Brand guidelines quick reference
Practitioners, not theorists.

Who we are

Mayet Strategic Consulting is a boutique consulting firm based in Ottawa that specializes in hospitality, heritage buildings, and community revitalization. The firm's partners have opened restaurants, mobilized investors, navigated city councils, and purchased a 125-year-old church and turned it into a destination.

They advise from experience, with their own money and reputations on the line.

Colour palette: Oak and Patina

Parchment
#F3EBDA
Primary bg
Cream
#FAF5EA
Cards
Earth
#1E150E
Text, dark bg
Forest
#2B3328
Primary brand
Amber
#A8782C
Accent, CTAs
Sand
#BFB094
Borders, muted
Stone
#6F6350
Secondary text

Accessibility pairings (WCAG AA)

Earth on parchment
16.2:1
Body text
Parchment on forest
8.5:1
Dark sections
Amber on earth
4.5:1
Accent labels

Typography

Display: Playfair Display

Where vision meets viable
Editorial authority, beautiful in italic

Body: Libre Franklin

We've opened the restaurants ourselves. We've stood where you are standing. Strategy without execution is just a document.
What we offer  ·  Our work  ·  Who we are
Where vision meets viable.
The amber italic emphasis: Playfair Display italic in amber (#A8782C). Two words per headline, nouns and adjectives only, never adjacent.

Type scale

Hero
3-6.5rem / 700
New purpose for old walls
Section
2.25-3rem / 600
What we offer
Card
1.25rem / 600
AllSaints Event Space
Eyebrow
0.75rem / 600
Heritage buildings
Body
0.875-1rem / 400
We advise from experience, with our own money and reputations on the line.

Logo

Light variant (default)
Mayet Strategic Consulting
Dark variant
Mayet Strategic Consulting

Wordmark with subordinate descriptor. No icon or mark. The amber M is the one constant across both variants: it does not adapt to background. On forest green it reads as warm firelight against the deep canopy. On parchment it reads as the same energy against a calm ground.

Component personality

Primary action

Navigation

What we offer Our work Who we are

Project card

AllSaints Event Space

Ottawa, ON · Heritage

Voice and tone

Direct
Not blunt, but unhedged. States what is true without softening it with qualifiers. Never mistakes directness for aggression.
Warm
Not chummy, but human. Speaks like a person across a table. The warmth comes from specificity and care, not from informality.
Grounded
Not dry, but evidenced. Every claim is attached to something real. The evidence is told as a story, not presented as a report.

Register

Formality
Semi-formal
Professional but warm. No "Hey," but no institutional distance
Person
You / We
"You" for the prospect's world, "we" for Mayet's perspective
Contractions
Marketing only
Headlines and CTAs yes, formal or legal contexts no
Punctuation
No em dash. Ever.
Oxford comma yes. Fragments in headlines only. No exclamation marks
Sentence length
Short
Declarative. Assumes the reader is intelligent and busy
Vocabulary
Industry-fluent
Heritage and hospitality terms used precisely, never as jargon walls

The voice would never say / would say

Never "We leverage our extensive network of industry relationships to deliver holistic, end-to-end solutions for your project."
Instead "We've done this before. We know the people, the process, and the pitfalls."
Never "Mayet's team of professionals is dedicated to providing innovative strategic advisory services across a range of sectors."
Instead "We advise from experience, with our own money and reputations on the line."
Never "Perhaps you've considered the potential of adaptive re-use. It could be argued that heritage properties represent significant untapped value."
Instead "Your heritage property holds more value than its current use suggests."

Lexicon

Favoured
  • practitioners, not theorists
  • start the conversation
  • vision
  • viable
  • grounded
  • earned
  • specific
  • mobilized
  • transformed
  • delivered
  • your project
  • from experience
Banned
  • leverage
  • synergy
  • innovative
  • best-in-class
  • holistic
  • end-to-end
  • scalable solutions
  • deep dive
  • thought leadership
  • passionate about
  • perhaps
  • arguably
Sample voice
"Every project we take on, I ask the same question: will this still matter to the community in twenty years? If the answer is yes, we find a way to make it work." Leanne Moussa, Managing Partner

Spatial system and motion

4
8
16
24
40
64
96
Easing
ease-out
Entrances ease out. Hover transitions ease in-out. No bounce, no spring physics.
Duration
150-800ms
Hover: 150-200ms. Scroll reveals: 600-800ms. Page loads: 600ms staggered.
Philosophy
CSS only
No JS animation libraries. Scroll-driven animations via native CSS. No parallax.

What to avoid

Visual
  • Pure white or pure black
  • Stock meeting-room photography
  • Numbered step patterns
  • Amber as a section background
  • Additional typefaces
  • Drop shadows, glows
  • Icons of any kind
  • Parallax or scroll-jacking
Verbal
  • Corporate jargon
  • Hedge words
  • Passive voice
  • Abstract claims
  • Title case
  • The em dash
  • Exclamation marks
Behavioural
  • Secondary conversion goals
  • Pop-ups or modals
  • Chat widgets
  • Gated content
  • Social follow prompts
  • Anything that interrupts reading
Mayet Strategic Consulting · Brand Guidelines · April 2026