Read it cover to cover, or grab the one thing you came for. Every part stands alone, so you can't get lost. The book grows only as fast as the brand does, and not one page faster.
The dough and the sauce. We make both by hand in Naples, Florida. Get those two right and everything else is a topping. People argue with that. The cheese crowd. The meat crowd. The crust crowd. The wood fire crowd. Everybody has the one thing they say makes it. Argue all you want. Then order one, and argue with your mouth full.
The sauce gets made every morning, from a recipe that is not leaving the family. The dough gets tossed when your order comes in, not before. And we sign every box, because a name means a person cooked it.
Open a delivery app and it is wall to wall logos and borrowed food photography. A signature is proof. Someone real is back there, and we are proud enough to put our name on it.
That is the whole business. The trial offer wins the first tap. The sauce earns the reorder. And the best thing anyone can say about a plate of our food is the oldest compliment there is. They came back for more.
Sauce LadyPizzeria · Naples, FL
The system · 01 · Palette
One sauce. One palette.
Magenta is the sauce and carries the brand. Robin is the one spark that points. Sky informs, mint confirms. Neutrals do the reading, and the food brings the heat. Neutrals do the work. Text is always Ink.
The palette
Magenta
The identity. Logo, primary actions.
#c81e63
Magenta Dark
Hover states, depth.
#8e1146
Robin
Points, the one spark. Dashes, CTAs, links.
#C2DBE4
Sky
Quiet information, informs. Text uses #2E6E9E.
#5B8FD0
Mint
Fresh, confirms. Text uses #1D8249.
#A4D9BB
Ink
All text starts here.
#1c1418
Muted
Secondary text, captions.
#6e5f66
Ring
Rings and keylines.
#ebd0dd
Tint
Soft magenta backgrounds.
#fbedf3
Surface
The page itself.
#fbf6f5
Hairline
Borders and dividers.
#e4dade
The rules
1
60 / 30 / 10.
Neutrals do 60% of any page, magenta 30%, all accents together 10%. If a page feels colourful, it is wrong.
2
One accent per block.
Never two accents in the same card, slide, or paragraph. If two things both need attention, one of them does not.
3
Bright colours never carry text.
Robin, sky and mint all fail contrast on white. Words use the deep versions, #267A99, #2E6E9E and #1D8249. Brights are for chips, stripes, dashes and washes.
4
Photography carries the warmth.
The palette is cool on purpose. Never fix a cold page with orange. Fix it with a better photo.
The system · 02 · Typography
Two faces. No exceptions.
AaBbCc
Meet our typefaces: Caveat and Inter
The signature
Aa
Caveat
Our hand. Caveat sets the name and the odd hand-written line, and nothing else. Custom-drawn lettering replaces it at lock, so the signature is truly ours.
The signature only. Never body, never a menu, never a button.
The ideal stackEyebrow, statement, lede, action. Every page, deck, and poster is a version of this.
Naples, FL
Two things make a pizza.
Sauce on at 7am, dough tossed to order, every box signed by the cook.
Order now
Short copyFor buttons, boxes, and anywhere words are scarce. Inter 800, Ink, a period at the end.
Come back for seconds.
Made this morning.
Good. Then seconds.
Open early. Stay late.
Dough and sauce.
No stock photos, ever.
Get the meatballs. Trust us.
Sealed by hand.
Right and wrongSame message, our type and our voice versus neither.
Right
Buy one pizza, the second's on the house.
Wrong
Take advantage of our BOGO promotion.
Typeface Scale
Five heading steps, one eyebrow label, three text steps, two measures. Every heading in this book snaps to a step and nothing carries a size of its own. Three heading levels do all the work, and you never skip one.
Step
Size
Where it goes
--fs-display
140px, fluid from 36px
The hero headline. Once per document, never twice.
--fs-h2
88px, fluid from 38px
Section titles, and full bleed statements.
--fs-h3
60px, fluid from 30px
Headings inside a colour field.
--fs-h4
36px, fluid from 24px
Subsection titles on the page surface, and statements inside a panel.
--fs-h5
22px
Chapter card titles and typeface names.
--fs-eyebrow
12px uppercase, .14em tracked
The label that sits above a heading.
--fs-body
17px
Every paragraph in the book. There is no second body size.
--fs-small
13px
Captions, meta lines, download labels.
--fs-micro
11px
Chips, badges, numerals, icon labels.
How the type is set
1
The levels
Three heading levels do all the work, and you never skip one. h1 is the hero. h2 is a chapter title. h3 is a subsection title, set at --fs-h3 on a colour field and --fs-h4 on the page surface.
2
How it scales
Heading steps run fluid with clamp(). The ceiling is the step itself, so the scale holds from a 320px phone to a 1920px display. Leading is 0.94 on the display step, 1.04 on every other heading step, 1.62 on every text step. Nothing else.
3
The measure: 72ch
Body copy runs to --measure. A ch is the width of a zero, so 72ch lands in the 66 to 75 character band that reads easiest. Set it in ch and it tracks the font instead of drifting when a size changes.
4
The narrow measure: 44ch
Copy inside a card runs to --measure-narrow, 44ch. In most grids the card is narrower than that, and the card wins. That's the point. Two prose measures, three heading caps. Never a third measure, never a fourth cap.
The system · 03 · The logo
One gesture. Dough and sauce.
One dough round, one spoon-spread of sauce. The whole idea, drawn plain: two things make a pizza.
Three parts, one signature. The icon is the sauce spiral, the spread every pizza starts with. The wordmark is our name, in Caveat. The lockup is the two together, and it's our signature.
The lockup
Sauce Lady
The lockup: the spiral, then our name in Caveat. Never smaller than 120px wide.
Two things make a pizza, and we sign it. The icon is built from exactly those three moves and nothing else. Read it left to right and the name explains itself.
The doughThe round we start with.
+
The sauceOne spoon-spread spiral.
+
The signatureOur name, in our hand.
=
Sauce LadyPizzeria
Dough plus sauce makes the pizza. The spiral is that spread in one stroke, and it flows out of our signature. The mark says it before a word does.
The meaning is above. This is the mechanics: how much air the lockup needs, how the two parts relate to each other, and the smallest it is ever allowed to go.
The exclusion zone
Nothing enters the zone. × equals the radius of the spiral. It is the minimum; give the logo more room whenever you can.
Construction
The space between icon and wordmark equals the spiral's core (o). Icon and wordmark never move, resize, or recolour relative to each other.
Lockup · digital Never below 120px wide.Lockup · print Never below 30mm wide.
Icon · digital Never below 24px. Favicon uses the 256 PNG.Icon · print Never below 8mm.
The animated mark
On heroes and covers the mark comes alive: the spiral stays put and the background shifts skin. Pick one skin per surface, never mix them in a single view. At small sizes and in print, use a single flat skin.
Magenta
Default. The everyday mark.
Robin
Campaigns and launches.
Mint
Fresh moments and product news.
Expressions. Which one, when.
Twenty-eight expressions, one geometry under every one. Eight make up the core set: six everyday files, and two for campaigns. The other twenty are the extended set, for campaigns and big moments. One expression per piece, never as the app icon.
The icon travels everywhere: profiles, decks, print, partner lockups, guest photos. Check before you ship.
Never
Recolour it.
Stretch, squash, or distort it.
Rotate any part.
Add shadows, bevels, or effects.
Rebuild the wordmark in another font.
Put it on a photo without a wash behind it.
Shrink it below 24px on screen, or 8mm in print.
Reuse an old two-plate file. There is one current mark.
Watch the traps
Profile pictures: centre the spiral with room to spare, so the crop never clips it.
On gradients: use Reversed on a flat colour. The magenta spiral on the gradient fights itself.
Slides: paste as a locked image so the theme can't recolour it.
Partner lockups: equal weight, equal space, and the exclusion zone still applies.
Over food photos: use the Tint expression, low opacity, in a corner. Never centred over the food.
Do
Lockup on white, Surface, or Tint backgrounds.
Icon alone for avatars, favicons, and stamps. Minimum 24px.
Logo and type share a left edge, aligned flush.
The system · 04 · Visual elements
Dough and sauce do the talking.
Dough and sauce, one gesture. Seven elements, drawn from the mark and the palette.
Ordered-list marker
1
2
A dash, then a number or letter. For steps and ranked sets. If the order doesn't matter, use plain text.
Section divider
One sauce swipe that fades out, the seal at the head, a second round sliding in. Use it anywhere you'd draw a line.
The spread
The spoon comes in, the sauce lands, the spiral spreads out from the middle. One gesture, the whole brand. Moves on screen, holds the finished spread in print.
The dash
Read me first
Every eyebrow opens with it: the pause before you say the thing. Robin by default.
The palette stripe
Magenta, mint, robin in one thin band. Footers and cover edges. Never thicker than 10px.
Callouts
Robin is attention. The one thing the reader cannot miss.
Sky is quiet information. Context, notes, asides.
Robin for attention, sky for quiet info. Two only. Nothing orange.
The pill
MagentaRobinSkyMintNeutral
A small rounded label for status and tags. Tint fill, hairline, one colour. Magenta by default; robin, sky, mint, or neutral when a status needs its own.
The system · 05 · Illustration
Flat, warm, by hand.
Cool, flat, one system. Scenes fill a hero, a deck cover, or a post. Circles and arcs from the icon, one accent, lots of air.
The scenes
Five editorial scenes for heroes, decks, and posts. Flat, the palette, one accent each.
Six canvases sized for deck covers, video backgrounds, and site heroes. The spiral becomes atmosphere across magenta, robin, and mint. Most people meet the pizzeria on a screen long before they taste the food, so put one of these behind the headline and the page reads as ours on sight.
The trail · video, campaign backgrounds · 1920×1080 PNG
The pour · the mark at full bleed, hero moments · 1920×1080 PNG
The night · evening posts, the late slot · 1920×1080 PNG
The field · light backgrounds, documents · 1920×1080 PNG
The centre · the dark grade, editorial · 1920×1080 PNG
The system · 06 · Icons
Small marks, same recipe.
Twenty-four marks, one recipe: a 24px grid, a 2px rounded stroke, Ink on white, and one dot of colour at most. That is how a set this size still looks like one hand drew it. Sauce sits next to Dough, because those are the two things that make a pizza.
Draw on the 24px grid, 2px stroke, rounded caps and joins.
Ink on white or Surface. Magenta when active or selected.
Keep shapes open and simple; one idea per icon.
✗Don't
No filled icons, no two-tone, no gradients inside icons.
No mixing stroke weights or borrowed icon sets.
No more than one accent dot, ever.
The system · 07 · Photography
Shot in our own rooms.
Photography has two jobs: show the real room, and pull every shot into the brand. Three tints for real photos, and a set of on-brand illustrations for every kind of post.
Nothing here is ever stock.
The tints
Three overlays that pull any photo into the brand. Each is a PNG you layer on top in Apple Photos, Canva, or Adobe Express. Download, drop on, done. The tool does not matter. Default filters and sticker effects do, so leave them off.
Magenta tint · corporate
The night · evening posts, the late slot · 1920×1080
Sky wash · Naples
The illustration set
Twelve specimen plates, grouped by subject. Drop them straight into social posts, email headers, decks, and covers.
The compositional rule. Every frame earns its place with these four.
1
The hero pizza.
Overhead and 45°, tight enough to feel the texture.
2
Hands.
Serving, passing, tearing bread. People eat with people.
3
The table mid-meal.
Half-eaten pizza, a lifted slice. The come-back-for-seconds moment.
4
The room and the people.
The oven, the pass, the Lady. Real faces, no posing.
Specs
Minimum 1200×800, JPEG, natural light first.
Uber Eats cover: 2880×2304 (5:4), food only, no people, no logos.
Every dish in landscape and square crops. Keep originals.
Never
Stock photography. One stock pizza kills the whole promise.
Cold, blue-tinted food. If it looks refrigerated, reshoot it.
Heavy filters, fake steam, cluttered prop flat lays.
The system · 08 · Voice
Say it like you mean it.
Write like you talk to a regular at the pizzeria. Someone who comes in twice a week. You do not pitch them. You do not perform for them. You tell them what is good today, you say it once, and you mean it. Every caption, menu line, email, and job post gets held to that.
The four principles
Plain.
Short sentences. Concrete words. “Two things make a pizza.” needs no follow-up. It already said the thing.
Direct.
Verb first, no wind-up, no throat-clearing. If you would not say it to a regular's face, do not type it either.
Human.
We, not “the company.” Contractions are fine. Warmth is fine. The only thing that is not fine is distance.
Earned.
“Made this morning” beats “legendary” every time. Back the claim with the fact, or leave the claim out.
Say this, not that
We sayWe never say
We sayCome back for seconds.
We never sayIndulge in a curated, world-class culinary journey.
We sayGet the meatballs. Trust us.
We never sayDon't miss our must-try menu highlights!
We sayNonna's sauce, made this morning.
We never sayOur signature artisanal marinara, curated in-house.
We sayBuy one pizza, the second's on the house.
We never sayTake advantage of our exclusive BOGO promotional offer.
We sayBad batch of dough. We tossed it and started over.
We never sayWe maintain rigorous quality assurance protocols at every stage of production.
We sayClosed Mondays. See you Tuesday.
We never sayPlease note that our operational hours are subject to periodic adjustment.
Writing the name
It is “Sauce Lady Pizzeria” for the full lockup and “Sauce Lady” in the signature, capital S, capital L. Use “the Sauce Lady” only in story copy, never in the logo. Never shorten it to “Sauce,” never make it possessive, never a verb. One cook, one name, on every box.
If it would sound ridiculous said across a counter, it does not get written down.
One brand, three voices
One brand, three voices. The pizzeria is warm and direct. The app is short and appetising. The campaigns are proud and a little provocative, argue with your mouth full. Same Lady behind all three.
The kit · 01 · Social kit
Look like us everywhere.
Every profile we run, already on brand. Avatars, covers, and post templates for LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook. Upload one as it comes, or hand it to a designer as the base layer.
The identity set
The files people grab first: the avatar and the lockup, each on three grounds. Transparent drops onto anything. Black is the Reversed rule, spiral only, no tile. The email signature ships transparent so it sits on the message itself.
LinkedIn posts run the magenta tint with a statement overlay. Pizzeria pictures run robin dusk. Naples pictures run the sky wash with the stripe. Take the matching overlay from the Photography section and drop it on.
The expression system in the feed: statements, the dotted spiral, mint moments, the ring pattern. Use for launches and campaigns; the covers above stay constant.
The menu board. Magenta Dark, dotted leaders, one mint chip and that is the lot. PNG
The van. Lockup on the cargo panel with plenty of clear space on every side. PNG
The kit · 03 · Templates
Start from the template.
One document, one sheet, one slide deck, each built on the brand already. Start here instead of a blank page. Upload any of the three to Google Drive and it converts to Docs, Sheets or Slides with the branding intact.
The Word template. Statement cover, sauce-swipe dividers, stripe on the footer.
The Excel template. Magenta header, palette tab, no borrowed spreadsheet styles.
The PowerPoint template. Statement cover, numbered agenda, one accent a slide.
Same rules on the inside. Every document, deck, board and workspace we touch starts from this book, not from a blank page.
1
Documents.
Every doc starts from the Sauce Lady Pizzeria Word template in Templates. Runbooks, memos, offers, all the same skeleton.
2
Decks.
Statement covers on magenta or brand art. One accent per slide. Numbered markers for agendas and steps. If a slide needs three colours, it needs two slides.
3
Project boards.
Numbered prefix, underscore, lowercase: 01_spring_menu, 02_hiring_push. Priorities use words, not colour soup.
4
Workspace.
Everyone runs the avatar, the Meet background and the email signature from the Social kit. Day one of onboarding, before the first meeting.
The kit · 04 · Downloads
Take the real files.
The files people ask for most often, all source-of-truth. The whole kit ZIP holds every asset in this book. Never screenshot the logo. It always looks worse and someone will notice.
Look like us everywhere.
Every profile we run, already on brand. Avatars, covers, and post templates for LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook. Upload one as it comes, or hand it to a designer as the base layer.
The identity set
The files people grab first: the avatar and the lockup, each on three grounds. Transparent drops onto anything. Black is the Reversed rule, spiral only, no tile. The email signature ships transparent so it sits on the message itself.
LinkedIn
Instagram
X (formerly Twitter)
Facebook
Everyday posts
LinkedIn posts run the magenta tint with a statement overlay. Pizzeria pictures run robin dusk. Naples pictures run the sky wash with the stripe. Take the matching overlay from the Photography section and drop it on.
Campaign posts
The expression system in the feed: statements, the dotted spiral, mint moments, the ring pattern. Use for launches and campaigns; the covers above stay constant.
Google Workspace