Brand Manual for German News Media Brand

Strong brands don’t happen by accident – they’re built through thousands of small, consistent decisions. With the WELT Brand Guidelines, my goal was to create a clear, practical framework that helps teams make exactly those decisions, every day, across print, TV and digital.

This wasn’t about reinventing WELT, but about sharpening what’s already there: a confident, journalistic brand with a strong visual voice.

WELT operates across a wide range of platforms – from television studios and mobile apps to print products, social media and physical merchandise. The challenge was to translate one brand identity into rules that work reliably everywhere, without killing flexibility.

The guideline brings everything together in one system:

• logo usage and edge cases
• color logic for print, screen and broadcast
• typography rules that scale from headlines to UI
• naming conventions across products and platforms

Not theoretical brand talk – but concrete answers to real production questions.

At the center is the WELT logo with its characteristic lowercase “e”. The guidelines clearly define when to use the positive version, the negative version or the WELT tile – and just as importantly, when not to.

Clear dos and don’ts help avoid common mistakes like recoloring, stretching or decorative misuse. This keeps the logo recognizable and strong, even in fast-paced production environments.

WELT Blue remains the anchor of the brand. Around it, the guideline defines:

• an activating accent color (WELT Orange)
• a structured set of secondary colors for charts, podcasts and thematic content
• precise values for print, digital and TV

This allows designers to create variety and hierarchy without drifting away from the core brand.

The typographic system combines FF Mark for clarity and modernity with Freight Display for editorial weight and storytelling. Together, they balance precision and character – a perfect fit for a news brand that wants to inform without feeling cold.

Clear usage rules ensure consistency across headlines, captions, UI elements and long-form content.

One surprisingly important part of the guideline: language. How do we write WELT? When do we say WELT TV? What about WELTplus or WELT AM SONNTAG?

The brand manual defines these details precisely, because consistency in naming is just as important as visual consistency – especially for a media brand that lives in text.

More than anything, this brand guideline is meant to be used. Download links, templates and contact points are integrated directly, making it easy for designers, editors and external partners to stay aligned.

The result is a living system that supports fast production while protecting the brand – and helps WELT look like WELT, no matter where it appears.

Sometimes the most impactful design work isn’t the loudest. It’s the structure that makes everything else work smoothly.