Straight talk about
your money. No hype.
"Dark is where the lime earns its keep — a YouTube thumbnail, a hero, a report cover. One bright accent against deep olive-black, and nothing else shouting for attention."
The mark is the brand.
The lockup is an oval "AST" monogram beside the full wordmark, anchored by a line that does quiet, heavy lifting: "Licensed in all 50 states." It's a credential and a logo at once — keep the words and the license line together. Note: the mark is navy, so on dark surfaces it sits on a light plate until a reversed/white variant exists (TODO).
On light plateReversed variant — TODO
Clear space = 1× "AST" height
Lead with the full lockup
Use the complete wordmark + license line on light backgrounds. The "AST" oval stands alone only at tiny sizes (favicon, avatar) where the wordmark wouldn't read.
Minimum size
120px wide on screen, 30mm in print. Below that, "Licensed in all 50 states" stops being legible — and that line is the point.
Clear space
Keep clear space equal to the height of the "AST" oval on every side. Don't crowd it with headlines, badges, or other logos.
No alterations
Never recolor, stretch, skew, outline, or drop-shadow the mark. For dark backgrounds, use a proper reversed/white version — don't fake it with effects.
Misuse
No drop shadowsNot on saturated colorKeep license line legibleNever stretchRed Hat Display for everything.
Red Hat Mono for the receipts.
One type family doing the work two usually do — Display for impact and reading, weight for hierarchy. Mono shows up only where there's a number, a label, or a spec to point at. Clean, modern, easy on a 60-something's eyes.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & $%.,;:?!—
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 & $%.,;:?!—
- Sentence case for headlines and body — let the words read like speech.
- Use weight (700 / 500 / 400) for hierarchy, not a second typeface.
- Keep body copy at 17px or larger — the audience is 50–75.
- Reserve Red Hat Mono for numbers, labels, and section markers.
- Don't set body copy in all-caps or title case.
- Don't mix more than two weights in one layout.
- Don't shrink body text below 17px to cram more in.
- Don't lean on italics like a serif brand — Red Hat's italic is subtle.
Deep olive-black.
And the signature lime.
The high-impact theme. Deep olive-black recedes; the bright lime pops. Built for thumbnails, hero sections, and report covers where the accent has to carry across a feed.
Neutral ramp
Print (CMYK)
| Color | CMYK | Primary use |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Black | 16 / 0 / 60 / 90 | Primary print background, heavy cardstock. |
| Paper | 1 / 0 / 4 / 4 | Reverse-print text on dark stock. |
| Signature Lime | 12 / 0 / 47 / 5 | Accent foil, spot UV on focus text only. |
The canvas carries a little weather.
Even the dark theme isn't flat. A soft lime glow, a hint of deep-olive depth, a whisper of grain — atmosphere without decoration. The background sets a mood; it never competes with the words.
Increase your net worth through retirement.
Two soft radial layers — a lime glow up top, deep-olive depth at the base — over olive-black, with grain on top. Warmth first, depth second, grain always.
Warm bleed
A faint lime glow in one corner — the accent, dissolved. Never a hard edge.
Tint
Deep-olive depth in the opposite corner gives the canvas a floor without a visible line.
Grain
A whisper of fractal noise at ~7% keeps large dark fields from banding. Texture, not dirt.
Shadow
Depth comes from tone shift, not heavy blur. Reach for a tone before you reach for a drop shadow.
Quiet surfaces.
One button worth pressing.
Friendly, rounded, unhurried. Pill buttons and soft cards. One accent CTA per screen — the rest of the interface gets out of the way.
One primary accent CTA per screen — maximum. Secondary and ghost buttons do the heavy lifting everywhere else.
Red Hat Mono, 0.12em tracking, UPPERCASE. The accent tag is reserved for the single most important category on a page.
Focus lifts the border to the accent color. Background sits on the recessed surface — inputs live in the canvas, not above it.
Accent is earned. Only the single headline number gets it; everything else is Paper.
AI bubbles carry a soft lime tint. User bubbles sit on muted Paper. Zero hype, zero pressure — the voice rules apply to bots too.
Elevation rules
| Layer | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 — canvas | Olive Black + signature gradient + grain | Page background, hero, section rests |
| 1 — surface | #20260E + 1px hairline | Cards, panels, modals, chat bubbles |
| 2 — popover | #20260E + soft shadow | Menus, tooltips, floating elements |
| 3 — focal | Lime stroke or fill — single element only | Primary CTA, headline metric, active state |
Thin / Light strokes.
Paper. One accent exception.
Stroke width is consistent at ~1.5px across any layout. No filled icons unless depicting an actively selected state. Accent is reserved for the primary metric in a dense data view.
Negative space
is the headline.
An 8pt baseline grid. Generous vertical rhythm. Breathing room is a feature, not an accident — especially for readers who are 50–75.
Section padding
Default 140px vertical, 96px horizontal on desktop. Compresses to 80/32 on mobile.
Radii
Friendly and rounded. Buttons are full pills; cards and panels use 17px. Pick one radius family per layout and keep it.
Tap targets
Minimum 44×44px, enforced. Interactive elements are never cramped.
Hairlines
1px, rgba(244, 246, 236, 0.10). That's the entire border palette on dark.
Plain-spoken. Calm. Honest. Educational. Unhurried.
⚠️ Provisional. The final voice profile is being built from Bryan's YouTube transcripts (see references/brand-voice.yaml). These bars reflect the voice as heard on the site and channel — directional, not final.
"An annuity is a tool, not a religion. Right for some people, wrong for others — and I'll tell you which."
"You're never locked in. If a strategy takes away access to your own money, I won't recommend it."
"Here's exactly how I get paid, and why I'm recommending this."
"Watch the free series, run the numbers, sit with it. There's no expiration date on this."
"Unlock a transformative, guaranteed path to financial freedom!"
"Act now — this exclusive opportunity won't last!"
"Our robust, holistic solution will help you beat the market."
"Leverage this game-changing strategy to supercharge your retirement."
Signature sign-off
Happy to give you the straight read either way.
— Bryan
AI that talks straight.
When Annuity Straight Talk shows up as a chatbot, an assistant, or AI-generated content, it keeps the same promise: educate first, never hype, and say "this isn't for you" when it's true.
Voice constraints
AI surfaces never sell. No hype words, no guaranteed-return language, no pressure. Plain answers, real numbers, honest caveats — the same rules people are held to.
Education first
A bot's default move is to teach and point to the right resource — a calculator, the FLEX series — not to push a booking. The call is offered, never forced.
Compliance & honesty
This is a regulated space. AI restates only what's substantiated, flags the unverified site stats (~41.8%, ~11.3%) rather than asserting them, and says so when it's unsure.
Logo & surface
On dark AI surfaces, use the reversed logo (once it exists) and the lime accent. One accent per view; quiet everywhere else.