Governance
Guidelines decay when nobody is accountable for them, so this section names the roles, the route for a case the rules do not cover, and the terms third parties may use the mark under. The changelog is generated from the manifest, so it cannot quietly stop being true.
Rules decay when no one is accountable for them, usually about a year after launch. Three roles keep this document current, and each needs a named holder.
A guideline with no owner stops being true
Someone has to be allowed to say no.
Brand owner
Holds final say on the identity, and is the only role that can grant an exception. One person, not a committee: a rule two people can both approve is a rule that gets approved twice with different answers.
Document maintainer
Owns this site: writes decisions back into it, dates them, and keeps the changelog honest. The maintainer decides nothing, they record what was decided, and the separation is what keeps the document from becoming an opinion.
Reviewer for client-facing work
Checks anything a client will see against this document before it leaves the studio. It has to be a different pair of eyes from whoever made the artefact, which is the entire value of the role.
The names are not recorded
None of the three roles has a name against it here, and that is a gap. Record the names in this section rather than in a message thread: a role held informally is a role nobody outside the studio can find when they need it.
A case this document cannot answer costs a few minutes to raise. Improvising around it costs a rebuild, and usually costs it twice.
Ask, do not improvise
A guideline that cannot answer your case is a gap in the guideline, not a licence to improvise.
That cuts both ways. Asking is expected rather than tolerated, and every answer is written back into this document, so the same question is only ever asked once.
How to request a decision
Send three things: the artefact and its deadline, the rule you believe does not cover it, and the treatment you would use if the answer were yes. The third is the one people skip, and it is the one that makes a same-day answer possible.
The three possible answers
Covered: the rule exists, here is the link, and the guideline gains an anchor or an example if the rule was hard to find. Granted: an exception scoped to one named artefact, dated, and recorded in the log. Changed: the rule was wrong, and the document is edited that week.
The exception log
Every granted exception is recorded with its date, the artefact it covers and the reason. Without a log, one exception becomes a precedent quoted forever by people who were not in the conversation.
No log exists yet. It belongs in this section, and it should stay short enough that a long log reads as evidence the rules need changing.
Partners, press and clients all need to place the mark occasionally. Publishing the permission is cheaper than answering it one email at a time, and far cheaper than correcting it afterwards.
How other people may use the name and the mark
The name
Written Haux: one word, initial capital, never set in all caps in running text. Where a legal entity is required, use the registered entity name in full rather than the brand name.
Permitted without asking
Referring to the studio by name in plain text. Using the supplied wordmark, unmodified, from the reduced pack, to credit work the studio did. Linking to the studio site with the mark as the link.
Not permitted
Redrawing, recolouring, stretching or animating the mark. Locking it up with another mark in a way that implies a partnership or an endorsement that does not exist. Using the name or the mark inside a product name, a domain, a social handle or an app icon.
Approved colourways are the ones shipped in the pack. A colourway that is not in the pack is not approved, whatever else it matches.
Registration status is not recorded
Whether the name and the mark are registered, in which classes and in which territories, is stated nowhere in this document. That gap has legal consequences rather than design ones, and it decides whether the mark carries ™ or ®. Record the answer here once it is confirmed.
A document with no dates reads as abandoned whether it is or not. The list below is generated from the manifest, so it moves whenever a section does.
Dated, or it is not maintained
Every section carries a last-updated date, and that date is the changelog entry. Generating the list from it has one useful consequence: nobody can forget to update the changelog, because it reads the same field the sitemap reads.
By date
17 August 2026: Start here, Colour, Accessibility.
15 August 2026: Typography.
14 August 2026: Logo.
13 August 2026: Layout.
12 August 2026: Strategy, Brand architecture.
11 August 2026: Graphic elements.
10 August 2026: Voice and tone.
9 August 2026: Motion, Art direction.
8 August 2026: Applications.
7 August 2026: Downloads, Governance.
This records when a section last moved, not what changed inside it. Per-rule history is a gap, and the fix is a one-line entry written at the same time as the edit.
Review cadence
No review date is agreed, which is the gap most likely to end this document. Set one: a fixed quarterly pass over every section, with the owner and the maintainer in the room, and a rule that anything unreviewed for two cycles is marked stale rather than left to look current.
None of these is design work. All five are decisions, and each one is currently being made implicitly by whoever asks first.
Five open items
Name the holder of each of the three roles, in this section.
Start the exception log, with its first entry on the day the first exception is granted.
Agree the review cadence and put the next date in writing.
Confirm the trademark registration status and the correct symbol.
Add a one-line description to each changelog entry, written with the edit rather than after it.