One star.
One wordmark.
No decoration.
This is the reference for everything that carries the VELA name — from the tail fin to a favicon. It fixes the marks, the colours and the typeface, shows how they combine and where the limits are. Version 1.0, August 2026.
Built like the operation
VELA is a Swiss virtual airline flying the Airbus A320 family out of Zurich — with real dispatch, real rosters and real procedures. The brand follows the same logic: a small set of fixed elements, used precisely, and nothing added.
The system has three building blocks — signet, wordmark and descriptor — that combine into four fixed lockups. Sand carries the surface, Midnight Blue the structure, Heritage Gold the accent. Ranade is the only typeface. Everything on this page is in the Brand Kit as master files; nothing is ever redrawn or reset.
Fixed elements
Signet, wordmark, descriptor. Each works alone; combined, only the four lockups apply — never rearranged, never re-spaced.
A quiet palette
60 % Sand, 28 % Midnight Blue, 8 % Heritage Gold, 4 % Burgundy. Gold never carries body copy; Burgundy stays reserved for premium use.
One typeface
Ranade in four cuts. Caps and tracking only for descriptor, claim and labels. Italic is reserved for the wordmark and the aircraft names.
The building blocks
Signet
The four-point star. Used on its own for icons, the tail fin, avatars and as a repeating pattern. Always scale from the master file — never redraw it, never alter the stroke weight.
Wordmark
VELA in Ranade Bold Italic, converted to outlines. It is never reset from live type, never slanted further and never re-tracked.
Descriptor
AIRLINES in Ranade Medium, tracked 0.44 em, cap height 27 % of the wordmark height, offset 22 %. Optional — for contexts where the brand needs explaining.
Fixed combinations
Which lockup on which ground
The ground decides the colour variant, nothing else. Light ground takes Midnight with the gold signet; Midnight Blue, Burgundy and photography take the Sand version. Switch the background to see the correct file.
Geometry
Both lockups are built on proportions measured from the master files. They ship as finished artwork; the values are documented so a derivative can be checked, not so one can be built.
| Lockup | Signet height | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical | 105.79 % | 18.61 % |
| Horizontal | 165.20 % | 21.16 % |
All values as a share of the wordmark height. Descriptor: cap height 27 %, offset 22 %, tracking 0.44 em.
Clear space & minimum sizes
Clear space
X = 50 % of the wordmark height. Keep at least X clear on all sides — no type, no image edge, no third-party logo. For the signet on its own, X = 25 % of the signet height.
Minimum sizes
| Element | Digital | |
|---|---|---|
| Wordmark | 20 mm wide | 90 px wide |
| Signet | 10 mm high | 32 px high |
| Lockup horizontal | 34 mm wide | 150 px wide |
| Lockup vertical | 24 mm wide | 110 px wide |
VELA_Signet-Compact_*.svg). It is a derivative for tiny sizes only — never the logo itself.The colour system
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
- HEX
- RGB
- CMYK
- CSS
Balance
- 60 % Sand
- 28 % Midnight
- 8 % Gold
- 4 % Burgundy
Sand carries the surface, Midnight Blue the structure, Gold the accent and nothing else. Burgundy stays reserved for premium applications. Steel Blue and Light Gray are working colours for rules, secondary UI and dividers — they never lead a layout.
Contrast
| Pairing | Ratio | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight on Sand | 9.4 : 1 | Body copy ✓ |
| Sand on Midnight | 9.4 : 1 | Body copy ✓ |
| Steel on Sand | 5.1 : 1 | Type from 14 px ✓ |
| Gold on Midnight | 4.6 : 1 | Large / accent only ✓ |
| Gold on Sand | 2.1 : 1 | No type ✗ |
Body copy only on Midnight/Sand pairings. Gold on Midnight is an accent colour: labels, rules, large figures — nothing you have to read for long. Gold on Sand never carries type.
Ranade
- VELA Airlines 0123Ranade Bold ItalicWordmark — as outlines only700 italic
- VELA Airlines 0123Ranade MediumDescriptor, headlines, labels500
- VELA Airlines 0123Ranade RegularBody copy, tables400
- VELA Airlines 0123Ranade LightLarge pull quotes, figures300
Hierarchy
| Level | Cut | Tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Descriptor | Medium | 0.44 em |
| Claim / tagline | Regular | 0.32 em |
| Label / nav | Medium | 0.14 em |
| Headline | Medium | 0 em |
| Body copy | Regular | 0 em |
Rules
- All caps for descriptor, claim and labels only — never in body copy.
- Italic is reserved for the wordmark and the aircraft names.
- Body copy leading 1.65 – 1.75.
- Web fallback:
'Ranade', system-ui, sans-serif
Caps + tracking — descriptor 0.44 em, claim 0.32 em, label 0.14 em.
Headlines never run in caps. Letter-spacing stays at zero.
Body copy in Regular, leading 1.65 – 1.75, Midnight on Sand or Sand on Midnight. Aircraft names such as Bise and Mistral are the only italics in running text.
Figures in Light for large numbers and pull quotes.
Correct & wrong
Also not permitted
- Outlines, gradients or custom colour mixes on any mark.
- Resetting the wordmark from live type, or re-tracking it.
- Changing the lockup spacing or the descriptor cut.
- Placing the marks on busy photography without a calm, dark area behind them.
- Using the signet as a bullet, a star rating or a decorative sparkle.
Every aircraft carries a wind
The livery is the brand at its largest scale: Sand fuselage, Midnight Blue belly and engines, the signet in Heritage Gold on the vertical stabiliser, surrounded by the starfield.
Every aircraft carries the name of a wind — Bise, Mistral, Sirocco, Ostro, Meltemi. The name is set in Ranade Medium Italic in Midnight Blue below the cockpit windows, the registration in Ranade Medium ahead of the aft door.
The fleet sheet in the kit shows all types to the same scale and is the reference for renderings, model paints and merchandise.
Livery rules
- Signet always in Heritage Gold on the vertical stabiliser, inside the starfield.
- Wordmark in Midnight Blue on the forward fuselage, horizontal lockup only.
- Aircraft name: Ranade Medium Italic, Midnight Blue, below the cockpit windows.
- Registration: Ranade Medium, ahead of the aft door.
- No additional slogans, partner logos or special-livery elements without sign-off.
Icons, avatars & design tokens
App icons & avatars
Icons use the signet alone — never the wordmark. The square icon for app stores and PWA, the circle for social avatars, the Compact cut below 32 px. Midnight with gold signet is the default; Sand with Midnight signet for light system themes.
favicon.ico · apple-touch-icon.png · icon-192 · icon-512ship in
05_icons/.Design tokens
The six colours and the font stack are published as CSS custom properties, Sass variables and JSON. Use the tokens — never a hand-typed hex — so a future colour correction propagates everywhere.
:root {
--vela-midnight-blue: #2F3C48;
--vela-steel-blue: #556371;
--vela-sand: #E7E2D6;
--vela-heritage-gold: #C7A24A;
--vela-burgundy: #6B1D2A;
--vela-light-gray: #C6CBD1;
--vela-font-brand: 'Ranade', system-ui, sans-serif;
}<link rel="stylesheet" href="/brand/tokens/vela-fonts.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/brand/tokens/vela-tokens.css">
body {
font-family: var(--vela-font-brand);
color: var(--vela-midnight-blue);
background: var(--vela-sand);
}Dark surfaces in digital products stay in the Midnight family (Midnight Blue and darker derivatives of it) — never pure black and never Burgundy as a background for ordinary content.
What ships in the kit
Signet, wordmark, all lockups, app icons, design tokens, Ranade web & desktop fonts, guidelines PDF (EN/DE).
The printable edition of this page.
German edition.
One-sheet overview: marks, colours, type and livery.
All five aircraft to the same scale, with the naming system.
Custom properties for the six colours and the brand font stack.
The same tokens as Sass variables.
Machine-readable: HEX, RGB, CMYK reference, cuts and tracking.
Ready-made web font declarations for the ten WOFF2 cuts.
Logo files
Every mark in every permitted colour, as SVG. Single-colour variants carry one colour name; two-colour lockups name wordmark and signet colour.
| Signet | |
|---|---|
| Signet Compact (≤ 32 px) | |
| Wordmark | |
| Lockup horizontal | |
| Lockup horizontal + descriptor | |
| Lockup vertical | |
| Lockup vertical + descriptor |
Package structure
VELA_Brand-Kit_v1.0/ ├── 00_brand-board/ Board — SVG · PDF · PNG@4x · HTML ├── 01_signet/ Star, 6 colours + Compact + PNG ├── 02_wordmark/ VELA, 6 colours + PNG ├── 03_lockup-vertical/ with / without descriptor, 8 variants ├── 04_lockup-horizontal/ with / without descriptor, 8 variants ├── 05_icons/ App icons, avatars, favicon.ico ├── 06_tokens/ CSS · SCSS · JSON · font-face ├── 07_fonts/ Ranade OTF + WOFF2 ├── 08_fleet/ Renderings + fleet sheet ├── 09_guidelines/ Guidelines PDF + HTML, en / de └── 10_source/ original files as supplied
The core download above contains 01 – 07 and the guidelines; brand board, fleet sheet and source files are available individually.
Naming convention
VELA_[Element]_[Colour].svg
VELA_Lockup-Horizontal-Descriptor_navy-gold.svg
│ │ │ │
│ │ │ └ signet colour
│ │ └ wordmark colour
│ └ with descriptor “AIRLINES”
└ element- Single-colour variants carry one colour name only:
_navy,_sand,_gold,_burgundy,_black,_white. - SVG is the master format. PNG exports exist for icons and avatars only.
- Never rename files when passing them on — the name is the spec.
What changed
- Colour name “SIMREF BLUE” renamed to Midnight Blue.
- Alphabet complete and correct: A – Z, 0 – 9.
- Wordmark is the real outline from the master file, no longer reset type.
- Signet is the master vector instead of a redraw with the wrong point shape.
- Livery shows the actual A320 rendering (HB-AQA “Bise”) instead of an illustration.
- Lockups built on proportions measured from the master files.
- Ranade throughout instead of a placeholder grotesque.
- New: descriptor “AIRLINES”, Signet Compact for favicon sizes, design-token exports.
- Descriptor and Signet Compact approved by VELA management (23 August 2026).
Questions & approvals
Co-branding, special liveries, merchandise and any use outside these guidelines need sign-off from VELA management. Crew reach the brand team through the intranet; external partners via the legal notice.