The system
Everything a printer, an embroiderer, a photographer or an agency needs to make something that looks like James Tyler Guitars without asking Sarah first. The palette and the type are taken from what the shop already uses.
The mark
The stacked repeat is the identity. It reads as a headstock decal, a stencil and a shop stamp at the same time, so it does not need a second logo for merchandise.
Primary · white on black
Clearspace · one JAMES TYLER line on every side
Sizes
- Digital minimum 96px wide. Below that the repeat lines fill in and the block turns gray.
- Print minimum 24mm wide. Under 24mm, use the single TYLER line on its own.
- Headstock and case badge keep the full stack. Truck side and banner keep the full stack.
- One colour only: white, or black on a light ground. No outline, no drop shadow.
Do
- Put it on black, or on a photograph dark enough to hold white type.
- Left align it with the content below.
- Let the repeat run to the trim on merchandise. It is a pattern as well as a mark.
Do not
- Recolour it. The mark is white, or it is black.
- Rebuild the stack with a different typeface, or change the line count.
- Stretch, rotate or add a keyline.
- Place it over the busy part of a finish photograph.
Colour
Black and steel gray come from the current site. The four accents were sampled out of their own finish photography, so every colour in the system already exists on a guitar.
Contrast ratios measured against Shop Black. Anything under 4.5:1 is a decorative colour, never body text.
Type
The shop already sets headings in Eurostile LT Std. Michroma is the licensable stand in used here so the site can self host and the brand does not depend on one Typekit seat.
Rules
- Display type is uppercase with 0.06em tracking. Never below 0.04em, never above 0.1em.
- Only one display line per screen may be larger than 2rem.
- Specs, prices, serials and durations are always mono and tabular.
- Body copy stays sentence case. Headline case is for headlines.
Photography
The shop already shoots the right pictures. The rule is to keep doing exactly that, in the same order, for every model.
Five frames per instrument
- Front, back, three quarter slant, body close, headstock. Same order, every model.
- Pure black ground, one hard key light, nothing else in frame.
- Finish photographs are body only, framed the same way, so they read as a wall of swatches.
- Player photographs are available light on location. No studio portraits, no white cyc.
- Hardware is never retouched into looking new. A guitar that has been played looks played.
Voice
The current copy is accurate and plain, which is right. It has two habits worth breaking: it talks about James in a tense that no longer applies, and it hides the people doing the work today.
James draws the line to ensure that technology remains a tool in the hands of expert luthiers, and never a human replacement.
Technology stays a tool in the hands of the people at the bench. That was James's line. Sarah keeps it.
Over the years, Tyler Guitars Artists have included:
Who plays them.
This guitar is all about getting back to basics, which has made it one of our most popular models.
Back to basics. A mid boost preamp, an SSH set, and the finish list open to all 96 colours.
The operation at James Tyler Guitars has grown slowly over the years with no partners, no investors, and no compromises.
No partners, no investors, since 1980. The shop is at 575 Fourth Street in San Fernando and it is building today.
Rules
- Name the person. "Sarah builds it" beats "our craftsmen build it".
- Every superlative needs a number or a spec next to it, or it comes out.
- Write history in the past and the shop in the present. Never blur them.
- The mystique line the company gave itself, "either you know or you don't", is for merchandise, not for explaining the product.
- No exclamation marks, no ad language, no words the crew would not say at the bench.
Where this goes next
This book covers the mark, the palette, the type, the photography and the voice. The two things it does not cover yet, because they need Sarah in the room, are the headstock decal artwork at production sizes and the case badge finish.