One brand, one system, one source of truth.
These are the brand guidelines for Nora Comply: one document governing how the company looks, sounds and behaves everywhere it appears, from the product and website to sales decks, evidence packs, social media and events. If a decision about the brand needs making, it should be answerable from this page.
The system is codenamed Aegis, after the one asset that anchors everything: the shield. A shield split into panes by a branching path, rendered in light on deep navy. It is a quietly confident mark, and the whole system is derived from it: the navy gives us composure, the light blue gives us clarity, the blue gives us the product, and the orange gives us the signal that something needs attention.
The brand idea in one line: Nora turns regulatory fear into a plan you can show someone. Every choice in this guide serves that: where competitors shout urgency, Nora is the calm colleague with the evidence ready.
Foundation
What Nora Comply is, who it serves and what it stands for. This wording is the single source of truth; earlier deck and website variants are superseded at their next revision.
Positioning
Nora Comply is the compliance control layer for every AI system a company runs: one place to register AI tools, map obligations under the EU AI Act, and hold the evidence that proves compliance, continuously.
One-line descriptor
Navigate and evidence EU AI Act compliance from a single source of truth. Use this line verbatim in metadata, directories and boilerplate.
Mission
To give every team using AI a clear, current and provable compliance position, without needing a lawyer on call or a spreadsheet under the desk.
Vision
To become the trusted operational layer between AI regulation and the organisations it governs, starting with the EU AI Act and the teams it names first.
The value, in three parts
Every pitch, proposal and page should be able to answer all three. Copy that covers only the first is describing a checklist tool, not Nora.
Register
One inventory of every AI system and use case in the company, each with a named owner. Risk-classified in plain English: High, Limited or Minimal.
Assess & act
Each use case mapped against the EU AI Act, GDPR and AIRO. Obligations become a board you can track from open to done, not a PDF you file and forget.
Monitor & evidence
When a vendor ships a new AI feature, Nora reopens the assessment, updates the roadmap and timestamps the record. Evidence-ready from day one.
Who we serve
| Audience | What they need | What we lead with |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment & HR teams | Named as high-risk under Annex III; deployer obligations under Article 26 with no in-house counsel | Plain-English classification, the obligation board, evidence packs a regulator can read |
| Compliance officers at SMEs | One source of truth instead of spreadsheets, and cover when the auditor calls | Single inventory, timestamped evidence trail, board-ready reports |
| IT & security leaders | Visibility of AI features arriving silently inside existing tools | Vendor-change monitoring, automatic re-assessment, red/amber/green roadmap |
| Executives & boards | Confidence that exposure is known, owned and shrinking | The compliance roadmap: percentage complete, what is at risk, who owns it |
Values: what the shield holds
Clarity before comfort
We translate legislation into plain English and say exactly what needs doing, even when the answer is unwelcome. Vague reassurance is a disservice.
Evidence over assertion
A claim without a record is a rumour. Everything Nora asserts, in product and in marketing, must be traceable to something timestamped.
Calm under deadline
The market runs on fear of fines. We never sell with it. We name the deadline, show the plan, and lower the temperature in every room we enter.
Brand architecture
One masterbrand, one product family, one voice. Nothing else gets a logo.
| Level | Name | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Masterbrand | Nora Comply | The only logo in the company. Always two words, both capitalised. Never "NoraComply", "Nora comply" or "NORA COMPLY" in running text. |
| Short form | Nora | Permitted in running copy and product UI after the full name has appeared once ("Nora maps each use case…"). Never in legal documents, invoices or the logo. |
| Product tiers | Risk Checker · Lite · Compliance Product · Provider Platform | Descriptive names set in the brand typeface, never separate marks. Written as "Nora Risk Checker", "Nora Lite" on first mention. |
| The assistant persona | Nora (in-product) | When the product speaks ("Nora detected a new AI feature"), it speaks as Nora, in the brand voice. No separate mascot, avatar or name for the AI layer. |
| Partners | Legal & distribution partners | Partner logos appear only in the partner bar or co-branded documents, sized to the x-height grid, never inside the Nora lockup. |
Five brand principles
Every design and copy decision should survive all five. If it fails one, it is off-brand, however good it looks.
1 · Calm is the product
Customers arrive anxious. Every surface should lower their heart rate: generous space, few colours, no exclamation marks, no countdown clocks. Urgency is stated once, in a date, not performed.
2 · Show the record
Prefer the real artefact to the abstract claim: a roadmap at 68%, an obligation card moving to done, a timestamped evidence entry. Screenshots beat metaphors; numbers beat adjectives.
3 · Plain English is a feature
The product's core promise is translation from legalese. The brand must model it. If a sentence needs a law degree, rewrite it; cite the article number afterwards for those who want it.
4 · Light on dark, dark on light
Navy carries authority; light blue carries clarity. The brand alternates composed navy moments with airy light ones. Never muddy the two: mid-tones are for the product colour only.
5 · One signal at a time
Orange is reserved for the single thing that needs attention. If two things are orange, neither is. This rule governs product, decks and marketing alike.
Voice & tone
Nora speaks like the colleague you wish you had when compliance landed on your desk: knowledgeable, unhurried, and on your side. Not a lawyer, not a salesperson, not a robot.
Four voice attributes
| Attribute | It sounds like | Never like |
|---|---|---|
| Plain | "Recruitment is named as high-risk in Annex III. That means Article 26 applies to you." | "Pursuant to the aforementioned regulatory framework…" |
| Calm | "The deadline is December 2027. Here is what to do first." | "⚠️ TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Fines of €15M!!" |
| Candid | "Only a supervisory authority can determine compliance. Nora keeps your evidence ready for that assessment." | "Nora guarantees full EU AI Act compliance." |
| Practical | "Three steps this week: assign an owner, upload the bias test, publish the Article 26 notice." | "Unlock synergistic governance excellence." |
Tone by situation
The voice is constant; the temperature moves.
| Situation | Temperature | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing site, social | Warm, confident | "We handle AI compliance so you don't have to." |
| Product UI, routine | Neutral, brief | "AI ATS registered. Owner: Recruitment Ops." |
| Product UI, risk alert | Direct, steady | "AI Assistant flagged high risk. Preparing next-steps report." |
| Legal & compliance copy | Precise, sourced | "Deployers must keep logs of system use for six months (Article 26, EU AI Act)." |
| Errors & bad news | Honest, immediate | "We couldn't sync with your ATS. Your evidence trail is unaffected. Retry or contact us." |
- Name the article, the date and the owner.
- Write to one reader ("you"), as one company ("we").
- State the risk plainly, then the next action immediately.
- Let full stops do the work. Short sentences read as confidence.
- Sell with fear, fines or countdowns.
- Promise compliance outcomes; promise readiness and evidence.
- Use exclamation marks anywhere in the brand.
- Hedge with "may", "might", "could potentially" when the Act is explicit.
Messaging
The approved message stack. Quote these lines verbatim before writing new ones; consistency compounds.
| Level | Line | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Category claim | The Compliance Control Layer | Above the headline; badges; boilerplate |
| Primary headline | We handle AI compliance so you don't have to. | Site hero, deck cover alternate |
| Descriptor | Navigate and evidence EU AI Act compliance from a single source of truth. | Metadata, directories, deck subtitle |
| Product story | Register your AI systems → Manage your obligations → Stay compliant as things change. | Feature sections, demos, onboarding |
| Proof layer | Pilot partner quotes, systems mapped, obligations fulfilled, evidence-pack percentages | Everywhere a claim is made |
Message rules by claim type
The deadline
State it as fact, once per piece: "High-risk obligations become enforceable in December 2027." Never pair it with fine amounts in the same sentence; that is fear-selling.
The fine
"€15M or 3% of global turnover" may appear in factual contexts (FAQs, briefings) with a citation. It never appears in headlines, ads or subject lines.
The legal boundary
Always available, never buried: "Nora does not replace legal counsel. It keeps the operational record that counsel and regulators rely on." Use this framing wherever the question could arise.
The competitor spreadsheet
Our true competitor is a spreadsheet and hope. Contrast with the status quo ("one source of truth, not seventeen tabs"), never by naming other vendors.
Writing style
House rules for anyone writing as Nora Comply, from UI strings to LinkedIn posts.
| Rule | Standard |
|---|---|
| English | British English throughout: organisation, analyse, licence (noun). The market is the EU; the spelling should match. |
| Case | Sentence case for headlines, buttons, features and navigation. Title Case only for the company name and named laws ("the EU AI Act"). |
| Legal citations | First mention: "Article 26 of the EU AI Act". Thereafter: "Article 26". Annexes as "Annex III". Never abbreviate to "Art." outside tables and UI chips. |
| Risk levels | Exactly three, capitalised as proper terms in UI chips (HIGH, LIMITED, MINIMAL) and sentence case in prose ("classified as high-risk"). |
| Numbers & dates | Dates as "2 August 2026". Percentages with the symbol ("68%"). Money as "€15M". No ordinal suffixes. |
| Punctuation | No exclamation marks. No em dashes; use commas, colons or a new sentence. Oxford comma optional but consistent within a piece. |
| People | The customer is "you"; Nora Comply is "we"; the product is "Nora". Assign obligations to named roles, not "someone". |
| Jargon | Deployer, provider, DPIA, FRIA and AIRO are allowed once defined in-line: "a DPIA (data protection impact assessment)". |
Logo
The shield is final and is the one asset that never changes. It reads as protection divided into panes: your AI estate, held in order. All representations below use the master artwork supplied by the client; the inline drawings in this guide are placement references only.
Rules
| Rule | Specification |
|---|---|
| Clearspace | On all sides, equal to the height of the shield's top edge notch (≈ 25% of mark height). Nothing enters it: no text, no partner logos, no edges. |
| Minimum size | Mark alone: 20px / 6mm. Lockup: 96px / 28mm wide. Below these, use the mark alone. |
| Backgrounds | Navy #152048, white, or light blue #DFF6FF only. On photography, place the logo on a navy or white panel, never directly on the image. |
| Colourways | Gradient shield (light blue → blue) on navy; solid navy shield on light backgrounds. One-colour version (all navy or all white) for engraving, embroidery and fax-grade contexts. |
| Wordmark | Set in the display face, two words, never split across lines. The mark sits left of the wordmark at cap-height alignment. |
- Use the supplied master files (SVG/PNG) for all production work.
- Keep the gradient direction consistent: light at top-left.
- Scale proportionally from the corner handles only.
- Recolour the shield in orange, black or any new colour.
- Rotate, outline, shadow, or place the mark inside a container shape.
- Set the wordmark in any other typeface or weight.
- Use the shield as a letter inside words or as a bullet point.
Colour
Six ratified colours, each with one job. Navy is the structure, light blue is the air, blue is the product, orange is the signal, black is for print text, white is the ground. The extended scales below exist so the six can be used accessibly at every size.
Core palette
Usage ratio
Across any surface: roughly 60% white/light blue ground, 30% navy, 8% blue, 2% orange. If a layout feels loud, the ratio has slipped.
blue-600 #2B6FD6 (4.8:1) or blue-700 #1F55B0 (7:1), while the ratified #5B9CF5 shines on navy (5.6:1, AA) and in illustration. No core colour was changed; the scales below make each one usable safely.Extended scales
Derived from the core six. Click any swatch to copy its hex.
Navy · structural
Blue · product & interaction
Orange · signal
Ice · light-blue surfaces
Slate · navy-tinted neutrals
Semantic · risk & RAG status
Live contrast checker
Pick a text colour and a background. The document checks itself against WCAG 2.1, live, using the same palette it documents.
Text colour
Background
Typography
Three faces, three jobs. Space Grotesk gives headlines a precise, technical warmth that matches the shield's geometry; Inter carries long-form and UI text with unmatched screen legibility; IBM Plex Mono handles data, tokens and legal citations. All three are open-source (Google Fonts), so the system costs nothing to license and works everywhere, including Canva and the web.
| Role | Face & weight | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Headlines (H1–H2) | Space Grotesk 700 | Sentence case. Tracking −2%. Navy on light, white on navy. Max two lines. |
| Subheads (H3–H4) | Space Grotesk 600 | Sentence case. No tracking adjustment below 24px. |
| Body | Inter 400 / 600 for emphasis | 16px/1.65 web, 10.5pt/1.5 print. Measure 60–72ch. Never justify. |
| UI labels & buttons | Inter 600 | Sentence case, never all-caps except mono chips. |
| Chips, tokens, citations | IBM Plex Mono 500 | All-caps with .12em tracking, 10–11px. The only all-caps in the system. |
| Fallbacks | Helvetica Neue → Arial; Segoe UI → system-ui | For email clients and locked environments. |
Pattern & motif library
All pattern language derives from the shield's geometry: panes divided by clean paths, and the roadmap's rhythm of rounded blocks. Patterns are quiet backgrounds, never foregrounds.
Shield field. Outlined shields at 8–12% visibility on navy. Deck covers, section dividers, event backdrops.
Roadmap rhythm. Rounded blocks in white and ice on light blue. Feature sections, report headers, social textures.
Branching paths. The divider inside the shield, extended: one system branching into obligations. Diagrams and empty states.
| Rule | Specification |
|---|---|
| Contrast | Patterns stay within 12% contrast of their ground. Text never sits on pattern without a solid panel behind it. |
| Scale | One pattern per surface, one scale per surface. Never mix two motifs. |
| Orange | Never appears in patterns. It would spend the signal budget on decoration. |
Iconography & imagery
Icons explain; product shots prove; photography humanises. In that order of preference.
| Asset type | Standard |
|---|---|
| Icons | Outlined, 1.5px stroke at 24px grid, rounded joins, navy on light / light blue on navy. Single-colour only; no duotone, no filled icon styles. Recommended base set: Lucide, restyled to spec. |
| Product imagery | Real product UI, framed in a browser chrome showing app.noracomply.com, on navy or ice grounds with soft shadow (shadow-md). Data in screenshots must be demo data with plausible values (68%, not 100%). |
| Photography | Documentary, natural light, real workplaces: people at desks reviewing, discussing, deciding. Cool grade towards the navy family. No stock cliches: no gavels, no robots, no handshakes in glass towers, no padlocks. |
| Illustration | Only the pattern/motif language above. No character illustration; the human faces in Nora's world are real customers and the team. |
| Partner & vendor logos | Monochrome or original colour on white cards, equal optical weight, never larger than the Nora lockup on the same surface. |
- Show the roadmap, the board and the evidence pack as hero images.
- Photograph the founding team in real working contexts.
- Use the shield mark as the only decorative device when in doubt.
- Use fear imagery: warning triangles, red klaxons, burning euros.
- Depict "AI" as glowing brains, circuitry or humanoid robots.
- Screenshot competitor tools or real customer data.
Layout & spacing
Space is the brand's main luxury. Every surface is built on a 4px base scale and a 12-column grid, with more air than feels necessary.
| Token | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| --s-1 … --s-4 | 4 / 8 / 12 / 16px | Inside components: icon gaps, chip padding, label spacing |
| --s-5 … --s-6 | 24 / 32px | Between related elements: card padding, form rows |
| --s-7 … --s-8 | 48 / 64px | Between component groups and subsections |
| --s-9 … --s-10 | 96 / 128px | Between page sections; hero breathing room |
Grid
12 columns, 24px gutters, max content width 1200px. Marketing pages may bleed navy bands full-width; text stays inside the grid. Product UI uses an 8px-quantised layout inside the same columns.
Radii & elevation
Radii come from the roadmap blocks: 8px controls, 14px cards, 24px feature panels, full-round chips. Two shadows only (sm, md); anything deeper reads as clutter. Night surfaces use borders, not shadows.
Components
The working set, rendered live from the token sheet. These are the specs; inspect this page's source for the CSS.
The system at work
A working slice of the product, built entirely from the tokens on this page. Complete the obligation and watch the roadmap respond; switch the classification and watch the record restyle.
Compliance roadmap
68%In progress
Registered system
Buttons
| Variant | Recipe | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Navy fill, white text | One per view. The main action. |
| Accent | Orange fill, navy-900 text | Reserved for the single conversion moment (risk checker, demo). Never two accent buttons on one page. Never white text on orange. |
| Secondary | Outline, navy text | Alternatives beside a primary. |
| Ghost | Text only, blue-700 | Tertiary navigation and inline actions. |
Risk & status badges
Badges are mono, all-caps, dot-prefixed. The dot carries the colour meaning for colour-blind users alongside the label; never show colour without the word.
Cards
AI ATS
Candidate screening · Owner: Recruitment Ops. Article 26 obligations apply. 4 of 7 fulfilled.
AI Assistant
Internal drafting · Owner: Operations. Transparency obligations live since August 2026.
Productivity Copilot
Meeting summaries · Owner: IT. No additional obligations. Monitored for feature changes.
Forms
Labels above fields, always visible; placeholder is an example, never the label. Errors in danger red with a written message. Focus ring is blue-600, 2px, on every interactive element.
Motion
Motion in Nora's world is administrative grace: things settle, they never bounce. If a user notices the animation, it is too much.
| Token | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| --dur-fast · 150ms | ease-out | Hovers, toggles, badge changes |
| --dur-base · 250ms | ease-out | Cards, dropdowns, board column moves |
| --dur-slow · 450ms | ease-in-out | Panels, page transitions, roadmap progress fills |
Signature moment
The progress fill: when an obligation completes, its bar fills left-to-right in 450ms and the percentage ticks up. This is the brand's one moment of celebration; nothing else animates for joy.
Rules
Fades and 8–12px translates only. No bounces, spins, parallax or confetti. All motion respects prefers-reduced-motion, collapsing to instant state changes.
Product surfaces
The app is where the brand is most itself: a calm instrument panel for a stressful subject.
| Surface | Standard |
|---|---|
| App chrome | White ground, slate borders, navy text. Navigation in navy-800; the current section marked with a blue-600 indicator, not a fill. |
| Dashboard numbers | Large figures in Space Grotesk 700, labels in Inter. Percentages honest by design: show 42% as 42%. |
| Obligation board | Columns To do / In progress / Done. Cards white with risk badge, owner and due date. Overdue cards gain a danger left border, nothing flashes. |
| Roadmap | RAG rows with the semantic palette and written status. Progress bars in blue-600 on blue-100 track. |
| Nora's voice in-app | System messages speak as Nora, one sentence of finding plus one action: "AI ATS added Match % scoring. Review the change." |
| Empty states | Branching-path motif, one line of guidance, one primary button. Never a sad illustration. |
Documents & decks
Decks, evidence packs and reports are the brand's most-forwarded artefacts. They must look credible on a regulator's desk and a board's screen.
| Element | Standard |
|---|---|
| Deck covers | Navy ground, shield-field pattern at low visibility, lockup top-left, title in Space Grotesk white, descriptor in blue-300. Confidentiality line bottom-right in mono 9pt. |
| Content slides | White ground, navy H1 top-left, "Nora Comply" running header 10pt. One idea per slide; roadmap-block cards in ice-100 and navy for grouped content. |
| 16:9 grid | 64px margins, 12 columns. Footer strip: page number and PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL in mono, slate-400. |
| Evidence packs (PDF) | A4 portrait. Cover as deck covers. Body in Inter 10.5pt, citations in mono, every record timestamped. Accent orange only on the single "action required" callout per document. |
| Reports & one-pagers | Lead with the roadmap graphic, then findings as cards. Charts use blue-600 primary series, navy secondary, semantic colours only for status meaning. |
| Legal documents | Wordmark only, black text on white, no patterns. Set in Inter with mono citations. |
Stationery & collateral
| Item | Standard |
|---|---|
| Business cards | Front: navy, gradient shield centred. Back: white, name in Space Grotesk 600, details in Inter 8.5pt, email and noracomply.com in blue-700. |
| Letterhead | White, lockup top-left, contact line bottom in slate-500. Body text black for print fidelity. |
| Email signature | Name (Inter 600), role, "Nora Comply · The Compliance Control Layer", link in blue-700. No banners, no quotes, no images beyond the 24px mark. |
| Event materials | Navy backdrops with shield field; white one-pagers. Lanyards navy with light-blue mark. Demo stations always show the live roadmap, not a video loop. |
| Merch | Navy or white garments, mark alone embroidered in the opposite tone. One-colour logo version only. No slogans on merchandise. |
Accessibility & language
A compliance company that fails accessibility compliance has no brand. WCAG 2.1 AA is the floor, not the target.
| Standard | Rule |
|---|---|
| Contrast | Text ≥ 4.5:1; large text and UI graphics ≥ 3:1. Approved text pairs: navy/black/slate-800 on white and ice; white, ice-100 and blue-300 on navy; blue-700 links on light; orange-700 for orange-meaning text on light. Banned for text: core orange or core blue on white; white on core blue or core orange. |
| Colour independence | Risk and RAG meaning always carried by a word plus colour, never colour alone. Charts get direct labels, not colour-keyed legends alone. |
| Focus & keyboard | Visible 2px blue-600 focus ring on every interactive element. Full keyboard paths through the board and roadmap. |
| Motion | prefers-reduced-motion honoured everywhere, including the progress fill. |
| Plain language | Reading level: aim for a competent 16-year-old. Every legal term defined at first use. Alt text describes the finding, not the pixels ("Roadmap at 68%, bias testing at risk"). |
| Localisation readiness | The EU market is multilingual. Layouts must tolerate +30% text expansion (German) and locale date formats. Copy decks stored string-first to keep translation clean. |
Governance
The brand stays coherent the same way compliance does: named owners, versioned records, and a place to ask.
| Area | Rule |
|---|---|
| Ownership | The CCO owns the brand; day-to-day approvals may be delegated but sign-off on new applications (channels, merchandise, partnerships) stays with a founder. |
| Versioning | This document is the single source of truth, versioned like the product (v1.0, v1.1…). Changes are logged in the token sheet's changelog row. Superseded rules die at the next asset revision. |
| Assets | Master logo files, templates and this guide live in one shared brand folder. Nothing is recreated from memory; if the file is missing, request it. |
| Partner co-branding | Partner materials mentioning Nora Comply use the descriptor line and an approved logo file. Nora's logo never appears inside another brand's shape or gradient. |
| Exceptions | Any rule may be broken once, deliberately, with founder sign-off and a note here. Twice is a new rule. |
Token sheet
The system in one table, for engineers and template builders. These names match the CSS variables in this document's source.
| Token | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| --nc-navy | #152048 | Core Navy · structure, headlines, night surfaces |
| --nc-lightblue | #DFF6FF | Core Light Blue · airy surfaces, marks on navy |
| --nc-blue | #5B9CF5 | Core Blue · product colour, accents on navy, illustration |
| --nc-orange | #FFA521 | Core Orange · the single signal; fills with dark text only |
| --nc-white / --nc-black | #FFFFFF / #000000 | Ground / print body text |
| --blue-600 / --blue-700 | #2B6FD6 / #1F55B0 | Interactive blue on light (AA / AAA) |
| --orange-700 | #9C5C00 | Orange-meaning text on light (AA) |
| --danger / --warning / --success | #B42318 / #B45309 / #067647 | HIGH · LIMITED · MINIMAL; overdue · at risk · on track |
| --font-display | Space Grotesk | Headlines, dashboard figures, wordmark |
| --font-body | Inter | Body, UI, forms |
| --font-mono | IBM Plex Mono | Chips, citations, tokens, data labels |
| --r-sm / --r-md / --r-lg | 8 / 14 / 24px | Controls / cards / feature panels |
| --s-1 … --s-10 | 4 → 128px | 4px-base spacing scale |
| --dur-fast/base/slow | 150 / 250 / 450ms | Motion durations, ease-out / ease-in-out |
| Changelog | v1.0 · 2026 | Initial system. Prepared by Triway Technologies from the client-ratified six-colour palette. |
Social media & web
The channel mix is credibility-led: LinkedIn is the home ground, the website is the proof, everything else supports.
LinkedIn templates
Two formats. Insight cards: navy ground, one plain-English statement about the Act in Space Grotesk, source line in mono. Product cards: white ground, one UI screenshot on ice panel, one-line caption. Avatar is the shield on navy; banner is the shield-field pattern with the descriptor.
Copy style
Posts open with the finding, not a hook ("Recruitment is named in Annex III. Here is what that means for your ATS."). No hashtag walls: maximum three, lowercase. No engagement bait, no fine-amount scare posts.
Website
Hero on white with navy headline and one accent button. Alternating white and ice-50 bands; one navy band for the product story. The risk checker is the persistent secondary CTA sitewide.
Email
System fonts (fallback stack), white ground, navy headline, one button per email (navy fill). Footer with full legal name and address. Subject lines in sentence case, under 60 characters, no urgency theatre.