Performance kit you would wear to the office, and office clothes you could run in.
Vision
The reference for what performance looks like when nothing is added for show.
AXELIntroductionPage 5
Introduction
How to use this brandbook
This book is the single source of truth for AXEL. It is a living document, not a PDF: it is versioned, and the version you are reading is stated on the cover.
Read the strategy before the visual rules — almost every rule here follows from something decided in it.
Anything not covered: ask before inventing. A gap is a question, never a licence.
AXELBrand foundationPage 6
02
Brand foundation
The convictions everything downstream answers to.
AXELBrand foundationPage 7
Brand essence
Everything turns on one line.
Purpose
The brand in as few words as possible — what every decision is checked against.
Usage
Inside the company: briefs, reviews, onboarding. Not printed as a line.
AXELBrand foundationPage 8
Brand foundation
Belief
Discipline is the most elegant thing a person can wear.
Mission
Make the fewest, most exact garments for people who train every day.
AXELBrand foundationPage 9
Brand foundation
Positioning & USP
One colour. One idea. Every seam on the line you move along.
Brand promise
It will perform in the session, and it will be the best-cut thing you wear that day.
AXELBrand foundationPage 10
Reasons to believe
01
Seams mapped from motion capture of 40 runners
02
3-layer shell at 148 g
03
Bonded, not stitched, at every friction point
04
One drop per season
05
Made in Portugal and Japan
AXELBrand foundationPage 11
Tagline
Move on your axis.
Purpose
The promise, said in one breath to the outside world.
Usage
End of films and campaigns, packaging, the website hero, beside the logo in a lockup.
AXELBrand foundationPage 12
Brand foundation
Category point of view
Performance brands shout: slogans, neon, sweat, the podium. Fashion brands that go into sport make it a costume. The athlete who trains seriously and dresses seriously is served by neither.
Frame of reference
Prada for restraint, Nike ACG for engineering you can see, Rick Owens for silhouette, a Swiss watch for tolerance.
Differentiation
Engineering held to the standard of a couture house: every seam placed on the body's axis of movement, every garment one colour, every drop one idea.
AXELBrand foundationPage 13
Brand values
01
Precision
02
Discipline
03
Restraint
AXELAudiencePage 14
03
Audience
The people the brand is built for. Every decision traces back here.
AXELAudiencePage 15
Audience
Core consumer group
The disciplined — trains daily, buys rarely, expects the kit to perform and to look like nothing else.
Target audience
Urban athletes and collectors who already pay a premium for performance and for design, and have never had both in one garment.
Functional & emotional benefits
Fewer, better garments that do two jobs.
AXELAudiencePage 16
Personas
The disciplined25–45, Stockholm, London, Tokyo, New York. Runs before work, trains with a coach, owns Nike ACG, Satisfy and one Prada Linea Rossa piece. Buys fewer things and expects them to perform and to look like nothing else on the start line.
The collector20–35, Stockholm, Seoul, Tokyo, Los Angeles. Follows drops, never runs a marathon, wears the shell to dinner. Owns more technical outerwear than running shoes and buys the piece before the reviews are out. Small in number, loud in reach.
AXELBrand strategyPage 17
04
Brand strategy
How the brand is organised, and the rules the product obeys.
AXELBrand strategyPage 18
Brand strategy
Brand architecture
Branded house. AXEL is the brand; drops are numbered, never sub-branded. Garments are described, never named after athletes or places.
AXELBrand strategyPage 19
Brand strategy
Product philosophy
Nothing is added that does not do work. Seams follow the body's axis of movement; where fabric would rub it is bonded instead of stitched. One colourway per drop, so the cut is what you judge. A garment that cannot be worn after the session has failed.
AXELBrand strategyPage 20
Brand strategy
Naming & nomenclature
The label is AXEL, always in capitals, never Axel. Garments take their axis: Axis Shell, Axis Short, Axis Base. Drops are 001, 002, 003 — never Spring or SS27.
AXELBrand strategyPage 21
Brand strategy
20-year roadmap
2026 — Drop 001, the flagship as a 60-metre track, the training log in the app.
2028 — a shoe made in Japan, sold only in the flagship and online.
2032 — a repair and resole programme, and a second flagship in Tokyo.
AXELCommunication platformPage 22
05
Communication platform
What the brand says, and how the same message survives every format.
AXELCommunication platformPage 23
Core message
Engineered for the session. Cut for everything after.
Purpose
The one thing every message has to leave behind.
Usage
The website's opening line, pitch decks, press releases, the first sentence of sales copy.
AXELCommunication platformPage 24
Messaging pillars
01
The line — the axis the body turns on, in the seams, the symbol and the names. For the runner who reads construction.
02
The session — engineered to be trained in daily, proven in grams and minutes. For the sceptic.
03
The drop — one colour, one idea, no discount cycle. For the collector.
AXELCommunication platformPage 25
Communication platform
Product messaging framework
Every product is described in the same order: what it is · what it is made of · what it weighs · where the seams sit · what it costs. Never open with an adjective, and never claim a feeling the garment cannot deliver.
AXELCommunication platformPage 26
Communication platform
Language system
Garments are named for their axis: Axis Shell, Axis Short. Drops are numbered, never named: 001, 002, 003.
Message translation
The disciplined — lead with grams, seams and the session. Proof first.
The collector — lead with the drop, the colour and the image. Story first.
Wholesale buyer — lead with sell-through, one colourway and the price ladder.
Brand manifesto
We add nothing that does not do work. We leave out nothing the session needs. We put every seam on the line the body moves along.
AXELTone & impactPage 27
06
Tone & impact
How the brand sounds — and what that makes possible.
AXELTone & impactPage 28
Tone & impact
Tone of voice
AXEL speaks like a coach reading a split time: calm, exact and brief. It states what the garment does, gives the measurement, and stops.
Tone principles
Use few words, all of them exact. Put the number before the adjective. Never tell anyone to push harder.
Tone spectrum
From a training plan to a runway note. Never a slogan.
AXELTone & impactPage 29
Headline examples
01
Move on your axis.
02
One colour. One idea. One drop.
03
148 grams. Three layers.
04
Bonded, not stitched, where it rubs.
05
Engineered for the session. Cut for everything after.
06
The line is the product.
AXELTone & impactPage 30
Tone & impact
What this enables
A single shoe per season, a training programme published with each drop, and a flagship that is a track before it is a shop.
AXELTone & impactPage 31
Tone & impact
Brand narrative
Performance brands shout at you and fashion brands dress you up. In between stands the person who trains every day and also cares what the garment looks like on the way home. In figure skating the axel is the only jump taken facing forward, and the hardest to land: one and a half turns around a single line. Everything the body does well happens around an axis, and so does everything this label makes.
AXELTone & impactPage 32
Tone & impact
Strategic do's and don'ts
Do lead with the measurement. Do show the body as form. Don't use exclamation marks. Don't use the words beast, grind, unleash or hustle.
AXELLogotypePage 33
07
Logotype
The mark, the room it needs, and how it must never be used.
AXELLogotypePage 34
The mark
Clear space — The cap height of the wordmark on every side.
Clear space — A quarter of the symbol's width on every side.
AXELLogotypePage 35
On backgrounds
AXELLogotypePage 36
Never do
Never tracked out, never outlined, never in more than one colour.
AXELLogotypePage 37
Primary logo
Clear space — The cap height of the wordmark on every side.
AXELLogotypePage 38
Secondary logo
Clear space — A quarter of the symbol's width on every side.
AXELLogotypePage 39
Responsive / optimised versions
Large — 120 px and up
Medium — 48 to 120 px
Small — below 48 px
AXELLogotypePage 40
Clear space diagram
XX
The cap height of the wordmark on every side. No other element may enter the dashed area — not type, not an image edge, not a partner mark.
AXELLogotypePage 41
Placement principles
Top left — default
Centred — covers and signage
Bottom right — endorsement
The dashed line is the margin from the layout system. The mark never crosses it, and never sits closer to another element than its own clear space.
AXELLogotypePage 42
Incorrect usage
Never stretch or condense.
Never rotate.
Never recolour the mark.
Never add effects.
Never reduce the opacity.
Never alter the proportions.
AXELLogotypePage 43
Co-branding lockups
Partner mark
Side by side — equal partners
Partner mark
Stacked — endorsement
The divider is one grid unit; the partner mark is scaled to match the optical height of ours, never the literal height. Neither mark may sit inside the other's clear space. Where a partner's own guidelines conflict with these, theirs govern their mark and ours governs ours.
AXELColourPage 44
08
Colour
Roles before values. Every combination is contrast-checked.
AXELColourPage 45
Core palette
Pitch
Paper
Carbon
Cobalt
Signal
AXELColourPage 46
Shades
Derived from the core colours — never hand-picked.
Pitch
Cobalt
Signal
AXELColourPage 47
Accessibility
Every ratio below is computed, not claimed.
AaCarbon
Carbon on Paper17.72:1 · AAA
AaCarbon
Carbon on Pitch8.73:1 · AAA
AaSignal
Signal on Carbon6.31:1 · AA
AaCobalt
Cobalt on Paper5.68:1 · AA
AaCobalt
Cobalt on Carbon3.12:1 · AA large
AaSignal
Signal on Paper2.81:1 · not for text
AaCobalt
Cobalt on Pitch2.80:1 · not for text
AaPaper
Paper on Pitch2.03:1 · not for text
AaSignal
Signal on Cobalt2.02:1 · not for text
AaSignal
Signal on Pitch1.38:1 · not for text
AXELColourPage 48
Accessibility · the rules
Text of any size4.5:1 or more
Paper on Carbon 17.7:1
Carbon on Paper 17.7:1
Pitch on Carbon 8.7:1
Carbon on Pitch 8.7:1
Carbon on Signal 6.3:1
Signal on Carbon 6.3:1
Paper on Cobalt 5.7:1
Cobalt on Paper 5.7:1
Large text only3:1 — 24 px, or 18.7 px bold
Carbon on Cobalt 3.1:1
Cobalt on Carbon 3.1:1
Never for textUnder 3:1 — lines, fills, decoration
Paper on Signal 2.8:1
Signal on Paper 2.8:1
Pitch on Cobalt 2.8:1
Cobalt on Pitch 2.8:1
Pitch on Paper 2.0:1
Paper on Pitch 2.0:1
Cobalt on Signal 2.0:1
Signal on Cobalt 2.0:1
Pitch on Signal 1.4:1
Signal on Pitch 1.4:1
Motion. With reduced motion switched on, nothing moves: no slides, no 30 px entrances. Fades up to 100 ms stay, everything else is still.
Text size. Body text no smaller than 16 px on screen and 9 pt in print. Captions 13 px at the least.
Images. Every image that carries meaning has alt text that says what it shows and why it is there. Decorative images have empty alt text.
Colour alone. Colour never carries meaning on its own — a status, an error, a link also has a word, an icon or an underline.
AXELColourPage 49
Colour usage examples
Pitch10%
Paper60%
Carbon25%
Cobalt2%
Signal3%
Surface carries the page, ink carries the words, and the accent is spent once. A layout where the accent competes with the surface is the most common way this system goes wrong.
AXELColourPage 50
Incorrect colour usage
Aa
Pitch on Paper — 2.03:1, insufficient
Aa
Pitch on Cobalt — 2.80:1, insufficient
Aa
Pitch on Signal — 1.38:1, insufficient
Aa
Paper on Pitch — 2.03:1, insufficient
AXELTypographyPage 51
09
Typography
A display face for presence, a text face for reading.
Google FontsFree for web and printWeights: 400, 500, 700
AXELTypographyPage 54
Type scale
Style
Size
Line height
Tracking
Sample
Display
76 px
0.95
-0.03em
AXEL
H1
54 px
1.0
-0.02em
AXEL
H2
38 px
1.1
-0.02em
AXEL
H3
27 px
1.2
-0.01em
AXEL
Body
17 px
1.6
0
AXEL
Caption
13 px
1.5
0.02em
AXEL
AXELTypographyPage 55
Hierarchy in use
AXEL
The same page, set to the scale in this book
Display carries the argument; the text face carries the evidence. Nothing in a layout should need a third size that is not on the scale — if it does, the hierarchy is the problem, not the type.
Display — SyneText — Geist
AXELTypographyPage 56
Pairing examples
AaSyne — displayGoogle Fonts · 400, 600
AaGeist — textGoogle Fonts · 400, 500, 700
AXELTypographyPage 57
Do's and don'ts
AXEL
Display for headlines only.
AXEL
Never set body text in the display face.
AXEL
Text face at its designed tracking.
AXEL
Never letterspace running text.
AXEL
One weight change per hierarchy step.
AXEL
Never stack italic and caps.
AXELIconographyPage 58
10
Iconography
Stroke weight, corner treatment, and the grid icons are drawn on.
AXELIconographyPage 59
Iconography
Principles
Geometric, 2-unit strokes on a 24 grid, cut at 45 degrees like the symbol: distance, pace, layer, weather, weight.
AXELIconographyPage 60
Icon grid system
Icons are drawn on a 24 px artboard with a 2 px keyline, on the same 8 px base unit as every other measurement in the system. Square shapes fill the keyline; circular shapes overshoot it slightly so the two read at the same optical size.
AXELArt directionPage 61
11
Art direction
How imagery is chosen, treated and cropped.
AXELArt directionPage 62
Art direction
Principles
Sport as energy, not as armour. Shot from below against saturated open sky, mid-air at the top of the jump, or at night with direct flash and film grain. Real colour: volt, cobalt sky, orange track. Candid faces, real joy and real effort, motion blur where the body moves fastest.
Never
Never a dark gym, never a posed smile to camera, never a monochrome mood.
AXELArt directionPage 63
Product imagery
AXELArt directionPage 64
Lifestyle imagery
AXELArt directionPage 65
Abstract visuals
AXELArt directionPage 66
Light, tone and atmosphere
AXELArt directionPage 67
Do's and don'ts
Do — As shot: full colour, the subject given room.
Never desaturate or push the contrast.
Never tilt the frame.
Do — Light and colour as the brand found them.
Never add a colour cast or filter.
Never crop into the subject.
AXELMaterial languagePage 68
12
Material language
How the brand speaks about what it is made of — without overclaiming.
AXELMaterial languagePage 69
Material language
Philosophy
Make the garments in matte technical nylon, bond the seams, and fit brushed steel hardware. Print on heavy black card. Keep every surface matte: nothing is glossy.
AXELMaterial languagePage 70
Material close-up
AXELMaterial languagePage 71
Texture
AXELMaterial languagePage 72
Material comparison
AXELGrid & spacingPage 73
13
Grid & spacing
The layout system every surface inherits.
AXELGrid & spacingPage 74
Grid & spacing
System
A strict 12-column grid. Photographs sit inside the columns with a clean margin around them, one image at a time; text aligns to the same columns.
AXELGrid & spacingPage 75
Layout system
Token
Value
Corner radius
0
Base unit
8px
Columns
12
Margin
0
Max width
1600px
AXELGrid & spacingPage 76
Grid diagram
Corner radius0
Base unit8px
Columns12
Margin0
Max width1600px
AXELGrid & spacingPage 77
Layout examples
Editorial — 8 of 12
Split — 6 and 6
Full bleed
AXELMotionPage 78
14
Motion
How the brand moves — easing, tempo, and what motion is for.
AXELMotionPage 79
Motion
Principles
Fast in, exact stop. Motion is a sprint start, not a float — short duration, hard ease, no bounce.
AXELMotionPage 80
Storyboard
0 ms — the surface alone.
120 ms — the mark rises on the curve.
300 ms — in place. Nothing overshoots.
Move on your axis.
480 ms — the line follows.
AXELMotionPage 81
Easing & timing
Energetic — cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)Fast in, fast out. Motion as punctuation.
Fast · 100 msHover, buttons, toggles
Standard · 180 msCards, panels, fields opening
Slow · 300 msPage changes, full screen, reveals
The mark enters: 30 px, 300 ms, the signature curve
Transform and opacity only. Every motion has a still equivalent: with reduced motion switched on, nothing on this page moves.
AXELPackagingPage 82
15
Packaging
Look, material, finishing — and the feeling of opening it.
AXELPackagingPage 83
Packaging
Direction
A rigid black box with the symbol debossed on the lid and the drop number in infrared on the edge.
Substrate & print
1.5 mm black greyboard wrapped in uncoated black paper. The symbol blind-debossed, no ink. The drop number screen-printed in a single pitch-green line on the edge. No plastic inside: the garment folds around a black card insert.
AXELPackagingPage 84
Box
AXELPackagingPage 85
Tag & wrapping
AXELPackagingPage 86
Unboxing
AXELBrand in usePage 87
16
Brand in use
The identity where people actually meet it.
AXELBrand in usePage 88
Website
Products · About · Contact
Move on your axis.
See the range
Black and white pages, one image at a time, framed in the grid. The product page leads with the measurement, not the mood.
AXELBrand in usePage 89
Brand in use
Digital
The app is a training log first and a shop second. Every drop arrives as a session.
AXELBrand in usePage 90
Social post formats
Move on your axis.
Engineered for the session.
One colour.
148 grams.
Bonded, not stitched, where it rubs.
The line is the product.
One image per post, never a carousel of product. The symbol, never the wordmark, in the corner.
AXELBrand in usePage 91
Campaign
Move on your axis.
Out of home · 3×6 m
Drop 001: one athlete, one jump, one frame of the landing.
AXELBrand in usePage 92
Print & stationery
AXEL
Print on heavy uncoated black stock. Set type in white foil, and blind-deboss the split disc without ink.
AXELBrand in usePage 93
Blind emboss
EmbossedDebossed
AXELBrand in usePage 94
Envelopes & tape
C4
C5
DL
AXELMerchandisePage 95
17
Merchandise
What the brand puts its name on when it does not have to.
AXELMerchandisePage 96
Merchandise
Merch is three objects: a black waterproof tote, a steel bottle, a cap. Each carries the symbol only, never the wordmark.
AXELMerchandisePage 97
Merchandise
Application rules
The symbol only, never the wordmark, at one size: 30 mm on caps and bags, 60 mm on bottles. Pitch green or white on black, black on off-white. Nothing on the back.
AXELEnvironment & signagePage 98
18
Environment & signage
The brand at architectural scale.
AXELEnvironment & signagePage 99
Signage
The flagship is a 60-metre indoor track with the product along one wall. Signage is the symbol, cut from steel.
AXELEnvironment & signagePage 100
Environment & signage
Materials & fabrication
Brushed steel and black powder-coated aluminium. The symbol is cut through, never printed. Wayfinding in pitch-green vinyl on white concrete, set in Syne at a minimum cap height of 120 mm.
