Brand Guidelines
The Spine is live. We are active, agile, restless and resilient.
The Spine is live. We are active, agile, restless and resilient.
We are powering up communities, connecting neighbourhoods, designing for density and fuelling momentum. Now is the time to invest in an ambitious and energised Sheffield.
Brand Elements
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE
If you’ve landed here then you’re someone who wants to celebrate and shout about Sheffield Innovation Spine. You are inspired by our city’s urban innovation district, and you want to inspire others. You believe that the Spine adds value to your own story, and that collectively we are stronger.
We want to make it easy for you to champion the Spine in a way that is consistent and that helps build our shared narrative. If you have any ideas about what else we can do to support each other, please email participate@sheffieldinnovationspine.com
On this page, you’ll find links to our brand elements and accessible tools and guidelines. Consistency in the way we look and sound will support us in our goal to build strong brand relationships and transition the Spine from ambition to action. This will be a team effort and we’re very pleased to be collaborating with you.
The Spine is live, and now is the time to get involved in an energised urban innovation district in the centre of Sheffield.
ABOUT THE BRAND - THE HISTORY
Sheffield Innovation Spine started life in 2024 with a twenty-year ambition to drive forward spaces and facilities for knowledge-led businesses to thrive in Sheffield city centre.
A response to market demand (startup and scaling businesses with no access to specialist space in Sheffield), the Spine brought together local government, business and university partners to address the lack of dedicated innovation spaces in the city.
An enabler for high-growth knowledge-led businesses, the Spine had a remit to design for density and attract real estate investors and occupiers to Sheffield city centre. Initially, the work focused on ‘discovery’, ‘project development’ and ‘partnership working’. These principles helped shaped our way of working and our agile and restless culture.
The brand identity for the Spine, including our values, evolved organically over the first 12 months but was not formalised until May 2026, when the partnership launched its new communication channels and a content series to supercharge stakeholder engagement and clearly articulate the proposition.
The Spine brand statement ‘the Spine is live’ intentionally signals the ‘launch of activity’. It is designed to build on existing momentum and nudge behaviour towards engagement.
Powered up by partners; South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and Sheffield Technology Parks. The Spine is a collaboration, convening key institutions (each with their own established brands) and the wider innovation ecosystem. The Spine, a physical manifestations of proper partnership working in the region, adds value to partners and the wider ecosystem, who proudly champion the Spine mission.
The Spine’s Brand Values are an authentic representation of our people, place and purpose. They connect to Sheffield, and specifically to our innovation community and our ‘test and learn’, ‘grow and evolve’, approach to delivery. The values confidently define the Spine’s culture and identity - including how we look, feel and sound.
Active: Launching, delivering, convening, supercharging, seeding.
Agile: Iterating, responsive, real-time, test and learn, leaning in.
Restless: Energised, curious, mission driven, catalyst, momentum.
Resilient: Hardwired into policy, enduring, de-risking, sustainable, vibrant.
How we looked in the early days:
How does Sheffield Innovation Spine look and sound today?
Our Mission
Supercharging South Yorkshire's economy by curating sustainable developments, designing for density, growing our knowledge-led sectors and trading globally.
Our Value-add
We are active, agile, restless and resilient. Collectively, we are removing barriers to innovation so that people stay near and go far.
LOGO
A typographical logo, we reinforce our place and purpose through our name. The angles, lettering blocks, text alignment and colour are a translation of our brand values - active, agile, restless and resilient.
Authentic to the Sheffield story, the letter formations nod to our industrial heritage, and the alignment signals the activity of a restless urban innovation district delivering change.
The ‘S’ and the ‘N’ in ‘Spine’ signal the physical Spine route through Sheffield city centre, connecting 5 mixed used neighbourhoods and hyper local innovation hubs.
The symmetry between these two letters offers onward design opportunities and the ‘S’ specifically is a ‘stand-alone’ element used for watermarks and other visual symbols.
‘Who, what and where’ we are, is what anchors the brand and these words matter - especially at this stage in our development.
The primary logo (the full lock-up) uses the resilient ‘Deep Blue’ for the words ‘Sheffield Innovation’ and the ultra active ‘Mint’ for the word ‘Spine’. We lead with the primary logo, to build brand awareness and recognition. In step with the wider identity, the logo is designed with people, place and purpose in mind, and so the full logo-suite supports many use-case scenarios to make life (and comms) easy for you.
Who can use the logo, when to use it and how to use it?
WHO
The fact that you’re here and reading this probably makes you a Spine Ambassador (unless you just really like reading brand guidelines). Being an Ambassador does NOT require anything more than you probably already do - it just means that you see the value in the Spine and that you are motivated to build a shared narrative for our city and our innovation community, that benefits us all.
You can use the logo (and wider design assets) for your print and digital content that positively presents Spine activity, relationships, and value-add. Just ask, and we will support you to do this.
WHY & WHEN DO I USE THE LOGO?
Ask yourself - do my values align with Spine values? Is my story one of a global, green and growing city? Does the Spine, it’s mission, and its community, strengthen my own story and proposition? If the answer is yes, you will likely get value from the positive brand association that comes when using the Spine logo and NOW is the time to use it.
Using the Spine logo in your storytelling aligns you and your content to a live urban innovation district in the centre of Sheffield - one that is building for people, connecting communities, designing for density and seeding growth. The Spine brings people together around one shared mission and builds on the strengths of our region. The Spine is live, is a narrative that’s authentic, current and compelling to people inside and outside of South Yorkshire.
HOW & WHERE DO I USE THE LOG0?
Using the Spine logo connects you and your comms to a wider mission - an active urban innovation district that is curating sustainable developments, designing for density, growing our knowledge-led sectors and trading globally.
Use the logo in your presentations with stakeholders, funders, customers, businesses associates, inside or outside the city.
Feature it In your pitch deck or prospectus - on your event banner - in your value proposition - on your building signage or in your welcome pack for new colleagues or students.
By using the logo you are signalling that Sheffield is a city investing in people and place - where partners from across business, academia, local government and communities collaborate to cluster innovation assets and connect networks that grow business, attract investment, create jobs and seed economic growth across South Yorkshire.
Examples of possible use cases for the logo:
Placemaking material
Occupier collateral
Innovation showcases
Investor pitch decks
Trade missions
Built environment propositions
Innovation community events
Innovation Hub signage and waymarking
Digital platforms
Used alone or alongside your own brand, without distortion and following the space and size rules below, the logo represents the full Spine partnership: South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and Sheffield Technology Parks.
If you wish to use the Spine logo alongside the wider brand marks of the partnership, please reach out to partners directly, as each organisation has their own set of brand guidelines that we can’t advise on.
PRIMARY LOGO - HORIZONTAL
LOGO VARIATION AND USAGE
Secondary variations include colour and white-out alternatives of the stacked logo, vertical and icon-only marks. Vertical logos are considered less ‘readable’ than the Primary stacked horizontal logo, but are recognisable in shape and colour and intentionally lean into the design-values of the rotatable ‘S’ and ‘N’ that represent the walkable route of Sheffield Innovation Spine. Icon-only marks are for use as design elements, on specific assets, or as social media icons only.
VERTICAL
The use case: Vertical logo is used when the design shape demands it i.e. flags, portrait documents, narrow signage.
Consideration should be given to the user, purpose and accessibility of the communications.
In this use-case, the audience will most-likely connect with the brand design (shapes, colour, setting) rather than reading the brand name in the same way as the horizontal lock-up.
‘S’ FOR ‘SPINE’
The use case: S is used for watermarks, social media icons, as a graphic design element, and as a photo frame shape.
LOGO USAGE
The logo in its various form, is available in transparent png for digital use and as an eps file for print. Download from XXXXXXXX.
DIGITAL
Min width 25mm - business card
Min width 120px
When used alongside Sheffield Inspires, we refer to the Sheffield Inspires Brand Principles and the Marketing Sheffield team.
Use the ‘S’ height and width to create a margin for consistent spacing.
COLOUR
PRIMARY COLOURS
DEEP BLUE
C 100 M 100 Y 0 K 50
#201452
SECONDARY COLOURS
BLUE
C 70 M 0 Y 10 K 0
#07ddff
ORANGE
C 0 M 70 Y 70 K 0
#ff6c50
MINT
C 75 M 0 Y 45 K 0
#02d3b9
RED
C 0 M 95 Y 30 K 0
#f82f6c
BLURPLE
C 100 M 100 Y 0 K 0
#312783
SILVER
C 20 M 5 Y 0 K 0
#d9e5f6
COLOUR COMBINATIONS AND ACCESSIBILITY
When using colour combinations we consider the user experience and likely medium. As a guide, dark colours like the ‘Deep Blue’ should be overlayed on the lighter colours like ‘Silver’ and vice versa.
TYPOGRAPHY
Spine uses two distinctive sans-serif typefaces that deliver excellent legibility across mediums. Both are open access Google fonts. Upper-case Sora Regular 0.95 spacing for headline text and lowercase Sora light 1.10 spacing for features/intro text.
This helps to ensure that our titles and statements have the space and the presence to deliver the required impact.
Main body text uses Funnel Sans Light with 1.20 spacing and is left aligned with clear margins. Font Size should flex to the needs of the design and the medium but as rule of thumb: go big with your featured text, go bigger with you headline text, and never fall below 12pts for your body text.
FONT ACCESS AND BACK-STORY
Sora — Headline and feature/intro text https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Sora
Sora, meaning sky in Japanese, is a typeface family commissioned for the Sora decentralised autonomous economy focused on empowering projects that benefit society. Soramitsu, the developer of Sora, is a Japanese technology company specialising in blockchain development and well-known for creating the first central bank digital currency.
Funnel Sans — Body copy https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Funnel+Sans
Funnel Sans is a modern sans-serif typeface that boasts clarity and character. Originally developed by NORD ID and Kristian Möller for Funnel, it is inspired by the movement and shapes of data points. Funnel Sans is a functional yet personal sans-serif, featuring both square and circular shapes in its letterforms.
TYPESETTING AND HIERARCHY
VOICE
We are doers - we make things happen. We sound and look like action, like energy - we confidently speak with ambition and authenticity. We connect the dots and curate the proposition - we celebrate each other and amplify successes. Through our tone of voice we exhume purpose, passion and momentum. The words we use and the way we use them is shaped by our values: active, agile, restless and resilient.
BRAND VOICE
If clarity is your happy place, this should bring you joy.
WE DO
Introduce Sheffield Innovation Spine in full, before shortening to Spine.
Talk about ‘the Spine’ and only capitilise ‘The’ at the start of a sentence.
Talk about our partnership positively and in full.
Sheffield Innovation Spine is powered by a partnership with purpose: South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, Sheffield City Council, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, and Sheffield Technology Parks.
Use language that speaks to a ‘live’ urban innovation district and signals that now is the time to invest in an energised and ambitious Sheffield.
Words like ‘active’, ‘agile’ restless’ and ‘resilient’. Use phrases like ‘we are’ ‘we do’ ‘this is’ ‘our rate of change’ ‘delivering’ ‘doing’ ‘launching’.
WE DON’T
Use Sheffield Innovation Spine in full throughout the copy - it won’t help your copy flow with the agility or energy you crave.
Abbreviate Sheffield Innovation Spine using acronyms (for example IS or SIS) - it excludes people and reduces understanding.
Speak for our partners or represent their individual views or organisations - instead we represent the shared purpose and agreed Spine activity.
Use language that positions Spine activity as theoretical, academic or project-based.
We have transitioned from a 20 year ambition to live delivery, clearly signalling ‘now is the time’. Our language reflects this change in pace.
NARRATIVE
The Spine is live is our Spine’s brand statement. It is intentionally used before or after key messages, as a stand alone statement, as a hashtag, and to curate content.
Repeating ‘the Spine is live’ helps to build a compelling and memorable narrative that connects with our key audiences.
‘Live’ tells a story about our rate of change, our live data that de-risks investment, real-time maps that illustrate growth, and active conversations. It profiles our test and learn approach, growth mindset, and the market momentum that clearly signals; ‘now is the time’. ‘Live’ overtly and purposefully transitions the Spine from a 20-year ambition to an active and energised urban innovation district.
Our proposition is how we add value.
PARTNERSHIP
Partnering with a shared purpose, passion and the power to deliver.
POSITIONING
We are growing Sheffield’s reputation as a global, green and growing city with exceptional people, research and business capabilities, in advanced manufacturing, digital and technology, health and wellbeing and clean energy.
SPINE EFFECT
Our laser focused approach to ‘designing for density’ and ‘building narrative’ is seeding innovation-led economic growth across South Yorkshire.
PARTNERSHIP
Partnering with a shared purpose, passion and the power to deliver.
POSITIONING
We are growing Sheffield’s reputation as a global, green and growing city with exceptional people, research and business capabilities, in advanced manufacturing, digital and technology, health and wellbeing and clean energy.
We build narrative using three storytelling pillars, leveraging stories that showcase our talent, trade and place.
PEOPLE
We spotlight our founders, spinouts, innovation-led business communities, skilled workforce, researchers, and knowledge applied students. We tell stories that celebrate, connect and elevate our collaborators, thinkers, doers, creators and visionaries. Our tone and content signals a live and dynamic talent pipeline for business startups, scale ups and inward investors. The Spine tells stories of people that ‘stay near and go far’ - the founders that are raising, the researchers that are disrupting, and the rich and diverse talent that fuels business growth.
TRADE
Our distinct capability sectors, anchor brands and finance-raising startups. The Spine is the engine-room for the region’s signature sectors, powering up growth in advanced manufacturing, digital and tech, health and wellbeing, and clean energy. Specifically, we signal momentum by telling stories about our differentiating strengths in physical tech and deep tech.
PLACE
Spanning 190 acres within Sheffield city centre, connecting five distinct mixed-use neighbourhoods, bookended by two world class universities, with hyper-local innovation clusters connecting exceptional people, knowledge-intensive jobs, and specialist R&D facilities.
The Spine sparks innovation, incubates talent and inspires growth across South Yorkshire and the North. Stories of proper partnership working and joined up thinking driving place-based innovation, the Spine delivers economic growth by designing for density whilst consciously connecting, regenerating and activating city centre neighbourhoods - each with their own distinct cultural offer, creative energy, and championing community.
The Spine is a ‘destination’ for clustering businesses, research and talent. A place where innovators choose to locate, where businesses choose to start up and grow, and where people choose to live, work, study and play. The Spine inspires a new wave of innovation-led economic growth in the region - the Spine is live.
PHOTOGRAPHY
We are active agile, restless and resilient and our photography style speaks to these values. Our people are our greatest asset and are front and centre in our photography. Quality and relatable images help us to connect audiences with stories about our talented community, businesses and place. Wherever possible, we will lead with ‘people innovating cool stuff’ and the spaces and places that convene this.
DITHER
Choose a photo.
To signal motion, energy and activity, we use a dither effect for both motion graphics and on still photography. For those of you with access to photoshop, the dither effect can be applied over the top of photos as a filter and to bring unity to a range of photographic styles and mediums.
Apply the dither filter (Photoshop required).
Resize and position the image to accompany copy.
A colour block can be added behind the text if the legibility is compromised.
GRAPHICS
We apply and repeat recognisable illustrations, graphic elements and motion to build brand recognition.
We are powering up communities, connecting neighbourhoods, designing for density and fuelling momentum. Now is the time to invest in an ambitious and energised Sheffield. Inspired by Sheffield, we look like action, like energy, like innovation - in a modern, urban setting.
BRAND APPLICATION EXAMPLES
DIGITAL APPLICATIONS
PRINT AND PRODUCT APPLICATIONS
AND THAT’S A WRAP
You’re all set to crack on and champion Sheffield Innovation Spine. We hope you feel proud to be associated with the brand and to be part or our collective innovation story.
Thank you for sharing our mission to supercharge South Yorkshire's economy. By speaking with one voice about our live urban innovation district, we are signalling that now is the time to invest in an ambitious and energised Sheffield.
Together, we will shine a light on the Spine’s success curating sustainable developments, designing for density, growing our knowledge-led sectors and trading globally.
Let’s celebrate our people, place and purpose and shout loudly and proudly about Sheffield.
Tell us about your stories so we can share your good news from the Spine: participate@sheffieldinnovationspine.com
Get in touch today if we can help: participate@sheffieldinnovationspine.com