PHINE Brand Guidelines — Working Draft

Brand Identity Guidelines

Working Draft — San Francisco, 2026

woven in every drop

Phine Coffee · Vietnamese-inspired Hand Beverages · San Francisco

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesColophon

Phine Brand Guidelines

The Constitution of the Pause

Published July 2026 in San Francisco. This document is the single source of truth for how PHINE looks, speaks, and behaves — across marketing, interiors, web, and app. Where an earlier decision disagrees with this book, this book wins.

Working Draft · JULY 2026

WRITTEN & DESIGNED BY WENHAO “LEO” LIANG

3500 GEARY BLVD, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118

BRAND@PHINECOFFEE.COM

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesContents

—The brand at a glancethe one-page cheat sheet04 01Foundationstory · mission · values · audience · personality05–10 02Logodual system · wordmark · clear space · colorways · seal · misuse11–17 03Colorpalette · ramps · proportions · accessibility18–22 04Typographyfamilies · hierarchy · Vietnamese · misuse23–27 05Layout & Spacinggrids · the warp · spacing tokens28–30 06Graphic Elementsthe weave · pattern & image frames · icons · illustration31–35 07Imageryphotography principles · mood formulas36–37 08Voice & Copytone · taglines · Vietnamese usage · boilerplates38–41 09Applicationscups · packaging · menu · stationery · signage · posm · social · digital42–50 —Glossaryrule index · figure index51–52 —Asset index & contactfiles · versions · approvals53

Who this is for

Marketing, interior, web, and app teams — and every partner who touches the brand. If you make something that says PHINE, this book is your contract.

Rule language

MUST is non-negotiable. SHOULD is the default; deviating requires brand-team approval. MAY is freedom within the system.

Rules carry mono IDs — LG-03 — so reviews can cite them precisely.

Legend

3X · #C13D1E · 48PX — measurements and values always appear in the mono spec voice.

Verdicts are marked with a terracotta check for do and an espresso slash for don’t.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesAt a Glance

Cheat Sheet

The brand at a glance

logo-wordmark.svg
3.22 : 1

logo-seal.svg
1 : 1

pause glyph
the “i”

the weave
Nº3 plaid

The palette

Sky Blue#D7F3FF

Terracotta#C13D1E

Pure White#FFFFFF

Espresso#7A2E17

Cream#FFECBB

Ivory#FFFCF3

Essence

The art of the pause.

Master tagline

Woven in every drop.

The typefaces

Aa — Take your time.LEXEND DECA · reads everything

Aa — DisplayPLAYFAIR DISPLAY · display voice

woven in every dropSACRAMENTO · accent only

3X · #C13D1E · 48PXIBM PLEX MONO · specs & data

If you only remember five rules

01
Never redraw, distort, or restyle the wordmark.
LG-11
02
Terracotta speaks, Espresso reads, Sky and Ivory breathe.
CO-04
03
When using Vietnamese words, diacritics are mandatory.
VO-07
04
The pause is part of the layout: when in doubt, leave more space.
LA-01
05
Align to the warp: everything sits on the column grid.
LA-02

Our story
Mission & vision
Values
Positioning & audience
Personality

Foundation

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 01 · Foundation

Foundation / Our Story

The story begins with a pause

PHINE began with two people and a pause. Daniel and Thy — partners, hosts, caffeine obsessives — fell for the café ritual of Hanoi: a small drink, made by hand, worth stopping for. They brought that feeling home and built an LGBTQ-owned, Vietnamese-inspired hand-beverage house around it — a counter where every drink is built by hand and every moment gets a little room.

The name weaves two words together: phin, the Vietnamese drip filter that inspired us, and fine, the feeling it leaves behind. We come from a culture of weavers — of bamboo, of silk, of neighborhoods — and we brew the way weavers work: strand by strand, over and under, never hurried. Every cup crosses a thread of Hanoi with a thread of San Francisco. That crossing is the brand.

FIG. 01-01Two threads meet — Hanoi’s warp crossing San Francisco’s weft. The crossing is the brand.

The name, woven

PHINthe Vietnamese drip filter

FINEthe feeling it leaves

woven together

The bar above our “i” floats free — like the lid resting on a phin, lifted while something good finishes brewing. We call it the pause.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 01 · Foundation

Foundation / Mission & Vision

What we are here to do

Brand essence

The art of the pause.

Mission

To weave Vietnamese coffee culture into the everyday fabric of San Francisco — one deliberate cup at a time.

Vision

A city that remembers how to pause. We see PHINE as a loom where neighbors, cultures, and traditions cross — a place where paying attention is not a luxury but a habit.

Promise

Care in every cup, and a seat that’s yours for as long as you like.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 01 · Foundation

Foundation / Values

Four threads we weave by

The Pause

“Attention is the ingredient.”

We give the drink, the room, and the guest our full attention — nothing at PHINE is an afterthought.

The Weave

“Alone, a thread; together, cloth.”

We build community the way weavers build fabric: strand by strand, until it holds weight.

The Heritage

“Tradition is for using.”

Vietnamese café culture isn’t our museum piece; it’s a living thread — in our name, our diacritics, our signatures.

The Fine

“Care you can taste, details you don’t notice.”

From bean sourcing to kerning, we sweat the small things so the experience feels effortless.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 01 · Foundation

Foundation / Positioning & Audience

Where we stand

Positioning statement

“For people who love coffee but are tired of coffee culture’s hurry, PHINE is the Vietnamese-inspired hand-beverage house where every drink is built with intention — a daily ritual, not a caffeine stop. PHINE makes each cup by hand, speaks softly, and weaves its neighborhood together.”

Reasons to believe

Every drink built by hand — no shortcuts.

Recipes inspired by Hanoi’s café culture.

Vietnamese heritage honored, never overstated.

Rooms designed for lingering, not turnover.

The Regular

HYBRID WORKER · 28–45

Wants a ritual, not a transaction. Orders “the usual” by week two.

The Seeker

FOOD-CURIOUS EXPLORER

Wants the story behind our milkiest pour — and will tell six friends.

The Gatherer

FAMILIES · STUDENTS · DIASPORA

Wants a third place where staying long is welcome.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 01 · Foundation

Foundation / Personality

How we carry ourselves

WarmCool

8 / 2Warm first. Always.

HandcraftedEngineered

7 / 3Made by hands, guided by rules.

CalmEnergetic

7 / 3Quiet confidence over caffeine jitters.

HeritageContemporary

5 / 5Dead center, on purpose. This is the weave itself.

PlayfulFormal

6 / 4A wink, never a costume.

If PHINE were a person

The friend who arrives unhurried, remembers your order, and always has room for one more story.

Dual logo system
Anatomy & construction
Clear space & sizes
Colorways
Seal, glyph & lockups
Misuse

Logo

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / The Dual System

One voice, two marks

PHINE operates on a dual system. The primary wordmark is our definitive signature — high-contrast, deco-inflected letterforms with the floating pause above the “i”. The secondary seal condenses the same DNA into a square, stamp-like mark inspired by Asian seal engraving, for spaces the wordmark cannot fit.

PRIMARY

logo-wordmark.svg · 3.22 : 1

SECONDARY

logo-seal.svg · 1 : 1

FIG. 02-01Primary wordmark — the default everywhere.

FIG. 02-02Secondary seal — square, small & stamp-like.

Use the wordmark

As the default across marketing, interiors, web, headers, packaging faces — anywhere it fits at 25 mm / 80 px or larger.

Use the seal

Only where the wordmark cannot fit: avatars, stamps, embossing, the app icon, the favicon, and pattern punctuation.

LG-01 · MUST

The wordmark and seal never appear together at equal visual weight — one always leads.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / Anatomy & Construction

How the wordmark is built

FIG. 02-03Wordmark anatomy & unit derivation. It is never typeset.

The pause — the floating bar, never touches the stem.

The “i” pillar — the stem, ready to extend into a warp.

Flat-topped bowl on the P.

Fatface contrast — thick stems, hairline joins.

Unit x — the crossbar height of the E.

LG-02 · MUST

There is no font that produces it. Reproduce the wordmark only from the master SVG — never typeset it.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / Clear Space & Minimum Sizes

Room to breathe

The clear space is a protective pause. The minimum exclusion zone on all sides is 3x, where x equals the crossbar height of the E. Nothing — type, graphics, or the page edge — may enter it.

LG-03 · MUST

x = crossbar of the E

FIG. 02-04Clear space = 3x on every side, measured from the bounding box.

The unit x

x is the crossbar height of the E — the smallest deliberate stroke in the mark. Every distance in the system is a multiple of it.

The seal

Minimum size 12 mm / 40 px. Its own clear space is 25% of the seal width on all sides.

MIN · 25MM / 80PX

EVERYDAY · 50–150MM / 150–400PX

LARGE · >150MM / >400PX

FIG. 02-05Three size tiers, baseline-aligned. Below the minimum, use the seal.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / Colorways

The approved colorways

Six approved pairings. Each balances the warmth of our Vietnamese heritage with the crisp coastal energy of San Francisco. Pure black is never used — Espresso substitutes.

CO-09 · MUST

fg / bg per tile

Terracotta on Ivory · Primary#C13D1E / #FFFCF3

Terracotta on Sky#C13D1E / #D7F3FF

Sky on Terracotta#D7F3FF / #C13D1E

Sky on Espresso#D7F3FF / #7A2E17

White on Terracotta · Packaging#FFFFFF / #C13D1E

Espresso one-color · Low-fi#7A2E17 / #FFFCF3

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / Seal, Pause Glyph & Lockups

The seal, the glyph & lockups

FIG. 02-06The seal — PHINE stacked inside a square border.

Keep the square border intact — it is part of the mark.

Letters knock out to the field; never recolor the interior.

Minimum size 12 mm / 40 px; clear space 25% of width.

The pause glyph

64PX

32PX

16PX

LG-06 · MUST

The glyph appears only where PHINE is already named — loading states and pattern punctuation.

Sanctioned tagline lockup

woven in every drop

Script companion in Sacramento, set lowercase in Espresso, centered beneath the wordmark with clear space above it. Never rotated, never caps, never tracked.

Co-branding lockup

PARTNER

LG-07

PHINE leads left. The partner mark sits at equal optical height, one-color Espresso, joined by the woven cross — the collaboration mark, knotted from the weave at true crossings. Clear space each side is at least the cross's width.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 02 · Logo

Logo / Misuse

Eight ways to break the logo

The wordmark is reproduced from the master file, in an approved colorway, on a solid field — never anything else. Every treatment below is forbidden. LG-11 · MUST

Don’tAdd drop shadows.

Don’tStretch or condense.

Don’tApply gradients.

Don’tUse outlines.

Don’tWarp or arc.

Don’tRotate (except sanctioned 90° spines).

Don’tRecolor off-palette (cream on sky).

Don’tPlace on a busy pattern.

The palette
Digital ramps
Roles & proportions
Accessibility & misuse

Color

Primary · FieldSky Blue“the fog lifting off the avenues”

#D7F3FF · RGB 215 243 255CMYK 14 0 0 0 · PMS 290 C · --phine-sky

Primary · VoiceTerracotta“fired clay, the color of the kiln and the roast”

#C13D1E · RGB 193 61 30CMYK 17 89 100 7 · PMS 173 C · --phine-terracotta

Primary · BreathPure White“steam and quiet”

#FFFFFF · CMYK 0 0 0 0paper · --phine-white

Secondary · The reading inkEspresso“the last drop in the phin”

#7A2E17 · RGB 122 46 23CMYK 32 86 100 39 · PMS 168 C · --phine-espresso

Secondary · TextureCream“condensed milk at the bottom of the glass”

#FFECBB · RGB 255 236 187CMYK 0 6 31 0 · PMS 7401 C · --phine-cream

Secondary · Default page fieldIvory“the paper the story is printed on”

#FFFCF3 · RGB 255 252 243CMYK 0 0 4 0 · print as stock · --phine-ivory

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 03 · Color

Color / Extended ramps

Extended digital ramps

Screens ask more of the palette than paper does. Each brand color extends into a ten-stop tonal ramp for surfaces, borders, and hover states. Print leads with the six spot-matched anchors ; digital may reach for the ramp stops around them. Any tint outside these ramps is misuse.

CO-08 · MUST

STOPS NAMED brand-0…9

earth · cream · sky-0…9

Brandbrand-0…9

#fff2eb

#ffe0d3

#ffc4ae

#ffa07f

#f47c59

#df5b37

#c13d1e

#ad3410

#912b0f

#74210d

Earthearth-0…9

#f8efea

#f1ddd4

#e5bcad

#d79882

#cb7860

#bd6144

#a44a2d

#89371d

#7a2e17

#622111

Creamcream-0…9

#ffffff

#fffcf3

#fff8e6

#ffecbb

#f9dda0

#efcf83

#d5b468

#b28f4d

#8b6b36

#654922

Skysky-0…9

#f5fcff

#edf9ff

#d7f3ff

#c4e7f4

#add7e7

#90c1d2

#73abbe

#56879a

#426673

#314c58

guideline pick — use of this color is preferredDIGITAL MAY USE ANY STOP
PRINT LEADS WITH ANCHORS ONLY

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 03 · Color

Color / Roles & proportions

Roles, proportions & combinations

Our colors are designed to interact and intertwine — layered like threads, never fighting. The recipe is a weave: quiet fields carry the page, terracotta speaks, and texture threads the rest.

CO-04Day recipe — 60% quiet fields (Ivory / Sky) · 30% voice (Terracotta) · 10% texture (Cream threads + Espresso text)

CO-04bEvening recipe — 60% Espresso · 30% Cream / Ivory · 10% Terracotta accent

Combination matrix

A approved LT large type only do not use

FG \ BG

Sky

Terra

White

Espr.

Cream

Ivory

Sky

DO NOT USE

AaLT

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

Terracotta

AaLT

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

AaLT

AaA

White

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

Espresso

AaA

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

AaA

Cream

DO NOT USE

AaLT

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

Ivory

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

AaA

DO NOT USE

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 03 · Color

Color / Accessibility

Accessibility & color misuse

Contrast is not decoration; it is legibility. Body text must be Espresso on a light field; Terracotta is reserved for display sizes. Every text pairing in the table below clears WCAG 2.1 AA at its set size. Muted --ink-soft meta text is deliberately lower-contrast and never carries essential information.

CO-06 · MUST

WCAG 2.1 · AA FLOOR

TERRA 18PX+ DISPLAY

Text on field	Ratio	Verdict
AaEspresso on White	9.4:1	Great (AAA)
AaEspresso on Ivory	9.2:1	Great (AAA)
AaEspresso on Sky	8.1:1	Great (AAA)
AaEspresso on Cream	8.1:1	Great (AAA)
AaTerracotta on White	5.3:1	OK (AA)
AaTerracotta on Ivory	5.2:1	OK (AA)
AaTerracotta on Sky	4.6:1	OK (AA) — 18px+ display
AaTerracotta on Cream	4.5:1	OK (AA) — large text only by policy
AaWhite/Sky/Cream on Espresso	9.4 / 8.1 / 8.1	Great (AAA)
AaIvory on Terracotta	5.2:1	OK (AA)
AaSky on Ivory, Cream on Ivory, White on Sky	~1.1:1	Never
AaTerracotta on Espresso	1.8:1	Never

Color misuse

Don'tOff-palette tints

Don'tGradients between brand colors

The pause

Don'tPure-black text — Espresso substitutes

stay a while

Don'tLow-contrast pairs (1.8:1)

The type families
Hierarchy & scale
Typesetting & Vietnamese
Misuse

Typography

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 04 · Typography

Typography / Type families

The type families

Four families, four jobs — all free for commercial use under the SIL Open Font License. Structure and soul, kept in balance.

Aa Bb Cc

Lexend Deca

The workhorse — all reading text, UI, menus, labels. Full Vietnamese support.

Aàảãạ Eéèẻẽẹ Đđ Oôơ Uư · 0123456789

300 LIGHT · 400 REGULAR · 500 MEDIUM · 600 SEMIBOLD

"Lexend Deca", Lexend, "Avenir Next", "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif

Aa Bb Cc

Playfair Display

The display voice — a high-contrast serif echoing the wordmark. Hero statements, chapter numerals, big prices.

ABCDEFGH · Cà phê sữa đá · 0123456789

700 BOLD · FULL VIETNAMESE

"Playfair Display", Georgia, serif

ab cd ef

Sacramento

The handwritten pause — decorative accents only, 3–6 words, floor 18pt.

woven in every drop

400 REGULAR · LATIN ONLY · NEVER FOR INFORMATION — TY-06

Sacramento, cursive · LOWERCASE ONLY

Aa Bb Cc

IBM Plex Mono

The spec voice — measurements, tokens, hex values, annotations, folios.

#C13D1E · 3X · 26/32PT · +0.14EM · 0123456789

400 REGULAR · 500 MEDIUM · NEVER IN MARKETING

"IBM Plex Mono", "SF Mono", Consolas, monospace

CHANGELOGCentury Gothic Pro & Baltimore — retired typefaces from the founding deck. No longer used. Abril Fatface — replaced by Playfair Display for full Vietnamese support.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 04 · Typography

Typography / Hierarchy & scale

Hierarchy & scale

The pauseDISPLAY 2 · PLAYFAIR DISPLAY 700 · 27/30PT

Page titleH1 · LEXEND DECA 600 · 26/32PT · +0.03EM

A subsection headingH2 · LEXEND DECA 500 · 18/24PT

Panel head / overlineH3 · LEXEND DECA 600 · 11/16PT · +0.08EM

Running text sits at nine and a half point over fifteen.BODY · LEXEND DECA 400 · 9.5/15PT

woven in every dropSCRIPT · SACRAMENTO 400 · 24PT

Token	Face / weight	Print	Digital
Display-1	Playfair 700	42–300pt	Lexend caps 72px+
Display-2	Playfair 700	27/30pt	Lexend caps 56px/1.1
H1	Lexend 600	26/32pt	40px/1.2
H2	Lexend 500	18/24pt	28px/1.35
H3 / Overline	Lexend 600 caps	11/16pt	13px/1.2
Body	Lexend 400	9.5/15pt	16px/1.6
Small / Caption	Lexend 400	8/12pt	14 & 12px
Script accent	Sacramento	24–48pt (min 18)	min 24px
Spec / mono	Plex Mono 400	7.5/11pt	13px/1.5

Digital treatments

As shipped on the site — fold into the digital column.

DISPLAY Lexend, UPPERCASE, tracking -0.08em
EYEBROW 600 caps, +0.11em
BODY -0.025em / line-height 1.52

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 04 · Typography

Typography / Vietnamese

Typesetting & Vietnamese

TY-03

Alignment Rag-right left by default. Centered only for covers, packaging lockups, and statements of three lines or fewer. Never justified. Right-align prices and data only.

TY-04

Measure Line length 45–75 characters. One typeface per text block; a maximum of three hierarchy levels per layout.

TY-05

Tracking +0.5% on body. +14% on caps labels. Playfair and Sacramento are never tracked. Sacramento is set lowercase only — never caps.

VO-07 / TY-06 · MUST

Diacritics are identity.

Cà phê sữa đá is not “ca phe sua da.” Every reading face carries the full Vietnamese subset — Lexend Deca, Playfair Display, and Plex Mono all set the marks cleanly, at any size and any weight. Only the Sacramento script is latin-only: it never carries Vietnamese, and never carries information. Never fake a diacritic from another font’s combining marks. Vietnamese phrases keep their syllable spaces — bạc xỉu, never bạcxỉu. Names with an established English form use it: Hanoi, not Hà Nội; Vietnam, not Việt Nam.

à ả ã ạ â ầ ấậ ẩ ẫ ê ế ệ ểô ố ộ ơ ớ ợ ởư ứ ự ừ ử đ Đ

LEXEND DECA · 300 / 400 / 500 / 600

Cà Phê Sữa Đá

DoPlayfair Display carries full Vietnamese — diacritics intact.

Ca Phe Sua DaMARKS STRIPPED · sua IS NOT sữa, da IS NOT đá

Don'tSame face, marks stripped — the words lose their meaning.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 04 · Typography

Typography / Misuse

Typography misuse

The type system holds only if it is left alone. These six treatments are never permitted — anywhere, at any size.

PAUSE

Don'tStretch or condense the letterforms

PHINE

Don'tOutline the type

The pause

Don'tDrop a shadow behind the type

Vietnamese-inspired drinks, built by hand — and a seat worth staying in.

Don'tSet paragraphs in Playfair Display

Cold Brew $4.50 · Latte $5.00 · Open till 10

Don'tSacramento below 18pt, or for prices

TAKE YOUR TIME. THE WIFI IS FAST — YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE.

Don'tSet body copy in all caps

FOUNDING DECK · RETIREDNo Century Gothic, no Baltimore. Those faces are gone — this system is the whole voice.

Grid systems
The warp & bands
Spacing tokens
The 30% pause

Layout &Spacing

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 05 · Layout & Spacing

Layout & Spacing / Grid Systems

Grids & the warp

Every PHINE layout sits on a grid. Print rides a 6-column frame on US Letter — 0.75in side margins, a 0.95in head, and a 0.25in gutter; the warp gathers those 6 columns into three vertical bands that logos, images and “i”-extensions snap to. Digital collapses twelve to eight to four.

PRINT · US LETTER

8.5IN × 11IN

MARGIN 0.75IN · TOP 0.95IN

6 COL · 0.25IN GUTTER

FIG. 05-01US Letter, 6-column grid — 0.75in margins, 0.25in gutter.

FIG. 05-02The warp — three vertical bands, two columns each.

LA-02 Everything sits on the column grid; the “i”-stem may extend as a warp thread.

Digital breakpoints

Surface	Cols	Gutter	Breakpoint
Desktop	12	24px	1280+
Tablet	8	24px	768–1279
Mobile	4	16px	< 768

Max container 1200px · breakpoints 480 / 768 / 1024 / 1280px · 16px mobile margins.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 05 · Layout & Spacing

Layout & Spacing / Spacing & Rhythm

Spacing tokens & the pause

Space is a material. Our scale is 4px-based with an 8px primary rhythm — ten tokens from a four-pixel hair to a hundred-and-twenty-eight-pixel breath. Pick from the ladder, never in between. And remember the loudest rule in this chapter: leave more empty than you think.

4PX BASE · 8PX RHYTHM

S1 … S10

1PX ~ 0.75PT

s1 · 4px

s2 · 8px

s3 · 12px

s4 · 16px

s5 · 24px

s6 · 32px

s7 · 48px

s8 · 64px

s9 · 96px

s10 · 128px

LA-01

30%

of any composition stays empty.

The pause is a layout material. When in doubt, leave more space — a breathing page always outranks a full one. The empty is not wasted; it is the silence that lets the coffee speak.

DoAlign every block to the warp.

Don'tElements floating off the grid.

DoOne focal point; keep 30% empty.

Don'tCrowded — three competing focal points.

The weave
Pattern & image frames
Icon system
Illustration

GraphicElements

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 06 · Graphic Elements

Graphic Elements / The Weave

The weave, constructed

More than decoration, the weave is a structural narrative — warp and weft, Hanoi and San Francisco, crossing strand by strand. It is built from one unit, the thread T, and sanctioned at three densities.

UNIT · T = THREAD

REPEAT · 12T

3 DENSITIES

FIG. 06-01One weave tile, dimensioned in thread units.

Built from thread

Warp — sky. Vertical bands, 4T wide, set 2T apart; the patterns group them in triplets.

Weft — cream. Continuous 1T hairlines crossing the warp.

Knots — terracotta. The crossing made solid — the 4T × 1T overlap where a weft passes a warp. Terracotta lives only here.

Hanoi crossing San Francisco, strand by strand — the vertical repeat lands every 12T.

Nº1 · DENSE · TAGS & SMALL FORMATS

Nº2 · SELVEDGE · THE DOCUMENT EDGE

Nº3 · PLAID · LARGE SURFACES

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 06 · Graphic Elements

Graphic Elements / Pattern Usage

Pattern & image frames

The weave dresses surfaces — used as texture, never as noise, and never laid over a photograph. Images sit in a plain espresso hairline frame; the pattern stays on the surface around them, and never covers more than a quarter of a field.

MAX 25% COVERAGE

STROKE MIN 0.5PT / 1PX

3 SANCTIONED FORMATS

Hands lifting a phin filter lid against an ivory wall

ESPRESSO HAIRLINE · 1PTIMAGE FLUSH — NO PATTERN

FIG. 06-02The image frame — a plain espresso hairline.

GR-03Keep threads legible. Never thinner than 0.5pt in print, 1px on screen.

GR-04Never behind body text. Pattern and reading text never share a layer.

GR-05Cap coverage at 25%. Exception: packaging wraps and social covers.

GR-07Recolor only in approved combinations. The threads keep their palette.

GR-08The logo needs a solid field. Never set the wordmark straight onto pattern.

A sunlit cafe corner with a phin brewing by the window

POSTER · 3:4

Iced milk coffee mid-stir, dark coffee folding into cream

CARD · 4:5

Roasted beans spilling from a paper bag onto cream linen

SQUARE · 1:1

FIG. 06-03Three sanctioned formats.

Drinks built by hand, and a seat worth staying in — woven into the neighborhood, one cup at a time.

Don'tPattern behind body text.

DoLogo on a solid field.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 06 · Graphic Elements

Graphic Elements / Icon System

Pixel-fragment icons

Our icons are cut from the same cloth as the weave — solid pixel silhouettes with a fragment or two shaken loose. They wayfind and label; they never illustrate. One color, no strokes, no rounding.

10-UNIT GRID

PRINT 10 MM · SCREEN 24 PX

CLEAR SPACE 2U

FIG. 06-04Coffee, exploded on its module grid. Steam rides as a detached fragment.

Construction

Drawn on a 10-unit module grid. Solid filled silhouettes — zero strokes, zero corner radius.

Personality comes from one to three detached fragment modules — steam, sparkle, fizz — never more. GR-06

One color per icon from an approved pair. Minimum size is 10 mm in print and 24 px on screen; clear space two modules on every side.

Restroom

Cold / Hot

Must-try

Coffee

Tea

No smoking

Takeout

Don'tOutline the silhouette.

Don'tRound the corners.

Don'tSplit into two colors.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 06 · Graphic Elements

Graphic Elements / Composition

Graphic art, woven

Threads, not things. Build every graphic from the weave system — never a drawn subject.

One closed set of parts. Warp bands, weft lines, knots, the pause glyph, the seal.

Flat fields only. Solid brand color — no gradients, no shadows, no rendered depth.

Geometry echoes the wordmark. Straight verticals, flat tops, sharp corners; rotate 90° only.

Three colors on a field. Chosen from the palette; coverage never past 25%.

Photography does the literal. A phin, a cup, a face — that is the camera's job, not a graphic's.

FIG. 06-05The crossing — knotted where warp meets weft.

FIG. 06-06The mark on a solid field, the weave beneath.

FIG. 06-07Selvedge trim, the seal on a solid field.

Don'tPictorial subjects.

Don'tClip-art motifs.

Don'tGradient shading.

Don'tOutline strokes.

Photography principles
Mood formulas
Composition & type space

Imagery

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 07 · Imagery

Imagery / Art Direction

Photography art direction

PHINE photography follows these principles: documentary, warm, unhurried — the camera a quiet neighbor, never a director.

NATURAL LIGHT

5000–5600K · WARM

TYPE SPACE · TOP 1/3

Documentary, not staged. Catch the moment; never pose it.

Natural light, warm bias. 5000–5600K. Never a cool grade.

Process over product. Hands, steel, the drip — the making, not the poster.

Eye-level or true overhead. A straight 90° top-down, or level with the cup.

Negative space up top. Keep the top third open for type.

Headline sits here1/3 · type space

Morning window light on a phin filter dripping into a glass

FIG. 07-01Top-third type space, in a plain espresso frame.

FIRST DRIP · IVORY + SKY + WHITE · MORNING WINDOW LIGHT

CLAY AFTERNOON · TERRACOTTA + CREAM · GOLDEN HOUR

QUIET EVENING · ESPRESSO + CREAM · LOW TUNGSTEN WARMTH

No cold or blue grading

No HDR

No fisheye

No staged smiles at camera

No heavy filters or fake grain

No black-and-white

Voice principles
We say / we don't
Tagline library
Vietnamese usage
Boilerplates & captions

Voice &Copy

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 08 · Voice & Copy

Voice & Copy / Principles

How PHINE speaks

01Calm

Short sentences. Room to breathe. We never shout, never count down, never add false urgency.

02Warm, not gushing

First person plural, genuinely glad you're here. Enthusiasm lives in substance, not punctuation — exclamation points are a spice, not a sauce.

03Grounded

Concrete and sensory: steel, drip, condensed milk, fog. Never “elevated,” “curated,” or “synergy.”

04Vietnamese, with careVO-07

Vietnamese words appear sparingly and confidently — diacritics always, a gentle explanation on first use. Never “exotic,” never “oriental,” never a mystery to be marketed.

Vocabulary — the words we choose

VO / DICTION

We say

We don't say

“made by hand”

“artisanal handcrafted”

“the pause”

“downtime”

“pull up a chair”

“elevate your experience”

“condensed milk”

“sweet creamer”

“egg coffee”

“the viral Vietnamese one”

“phin”

“that little metal thing”

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 08 · Voice & Copy

Voice & Copy / Taglines & Vietnamese

Taglines & Vietnamese

Master tagline · headlines, campaigns, the sanctioned lockup

Woven in every drop.

The one line that leads. VO-04 — never reword, never stack more than two lines, never turn a menu item into a tagline.

Script companionSacramento only · signature flourish · never carries information

woven in every drop

Essence lineeditorial · interiors · about pages

The art of the pause.

Long-formposters · window vinyl · closing lines

“Sit back, settle in, and watch your day weave together beautifully.”

Campaign supportrotating headers · social · POSM

Take your time.Made by hand, meant to stay.Your neighborhood, woven daily.

When we use Vietnamese wordsVO-07 · DIACRITICS MANDATORY

Vietnamese appears in our story, not on our menu — a few heritage words, always treated with care.

phinthe steel drip filter that named us

bạc xỉuthe milky Hanoi classic that shaped our signatures

cà phê trứngegg coffee — the dessert-like ritual we reinterpret by hand

VO-07Diacritics are mandatory.

VO-08Phrases keep their syllable spaces — bạc xỉu, never bạcxỉu.

VO-09Names with an established English form use it — Hanoi, not Hà Nội; Vietnam, not Việt Nam.

Never in the Sacramento script — it carries no diacritics (TY-06).

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 08 · Voice & Copy

Voice & Copy / Boilerplates & In-store

The words we reuse

Boilerplates

READY TO PASTE

One-liner17 WORDS

PHINE is an LGBTQ-owned, Vietnamese-inspired hand-beverage house in San Francisco, built around the art of the pause.

Short~35 WORDS

PHINE is an LGBTQ-owned, Vietnamese-inspired hand-beverage house in San Francisco, built by Daniel and Thy around the café ritual of Hanoi. Every drink is made by hand — woven into the neighborhood, one cup at a time.

Long~90 WORDS

PHINE is an LGBTQ-owned hand-beverage house in San Francisco, started by Daniel and Thy — partners who fell for the café ritual of Hanoi and brought it home. Every drink is made by hand: coffee brewed with care, matcha whisked to order, and a short list of Vietnamese-inspired signatures we're proud to reinterpret. The phin filter gave us our name — PHIN plus FINE — and the pause it teaches shapes everything we do, woven into the neighborhood one cup at a time. Visit us at 3500 Geary Blvd. phinecoffee.com — @phine.coffee.

Social captions

THE FORMULA

Hook(max 6 words)+one unhurried sentence+one grounded detail(place, sense)+max 4 hashtags

Worked example — a

Egg coffee, whipped to order. The fog burns off the avenue while the cream settles into place.

#PHINEcoffee #TheArtOfThePause #SFCoffee

Worked example — b

Milk, meet a whisper of coffee. Our milkiest pour is for the mornings you want to ease into, not power through.

#PHINEcoffee #WovenInEveryDrop

Fixed hashtag set — pick from these only: #PHINEcoffee · #WovenInEveryDrop · #TheArtOfThePause · #SFCoffee

In-store signage

HOUSE VOICE, ON THE WALL

Wi-Fi“The wifi is fast. You don't have to be.”PASSWORD: wovenineverydrop

Tip jar“Tips are always welcome. Thank you.”

Water station“Help yourself. Stay a while.”

RestroomsDown the hall, on your left.

No smokingPlease keep the air as clear as the fog.

Closing sign“We're letting the last drops fall. See you tomorrow from 9.”

Cups & packaging
Menu system
Stationery & loyalty
Signage & street
Social & digital

Applications

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Cups

Cups

8 OZ · HOT

ivory double-wall

12 OZ · HOT

ivory double-wall

16 OZ · HOT

ivory double-wall

16 OZ · COLD PET

white-ink wordmark

Terracotta dot — hot lid

Sky dot — iced lid

FLEXO · 3 SPOT · PMS 173C + 290C + 7401C

PRINT ZONEWordmark sits on the lower face, clear of the 6.98 mm foot the rolled base hides — it prints level on the finished cup.

THE DRESSWeave Nº3 plaid — sky warp triplets, cream weft pairs, terracotta knots at the true crossings.

HOTIvory double-wall · plaid dress · terracotta wordmark · terracotta lid dot.

COLDClear PET · white-ink wordmark + terracotta pause bar · sky lid dot.

FIG. 09-01The cup family, and the 12 oz dieline.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Packaging

Packaging

FIG. 09-02Takeout bag

SKY FLOOD · 2 SPOT · PMS 290C + 173CFACE 220 x 270 · GUSSET 110 (MM)

Espresso bean bag with a cream label panel

FIG. 09-03Retail bean bag · 12 oz

MATTE ESPRESSO · CREAM LABEL PANELSEAL STAMPED ON BACK FOLD

Two greaseproof wrap sheets, dense and sparse, with a wrapped banh mi

FIG. 09-04Greaseproof wrap · two densities

GREASEPROOF STOCK · PMS 290C + 173C + 168C + 7401CDENSE 110 x 159 · SPARSE 180 x 220 (MM)

Molded pulp carrier holding two plaid cups, seal stamped on the front

FIG. 09-05Four-cup carrier

UNBLEACHED PULP · 1-COLOR TERRACOTTASEAL STAMP ONLY

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Menu

Menu system

This board specifies the menu system — category structure, iconography, and price hierarchy. Items, names, and prices below are illustrative, not the final offering.

ILLUSTRATIVE — MENU NOT FINAL

Coffee

Espressosingle shot, bright crema

3.75

Americanoespresso, hot water

4.25

Latteespresso, steamed milk

5.25

Cappuccinoequal parts foam & milk

5.00

Matcha

Matchastone-ground, whisked to order

5.00

Matcha Lattematcha, steamed milk

5.75

Strawberry Matcha Lattematcha, milk, strawberry purée

6.50

Signatures

Salted Cream Coffee condensed milk, whipped salted cream

5.50

Egg Coffee whipped egg cream, dark roast

6.00

Coconut Cold Brewcold brew, coconut cream

6.25

Condensed Milk Iced Coffeedark roast, sweetened condensed milk

5.00

Bakery & Bites

Butter Croissantcultured butter, laminated daily

4.25

Crème Caramel Flansilky egg custard, caramel

4.75

Lemongrass Tofu Sandwich pickled daikon, herbs

8.50

Salted Cream Coffee
condensed milk, whipped salted cream

5.50

right-aligned · tabular mono

NAMELexend SemiBold, Espresso — never the display serif.

DESCRIPTORLexend Regular, muted ink, one honest line.

PRICEPlex Mono, tabular, right-aligned to the rail.

ICONSHot/iced at left · must-try star on 3 items at most.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Stationery

Stationery & loyalty

FRONT · 3.5 × 2 IN · TERRACOTTA

FounderDaniel Hoang

hello@phinecoffee.com+1 415 555 01193500 Geary Blvd, SFphinecoffee.com

BACK · IVORY · 0.62 IN SEAL

LETTERHEAD · US LETTER

The Loom Card — loyalty

WOVEN TIER · AP

EMPTY

Free

Weave all ten. The tenth cup is on us.

HALF-WOVEN

Free

Five to go — the cloth is halfway there.

COMPLETE

Free

Woven. The tenth is yours, on the house.

Nine paid, the tenth free.Each visit stamps a thread module until the weave completes — redeemable at any PHINE shop. Rewards tier: WOVEN.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Signage

Exterior signage & window

PHINE storefront with a sky fascia, terracotta channel letters, and a blade seal sign

FIG. 09-06Storefront — sky fascia, terracotta channel letters (300 mm minimum), 3X clear space; double-sided blade seal.

woven in every drop

MON–FRI · 7 AM–6 PMSAT–SUN · 8 AM–6 PM

3500 GEARY BLVD · SAN FRANCISCO

FIG. 09-07Window vinyl — script at eye line, hours block, selvedge Nº2 across the glass third.

FASCIASky panel · terracotta channel letters · height 300 mm minimum.

BLADE18 mm sky square · double-sided seal · espresso bracket.

VINYLScript at 1500 mm eye line · mono numerals for hours.

Interior wayfinding — 150 × 150 mm terracotta-on-ivory acrylic icon plaques.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / POSM & Street

Point of sale & street

Made by hand, meant to stay.

Statement18 × 24 IN · TERRACOTTA + DISPLAY SERIF

Iced milk coffee on a wooden table in golden light

Product18 × 24 IN · IVORY + PHOTO + ESPRESSO FRAME

Pull up a chair — the neighborhood is already here.

Community18 × 24 IN · SKY + LONG-FORM

OPEN · 7 AM – 6 PMtake your time

A-BOARD

FLAG · 90° LG-05

Cafe umbrella from above, sky and ivory wedges

UMBRELLA · TOP VIEW

LG-05 — the only sanctioned wordmark rotation: 90° clockwise, reading top-to-bottom, on flags and spines. Nowhere else.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesChapter 09 · Applications

Applications / Digital

Digital product foundations

Core tokens · live site

--phine-app-bg#fffcf3 · cream-1

--phine-app-surface#ffffff · cream-0

--phine-app-heading#c13d1e · brand-6

--phine-app-text#7a2e17 · earth-8

--phine-app-text-softrgba(122,46,23,.78)

--phine-app-borderrgba(122,46,23,.14)

--phine-app-border-strongrgba(122,46,23,.28)

--phine-app-focus#c13d1e · brand-6

--phine-app-highlightrgba(215,243,255,.78)

Structure

z-indexbase 1 · header 100 · overlay 200 · modal 300

0 · images
pattern

xs · form
controls

8 · sheets
modals

Buttons & links

OrderPRIMARY

OrderHOVER · ESPRESSO

OrderFOCUS · RING 2PX

Links: espresso, underlined; terracotta on hover.

Feedback · fg / surface

Success#3f6b4a / #e6f0e6

Infosky-8 / sky-1

Warningcream-8 / cream-2

Errorbrand-7 / brand-1

Error shares brand red — disambiguated by surface + icon. UI only, never marketing.

UI icon language · 20×20 · 1.75 stroke

plus

check

cart

Round caps & joins, currentColor — the interactive counterpart to the brand pixel icons.

App icon & favicon

512

192

FAVICON 32

App = seal on ivory, bordered · favicon = the seal, full-bleed.

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesGlossary

Glossary / Rule index

Every rule, one line

The whole rulebook in shorthand. Each ID is the handle a review cites; each row points back to the page where the rule is set.

28 RULES

6 CHAPTERS

02 · Logo

LG-01One mark leads, never two.12 LG-02Never typeset; master SVG only.13 LG-03Clear space is 3x — the E's crossbar.14 LG-05One rotation: 90°, flags and spines.48 LG-06Pause glyph only where PHINE is named.16 LG-07Co-brands join at the woven cross.16 LG-11Never redraw, distort, or restyle.17

03 · Color

CO-04The day recipe: 60 / 30 / 10.21 CO-04bThe evening recipe — Espresso leads.21 CO-06AA is the floor; Terracotta 18px+.22 CO-08Named stops only; outside is misuse.20 CO-09Six approved pairings; never pure black.15

04 · Typography

TY-03Rag-right, never justified.26 TY-0445–75 characters, one face per block.26 TY-05Never track Playfair or Sacramento.26 TY-06Latin only; never carries information.24

05 · Layout & Spacing

LA-0130% of any composition stays empty.30 LA-02Everything sits on the column grid.29

06 · Graphic Elements

GR-03Threads never thinner than 0.5pt in print.33 GR-04Pattern never sits behind body text.33 GR-05Pattern coverage is capped at 25%.33 GR-06One to three fragments, never more.34 GR-07Recolor only in approved combinations.33 GR-08The logo always gets a solid field.33

08 · Voice & Copy

VO-04The tagline is never reworded.40 VO-07Vietnamese with care — diacritics always.39 VO-08Syllables keep their spaces — bạc xỉu.40 VO-09Established English forms win — Hanoi.40

Phine Coffee — Brand GuidelinesGlossary

Glossary / Figure index

Every figure, in place

Figures are numbered chapter-first — FIG. 02-04 is the fourth drawing in the logo chapter. Each row points to the page that holds it.

24 FIGURES

6 CHAPTERS

01 · Foundation

01-01Two threads meet — the crossing.06

02 · Logo

02-01Primary wordmark.12 02-02Secondary seal.12 02-03Wordmark anatomy and unit derivation.13 02-04Clear space, 3x on every side.14 02-05Three size tiers, baseline-aligned.14 02-06The seal, stacked in its border.16

05 · Layout & Spacing

05-01US Letter, 6-column print grid.29 05-02The warp — three vertical bands.29

06 · Graphic Elements

06-01One weave tile, in thread units.32 06-02The image frame — an espresso hairline.33 06-03Three sanctioned formats.33 06-04Coffee, exploded on its module grid.34 06-05The crossing — knotted at warp and weft.35 06-06The mark on a solid field, weave beneath.35 06-07Selvedge trim, the seal on a solid field.35

07 · Imagery

07-01Top-third type space, espresso frame.37

09 · Applications

09-01The cup family, and the 12 oz dieline.43 09-02Takeout bag.44 09-03Retail bean bag, 12 oz.44 09-04Greaseproof wrap, two densities.44 09-05Four-cup carrier.44 09-06Storefront — sky fascia and blade seal.47 09-07Window vinyl — script at eye line.47

Back matter / Asset index

The last drop

Master assets · handoff package

PHINE_wordmark_terracotta-ivory_1716x533.svgprimary lockup

PHINE_seal_terracotta-ivory_192x192.svgapp + stamp

PHINE_iconset_espresso_200x200.svg7 glyphs

PHINE_weave_terracotta-cream_256x256.svg3 patterns

PHINE_pauseglyph_terracotta_80x320.svgthe pause mark

Naming: PHINE_[asset]_[colorway]_[size].[ext]. These masters ship as a separate package — they are not stored in this repository. Fonts via Google Fonts under the SIL Open Font License.

Color is RGB / sRGB in this document; printed Pantone and CMYK are press references, not properties of this file.

Version & approval

Founding deckthe original working deck, 2025

Working Draftthis document, Jul 2026

Anything this book doesn't answer: brand@phinecoffee.com. We'd rather pause and get it right.

woven in every dropPHINE® Brand Guidelines · Working Draft · Woven in every drop.

The Constitution of the Pause

Contents

Who this is for

Rule language

Legend

The brand at a glance

Foundation

The story begins with a pause

What we are here to do

Four threads we weave by

Where we stand

How we carry ourselves

Logo

One voice, two marks

Use the wordmark

Use the seal

How the wordmark is built

Room to breathe

The unit x

The seal

The approved colorways

The seal, the glyph & lockups

The pause glyph

Sanctioned tagline lockup

Eight ways to break the logo

Color

Extended digital ramps

Roles, proportions & combinations

Combination matrix

Accessibility & color misuse

Color misuse

Typography

The type families

Hierarchy & scale

Digital treatments

Typesetting & Vietnamese

Typography misuse

Layout &Spacing

Grids & the warp

Digital breakpoints

Spacing tokens & the pause

GraphicElements

The weave, constructed

Built from thread

Pattern & image frames

Pixel-fragment icons

Construction

Graphic art, woven

Imagery

Photography art direction

Voice &Copy

How PHINE speaks

Vocabulary — the words we choose

Taglines & Vietnamese

The words we reuse

Boilerplates

Social captions

In-store signage

Applications

Cups

Packaging

Menu system

Coffee

Matcha

Signatures

Bakery & Bites

Stationery & loyalty

The Loom Card — loyalty

Exterior signage & window

Point of sale & street

Social templates

Digital product foundations

Every rule, one line

Every figure, in place

The last drop