Brand guidelines
How Tinkerbird looks, sounds and behaves, so that anyone writing or designing for it can check their work without asking. A view of the brand pack in the Tinkerbird repository; on conflict, the pack wins.
01
The name
Tinkerbird is the trading name Akoma uses for its AI and digital consulting. It is a brand, not a company: contracts, quotes and invoices run through Akoma.
Where it comes from
The tinkerbirds are small African barbets, about eleven centimetres long, black and white with a patch of yellow or red on the forehead. You hear them long before you see them: one clear metallic note, repeated about a hundred times a minute, for minutes at a time. A tinker mends things. Small, steady, hard to ignore: that is the job.
How to write it
- Tinkerbird, one word, capital T in prose. Lowercase only inside the wordmark.
- Never TinkerBird, Tinker Bird or TINKERBIRD.
- Say "Tinkerbird, by Akoma" or "Tinkerbird is the AI and digital practice of Akoma" wherever a reader could think it is a separate company.
- No ™ or ® until an attorney search and filing exist.
- Pronounced TINK-er-bird, stress on the first syllable.
02
What Tinkerbird is
Practical digital and AI help for established, owner-managed businesses, from a practice based in South Africa that works internationally: from paper and spreadsheets to tools that work, then AI that takes routine admin off the owner's desk. One job at a time.
The promise
Relief. The business keeps running without the owner fighting it. Evenings and grip come back.
The one idea we own
One job at a time. Not a transformation programme, not a platform.
Why believe it
The same people run their own business this way, with a live system to show, and they have delivered real projects under Akoma.
Positioning statement
For the owner of an established business still run on paper, Tinkerbird is the digital and AI practice that fixes one real job at a time until the business runs without them fighting it, because the same people run their own business that way and have the delivered work to show for it.
Who we speak to
| Audience | They care about | Say | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owners and general managers | Their time; a business that does not stall without them; not being sold "AI"; keeping control; privacy; not upsetting staff | Start with one job you already do; you keep the decisions; nothing of yours goes on the public internet | "Transformation", "AI-powered", savings numbers, a platform to adopt, asking for all their data on day one |
| The manager who will run the tool | Not being replaced or blamed; fewer repeat tasks; a tool that works offline; someone to call | The tool takes the typing and the chasing, you keep the exceptions; we build it with you on real examples | "Automate your role"; jargon about agents and models |
| Staff on the floor | Whether the job gets harder; whether the phone works in the yard; who to ask | The same job, less rewriting; a person stays in charge of exceptions; training is in the plan | "Efficiency", "headcount", AI as the reason for the change |
| Introducers | Whether the referral makes them look good; that it is Akoma's people | Tinkerbird is Akoma's AI and digital practice; small first step, fixed scope, plain reporting | A separate-company story; commission talk in public |
Architecture
Endorsed brand: "Tinkerbird, by Akoma". Akoma adds the trust a new name lacks; Akoma's property look would blur a digital offer. The endorsement is a line in footers, proposal covers and invoices, never a lock-up of the two logos. Tinkerbird never reuses Akoma or Linbro colours, fonts or marks.
03
Voice
Plain, steady and specific, like the bird's call: one clear note, repeated, until the thing is fixed. Warm without performing warmth; confident without a single boast.
Tinkerbird is
Tinkerbird isn't
Five principles
- Name the job, not the technology. "Your stock book" before "a database". Technology appears only when the reader needs it to picture the next step.
- One thing at a time. One job per offer, one step per paragraph, one action per page. Walk the reader through it the way you would across a desk.
- Say what comes first and what comes after. Sequence is how a sceptical owner learns to trust a plan.
- Only what is true today. No savings figures, no client counts, no future tense dressed as present. A plan is called a plan.
- People keep the decisions. Every tool description says what the person still does.
Say it like this
Working draft: these lines will be replaced with ones the partners choose.
| Situation | Say | Not this |
|---|---|---|
| Opening line to an owner | Tell us about one piece of work you wish was easier. | Let's explore how AI can transform your operations. |
| The first step | We sit with the person doing the job and follow one job card through the business. | We conduct a comprehensive digital maturity assessment. |
| Describing AI | The tool drafts the summary; your manager checks it and sends it. | An intelligent agent autonomously handles your reporting. |
| Data | Nothing of yours goes on the public internet. We agree in writing what we hold. | Enterprise-grade security keeps your data safe. |
| Staff | The tool takes the typing. Your people keep the decisions and the exceptions. | Free your team from mundane tasks. |
| Results | A first plan in a day; implementation is a separate next stage. | Rapid, measurable ROI from week one. |
| Who we are | Tinkerbird is the AI and digital practice of Akoma. We run our own business this way. | A leading AI consultancy serving SMEs across Africa. |
Quick test before sending
- Could the reader repeat the offer to a colleague after one read?
- Is every noun a thing they can point at in their business?
- Have I said what comes first and what comes after?
- Is there a number or a claim here that nobody has confirmed in writing?
- Does it sound like a person who has done the job, not a brochure?
04
Words and claims
Keep these
off your desk · one job at a time · the work in front of you · a person in charge of exceptions · the person doing the job · sorted · in hand · on rails · like clockwork · first step and next step · plain · fixed scope · named owner · checked · real examples · first draft · plan (when it is a plan) · by Akoma
Never these
transform, transformation, revolutionise, disrupt, unlock, empower, supercharge, game-changing, next-generation, future-proof, end-to-end, holistic, synergy, solutions, AI-powered, AI-driven, AI-first, intelligent or smart (as product adjectives), autonomous (about a business), effortless, hassle-free, streamline, optimise (as filler), scale (as a verb), journey, ecosystem, bespoke (about software we would build), innovative, state-of-the-art, best-in-class, mission-critical, turnkey, seamless, robust, leverage, delve, elevate, cutting-edge, world-class, crucial, pivotal, foster, tapestry, landscape.
Claims we must not make
- Any price or "from R" figure on a public surface. Prices live in proposals.
- Hours saved, percentages, ROI or payback. Nothing has been measured yet.
- Client names, logos, testimonials or quotes without written permission. Recent work is described by industry and the kind of work done, with names withheld, as on the landing page.
- "Your data is never used to train AI" or "we delete your data and confirm it in writing", until the client-data standard is adopted and true.
- "Tinkerbird (Pty) Ltd", "our company", or anything that reads as a separate legal entity.
- "Nobody else does this" as a fact.
House style
British English. Sentence case for headings and buttons. No em dashes: commas, full stops, colons or parentheses. No exclamation marks in outward copy. Words for numbers up to nine, figures from 10; figures always for money, dates and times. Money as "R35 000" or "K35 000". Dates as "30 September 2026". Links say where they go.
05
Logo
A geometric bird head (the circle, the yellow forecrown, the short bill, the eye) beside the name in lowercase Bricolage Grotesque, with the dots of both i's in Tink Yellow: the two tinks. Every file is outlined; never retype the name.
Primary, colour on Paper (default)Primary, reverse on Ink and photographs
Mono Ink, for one-colour print and small sizes
Mono Paper
Stacked, for narrow and square spaces
Symbol aloneClear space
Keep clear space equal to the height of the symbol on all sides of the lock-up (marked in yellow), and half that around the symbol alone.
Minimum size
Tested at 16, 32 and 64 px on 30 September 2026: the circle and yellow cap read at 16 px; the bill and eye from 32 px. Print minimum 30 mm for the lock-up, 8 mm for the symbol.
Do not
× akoma06
Colour
Two grounds, one signal. Paper and Ink carry everything; Tink Yellow appears as a dot, a ring, a figure or a link, never as a flood. A page that is mostly yellow is off-brand. Yellow and black at scale read as a warning; as a dot they read as the bird's forecrown and the call.
CMYK values for print are in the brand pack and are approximate; ask the printer for a proof.
Contrast (WCAG 2.2, computed)
| Foreground | Background | Ratio | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink | Paper | 15.71:1 | Text any size |
| Ink | Paper deep | 14.11:1 | Text any size |
| Slate | Paper | 6.41:1 | Text any size |
| Slate | Paper deep | 5.76:1 | Text any size |
| Crimson | Paper | 5.40:1 | Text any size |
| Crimson | Paper deep | 4.85:1 | Text any size |
| Tink Yellow | Paper | 1.52:1 | Decorative only, never text |
| Mist | Paper | 1.26:1 | Decorative only, never text |
| Paper | Ink | 15.71:1 | Text any size |
| Paper | Ink lift | 13.16:1 | Text any size |
| Tink Yellow | Ink | 10.35:1 | Text any size |
| Tink Yellow | Ink lift | 8.67:1 | Text any size |
| Slate light | Ink | 8.49:1 | Text any size |
| Slate light | Ink lift | 7.11:1 | Text any size |
| Crimson | Ink | 2.91:1 | Not permitted |
| Ink | Tink Yellow | 10.35:1 | Text any size (buttons) |
| Paper | Tink Yellow | 1.52:1 | Never |
| Crimson | Tink Yellow | 3.56:1 | Large text and graphics only |
| Tink Yellow | Slate | 4.23:1 | Large text and graphics only |
The yellow dots of the i's on Paper are part of the logotype and exempt from text contrast; the letters carry the legibility. Below 110 px, use the mono lock-up.
07
Typography
Two families, both open source and self-hosted. Bricolage Grotesque for display: sturdy, a little quirky, reliable first and quick second. Instrument Sans for everything you read: quiet and clear.
Capture only what that job needs. Check it against the original. Keep a person in charge of exceptions. Prove it on a small sample before expanding.
Body · Instrument Sans 400 · 18 px · line height 1.6 · 60 to 72 characters a lineImplementation is a separate next stage. Client material remains protected.
Small · Instrument Sans 400 · 15 px03 / Proof
Label · Instrument Sans 600 · 13 px · letter spacing 0.04 em · sentence case, never all capsRules
- Sentence case everywhere. Left aligned. No letterspaced uppercase kickers.
- Stack:
'Bricolage Grotesque', 'Arial Black', Arial, sans-seriffor display;'Instrument Sans', Arial, Helvetica, sans-seriffor body. In Word, Google Docs and email: Arial for both. - Print body 10.5 pt minimum; H1 28 pt. Screen body never below 15 px.
- Licences: SIL Open Font License 1.1 for both (files and licences in the pack's
fonts/folder). No extra licence is needed for logos, signage, print or web.
08
The tink
The bird's call, made visible. It is the one distinctive asset beyond the logo, so it is used the same way every time.
The pulse
A filled dot with one or two rings that expand and fade, about one note every 0.7 seconds, never faster. On screen it lives in the hero and on the bird's forecrown. On paper it is a static dot with one ring.
The repeated dot
A row of dots may separate items or mark steps. The yellow dot always marks the current or first step. Nothing else is yellow in that row.
Motion rules
- Transforms and opacity only. Enter ease-out 200 to 400 ms; exit ease-in 150 ms. Scroll reveals move at most 24 px.
- No parallax, no scroll hijacking, no autoplaying video, no bouncing.
- Every looping animation has a visible pause control and stops under the reader's reduced-motion setting.
- Documents and print: no motion. The pulse becomes a dot and a ring.
09
Imagery
Photography
Real work, not stock: a job card on a workshop bench, a stock book, a phone in the yard, the person doing the job. Warm daylight, muted, matching Paper and Ink. People shown are the people who did the work, with permission. Client premises only with written permission.
Never
Blue-lit server rooms, glowing brains, robots, hands touching holograms, circuit boards, AI-generated "futuristic" art, stock handshakes.
Illustration
Flat, two-tone (Ink on Paper) with one yellow signal, geometric like the symbol. No gradients, no 3D, no mascots beyond the bird head itself.
Diagrams
A job moving through a business, left to right, with the yellow dot marking where Tinkerbird starts. Label every box with the thing the reader can point at.
10
Applications
Illustrative. These show the system on the surfaces Tinkerbird will use first; none of them is a live document.
WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Google Business Profile avatar (circle crop safe), at profile, list and 32 px sizes. Illustrative.
Tinkerbird, by Akoma
Architecture and business
+27 82 543 6276 · team@akoma.life · tinkerbird.ai
Email signature: plain text, no image, the endorsement on line two. Illustrative.
Proposal cover, 16:9. The legal line sits in the footer of every proposal. [client] is a placeholder. Illustrative.
LinkedIn company banner, 4:1. Ink ground, the headline, the repeated dot. Illustrative.
Invoice header: Akoma's legal details, Tinkerbird's mark. Square brackets are placeholders. Illustrative.
Website header at phone width: the sticky bar stays under 56 px. Illustrative; the live version is this site.
11
Checklist before anything goes out
Visual
- Official logo file, correct colourway for the ground, nothing retyped.
- Only palette tokens; every text pair is in the contrast table with a passing use.
- Bricolage Grotesque display, Instrument Sans body, no third family.
- The tink used as specified; no other ornament.
- Rendered and inspected at phone and laptop widths, or on every page.
Voice and claims
- Reads plain, steady, specific. No banned words, no em dashes, sentence case.
- Each offer line says what comes first and what comes after.
- Every tool description says what the person still does.
- No prices, savings, client counts, uncleared names, or training and deletion promises.
- The Akoma endorsement is present wherever a reader could think Tinkerbird is a separate company.
The honest test
Could any AI agency sign this page? If yes, it is parity. Put the job, the sequence and "we run our own business this way" back in until only Tinkerbird could sign it.
12
Files and status
Outlined SVG masters (no live text) and PNG exports. Fonts, licences, the full brand pack, the competitor audit and the name checks live in the Tinkerbird repository.
Status
Direction for partner reaction, version 0.1, 30 September 2026. Prepared for Mo by Claude Code from the Tinkerbird repository, the 30 September partner call, the naming work of 25 September, a desk audit of ten competitors and desk checks on the name. Not yet approved by Zubair and Oliver. Name checks are desk checks, not clearance: an attorney search in South Africa (classes 35 and 42) and a PACRA search in Zambia come before printed material or a filing. Three routes were considered (a naturalist field guide, a technical workshop, and this one, the signal); this route scored highest on fit with the facts, distinctiveness against the audit and fit with the "by Akoma" architecture.