Brand book · v2.0 · September 2026

DXB.IST brand book

The Two-City Journey

A premium, locally-rooted travel house for Dubai and Istanbul — welcoming travellers from every country, in English, Arabic and Turkish. This page defines how the brand looks, sounds and behaves.

01 · Brand idea

The dot is us.

DXB and IST are the airport codes of the two cities we serve. The dot between them is the connection: the guide who lives there, the person who answers on WhatsApp at midnight. Everything we make should feel like a well-travelled friend with a home in both cities — never like a booking engine.

Promise: Two cities. One unforgettable journey — planned by people who live there.

  • Two shores, one team. Real staff in Dubai and Istanbul.
  • Three languages, one standard. English, Arabic, Turkish — for travellers from anywhere.
  • Honest luxury. Premium experiences, transparent prices, small groups.
  • Cultural fluency. Halal, prayer-aware, family-paced, respectful of both cultures.

02 · Logo

One word, one dot.

The logo is a single typographic wordmark — no emblem. Bespoke geometric sans capitals in midnight ink, with a split X whose diagonal cuts echo the letter's own angles, and one Desert Gold dot on the baseline between B and I. The dot is the brand idea made visible: the connection between the two cities. Letters take the surface's text colour; the dot is always gold.

Mark

For favicons, app icons and badges only: the split X with the gold dot, derived from the wordmark. Never use the mark next to the full wordmark.

Clear space

Keep the cap height of the letters free on every side. On cards, that is the padding in the card exports.

Minimum size

Wordmark 96 px wide (20 px tall) on screen, 25 mm in print · mark 16 px.

Don't

No emblem, no outlines, no gradients, no rotation, no gold letters on gold, never recolour the dot except in mono, never set “DXB.IST” in another typeface as a logo.

Downloads

All files are generated from src/lib/brand.ts with npm run brand:assets.

03 · Colour

Ink, gold, teal, sand.

Ink on ivory, sand on ink, and one gold dot. Teal is for interaction only — never decoration. Coral is reserved for errors.

Ink 950

#070B14

Wordmark colour, deepest surface, footer

Ink 900

#0A1020

Primary dark — 'Bosphorus night'

Ink 700

#1A2744

Cards on dark, borders

Desert Gold 500

#C8A653

Primary accent, CTAs, the dot

Gold 300

#EFDCA2

Highlights, gradients

Gold 600

#A8883A

Text on light, shadows

Bosphorus Teal 500

#1B8A9A

Links and interactive states only

Teal 400

#3FB3C4

Teal highlight

Sand 50

#FBF8F2

Light page background

Sand 100

#F5EFE4

Section bands, email background

Sand 200

#EBE2D0

Dividers, subtle fills

Coral 500

#E0633C

Errors only

04 · Typography

Editorial serif, quiet sans.

Playfair Display for headlines and prices; Inter for everything else; Tajawal for Arabic. Kickers are 11–12 px uppercase with wide tracking.

Playfair Display 500 · display-xl

Two cities. One journey.

Playfair Display 500 · display-md

Tours our travellers talk about

Inter 400 · body 18px

We collect you from your hotel mid-afternoon and drive 45 minutes east to the red dunes of Lahbab, where your driver deflates the tyres and the real fun begins.

Tajawal 700 · Arabic display

مدينتان. رحلة واحدة لا تُنسى.

Inter 600 · kicker

Dubai · Istanbul · The Two-City Journey

05 · Tone of voice

Confident, warm, specific.

We give numbers, timings and names — not adjectives. First person plural. Honest when something isn't worth it. Culturally literate without over-explaining. Never hype, never exclamation clusters, never "luxury" as filler.

Yes

Sunset slots at Burj Khalifa sell out weeks ahead. We hold them for you.

No

Experience the ultimate luxury of the world's tallest building!!!

Yes

We collect you at 15:00 from any Dubai hotel.

No

Guests will be collected at a convenient time.

Yes

If the balloon is cancelled by the aviation authority, you are refunded in full or rebooked.

No

Weather permitting. Terms apply.

06 · Imagery & motion

Real places, real light.

Golden hour and blue hour. No stock smiles, no HDR. A dark gradient from the bottom keeps type legible; a 6% grain adds warmth. Motion is slow and expensive: out-expo easing, 0.8–1 s reveals, 7 s hero crossfades, always honouring reduced-motion.

07 · Applications

One system, every surface.

Website

Glass header on dark heroes, cards on sand, one gold CTA per view, WhatsApp always reachable.

Email

Wordmark image top-left (160 px), Georgia headline, Inter body, sand background, one CTA.

Social

One image per tile, gold kicker, wordmark bottom-left; three languages as three posts.

Vehicles & badges

Ink background, sand wordmark with gold dot; mark alone on small badges; tagline in Inter caps.

Full written guidelines: docs/brand-book.md.