Partner-led counsel at a fixed fee, written so you understand every page you sign.
Vision
The firm founders recommend to each other by name.
Johnsson & PaulssonIntroductionPage 5
Introduction
How to use this brandbook
This book is the single source of truth for Johnsson & Paulsson. 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.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 6
02
Brand foundation
The convictions everything downstream answers to.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 7
Brand essence
Calm is a legal skill.
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 8
Brand foundation
Belief
Clarity is a form of respect.
Mission
Give owner-led companies counsel that is as considered as their products.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 9
Brand foundation
Positioning & USP
Clear counsel for companies that care how things are made.
Brand promise
You will understand every page you sign.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 10
Reasons to believe
01
Partner-led from the first meeting
02
Fixed fee agreed before the work starts
03
Plain-language summary on page one of every document
04
Two partners, forty years between them
05
One office, no branch network
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 11
Tagline
Settled, in writing.
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 12
Brand foundation
Category point of view
Law firms still sell weight: columns, navy, gold and handshakes. Design-literate owners read that as distance.
Frame of reference
The same founders who already choose Acne Studios, Aesop and Svenskt Tenn — read for their restraint, not copied for their look.
Differentiation
A law firm built like a design studio: paper, space, one warm colour, and documents written so the founder can forward them.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand foundationPage 13
Brand values
01
Clarity
02
Composure
03
Care
Johnsson & PaulssonAudiencePage 14
03
Audience
The people the brand is built for. Every decision traces back here.
Johnsson & PaulssonAudiencePage 15
Audience
Core consumer group
The design-literate founder — runs a brand people know and has never trusted a firm with a stock photo of a handshake.
Target audience
Founders and owners of design-led companies.
Functional & emotional benefits
You understand what you sign, and you know what it costs before it starts.
Johnsson & PaulssonAudiencePage 16
Personas
01The design-literate founder35–55, runs a brand people know, buys Acne Studios, Aesop and Svenskt Tenn, and has never trusted a firm with a stock photo of a handshake.
02The second generationInheriting a family company and wants counsel that feels like now, not like their parents' lawyer.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand strategyPage 17
04
Brand strategy
How the brand is organised, and the rules the product obeys.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand strategyPage 18
Brand strategy
Brand architecture
Branded house. The firm is the brand; services are described in plain words and never sub-branded or trademarked.
Product philosophy
Write the summary first; if it cannot be written plainly, the advice is not finished. Quote a fixed fee, because an hourly rate makes the client pay for our learning. Keep the file with the partner who opened it.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand strategyPage 19
Brand strategy
Naming & nomenclature
The firm is Johnsson & Paulsson in full, J&P never in public writing. Services are named for what the client is doing: Raising, Selling, Protecting, Handing over. Never Corporate M&A or IP Advisory.
20-year roadmap
2026 — the firm, the fee list published, the first twelve clients.
2028 — a third partner and a standing role on two boards.
2032 — a founder's handbook, written in the same plain language, given away.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 20
05
Communication platform
What the brand says, and how the same message survives every format.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 21
Core message
Clear counsel for companies that make things well.
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 22
Messaging pillars
01
Plain language — a summary a board can read without a lawyer. For the founder.
02
Partner-led — the person in the first meeting does the work. For the sceptic.
03
Fixed fee — the price is agreed before the work starts. For the finance director.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 23
Communication platform
Product messaging framework
Every service is described in the same order: what the client is doing · what we do · who does it · what it costs · how long it takes. No Latin, no 'solutions', no 'full-service'.
Language system
Services are named for what the client is doing: Raising, Selling, Protecting, Handing over. Never Corporate M&A or IP Advisory.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 24
Communication platform
Message translation
The design-literate founder — lead with clarity and the fixed fee.
The second generation — lead with succession and the fact that two people stay on the file.
Counterparty's counsel — lead with precision; the tone stays plain but the detail is complete.
Johnsson & PaulssonCommunication platformPage 25
Communication platform
Brand manifesto
Say it plainly. Put it in writing. Stay for the whole thing.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 26
06
Tone & impact
How the brand sounds — and what that makes possible.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 27
Tone & impact
Tone of voice
Settled, in writing.
Plain, exact, unhurried.
Tone principles
Plain, exact, unhurried. Short sentences. Never legalese in public.
Tone spectrum
From a note that fits in a text message to a memo a board can read without a lawyer. Never Latin.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 28
Headline examples
01
Settled, in writing.
02
You will understand every page you sign.
03
Fixed fee, agreed before we start.
04
One page first. The rest after.
05
Two partners. One office.
06
No Latin.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 29
Tone & impact
What this enables
A one-page summary on every document, published fees, and a first meeting that is free because it is short.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 30
Tone & impact
Brand narrative
Law firms still sell weight: columns, navy, gold and a handshake over a skyline. To a founder who chose every detail of their own product, that reads as distance, and distance is expensive. Johnsson & Paulsson is built like a design studio — paper, space, one warm colour — and writes so that the client can forward the document instead of explaining it.
Johnsson & PaulssonTone & impactPage 31
Tone & impact
Strategic do's and don'ts
Do write it so a founder can forward it. Do leave space. Don't use Latin, don't use 'solutions'.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 32
07
Logotype
The mark, the room it needs, and how it must never be used.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 33
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 34
On backgrounds
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 35
Never do
Wide, heavy, calm — never set straight, never in more than one colour.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 36
Primary logo
Clear space — The cap height of the wordmark on every side.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 37
Secondary logo
Clear space — A quarter of the symbol's width on every side.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 38
Responsive / optimised versions
Large — 120 px and up
Medium — 48 to 120 px
Small — below 48 px
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 39
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 40
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 41
Incorrect usage
Never stretch or condense.
Never rotate.
Never recolour the mark.
Never add effects.
Never reduce the opacity.
Never alter the proportions.
Johnsson & PaulssonLogotypePage 42
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 43
08
Colour
Roles before values. Every combination is contrast-checked.
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 44
Core palette
Oxblood
Paper
Ink
Coral
Stone
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 45
Shades
Derived from the core colours — never hand-picked.
Oxblood
Coral
Stone
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 46
Accessibility
Every ratio below is computed, not claimed.
AaInk
Ink on Paper14.59:1 · AAA
AaPaper
Paper on Oxblood9.73:1 · AAA
AaStone
Stone on Ink8.99:1 · AAA
AaStone
Stone on Oxblood5.99:1 · AA
AaCoral
Coral on Ink4.41:1 · AA large
AaCoral
Coral on Paper3.31:1 · AA large
AaCoral
Coral on Oxblood2.94:1 · not for text
AaStone
Stone on Coral2.04:1 · not for text
AaStone
Stone on Paper1.62:1 · not for text
AaInk
Ink on Oxblood1.50:1 · not for text
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 47
Accessibility · the rules
Text of any size4.5:1 or more
Paper on Ink 14.6:1
Ink on Paper 14.6:1
Oxblood on Paper 9.7:1
Paper on Oxblood 9.7:1
Ink on Stone 9.0:1
Stone on Ink 9.0:1
Oxblood on Stone 6.0:1
Stone on Oxblood 6.0:1
Large text only3:1 — 24 px, or 18.7 px bold
Ink on Coral 4.4:1
Coral on Ink 4.4:1
Paper on Coral 3.3:1
Coral on Paper 3.3:1
Never for textUnder 3:1 — lines, fills, decoration
Oxblood on Coral 2.9:1
Coral on Oxblood 2.9:1
Coral on Stone 2.0:1
Stone on Coral 2.0:1
Paper on Stone 1.6:1
Stone on Paper 1.6:1
Oxblood on Ink 1.5:1
Ink on Oxblood 1.5:1
Motion. With reduced motion switched on, nothing moves: no slides, no 18 px entrances. Fades up to 150 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.
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 48
Colour usage examples
Oxblood10%
Paper60%
Ink25%
Coral2%
Stone3%
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonColourPage 49
Incorrect colour usage
Aa
Oxblood on Ink — 1.50:1, insufficient
Aa
Oxblood on Coral — 2.94:1, insufficient
Aa
Paper on Coral — 3.31:1, AA large
Aa
Paper on Stone — 1.62:1, insufficient
Johnsson & PaulssonTypographyPage 50
09
Typography
A display face for presence, a text face for reading.
Google FontsFree for web and printWeights: 400, 500, 700
Johnsson & PaulssonTypographyPage 53
Type scale
Style
Size
Line height
Tracking
Sample
Display
76 px
0.95
-0.03em
Johnsson & Paulsson
H1
54 px
1.0
-0.02em
Johnsson & Paulsson
H2
38 px
1.1
-0.02em
Johnsson & Paulsson
H3
27 px
1.2
-0.01em
Johnsson & Paulsson
Body
17 px
1.6
0
Johnsson & Paulsson
Caption
13 px
1.5
0.02em
Johnsson & Paulsson
Johnsson & PaulssonTypographyPage 54
Hierarchy in use
Johnsson & Paulsson
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 — Young SerifText — Jost
Johnsson & PaulssonTypographyPage 55
Pairing examples
AaYoung Serif — displayGoogle Fonts · 400, 600
AaJost — textGoogle Fonts · 400, 500, 700
Johnsson & PaulssonTypographyPage 56
Do's and don'ts
Johnsson & Paulsson
Display for headlines only.
Johnsson & Paulsson
Never set body text in the display face.
Johnsson & Paulsson
Text face at its designed tracking.
Johnsson & Paulsson
Never letterspace running text.
Johnsson & Paulsson
One weight change per hierarchy step.
Johnsson & Paulsson
Never stack italic and caps.
Johnsson & PaulssonIconographyPage 57
10
Iconography
Stroke weight, corner treatment, and the grid icons are drawn on.
Johnsson & PaulssonIconographyPage 58
Iconography
Principles
Hairline, geometric, drawn from the same grid as the monogram.
Johnsson & PaulssonIconographyPage 59
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 60
11
Art direction
How imagery is chosen, treated and cropped.
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 61
Art direction
Principles
Soft north light, paper textures, oak and stone. Partners photographed as people, not as a team lined up. Stationery shot flat from above.
Never
Never a handshake, never a skyline.
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 62
Product imagery
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 63
Lifestyle imagery
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 64
Abstract visuals
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 65
Light, tone and atmosphere
Johnsson & PaulssonArt directionPage 66
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.
Johnsson & PaulssonMaterial languagePage 67
12
Material language
How the brand speaks about what it is made of — without overclaiming.
Johnsson & PaulssonMaterial languagePage 68
Material language
Philosophy
Uncoated grey and oxblood stock, letterpress, brushed steel clips, oak.
Johnsson & PaulssonMaterial languagePage 69
Material close-up
Johnsson & PaulssonMaterial languagePage 70
Texture
Johnsson & PaulssonMaterial languagePage 71
Material comparison
Johnsson & PaulssonGrid & spacingPage 72
13
Grid & spacing
The layout system every surface inherits.
Johnsson & PaulssonGrid & spacingPage 73
Grid & spacing
System
A wide 12-column grid with generous margins. Text sits in narrow columns; the space around it is part of the message.
Johnsson & PaulssonGrid & spacingPage 74
Layout system
Token
Value
Corner radius
0
Base unit
8px
Columns
12
Margin
96px
Max width
1280px
Johnsson & PaulssonGrid & spacingPage 75
Grid diagram
Corner radius0
Base unit8px
Columns12
Margin96px
Max width1280px
Johnsson & PaulssonGrid & spacingPage 76
Layout examples
Editorial — 8 of 12
Split — 6 and 6
Full bleed
Johnsson & PaulssonMotionPage 77
14
Motion
How the brand moves — easing, tempo, and what motion is for.
Johnsson & PaulssonMotionPage 78
Motion
Principles
Slow fades, nothing slides. Like a page turning.
Johnsson & PaulssonMotionPage 79
Storyboard
0 ms — the surface alone.
160 ms — the mark rises on the curve.
400 ms — in place. Nothing overshoots.
Settled, in writing.
650 ms — the line follows.
Johnsson & PaulssonMotionPage 80
Easing & timing
Calm — cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1)Nothing hurries, nothing bounces. Long curves, short distances.
Fast · 150 msHover, buttons, toggles
Standard · 250 msCards, panels, fields opening
Slow · 400 msPage changes, full screen, reveals
The mark enters: 18 px, 400 ms, the signature curve
Transform and opacity only. Every motion has a still equivalent: with reduced motion switched on, nothing on this page moves.
Johnsson & PaulssonPackagingPage 81
15
Packaging
Look, material, finishing — and the feeling of opening it.
Johnsson & PaulssonPackagingPage 82
Packaging
Direction
Grey envelopes, oxblood and black cards, a pale grey project folder with a steel clip.
Substrate & print
Heavy uncoated paper-white board, the wordmark debossed small on the lid. An oxblood belly band. Letterpress letterheads in paper white and oxblood, envelopes in pale grey.
Johnsson & PaulssonPackagingPage 83
Box
Johnsson & PaulssonPackagingPage 84
Tag & wrapping
Johnsson & PaulssonPackagingPage 85
Unboxing
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 86
16
Brand in use
The identity where people actually meet it.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 87
Website
Products · About · Contact
Settled, in writing.
See the range
White space, one serif headline per page, partners photographed by a window.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 88
Brand in use
Digital
A site that is mostly text: the people, the services in plain words, the fees, and a form that books twenty minutes.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 89
Social post formats
Settled, in writing.
Clear counsel for companies that make things well.
You will understand every page you sign.
Fixed fee, agreed before we start.
One page first.
Two partners.
One sentence of plain-language law per post, set on paper grey. No offices, no handshakes, no quotes over skylines.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 90
Campaign
Settled, in writing.
Out of home · 3×6 m
Settled, in writing: stationery, the office and the people, shot like a design studio.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 91
Print & stationery
Johnsson & Paulsson
Uncoated stone-grey stock, letterpress in ink, the monogram foiled in coral on the oxblood card.
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 92
Blind emboss
EmbossedDebossed
Johnsson & PaulssonBrand in usePage 93
Envelopes & tape
C4
C5
DL
Johnsson & PaulssonMerchandisePage 94
17
Merchandise
What the brand puts its name on when it does not have to.
Johnsson & PaulssonMerchandisePage 95
Merchandise
Nothing printed with a logo. An oxblood leather folio with the JP monogram blind-embossed, and a black pen, given once.
Johnsson & PaulssonMerchandisePage 96
Merchandise
Application rules
Nothing printed with a logo. The JP monogram blind-embossed, small, in a lower corner. Oxblood leather and paper white only; coral is reserved for type on black.
Johnsson & PaulssonEnvironment & signagePage 97
18
Environment & signage
The brand at architectural scale.
Johnsson & PaulssonEnvironment & signagePage 98
Signage
Limewashed rooms, oak tables, an oxblood enamelled plate with the JP monogram by the door.
Johnsson & PaulssonEnvironment & signagePage 99
Environment & signage
Materials & fabrication
A matte oxblood enamelled plate with hidden fixings on limewashed walls. The monogram above, the wordmark below in paper white. No brass, no gold, lots of empty wall.
