From: Sarah Chen <sarah@designstudio.co>
Date: Oct 15, 2024

Hey team, here are my notes from the client kickoff about the Meridian rebrand. They want a "premium but approachable" look. Colors should feel "like sunset over water" — whatever that means lol. Key deadline: board presentation December 5. Budget: $180,000 total.

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JIRA Ticket DES-412: Meridian Financial — Brand Refresh

Reporter: Mark Volkov
Priority: High
Sprint: Sprint 14 (Oct 14-25)

Requirements from client brief document (attached as PDF):
- Logo refresh, not complete redesign. Retain the "M" monogram but modernize.
- Primary palette: warm gold (#D4AF37 or similar), deep navy (#1B2A4A), clean white
- Secondary palette: soft sage green, warm gray
- Typography: transitional serif for headings (like Freight Big Pro or similar), geometric sans for body (like Aktiv Grotesk)
- Brand voice: "confident, clear, advisory" — not stuffy or old-money
- Deliverables: logo suite, color system, typography scale, icon set (40 icons), brand guidelines document (60+ pages), social media templates (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter), email signature, PowerPoint template, letterhead, business cards
- Must pass WCAG 2.1 AA contrast ratios for all color combinations

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Meeting Notes — Brand Workshop (Oct 18, 2024)
Facilitator: Lisa Park, Creative Director

Attendees: Sarah Chen, Mark Volkov, Alex (dev), Jennifer Wu (client, CMO), Robert Tran (client, CEO), David Kim (client, Head of Product)

Key decisions:
1. Jennifer strongly prefers the warm gold direction. Robert wants to make sure it doesn't look "too flashy" — needs to feel trustworthy for institutional clients.
2. The "M" monogram will evolve to be more geometric, less script. David showed examples from Mastercard and Mailchimp rebrands as inspiration. NOT those brands specifically — just the "simplify without losing soul" approach.
3. Icon set expanded to 48 icons (was 40). Additional 8 for their new mobile app section.
4. Brand guidelines need a digital-first section covering UI components, dark mode variants, and motion principles.
5. Robert approved a secondary animation budget of $15,000 for logo reveal and UI micro-interactions.
6. Timeline slip agreed: design concepts due Nov 1 (was Oct 28), not a big deal since board presentation moved to Dec 12 (was Dec 5).

Action items from meeting:
- Sarah: 3 logo concepts by Oct 25
- Mark: moodboard with color explorations by Oct 22
- Alex: audit current brand assets for anything salvageable
- Lisa: schedule mid-point review with Jennifer for Nov 8

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Slack thread #meridian-rebrand, Oct 20:

[Sarah 10:14 AM] btw after sleeping on it I think we should push the serif direction harder. Freight Big Pro licensing is $450/year commercial, which is fine. Alternative: Tiempos which is $600 but has better language support and more weights.

[Mark 10:22 AM] agreed on serif push. re: gold — I've been testing #C5952C against navy backgrounds and it reads much better on screen than the brighter #D4AF37 from the brief. Passes WCAG AA at 18px+ on navy.

[Lisa 10:45 AM] @mark that's great. Let's formalize: #C5952C as "Meridian Gold", #1B2A4A as "Meridian Navy". Get the sage green figured out too — I'm thinking something like #8B9E84 or #7D8E76.

[Sarah 11:02 AM] also worth noting — Jennifer mentioned in a side convo that they're planning to launch a robo-advisor product Q2 2025. Brand system needs to be flexible enough for product sub-brands. Not in scope now but let's design with that in mind.

[Alex 11:15 AM] FYI current site uses Inter for everything. If we switch to Aktiv Grotesk we need to check CDN licensing. Google Fonts only has Inter/Work Sans/etc. Aktiv is via Adobe Fonts or direct license (~$300/yr for web). Tiempos is definitely not on Google Fonts.

[Lisa 11:30 AM] budget-wise we're fine. $180K total, $15K animation, font licensing ~$1000/yr. Plenty of room. Let's not penny-pinch the typography — it's the backbone.

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From: Jennifer Wu <jennifer.wu@meridianfin.com>
To: Lisa Park <lisa@designstudio.co>
Date: Oct 21, 2024
Subject: RE: Color direction update

Lisa,

Thanks for the updated palette. Robert and I reviewed #C5952C and we both prefer it over the original gold. One concern: our compliance team flags that we need high contrast for all financial disclosures and legal text. Can you ensure the body text combinations pass WCAG AAA (not just AA)?

Also, I forgot to mention — we have a co-branded partnership with Northern Trust that launches in January. The brand system needs guidelines for co-brand lockups. Can you add that to the deliverables? No additional budget needed, but it's important.

Best,
Jennifer

P.S. Robert loves the Mastercard-inspired monogram direction. He keeps saying "clean and confident." Those are now his two favorite words apparently.
