Most strategy dies before the build. A deck lands, the room nods, and nothing ships.
Hard Parts & Co takes the part everyone is quietly avoiding and delivers it. This book is how the brand looks, sounds and behaves. Read it and you can produce on-brand work without asking me a question.
The mark, the three accents, the wordmark and the four rules. Everything else in this book explains what is on this page.
The Notch · on the field
Hard Parts & Co
The wordmark is Space Grotesk Bold, tracked to minus four percent.
Default tracking reads generic, so the tracking is part of the mark, not a preference.
Hard Parts & Co
--violet#7B5BFFThe identity. Mark block, wordmark, the future being built.
--blue#38A2FFPoints and proves. Links, the one call to action, a validated number.
--hard#FF8A5CThe hard part. Risk, in build, not yet proven.
Four rules
1. One mark
The Notch, one colourway, everywhere. No alternates, no family, no seasonal treatment. A second mark halves the recognition of the first.
2. Every colour has a job
Violet is the identity. Blue points and proves. Orange marks the part that is not proven yet. A colour that only decorates gets cut.
3. A claim carries a number
Name the client, then the number. Adjectives never do a number's work. If there is no number, there is no claim.
4. Say it once
Short sentences. Active voice. No hedging, no filler, no apology. If a sentence can come out, take it out.
The brand · 02 · What's inside
Thirteen sections. Five got cut.
The map of the book, and an honest note about what is not in it.
The house standard runs seventeen sections. This book runs thirteen. Five came out and one went in. A section that does not change what someone produces is a section that costs them time.
Illustration. A one-person strategy practice has nothing to illustrate. The diagram section does that work instead, and does it honestly.
Icons. Folded into visual elements. One set, one weight, no separate chapter.
Photography. There is no photo library and inventing one would produce stock. The diagram language replaces it.
Social kit. Folded into application. The assets are the same assets.
Templates. Folded into downloads, where the files actually live.
The brand · 03 · The practice
Most strategy dies before the build.
Not a consultant with a deck. An operator who delivers.
Twenty years in SaaS. Product, strategy, AI, data, cloud, partnerships and revenue.
Long enough to watch the same thing happen over and over: a company buys a strategy,
the room agrees with it, and then nobody builds it.
Strategy here means defining the plausible futures for a company, then building enough
of one to prove it works. Clients commit before the proof exists. That commitment is the
product.
Companies don't die from a lack of capital.
They die from a lack of focus.
The recipe
Find the future worth building. Not the roadmap. The plausible future the company can own, and the one it cannot afford to miss.
Prove it before anyone has to believe it. Build enough of it to be real. A working thing beats a convincing deck in every room that matters.
Take it to the people who sign. C-suite and board. Bottom line first, the number second, the plan third.
Stay for the build. The part that gets skipped. Strategy that leaves before the build is just an opinion with a template.
The ledger
Four clients. Four numbers. This is the approved
set, and the brand does not carry a claim that is not on it.
Monday.comNASDAQ: MNDY$1.45B+ ARR
$588B
Built the enterprise AI strategy, then the data strategy and the data lake behind it. $1M+ billable in six months.
The work uncovered a $588 billion annual problem hiding inside Monday.com's customer base, validated by IDC and Gartner. The C-suite and the board funded the proof of value.
PKWARE$56M ARR21 of the top 25 global banks
$5M+
Convinced the C-suite and the board of a 40-year-old company to bet the business on a full legacy-to-SaaS transformation. $5M+ in year one.
No pitch. No competition. No RFP.
Proofpoint$12.3B acquisition85 of the Fortune 100
7%
Churn is revenue walking out the door. Built an AI platform that sees at-risk customers twelve months out and intervenes before they go.
Early signals: churn down 7 percent.
Caylent#1 AWS partner worldwide
10/10
Founded the SaaS and ISV strategy practice. No playbook, no practice area. In under twelve months it became the firm's fastest growing segment.
$5M in year one, $7M to $10M in total program value, and 10/10 NPS from every client.
The system · 01 · Palette
Seventeen colours. Every one has a job.
One name, one hex, one job. A colour that only decorates is not in this book.
The field
--surface#07070BThe field. The default ground for everything.
--surface-card#0E0E15Cards and panels on the field.
--surface-sub#151522Raised panels, table rows, the plate behind the mark.
--hairline#22222FBorders and dividers on the field.
Identity
--violet#7B5BFFThe identity. Mark block, wordmark, the future being built.
--violet-deep#412BB4Violet that carries white text. Filled buttons and the deep field.
--violet-mid#2A1F63The back plate behind the mark. Never carries text.
Points
--blue#38A2FFPoints and proves. Links, the one call to action, a validated number.
--blue-lift#A8D5FFBlue raised so it still points on the deep violet field.
The hard part
--hard#FF8A5CThe hard part. Risk, in build, not yet proven.
--hard-deep#FFB89EThe hard part raised for the deep violet field.
Text
--ink#ECECEFAll text starts here.
--ink-body#C7CBD4Running body copy on the field.
--muted#9CA3AFSecondary text and captions.
--white#FFFFFFText on the deep violet field, and nowhere else by default.
Paper
--paper#F6F6F9The rare light surface. Print, letterhead, and the notch.
--paper-ink#0B0B12Text on the light surface.
Every pairing, measured
Text clears 4.5:1. A mark or a rule clears 3:1.
These are computed from the hex values on this page, not estimated. If you introduce a pairing
that is not in this table, measure it before you ship it.
Pairing
Measured
Minimum
Result
--ink on the field Body and headings
17.06:1
4.5
PASS
--ink-body on the field Running copy
12.37:1
4.5
PASS
--muted on the field Captions and metadata
7.92:1
4.5
PASS
--violet on the field The wordmark and the mark block
4.58:1
4.5
PASS
--blue on the field Links and validated numbers
7.45:1
4.5
PASS
--hard on the field In build, unproven
8.66:1
4.5
PASS
--white on --violet-deep The filled button
9.42:1
4.5
PASS
--blue-lift on --violet-deep A link on the deep field
6.11:1
4.5
PASS
--paper-ink on --paper Print and letterhead
18.18:1
4.5
PASS
--violet-deep on --paper The mark on paper
8.73:1
4.5
PASS
The mark block on the field Non-text, 3:1 applies
4.58:1
3.0
PASS
The mark block on paper Non-text, 3:1 applies
4.07:1
3.0
PASS
The notch against the block Measured on paper, the tightest case
4.07:1
3.0
PASS
The three that matter
Violet informs
The identity. The mark block, the wordmark, and the future being
built. It is never the pointer. If violet is doing the pointing, the reader cannot tell the
brand from the button.
Blue points
Links, the single call to action, and any number that has been
validated. One blue thing per view. Two blue things means neither is the next step.
Orange warns
The hard part. In build, at risk, not proven yet. Orange is the
most honest colour in the system, so never spend it on decoration.
The system · 02 · Typography
Two faces. There is never a third.
Space Grotesk sets the voice. Inter carries the load.
Space Grotesk
Display. Headings, the wordmark, numbers that carry a claim.
It has a mechanical, drawn quality that suits a practice that builds things. Weights 400,
500 and 700. There is no 800, so nothing in this book asks for one.
Aa Gg 1234
Inter
Text. Body copy, tables, captions, interface. It disappears,
which is the job. Weights 400, 500, 600 and 700.
Aa Gg 1234
The wordmark is tracked
Space Grotesk at default tracking reads like any
other geometric sans. At minus four percent it reads like a mark. The tracking is part of the
wordmark, not a preference, and it does not change with size.
Hard Parts & Co
Correct · letter-spacing -0.04em
Hard Parts & Co
Wrong · default tracking
The published scale
Eleven steps. Pick from this table. A size that is
not on it is drift, and drift is what makes a document look like several documents.
Token
Value
Face
Used for
--fs-display
clamp(36px, 11.6vw, 140px)
Space Grotesk 700
The cover line, once per document
--fs-signature
clamp(56px, 10.5vw, 124px)
Space Grotesk 700
The hero lockup
--fs-h2
clamp(38px, 6.2vw, 88px)
Space Grotesk 700
The section statement
--fs-h3
clamp(30px, 4.2vw, 60px)
Space Grotesk 700
A subsection
--fs-h4
clamp(24px, 2.6vw, 36px)
Space Grotesk 700
A card title, a ledger name
--fs-h5
22px
Space Grotesk 700
The smallest heading
--fs-lede
19px
Inter 400
The opening paragraph
--fs-body
17px
Inter 400
Running copy. The only body size.
--fs-small
13px
Inter 400
Table cells, captions
--fs-eyebrow
12px
Inter 700
The eyebrow, tracked 0.14em
--fs-micro
11px
Inter 700
Chips and labels
The system · 03 · The mark
One mark. One colourway. Everywhere.
The Notch. A block with its corner taken out and put back.
On the field
On paper
On the deep field
The Notch is one mark with one colourway. The block is the identity. The notch is the
corner cut out and rebuilt, which is what the practice does.
Because the notch is cut through to whatever sits behind the mark, the same file works on
the field, on paper and on the deep violet field. There is no dark variant to maintain and no
alternate to police.
Hard Parts & Co
It has to survive 32px
This mark lives in a Chrome profile chip and a Gmail
avatar before it lives anywhere else. Most marks die at that size. The Notch holds because it is
two shapes and one edge, and the notch is 38 percent of the block, not a detail.
96px
64px
48px
32px
24px
20px
The system · 04 · Mark origin
A block with the hard part taken out.
The geometry is the argument. Here is how it is drawn.
The grid is 100 by 100. The block sits inset 10 units on every side with a 16 unit corner
radius. The notch is a 38 unit square lifted out of the top right corner, and its two inner
corners carry the same 16 unit radius as the block.
That last part is the whole idea. A square hole would read as damage. The matched radius
reads as machined, which is the difference between something broken and something taken
apart on purpose.
The notch sits top right because that is where a reader's eye leaves a block of type.
It is the last thing seen, not the first.
What it means
The block is the system
A company's product, platform and data. Whole, from a distance.
The notch is the hard part
The piece everyone works around. It is not a flaw in the block, it is the
reason the work exists.
The edge is the proof
Clean, radiused, deliberate. You can see it was cut rather than broken,
which is the entire claim.
The system · 05 · Mark mechanics
Clear space, sizes, and the six misuses.
One number for clear space. One number for the floor. Everything else is a no.
Clear space is 22 units on every side, measured on the 100 unit grid. That is the width of
the notch, so the rule is one you can see rather than one you have to look up.
Minimum size is 20px. The wordmark alone handles anything smaller.
In the lockup, the wordmark cap height matches the block height and the gap between them is
0.42 of the mark height. Those two numbers are the whole lockup.
Six ways to get it wrong
Do not
Do not recolour the block
The block is violet. It is not blue, not orange, not a gradient, and not a photograph clipped to the shape.
Do not
Do not fill the notch
The notch is cut through to the surface behind it. Filling it with a second colour creates a two-colour mark and a second file to maintain.
Do not
Do not rotate or skew
The notch reads as top right. Rotated, it reads as a corner that fell off.
Do not
Do not add a container
No circle, no badge, no ring. The block is already the container.
Do not
Do not stretch the lockup
The gap between the mark and the wordmark is 0.42 of the mark height. It does not get closed to fit a space.
Do not
Do not go below 20px
Below 20px the corner radius closes and the notch stops reading. Use the wordmark alone instead.
The system · 06 · Visual elements
Four components. That is the whole set.
The ledger, the recipe, the chips and the rule. Anything else is a new component, and a new component needs a reason.
The ledger
The signature component. A claim is a client, a
number, and what happened. It is set as a ledger because that is the artifact the room already
knows how to read: a board pack, not a case study.
Client nameThe qualifierThe scale
The number
What happened, in one or two sentences. Active voice. The number leads, the story explains it.
Rules: the number is blue because blue proves.
The client name is display type because it is the strongest signal in the row. Never more than
two sentences per row. If a row needs three, it is a page, not a row.
The recipe
A list of moves, not a list of features. The marker
is the notch drawn small, so the mark's geometry runs through the document without another
image request. Bold the move, then explain it.
The move. One line on what it is and why it comes here.
The next move. Ordered because the order matters. If it does not, use plain body copy.
The last move. Four steps is the ceiling. Five is a process document.
Status chips
Three states, and only three. This is the vocabulary
the whole practice runs on, so it does not grow.
TodayIn buildShippedThe future
Chip
Colour
Means
Today
--muted
The present state. What exists right now, unchanged.
In build
--hard
Underway and not proven. The honest state, and the most useful one.
Shipped
--blue
In production and validated. This is the only state allowed to carry a number.
The future
--violet
The thing being argued for. Dashed, because it is not real yet.
The notch rule
The divider. A hairline with a violet segment stepped
out of the left end, at the same 28 by 3 geometry as the eyebrow dash. One rule between blocks
inside a section. Never two in a row.
The system · 07 · Diagrams
We draw states, not scenes.
The replacement for illustration and photography, and the reason there is neither.
This practice explains futures and systems. It does not have a product to photograph or a
scene to illustrate, and inventing one would produce stock.
So the brand draws states, not scenes. Every diagram answers one question: where is this
now, where is it going, and which part is not proven yet.
The colour does the work. A reader who knows the three chips can read any diagram in this
system without a legend.
No photography
A one-person practice with a stock library reads as a one-person
practice with a stock library. The diagram set is the honest answer.
The state track
The default diagram. Four nodes, left to right,
one per state. It fits a slide, an email and this page without redrawing.
TodayThe system nowWhat exists. Named plainly, with no editorial.
In buildThe hard partThe piece being cut out and rebuilt. Orange, because it is not proven.
ShippedThe proofIn production, with a number attached. Blue earns the number.
The futureWhat it unlocksDashed, because it is the argument and not yet the record.
Four rules for any diagram
One question per diagram. If it answers two, it is two diagrams.
Four nodes is the ceiling. Five nodes is an architecture drawing, and this is not that book.
No colour outside the four states. A fifth colour means a fifth state, and there is no fifth state.
Every node reads without the diagram. Title, then one line. A node that needs the arrows to make sense is a bad node.
The system · 08 · Voice
Short. Declarative. No hedging.
How Hard Parts & Co sounds in a room where the other side is deciding whether to sign.
The audience is a CPO, a CTO, a CEO or a board at a company between $50M and $1.5B in ARR.
They read a lot and they read fast. The brand has to survive a procurement review, a board
deck and a CFO reading it cold.
That rules out three things: the agency voice, the founder voice, and the hedge. What is
left is short, declarative and specific.
Shipping is a habit, not an event.
Jason McFadden
Five rules, with the before and after
Bottom line firstThe conclusion or the recommendation in the first two sentences. Context after.
Not this
After reviewing the current architecture and considering several options, it may be worth exploring a phased migration.
This
Migrate in three phases. The first one ships in six weeks.
A claim carries a numberAdjectives never do a number's work.
Not this
We delivered significant revenue growth for a major enterprise client.
This
Monday.com. $1M+ billable in six months.
Active voiceSomeone did something. Say who.
Not this
This platform was built so that churn could be identified earlier.
This
We built the platform to see churn twelve months out.
No hedgingQualifiers are how a strategy dies before the build.
Not this
This could potentially help to somewhat reduce churn over time.
This
Churn down 7 percent.
Plain EnglishNo buzzwords. Ever.
Not this
We will circle back to deep dive on how to utilize this synergy.
This
I will send the plan Thursday.
The banned list
These do not appear in Hard Parts & Co writing. Not in a
proposal, not in a slide, not in an email.
synergydeep divecircle backutilizeleveragingbest in classseamlessrobustjourneyunlock valueem dashesexclamation marks
The last two are not words. Em dashes never appear
in Hard Parts & Co writing, in any form. Use a comma, a full stop, or restructure the sentence. An
exclamation mark reads as a person trying to sound certain, which is the opposite of being
certain.
The kit · 01 · Application
The brand where people actually meet it.
Six assets and a signature. Every one is an output of the kit script, so none of them can drift from this book.
Profile avatar512 by 512. The mark at 62 percent of the canvas, so a circular crop never clips the block. This is the file that has to work at 32px.
Gmail and Workspace banner320 by 132. Mark, wordmark and the line. Nothing else fits at this size and nothing else needs to.
LinkedIn banner1584 by 396. Everything sits in the right two thirds because LinkedIn puts the profile photo over the lower left and crops the sides on mobile.
Slide, title16:9. Eyebrow, statement, footer. One idea.
Slide, content16:9. The state track, up to four nodes, and the mark bottom left.
LetterheadA4 at 300dpi. The notch rule runs under the header, so the page is recognisable at arm's length with no logo in view.
Jason McFadden
Founder, Hard Parts & Co
jason@hardpartsco.com · hardpartsco.com
I build the hard parts of SaaS.
Email signatureA table, an inline SVG and no web fonts,
because that is all a mail client can be trusted with. The violet rule on the left is the only
brand device in it, and it survives every client that strips images.
The kit · 02 · Downloads
Sixteen files. One script made all of them.
The real files, plus the rule that keeps them honest.
Every file below is an output of one script,
_build/kit.py. Nothing in this kit was made by hand, which is why nothing in it can
quietly go stale. To change an asset, change the script and run it again.
The mark
mark.svg The Notch on the field. The default file.
