2026 04 08 Branding

Branding — Decision Log

Completed: 2026-04-08 SSoT: 02_Strategy/Brand.md

What Was Done

Established the complete mBR brand system from scratch across ~12 Claude/Talbot cycles. All decisions locked and documented in 02_Strategy/Brand.md.

Decisions Locked

Decision	Outcome
External name	myBetterRates (my=400, BetterRates=600)
Internal name	mBR
Tagline	Your life deserves more, automatically.
Colors	Treasury Emerald #004425, Wealth Gold #D5B038, Pledge Rose #E8627A
Typography	Inter variable; my=400, BetterRates=600
Wordmark animation	Option 1: x-height $ crossfade, 0.4s, 4s cycle, font-weight 700 on $
Logo direction	Golden ratio leaf (48×78), S→$ bar animation, SDC-identical mechanism
Logo transform	translate(15.70 -8.03) scale(1.15) — centred at (50,50)
SDC family	Shared palette, shared leaf motif, shared animation mechanism
Cancer50Pledge	Rose dot variant (#E8627A), same mark

Artifacts Created

• _WorkingOn/Brainstorming/archive/logo/mbr-logo-concept-A-v5-s-only.svg — production logo (resting)
• _WorkingOn/Brainstorming/archive/logo/mbr-logo-concept-A-v5.svg — production logo (animated)
• _WorkingOn/Brainstorming/archive/logo/mbr-logo-animation-test.html — animation reference
• _WorkingOn/Brainstorming/archive/logo/mbr-animation-test.html — wordmark animation reference
• 02_Strategy/Brand.md — full brand SSoT

Gotchas / Notes

• Logo vertical centering: previous sessions used ty=-4.07 (wrong — S sat 4 units low). Correct: ty=-8.03. Diagnosed via Playwright pixel analysis; verified by 3-way screenshot comparison.
• Playwright CLI: Chromium at ~/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-1217/chrome-linux64/chrome; Node lib at /tmp/node_modules/playwright-core (reinstall after reboot). Use CLI — not MCP.
• SDC rotation artifact: separate task — Business/_WorkingOn/Tasks/SDC-Logo-Bug-Fix.md
• Inkscape-free: all SVG artifacts produced directly via path data; no Inkscape required