a brighter future.
Our North Star and ten-year vision is simple: 'The malls that customers built'.
Let's differentiate our 27 malls from the others by making them malls that do
one very basic thing differently. Let's ask our customers what they want, care
about, like, or would love more of.
This is the key to our success, and it can be our key differentiator.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKWe aim to create a true sense of belonging by inviting customers to build
their perfect places. Because if we can make it feel like their space, then they'll
happily spend thousands more hours there.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKSection 8
Golden rules
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOKLorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the
1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to
make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also
the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
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THE CITY CENTRE BRAND BOOK
