Guide to branding standards
Birmingham AI
These guidelines are intended to help guide and inspire you as you bring the visual identity to life. Before you create new assets, consult these guidelines to ensure you're on the right track. You can also share this website with any partner agencies, writers, or designers who may be creating the work for you.
This is not an exhaustive representation of all visual elements, however it is intended to serve as a starting point for documenting fundamental aspects of the visual identity like the logo and color. As the visual identity evolves, this website should be updated accordingly.
Accelerating AI adoption in Birmingham, for all.
Birmingham AI is the largest grassroots AI community in the country, meeting every month to learn, build, and trade what actually works. Wherever you are with AI, there's a seat for you.
Introduction
Table of Contents
01 - Brand basics
Created: 2026
Birmingham AI is the largest grassroots AI community in the country, meeting every month to learn, build, and trade what actually works. Wherever you are with AI, there's a seat for you.
We believe Birmingham is a test case for whether AI can be a net positive for a real American community. We’ve proven people have an appetite for it, and they’ve been showing up to find out.
AI literacy means knowing what AI can actually do for the work people already do. We meet professionals inside their own fields with practical, applicable knowledge, and we make room for the full range of responses: excitement, skepticism, and curiosity.
We are proving AI can work for everyone. Free admission, no paywall, no prerequisites. The point is to put real capability in the hands of people who are usually left out.
A trusted room of neighbors working through the same questions together. Hopeful that AI can be a net positive for Birmingham, and grounded enough to earn it.
Grassroots energy and institutional credibility at the same time. Both are true, and both should be felt.
Place is a strategic asset, not a backdrop. Iron, Civil Rights, reinvention: this city has remade itself before, and it is doing it again with AI.
Mission
We want everyone to have a real chance to improve their life and their opportunities as AI reshapes work.
Vision
That happens through education that is honest and hands-on, and empowerment that reaches the people who are usually left out. Whatever your job, your background, or your starting point, there is a way to get ready for what comes next, and a seat here to do it.
We want Birmingham AI to sound like a smart, trusted friend who works in your city, reads widely, explains clearly, doesn't oversell, genuinely cares about your future. Not a professor. Not a startup founder. Not a preacher. A neighbor who happens to know a lot about AI.
Five words define the voice. Direct. Warm. Grounded. Curious. Local.
Brand language
Lines that sound like us and lines that don’t.
Sounds like Birmingham AI
Does not
“AI is going to change your job. Let's talk about how.”
“AI just killed the old way of doing things. Don't fall behind.”
“You don't need to be technical. You just need to be curious.”
“5 tools you should be using if you don't want to be replaced by AI.”
“800 of y'all showed up last month, and you continue to be what makes this community so special.”
“At the intersection of AI and community.”
“This moment matters too much to sit out.”
“Join the AI revolution or be left behind.”
“If it worked for me, it can work for you.”
“Unlock the power of artificial intelligence.”
Birmingham AI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building an accelerated AI adoption model in Birmingham, Alabama. With 800+ monthly attendees, fifteen industry-specific sessions, and free admission, Birmingham AI is proving that AI readiness starts when a city decides to show up.
Birmingham AI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building the largest grassroots AI literacy community in the United States. Every month, more than 800 people gather for honest conversation and hands-on learning across fifteen industry-specific breakout sessions covering banking, healthcare, marketing, nonprofit leadership, and more. Admission is always free. In a city with a history of reinvention, from the industrial revolution to the Civil Rights Movement, Birmingham AI represents the next chapter: an accelerated AI adoption model that turns community willingness into economic momentum.
02 - Logo
The mark is built from distinct geometric pieces that resolve into a single symbol, a metaphor for the community itself, with a spark living quietly in the negative space: a nod to AI without being literal about it.
Created: 2026
02 - Logo
Full Logo
File Naming Convention:
mark_full_[color].[file-type]
02 - Logo
Logomark
File Naming Convention:
mark_[color].[file-type]
02 - Logo
Mark + BHM
File Naming Convention:
mark_bhm_[color].[file-type]
02 - Logo
Outline Mark
File Naming Convention:
outline_mark_[color].[file-type]
The mark's integrity is the system's integrity. These rules are absolute.
03 - Typography
GT Standard (Grilli Type) runs the entire system: Large, and Medium sizes, Standard and Extended widths, plus Mono. The variable, flexible structure is intentional, the brand flexes from a Large event headlines to organized schedules without breaking down.
Created: 2026
GT Standard L Bold is the working face of the brand, headlines, subheads, and emphasis.
Licensed Grilli Type web cuts only. The EULA ships with the graphic kit.
GT Standard L Bold
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 !@#$%^&*()?+
When GT Standard isn't available, shared docs, email, slides on someone else's machine, fall back to Helvetica Neue, then Arial.
Arial, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789
The display cut is GT Standard L Extended Bold, the heaviest licensed web weight.
Standard width carries Medium for body and Bold for emphasis; Mono Regular handles technical labels.
Extended Bold
Set a line in the brand faces. Every spec in the scale below is click-to-copy.
Show up curious.
Extended ships in Bold, the heaviest licensed web cut (display).
Honest AI, for a real city.
A city figures out the future of work
Honest conversation, not AI hype
Practical skills for real jobs
Show up curious. Leave with something you can use Monday morning.
BREAKOUT · BANKING · 11:15AM
GT Standard Mono is reserved for technical labels, sub-copy, and data, a quiet nod to computing, used sparingly so the brand never tips into tech-product territory.
04 - Color
The approved palette is exactly four colors, there is no secondary or per-vertical extension. Bright Blue on Navy Blue is the brand's signature monochromatic combination: modern, optimistic, confident. Every value below is click-to-copy.
Created: 2026
Four colors, each with a defined role. Click any value to copy it.
Navy Blue
The weight and confidence of the brand. Body type on light surfaces; serious, credible brand backgrounds.
Bright Blue
Optimism. Forward momentum. The color of something opening up. Hero surfaces and accent fills. Pairs monochromatically with Navy Blue.
Almond Brown
Earth, iron, place. Birmingham-rooted warmth. Used sparingly for activation print, merch, and industrial-heritage applications.
Off-White
The breathing room. Default light surface, approachable, warm, never sterile.
The color combinations accepted for their harmony and contrast.
Brand default (light)
Highest-contrast, most credible default. AAA at all sizes.
Brand default (dark)
The serious, credible inverse, sponsor decks, activation moments. AAA.
Optimism surface
The brand's energy combination. Navy Blue on Bright Blue passes AA for normal text.
Earthy / Birmingham
Place-rooted, industrial. Reserved for activation, merch, editorial moments. AA.
These pairings fail contrast, never set type in them.
| bg ↓ / ink → | Navy Blue | Bright Blue | Almond Brown | Off-White |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Navy Blue | · | 6.01AA | 2.31Fail | 14.95AAA |
| Bright Blue | 6.01AA | · | 2.6Fail | 2.49Fail |
| Almond Brown | 2.31Fail | 2.6Fail | · | 6.47AA |
| Off-White | 14.95AAA | 2.49Fail | 6.47AA | · |
05 - Layout & Photo
Composition is constructive, things being assembled, echoing a mark made of pieces that only resolve when they come together. Photography carries the warmth; layout and typography carry the structure.
Created: 2026
The brand uses lines to organize information cleanly and orderly. It should be used within the margins of a design. And when it is used alongside the outlined version of the logo, it should match the width of the logo.
Light condensing from the left, converging at the center where the mark lives, then expanding back out. People arrive with questions, something happens in the room, they leave with something new. Always paired with the monochromatic blue palette; used sparingly as the brand's primary visual moment.
Use practical and accessible materials wherever possible for signage and physical brand moments. The point is honest, grounded production: brand work that shows up in the real city, made from what is realistically on hand, never overproduced or staged.
Real photography is the single most important brand asset for communicating authenticity: diverse faces, real conversations, actual Birmingham spaces.
“These are real people, having lunch and talking in a real place. Photography should document what is happening and who is showing up.”
Selects from Birmingham AI events, real people, real rooms, real Birmingham.
01 / 42
06 - Illustration & Motion
Line-only, isometric 3D constructions for the industry breakouts. That build piece by piece when they animate.
Created: 2026
A series of isometric wireframe illustrations represents the industry breakouts, one per vertical, always line-only.
These can be superimposed on photos or placed below a title. New breakouts get theirs generated through the wireframe tool's Claude skill.
When the wireframes animate, they build piece by piece. The same principle governs all brand motion. The dynamic nature of motion should represent the dynamic and transformative nature of the technology.
Assemble
Motion builds compositions from parts, the mark's own story, animated.
Measured
Purposeful reveals and confident timing. One or two signature moments, never wall-to-wall animation.
Constructive
If a movement doesn't help assemble the idea on screen, it doesn't happen.
Motion in use
Community & resources
The community coming together, and the resources that hold it up.
Building & assembling
Building and assembling, the mark's own logic set in motion.
Energy & technology
Energy, positivity, and the dynamic nature of technology.
07 - Brand Tools
Three in-house web tools let the Birmingham AI team make branded assets without starting from scratch. Each opens as a standalone tool in a new tab.
Created: 2026
Generate on-brand cover images for any industry breakout, title, vertical, and sponsor lockups, ready to export.
Generate breakout graphics in the brand's monochromatic blue, a 4:5 social poster (with animated GIF export) or a 2:1 Eventbrite banner.
Create the brand's isometric wireframe illustrations for breakout sessions, and generate new ones through a Claude skill that saves straight into the gallery.
When a new breakout is added, you don’t hand-build its illustration. Run the Birmingham AI wireframe skill in Claude with the breakout title, and it generates a matching isometric wireframe and saves it straight into the tool’s gallery, persisted with the project, ready to select the next time the tool opens.
Name the breakout
Give Claude the new session title (e.g. “Birmingham AI for Healthcare”).
Run the wireframe skill
The skill renders a brand-correct isometric wireframe, #509EFF ground, #021F42 line.
It lands in the gallery
The illustration writes to the tool's manifest and appears as a selectable graphic.