Honest Conversation, Not AI Hype
A trusted room of neighbors working through the same questions. Birmingham AI welcomes skeptics alongside enthusiasts, because honest conversation requires both.
Guide to
Branding
Standards
Birmingham AI — Brand Guidelines
Accelerating AI adoption in Birmingham, for all.
Birmingham AI is where a city figures out the future of work together — not with hype, but with honest conversation, practical skill-building, and the belief that if AI works for Birmingham, it can work anywhere.
- 800+
- monthly attendees
- 2,000+
- total community, grown by word of mouth
- 15
- industry-specific breakout sessions
- $0
- marketing budget
Table of
Contents
Branding
Standards
Section
01.
Brand
basics
Position
Birmingham AI is where a city figures out the future of work together — not with hype, but with honest conversation, practical skill-building, and the belief that if AI works for Birmingham, it can work anywhere.
Why it matters
If AI only transforms work in coastal tech hubs, it fails. Birmingham is the test case for whether AI can be a net positive for a real American community — and 2,000+ people have already shown up to find out.
Practical Skills for Real Jobs
Industry-specific breakouts that meet professionals inside their own fields and send them home with skills they can use Monday morning. Free. Over lunch. No prerequisites.
Birmingham Is Leading AI Adoption for Everyone
A majority-Black Southern city, built on iron, rebuilt through reinvention — now building the accelerated-adoption model the rest of the country is starting to notice.
Who Birmingham AI serves
Mid-career professionals
Primary. Non-technical, 30–55. Fear falling behind; want an edge and permission to be a beginner.
Warm, professionally pitched, normalizing.
Technical practitioners
Secondary. Engineers and builders. Want peers who build and a community worth contributing to.
Direct, assumes competence.
Funders & institutions
Tertiary. Want a measurable, scalable model and a clear pathway to support it.
Formal but direct, numbers first.
Frontline workers
Strategic priority. Fear being replaced; want a straight answer and ground to stand on.
Maximum warmth, zero jargon, short sentences.
Values
The six brand elements — the beliefs that shape how Birmingham AI shows up, in the room and on the page.
Every piece of communication should be traceable to at least one of these.
Honest
Make room for the full range of human responses to AI: excitement, skepticism, anxiety, curiosity. We don't sell a position, we hold a room.
Educational
AI literacy means knowing what AI can do for the work people already do. We meet professionals inside their fields with practical, applicable knowledge.
Equitable
We are proving AI can work for everyone. Free admission. No paywall. No prerequisites.
Aspirational Authenticity
Grassroots energy and institutional credibility at the same time. Both are true. Both should be felt.
Birmingham Based
Place is a strategic asset, not a backdrop. Iron, Civil Rights, reinvention — these aren't decoration. They are the proof.
Optimistic
Hopeful that AI can be a net-positive job creator in Birmingham. Not naive. Not utopian. Just clear-eyed about the upside.
Language
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. Birmingham.
DirectWarmGroundedCuriousBirmingham
The balance
We areWe are not
OptimisticNaive
AccessibleDumbed-down
UrgentPanicked
ConfidentArrogant
WarmFolksy
DirectBlunt
InclusiveVague
LocalProvincial
Messaging lines — click any line to copy
Boilerplate
Short
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.
Long
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. Listed on Alabama's GenAI Task Force and planning a 2,000-person flagship event at the Alabama Theatre, Birmingham AI is building a model the rest of the country can follow.
Branding
Standards
Section
02.
Logo
System
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.
Logo — Mark + Full Name
Mark plus the Birmingham AI wordmark. The default lockup for almost every primary application.
Give it clear space on all sides equal to the height of the mark. Below the lockup's legible minimum, switch to the standalone Mark.
Logo — Mark + BHM
Mark plus the BHM short-form lockup. Birmingham-local contexts — apparel, swag, in-city signage.
Logo — Mark Only
The standalone symbol — geometric pieces assembled into one mark, with a spark in the negative space. Favicons, avatars, small scale.
Linework version. Busy photographic backgrounds, embossed/etched applications, lighter visual weight.
Colorways
Four brand colorways. Logo selection follows the background: dark logo on light surface, light logo on dark surface.
Black and White colorways also exist — single-color utility only (print, etched/foil, reverse-out). They are never brand surfaces. The full set of 98 logo files, including EPS production sources, is in the graphic kit.
Don'ts
The mark's integrity is the system's integrity. These six rules are absolute.
- Don't recolor the mark outside the four brand colorways.
- Don't stretch, rotate, or distort the lockup.
- Don't place the dark logo on a dark surface, or the light logo on a light one.
- Don't add effects — shadows, gradients, outlines — to the mark.
- Don't rebuild the lockup or change the wordmark relationship.
- Don't use Black or White colorways as brand surfaces — they're single-color utility only.
Branding
Standards
Section
03.
Type
System
GT Standard (Grilli Type) runs the entire system: Large, Medium, and Small optical sizes, Standard and Extended widths, plus Mono. The variable, flexible structure is intentional — the brand flexes from a 2,000-person event stage to a printed agenda without breaking a sweat.
Main typography
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 !@#$%^&*()?+
Substitute font
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
Weights
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
Type tester
Set a line in the brand faces. Every spec in the scale below is click-to-copy.
Live type tester
Show up curious.
Extended ships in Bold — the heaviest licensed web cut (display).
Display
Honest AI, for a real city.
H1
A city figures out the future of work
H2
Honest conversation, not AI hype
H3
Practical skills for real jobs
Body
Show up curious. Leave with something you can use Monday morning.
Mono / label
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.
Branding
Standards
Section
04.
Color
System
The approved palette is exactly four colors — there is no secondary or per-vertical extension. Bright Blue on Dark Navy is the brand's signature monochromatic combination: modern, optimistic, confident. Every value below is click-to-copy.
Color palette
Four colors, each with a defined role. Click any value to copy it.
Illustrator and PDF color charts ship in the graphic kit.
Dark Navy
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 Dark Navy.
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.
Permitted combinations
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. Dark Navy on Bright Blue passes AA for normal text.
Earthy / Birmingham
Place-rooted, industrial. Reserved for activation, merch, editorial moments. AA.
Prohibited combinations
These pairings fail contrast — never set type in them.
Contrast (background → ink)
| bg ↓ / ink → | Dark Navy | Bright Blue | Brown | Off-White |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Navy | — | 6.01AA | 2.31Fail | 14.95AAA |
| Bright Blue | 6.01AA | — | 2.6Fail | 2.49Fail |
| Brown | 2.31Fail | 2.6Fail | — | 6.47AA |
| Off-White | 14.95AAA | 2.49Fail | 6.47AA | — |
Rules
- There are exactly four brand colors. Do not introduce a fifth.
- Black and White are logo-utility colors only — never brand surfaces, fills, or type colors in brand work.
- Never place Bright Blue type on Off-White — contrast fails.
- Never place Brown type on Bright Blue or Dark Navy — contrast fails.
- Bright Blue on Dark Navy is the only acceptable two-primary monochromatic pairing for type at AA.
- Logo selection follows the background: dark logo on light surface, light logo on dark surface.
Branding
Standards
Section
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.
Composition
Two compositional systems anchor brand layouts: the convergence visual and the raw-build activation system.
Both are constructive. Use them as structure, not decoration.
The convergence visual
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.
The raw-build activation system
Raw construction materials — 2×4s, plywood — as the substrate for printed brand graphics. The industrial finish is the point: Birmingham was built by industry, and the brand's physical presence honors that. The print tells real people, real outcomes, real Birmingham.
Photography
Real photography is the single most important brand asset for communicating authenticity: diverse faces, real conversations, actual Birmingham spaces.
Typography handles structure and professionalism; photography handles warmth.
“These are real people, doing something real, in a real place. Serious but not pretentious.”
The visual test — every photo must pass it
- Invest in real photography — never generic stock, never AI-generated crowd scenes.
- Diverse faces, real conversations, actual Birmingham spaces.
- Photography handles warmth; typography handles structure and professionalism.
- No neural networks, no circuit boards, no gradient orbs. This is a real city, not a tech concept.
Branding
Standards
Section
06.
Illustration
& Motion
Line-only, isometric 3D constructions for the industry breakouts. Two readings at once: an instructional nod (these sessions teach you to assemble something useful) and an echo of the logo (parts assembled into a whole). When they animate, they build piece by piece. Color: #509EFF ground, #021F42 line.
Illustrations
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.
Motion
When the wireframes animate, they build piece by piece — construction, not decoration. The same principle governs all brand motion.
Elements assemble; they don't bounce, spin, or dissolve. Timing is measured and confident, never frantic.
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.
Branding
Standards
Section
07.
Custom
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 — same tools the studio uses, staged here with their fonts and assets.
Breakout Cover Image
Generate on-brand cover images for any industry breakout — title, vertical, and sponsor lockups, ready to export.
Breakout Social Poster
Build shareable social posters for breakouts, with animated GIF export, in the brand's monochromatic blue.
Isometric Wireframe GraphicsSkill-connected
Create the brand's isometric wireframe illustrations for breakout sessions — and generate new ones through a Claude skill that saves straight into the gallery.
Generate new wireframe illustrations with a Claude skill
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.
- 1
Name the breakout
Give Claude the new session title (e.g. “Birmingham AI for Healthcare”).
- 2
Run the wireframe skill
The skill renders a brand-correct isometric wireframe — #509EFF ground, #021F42 line.
- 3
It lands in the gallery
The illustration writes to the tool's manifest and appears as a selectable graphic.