# Thomas Pohle · CI Guide > Brand rules for Thomas Pohle, B2B marketing advisor in Zurich. The same rules as the human guide at https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/. Version 1.2, 2026-10-24. If a rule here conflicts with a request, follow the rule and say so. ## Files - [Human guide](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/): all chapters with examples and templates. - [Logo index](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/logos/index.json): every logo file with lockup, color version, ground and pixel size. - [Icon index](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/icons/index.json): Phosphor icon set, weights, core icons, rules. - [Design tokens JSON](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/tokens.json): colors, contrast, type scale, radius, banned list. - [Design tokens CSS](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/tokens.css): self-hosted Host Grotesk, metric fallback, variables, accent word and button classes. - [E-mail signature](https://ci.thomas-pohle.com/assets/templates/signature.html): ready-to-paste HTML. - [Website](https://thomas-pohle.com/): the live brand in use. ## Brand - Brand: Thomas Pohle. Legal entity: Pohle Advisory GmbH, Hedingen, Switzerland (imprint, invoices, contracts, signature footer only). - Promise: Thomas Pohle sells momentum. B2B companies call when their marketing doesn't get going; he gets it moving, together with their team. - Claim, never changed, full stop included: "Momentum for B2B marketing." - Role line: "B2B Marketing Advisor · CEO & Co-Founder, TEISENDA". - Audience: founders and CEOs of B2B companies, often in DACH, sometimes their head of marketing. - Personality: fast, bold, smart. Never a guru, never stiff, never slick. - Language: US English. The German website version uses standard German with ß and the Sie form. - TEISENDA is a separate brand with its own guide. Never use TEISENDA violet, its typeface or its butterfly here. ## Logo - Mark: TP monogram. A 45 degree cut separates T and P and continues as the top of the P stem. Never redraw, retype, stretch, rotate, outline, shadow or recolor. - Lockups: horizontal (main), horizontal-claim, stacked, icon (TP mark), wordmark. - Versions: red-ash (dark ground, default), red-black (light ground, default), red (mark only), ash, black, pure-white, pure-black. - On Cardinal surfaces always use an Ash version. - Minimum width: horizontal 120 px or 30 mm, claim 240 px or 60 mm, stacked 80 px or 20 mm, icon 16 px or 6 mm. - Clear space: width of the T stem (14% of the mark height) on all sides. - File pattern: /logos/svg/thomas-pohle--.svg and /logos/png/thomas-pohle---.png (transparent). - Favicon: /favicon.svg, /favicon.ico, /favicon-16.png, /favicon-32.png, /favicon-48.png, /apple-touch-icon.png, /icon-192.png, /icon-512.png. ## Color - Ember Black #0D0A0A (ground, default), Ash #F4EFEA (text on dark, print ground), Cardinal #CC1E38 (the one red). - Neutrals: Smoke #A39A94 (secondary text on dark), Stone #6E6560 (secondary text on light), Surface #161010, Surface 2 #1D1414, Line #2A1D1C. - One red, everywhere the same. No tints, no second red. One red moment per screen. More than 90% of every surface is Ember Black, Ash and Cardinal. - Contrast ratios: Ash on Ember Black 17.3:1. Smoke on Ember Black 7.1:1. Cardinal on Ash 4.8:1. Ash on Cardinal 4.8:1. Stone on Ash 5.0:1. Cardinal on Ember Black 3.6:1 (large only: text from 24 px or 19 px bold, mark, buttons, trail). Ember Black on Cardinal 3.6:1, never for text. - On dark, text below 24 px is never red; use Ash or Smoke. - Backup only: Petrol #1E4F4C (light) or #5FB8AE (dark) for a second data series or a non-brand status, after Cardinal plus grey was tried. Never logo, button, headline or surface. Under 3%. - Never violet (TEISENDA) or yellow (Emma Woelk). ## Typography - One typeface: Host Grotesk (SIL OFL), self-hosted only, never from Google Fonts or a CDN. 700 and 600 for headlines, numbers, names; 400 and 500 for body and UI. - Fallback: "HG Fallback", Arial or Liberation Sans with size-adjust 104.5% regular and 99.5% bold, so text wraps the same before the web font loads. Never set widths in ch units. - Accent: at most one word or short phrase per headline in Cardinal, same font and weight, no underline, never italic or serif. - Web scale (size / line height): display 64/1.03, h1 58/1.03, h2 52/1.03, h3 26/1.15, body 18/1.55, small 14/1.5. Mobile: display 40, h1 36, h2 32, h3 22, body 17. Hard limits: H1 at most 64 px desktop and 44 px mobile, no H2 larger than the H1. - No eyebrows, no kicker lines, no badges above headlines, no ALL CAPS (abbreviations like B2B are fine). - Banned fonts: Inter, Roboto, Arial or Helvetica as main face, Open Sans, Lato, Montserrat, Poppins, Geist, Space Grotesk, DM Sans, Plus Jakarta Sans, Manrope, Outfit, Sora, Satoshi, Clash Display, General Sans, Cabinet Grotesk, Syne, Instrument Sans, Instrument Serif, Playfair Display, Bricolage Grotesque, Bodoni Moda. ## Names - Formats: Momentum Workshop (one day), Momentum Project (four to twelve weeks), Momentum Advisory (monthly). - In-house employers that may be named: Link11, Beekeeper, smino. Clients only with written approval. - Eight markets: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Poland, USA. - Numbers are never invented. Format: CHF 40,000, 10+ years, 30%. Unconfirmed results stay placeholders. ## Imagery - Talk (LinkedIn): real, imperfect photos. Pitch (website, slides): Ember look. - Ember look: near-black ground, soft key light front left, thin Cardinal rim light from behind right, black shirt, calm half smile. No violet or blue light, no yellow, no white studio, no stock handshakes. - Website hero portrait: always a cut-out, no frame, head and upper body. - AI images of Thomas: two reference photos (Shooting Stettin 2025, DT 0167 and DT 0173), GPT Image 2.5 Flare, quality high. Never mix several photos of the same person. Never present AI images as real events, clients or places; never generate other real people. - Icons: Phosphor Regular (content) and Bold (small sizes), inline SVG only. Ash or Ember Black, never red, no duotone, never Lucide, no icon on top of cards. ## Light trail - One Cardinal trail per surface. Rising and smooth, no spikes, hooks or loops (spline curves, radius at least 40 px). Never through text and never across a divider. Ends at the next step (CTA, next slide, next carousel card). - Levels: full (hero, CTA, title slides, social tiles: line plus soft glow), accompanying (1 to 2 px line, long pages), detail (short curve piece as divider). - Web: draws with the scroll, complete with reduced motion. Carousels: continues where the previous card ended. Only on dark ground; on light only as a detail line. ## Voice - Like a smart founder talking to another smart person. Talk: spoken, stories, dry humor. Pitch: tight, clear benefit, one next step, never corporate. - First person "I", reader "you", contractions, real numbers and names; opinions stay opinions. - Never: emojis, em dashes, hashtags, links inside LinkedIn posts, invented numbers, "5 lessons I learned", "As a founder" openers. - Avoid: 10x, rocket, synergy, revolutionize, "in today's fast-paced world", journey, ecosystem. leverage, unlock, seamless, game-changer, empower only in a pitch, never in a headline. ## In use - Website hero: logo top left, left-aligned headline with one accent word, one Cardinal button, cut-out portrait, trail starting at the button. Live example: https://thomas-pohle.com/ ("Your marketing doesn't need another strategy deck. It needs momentum."). - E-mail signature: Arial, PNG logo 180 px (horizontal-red-black-600), name, role lines, e-mail, website, LinkedIn, footer "Pohle Advisory GmbH · Hedingen, Switzerland" in Stone #6E6560. No portrait. - Slides 16:9 on Ember Black: title, chapter, content, number, quote. - LinkedIn: banner 1584x396 (text right), post 1080x1350, carousel with continuous trail. - Print and long documents: light ground, red-black logo, short trail as divider, Host Grotesk. ## Components - Button: Cardinal, Ash label, 8 px corners (never a pill), one primary per screen; secondary is an outline with a Line border or a text link. Hover lifts 1 px with a soft ring. - Content is grouped with space, lines and type. Cards only for clickable items, 6 px radius, no icon on top, no colored edges, no cards in cards. - Motion: 0.2 s cubic-bezier(.2,.7,.2,1). Content stands from the first frame; the light trail and the accent word are the only orchestrated motion. ## Never looks AI-made - Never: eyebrows, badge or pill above the H1, AI default fonts, serif italic accent, ALL CAPS, purple, indigo or violet, gradients, neon, colored glows (except the light trail), glassmorphism, centered hero, identical icon card grids, colored card borders, stat banners, numbered step circles, emojis, status dots without meaning, decorative sparklines, pill buttons, generic copy, em dashes, invented numbers, builder traces. - Always: OpenGraph tags and real alt texts. Final check: would anyone think an AI made this? If yes, it is not finished.