---
title: Branding Guidelines
---

# Branding Guidelines

## DEV Theme

DEV's design inspiration is meant to be a throwback. In personality and design it is ATARI inspired. Magazines like PAPER are also an inspiration in terms of being a [bold contrast with some more indy](https://www.google.com/search?biw=1440&bih=780&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=KSN8W5WVLoy55gLI77TgBA&q=paper+magazine+cover&oq=paper+magazine+cover).

We also think in terms of how people use the DEV brand for their own purposes. Profiles are very much public-facing records of what people have put out into the world. `dev.to/{username}` is your dev identity.

Imagine a developer's face with the DEV heading above them. If we existed in the 80's we would have been "DEV MAGAZINE", with the exact same branding.

## Branding Rules

- [Joystick](http://www.pixelsagas.com/?download=joystick) should be used for logos, not for headlines/phrases
- Black and white is our default logo but the logo can be drawn in any color
- DEV is "old school cool"
- We use bold shadows (no gradient) for boxes
- We have a minimal approach to importing dependencies, so few if any custom fonts on-site for that reason.
- Refer to the `variables.css` [file in our main repo](https://github.com/thepracticaldev/dev.to/blob/master/app/assets/stylesheets/variables.scss) to reference commonly-used colors and fonts.

## Acknowledgments

- We use the [Joystick](http://www.pixelsagas.com/?download=joystick) font by Neale Davidson and [Pixel Sagas](http://www.pixelsagas.com/) for the DEV Logo. We have a commercial license.
- Thank you to [EmojiOne](https://www.emojione.com/) for providing free emoji icons.
