Brand Bible · Melissa Suddath · July 2026

Identity

Your logo, color, and type. The look first.

02 · Brand in Use

What this looks like in the world.

Four examples of how the brand shows up across the surfaces you'll use most.

Example 01

Email Signature

Pre-built, ready to copy into Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail. Build yours on the Marketing page.

Example 02

Business Card

Front and back. Standard 3.5" × 2" with bleed area accounted for.

Clay Edition
Melissa Suddath
REALTOR® · Twin Cities
651.398.5507
melissa@soldwithsuddath.com
A real estate guide for real people.
Ink Edition
Melissa Suddath
Melissa Suddath
REALTOR® · Twin Cities
651.398.5507
melissa@soldwithsuddath.com
A real estate guide for real people.
Example 03

Social Media Templates

Instagram & Facebook branded posts. Two examples: a Just Listed and a Sold celebration.

Melissa Suddath
melissasuddath · 2h
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Just Listed
1842 Linden Ave
Minneapolis · Twin Cities
4 Beds 3 Baths 3,200 sq ft $1,250,000
For more information: link in bio
melissasuddath Okay listen — 1842 Linden Ave just hit the market. Four beds, three baths, and room for the next chapter. Come see it Sunday. 🏡 ... more
Melissa Suddath
melissasuddath · 1d
Twin Cities, Minnesota
Sold
Fourteen days.
Above asking.
Congratulations to the Andersons — the next chapter starts now.
Sold with Suddath · Twin Cities, MN
melissasuddath Fourteen days, above asking. Congratulations to the Andersons — relieved, excited, and in the house they actually wanted. That's the whole job. ... more
Example 04

Personal Website

Above-the-fold hero. Same lockup, same voice, same Warm Clay moments as the rest of the system.

soldwithsuddath.com
Sold with Suddath Pemberton Real Estate
Melissa Suddath
A REAL ESTATE GUIDE FOR REAL PEOPLE. · MELISSA SUDDATH

Real estate is complicated. That's why you need a guide— honest answers, real data, and someone actually present through the hard parts.

Sold with Suddath is a full-time, honest real estate practice for Twin Cities buyers and sellers navigating a life transition. Data-first guidance, straight answers, and someone who actually stays with you through it — from the strategy meeting to the keys.

See Client Stories Book a Strategy Meeting
Est. 2018
Twin Cities Real Estate
Full-Time
The Only Thing We Do
Six Steps
One Promise
Data-First
Every Recommendation
03 · Logo Rules

Do's & Never's

Always

  • Set the wordmark in Playfair Display, mixed case, with "with" in lowercase italic clay — it's the brand's voice.
  • Pair an Ink wordmark on Bone or Linen, or a Bone wordmark on Ink. On dark surfaces, "with" shifts to Taupe.
  • Give the mark clear space equal to the height of the capital S in Sold on every side. Let it breathe.
  • Use the full wordmark wherever space allows; the ms seal covers the small spots.
  • Set it on warm, neutral backgrounds. Bone, linen, or deep ink.

Never

  • Never set "Sold with Suddath" in uppercase. It's mixed case. Always.
  • Never use bold block letters, bright colors, or gradients on any part of the mark.
  • Never recolor "with" — it lives in clay (taupe on dark).
  • Never set the wordmark in any face other than Playfair Display. No Canva substitutions.
  • Never place it on busy photography without a neutral overlay.
  • Never stretch its proportions to fit a layout.
Logo & Icon Review

Okay listen, pick what feels right.

Here are the wordmarks, monograms, and icon marks we're considering for your brand. Click Select on anything you like. Leave a note on anything you'd adjust. Hit Send My Review when you're done and Blake will come back with revisions.

1Click Select on what you like
2Leave notes on anything to change
3Hit Send My Review — it comes straight to Blake
0 selected
Wordmark directions
Option 01
Mixed case — clay italic
Sold with SuddathEst. 2018 — Twin Cities
Playfair Display, lowercase "with" in warm clay italic. Editorial and refined, not shouty. Works as your primary on the site, email signature, and business cards.
Option 02
Stacked, with a rule
Sold
with
Suddath
Same word, stacked. The rules around "with" give it a little bit of craft without getting fussy. Good on title cards, printed pieces, or places where it needs a centered frame.
Option 03
All italic — signature feel
Sold with Suddath
— Melissa Suddath · REALTOR® —
All italic. Softer, more personal — almost like a handwritten signature. Pairs beautifully with lifestyle photography and social graphics. A warm alternative to the clean Option 01.
Option 04
Horizontal, clean
Sold with Suddath
Real Estate — Twin Cities, MN
A narrower horizontal treatment with a rule and locator. Sits naturally in email signatures, website nav bars, and letterhead. Quietest of the four options.
Icon marks — pick one

Six restrained icon directions. Refined, neutral, quiet — no bright colors, no emoji energy. Each works as a favicon, a sub-brand mark, or a watermark on photography. Click any icon to select, leave a note underneath if you'd adjust something.

The Doorway
Welcome · Threshold
The Key
Access · Ownership
Sprig
Organic · Warmth
The Home
Direct · Honest
Rising Sun
New Chapter · Calm
Initial Seal
Signature · Personal
Final thoughts or overall direction
04 · Color Palette

The Colors

Muted, intentional. The palette looks the same in print as on screen.

#7E6E5F · 126, 110, 95
Clay
Use it for
Single accent. The italic "with" in the wordmark, CTAs and buttons, link hovers, rules and underlines, and the dot in every mark. Never used for body copy or large fills.
#F7F3EC · 247, 243, 236
Bone
Use it for
Light canvas and default background for roughly 80% of every surface: website body, listing decks, social tiles, business cards, slide backgrounds, and email templates.
#EBE3D5 · 235, 227, 213
Linen
Use it for
Secondary surface. One quiet step below Bone: hero panels, section backgrounds, card stages, and any panel that needs to sit apart from the page without a border.
#D9D3C7 · 217, 211, 199
Mist
Use it for
Muted structure. Hairline borders, dividers, inactive states, captions, and supporting metadata. Never carries a headline and never competes with Clay.
#ACA193 · 172, 161, 147
Taupe
Use it for
Mid accent. The "with" on dark surfaces, quiet eyebrows on ink panels, and softer accents where clay would be too warm.
#5E5850 · 94, 88, 80
Stone
Use it for
Body copy on light backgrounds. Every paragraph, caption, and supporting sentence lives in Stone.
#1A1815 · 26, 24, 21
Ink
Use it for
The deepest layer. Headlines, the wordmark on light backgrounds, dark hero sections, photography overlays, and the website footer.
05 · Typography

Playfair for the soul. Inter for the copy.

Playfair Display for the wordmark and editorial moments. Inter for everything else.

H1 Playfair Display · 400 · 56px
Hero headlines on web. Cover of the listing presentation.
H2 Playfair Display · 400 · 36px
Section headers on web. Chapter openers in the buyer and seller guides.
H3 Playfair Display · 500 · 24px
Sub-section headers. Card titles. Pull quotes.
Body Inter · 400 · 16px
Default paragraph text on web, email, and printed collateral. 1.55 line height.
Eyebrow Inter · 500 · 12px
Uppercase eyebrows above section heads and on photo plates. 8% tracking.
Button Inter · 500 · 12px
Buttons and primary CTAs. Uppercase, 1.5px tracking, 500 weight.
06 · Photography

The look, not the gear.

Most personal brands die at the photo. These are the rules that keep every shot on-brand, whether it's a pro shoot or a phone in good light.

Always

  • Shoot horizontal for hero and environment work. Shoot vertical only for social and portraits.
  • Use natural light, low and side. Open the blinds, turn off every overhead, and move closer to the window.
  • Turn on grid lines and keep vertical lines vertical. Crooked doors break the brand.
  • Get closer than feels comfortable for moment shots. Hands, mugs, notebook pages, keys.
  • Show real work. Notebook, net sheet, kitchen table. Posed-with-arms-crossed is not the brand.

Never

  • Never use the flash. Not on the phone, not on listings, not at closings.
  • Never apply VSCO, Lightroom, or Snapseed auto filters. Color is brand-controlled and lives in the four hex codes.
  • Never shoot a listing in HDR mode. It blows out windows and flattens the wood tones we are paying for.
  • Never post a frame with a competitor's sign, a Sold rider, or a balloon arch in it.
  • Never crop a client's face out and call it candid. If it is a person shot, the person is the subject.
Identity · Headshot

The headshot, ready to hand off.

The approved photo behind this brand. Anyone building marketing for Melissa Suddath can pull the full-resolution original right here — no screenshots, no asking around.

Melissa Suddath headshot
Melissa Suddath

Full-resolution original, exactly as uploaded.

Guardrails

What we never do, and how we stay compliant.

17 · What We Never Do

Anti-Patterns

Visual

  • Bold block letters, bright colors, or gradients in any graphic. Warm, neutral, sophisticated — always.
  • A Nike-loud or Walmart-cheap look. No gold, no saturation, no noise.
  • Emoji parades. A thoughtful one occasionally — never a parade.
  • Listing photos in HDR mode with blown-out windows.
  • Stock photography of generic smiling couples in front of a sold sign.

Copy

  • "Leverage," "unlock," "supercharge," "synergy," "disrupt," "hustle," "ninja," "game-changer," "crushing it," "rockstar," "10x," "move the needle," "grind," "slay," "boss babe," or "deal of the week."
  • Grindset content. We are the opposite of that.
  • Flexing a lifestyle she isn't actually living. Substance over performance.
  • Talking about ourselves when we could be talking about a real client's real win.
  • Softening hard truths to make them easier to hear. Clients deserve honest answers — even the difficult ones.
Fair Housing · Compliance

Market the home, never the buyer.

Every line of your marketing must follow the Fair Housing Act and NAR Code of Ethics Article 10. The rule is simple: describe the property and the client's goals, never who "should" live somewhere.

Never

  • Reference a protected class: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or children, disability, age, marital status, source of income, or military status.
  • Say "family-friendly," "safe neighborhood," "good schools," "exclusive," "perfect for [a group]," or name a nearby house of worship.
  • Imply who belongs in a home or a neighborhood.

Instead

  • Describe features: space, layout, light, finishes, walkability, distance to transit and parks.
  • Frame your niche by situation and need (relocating, first purchase, downsizing), not by demographic.
  • Use "primary bedroom" instead of "master."

This is built-in guidance, not legal advice. Your broker has final say on compliance.