Mary’s Meals

Official Websites

• https://www.marysmeals.org.uk
• https://www.marysmealsusa.org

Brand Guidelines

2017

Brand Summary

Mission

• To enable people to offer their money, goods, skills, time, or prayer, and through this involvement, provide the most effective help to those suffering the effects of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest communities [^1].

Core Values

• confidence in the innate goodness of people
• respect for the dignity of every human being and family life
• good stewardship of resources
• simplicity
• service
• joy
• effectiveness
• passion
• thankfulness
• focus
• love
• hope
• trustworthiness
• gentleness
• vocation
• integrity
• authenticity
• efficiency
• generosity
• inclusivity
• transparency

Target Audience

• Global supporters, volunteers, and partners who share the belief that no child should endure a day without a meal, including individuals from all walks of life and affiliate organizations across multiple continents [^2].

Personality Traits

• joyful
• effective
• passionate
• thankful
• focused
• loving
• hopeful
• trustworthy
• gentle

Visual Identity Overview

• The visual identity centers on ‘Mary’s Meals blue’ (Pantone 299C) as the primary color, paired with secondary colors like crisp white, warm yellow, and simple grey. The logo is a bright blue box with the brand name and strapline, using the FF Meta font exclusively for the logo. Proxima Nova, Campton, and Arial are used for other communications. Imagery features vibrant, joyful scenes of children and community, emphasizing diversity and hope [^3].

Categories

Brand Voice

• How we tell the story of Mary’s Meals – in ways that are engaging, uplifting, and easy to share – matters.
• These brand guidelines are intended to enable our supporters and partners to communicate with consistency and bring our work to new eyes, new ears and new hearts – while inspiring creativity and innovation which is in keeping with our brand.
• We also believe the way in which we do this work is as important as its outcomes. This includes raising awareness of our work in an authentic, transparent and effective manner.
• Our personality: Joyful, effective, passionate, thankful, focused, loving, hopeful, trustworthy and gentle.
• Our principles: Vocation, integrity, authenticity, respect, efficiency, generosity, inclusivity, simplicity and transparency.

Color Palette

• Our distinctive primary brand colour is technically known as Pantone 299C, but we prefer to call it ‘Mary’s Meals blue’.
• Mary’s Meals blue is a hugely important part of our visual identity, which communicates trust and integrity and helps build recognition of our life-changing work. We often like to pair it with one or more of our secondary colours – crisp white, warm yellow and simple grey – to give our communications materials a joyful and uplifting glow.
• We often prefer to stick to this core colour palette, but – where additional shades are helpful to any design – we suggest you choose from our selection of complementary colours.
• Mary’s Meals blue Pantone 299C Print: C85 M19 Y0 K0 Web: R0 G157 B220 Hex: #009ddc
• Simple grey Print: C0 M0 Y0 K15 Web: R218 G218 B218 Hex: #dadada
• Charcoal grey Print: C0 M0 Y0 K80 Web: R51 G51 B51 Hex: #333333
• Crisp white Print: C0 M0 Y0 K0 Web: R255 G255 B255 Hex: #ffffff
• Warm yellow Pantone 130C Print: C0 M30 Y100 K5 Web: R244 G169 B18 Hex: #f4a912
• Pantone 3145C Print: C100 M10 Y29 K20 Web: R0 G119 B139 Hex: #00778b
• Pantone 165C Print: C96 M54 Y5 K27 Web: R35 G97 B146 Hex: #236192
• Pantone 711C Print: C0 M97 Y75 K0 Web: R203 G44 B48 Hex: #cb2c30
• Print: C0 M70 Y100 K0 Web: R255 G103 B31 Hex: #ff671f
• Pantone 647C
• Don’t change the colours.
• Don’t tint.

Typography

• Proxima Nova, Campton and Arial are our favourite fonts. They’re bold, clean and -most importantly -clear.
• Proxima Nova is our primary design typeface, which can be used for body copy in print and online and, where appropriate, for headings too.
• We use Campton as a secondary font to allow for greater flexibility in our design work, and we think it makes for particularly impactful headings. Campton is a little too chunky for body copy.
• Arial is Mary’s Meals’ ‘business font’ -meaning it’s used by our staff and volunteers for writing emails, letters and reports -but it can also be used in design, whenever Proxima Nova and Campton are not available.
• When selecting font sizes, be guided firstly by legibility and accessibility followed by what works best for your design.

Logo Usage

• The Mary’s Meals logo represents more than just how our name is written. Wherever it appears -whether on an event poster, a fundraiser’s T-shirt, a school kitchen wall, or a volunteer cook’s apron -it is an uplifting symbol of a global movement of people who will not accept that any child should endure a day without a meal in this world of plenty.
• Our simple guidelines will help you to use the Mary’s Meals logo with care.
• The Mary’s Meals logo is made up of three elements: our name, our strapline (‘a simple solution to world hunger’) and a bright blue box. The text is set in a font called FF Meta and our logo is the only place where we use this font, which helps it stand out from all other copy.
• While it is strongly preferred that the standard logo is utilised where possible, there are a handful of possible variations. As you can see, the name element can appear without the strapline element on occasion, but the strapline element should not be used on its own.
• When using the logo, it’s important to consider the background it will be placed on. A white keyline border can be used to help the logo stand out when needed.
• The keyline border should have a maximum width equal to the stems of the ’m’ in the word ‘meals’. Adhering to this maximum width will add emphasis to the logo, without the border detracting from the logo’s core elements.
• The size of the Mary’s Meals logo should generally be driven by your creative requirements. However, in order to protect the legibility and clarity of our name and strapline, please adhere to these minimum heights.
• Be sure to give the Mary’s Meals logo some room to breathe. A minimum clearance space around the logo equal to the height of the ’m’ in ‘meals’ will both protect the integrity of the logo’s proportions and help it stand out in any design.
• Screen -minimum height 58px
• Print -minimum height 15mm
• Don’t use the strapline on its own.
• Don’t capitalise.
• Don’t change the font.
• Don’t stretch.
• Don’t change the colours.
• Don’t crop.
• Don’t alter or add text.
• Don’t rotate.
• Don’t tint.
• Don’t create a pattern.

Tone And Messaging

• We also believe the way in which we do this work is as important as its outcomes. This includes raising awareness of our work in an authentic, transparent and effective manner.
• How we tell the story of Mary’s Meals – in ways that are engaging, uplifting, and easy to share – matters.
• These brand guidelines are intended to enable our supporters and partners to communicate with consistency and bring our work to new eyes, new ears and new hearts – while inspiring creativity and innovation which is in keeping with our brand.
• We will remain focused on our core vision -that every child should receive a daily meal in school -and communicate the needs of the poor and the nature of our mission in a straightforward, open and transparent way.
• We will strive to be good stewards of every gift entrusted to us -treating each one with deep love, respect and gratitude -and build meaningful, long-term relationships with all those involved in our work.
• We will approach our vision and mission in a spirit of deep vocation and humble service, seeking always to be faithful servants of hope, the global movement, and those little ones who eat Mary’s Meals each day.
• Joyful, effective, passionate, thankful, focused, loving, hopeful, trustworthy and gentle.
• Vocation, integrity, authenticity, respect, efficiency, generosity, inclusivity, simplicity and transparency.

Brand Values

• We have confidence in the innate goodness of people.
• We respect the dignity of every human being and family life.
• We believe in good stewardship of the resources entrusted to us.

Visual Style

• The Mary’s Meals logo is made up of three elements: our name, our strapline (‘a simple solution to world hunger’) and a bright blue box. The text is set in a font called FF Meta and our logo is the only place where we use this font, which helps it stand out from all other copy.
• While it is strongly preferred that the standard logo is utilised where possible, there are a handful of possible variations. As you can see, the name element can appear without the strapline element on occasion, but the strapline element should not be used on its own.
• When using the logo, it’s important to consider the background it will be placed on. A white keyline border can be used to help the logo stand out when needed.
• The keyline border should have a maximum width equal to the stems of the ’m’ in the word ‘meals’. Adhering to this maximum width will add emphasis to the logo, without the border detracting from the logo’s core elements.
• The size of the Mary’s Meals logo should generally be driven by your creative requirements. However, in order to protect the legibility and clarity of our name and strapline, please adhere to these minimum heights.
• Be sure to give the Mary’s Meals logo some room to breathe. A minimum clearance space around the logo equal to the height of the ’m’ in ‘meals’ will both protect the integrity of the logo’s proportions and help it stand out in any design.
• Screen -minimum height 58px
• Print -minimum height 15mm
• Don’t use the strapline on its own.
• Don’t capitalise.
• Don’t change the font.
• Don’t stretch.
• Don’t change the colours.
• Don’t crop.
• Don’t alter or add text.
• Don’t rotate.
• Don’t tint.
• Don’t create a pattern.
• Our distinctive primary brand colour is technically known as Pantone 299C, but we prefer to call it ‘Mary’s Meals blue’.
• Mary’s Meals blue is a hugely important part of our visual identity, which communicates trust and integrity and helps build recognition of our life-changing work. We often like to pair it with one or more of our secondary colours – crisp white, warm yellow and simple grey – to give our communications materials a joyful and uplifting glow.
• We often prefer to stick to this core colour palette, but – where additional shades are helpful to any design – we suggest you choose from our selection of complementary colours.
• Mary’s Meals blue Pantone 299C Print: C85 M19 Y0 K0 Web: R0 G157 B220 Hex: #009ddc
• Simple grey Print: C0 M0 Y0 K15 Web: R218 G218 B218 Hex: #dadada
• Charcoal grey Print: C0 M0 Y0 K80 Web: R51 G51 B51 Hex: #333333
• Crisp white Print: C0 M0 Y0 K0 Web: R255 G255 B255 Hex: #ffffff
• Warm yellow Pantone 130C Print: C0 M30 Y100 K5 Web: R244 G169 B18 Hex: #f4a912
• Pantone 3145C Print: C100 M10 Y29 K20 Web: R0 G119 B139 Hex: #00778b
• Pantone 165C Print: C96 M54 Y5 K27 Web: R35 G97 B146 Hex: #236192
• Pantone 711C Print: C0 M97 Y75 K0 Web: R203 G44 B48 Hex: #cb2c30
• Print: C0 M70 Y100 K0 Web: R255 G103 B31 Hex: #ff671f
• Pantone 647C
• Proxima Nova is our primary design typeface, which can be used for body copy in print and online and, where appropriate, for headings too.
• We use Campton as a secondary font to allow for greater flexibility in our design work, and we think it makes for particularly impactful headings. Campton is a little too chunky for body copy.
• Arial is Mary’s Meals’ ‘business font’ -meaning it’s used by our staff and volunteers for writing emails, letters and reports -but it can also be used in design, whenever Proxima Nova and Campton are not available.
• When selecting font sizes, be guided firstly by legibility and accessibility followed by what works best for your design.

Co Branding

• If you’re supporting Mary’s Meals through a business and would like to discuss pairing your company’s logo with the Mary’s Meals brand, it’s important to contact us>
• An example of co-branding.