Brand & Design Book

Who we are

Romania Connect is the Romanian-Austrian business platform - a bilateral association that strengthens economic cooperation between Romania and Austria by connecting decision-makers, entrepreneurs and institutional stakeholders.

Positioning line

The Romanian-Austrian Business Platform.

Actionable business intelligence for confident Romanian-Austrian market decisions.

Mission

Empower Romanian businesses to enter, navigate and grow in the Austrian ecosystem through trusted connections, practical knowledge and hands-on support.

Vision

A thriving cross-border business community where Romanian companies are natural partners in the Austrian economy.

The three things we do

• Executive-level networking between Romanian and Austrian companies.
• Curated business intelligence for strategic and operational decisions.
• Trusted environments for partnerships, collaboration and deal facilitation.

Logo

The wordmark reads ROMANIA over CONNECT. The letter O in ROMANIA is replaced by the mark's signature device - overlapping red and white rings, the brand's one expressive flourish.

Master files: rc-logo-positive.svg (dark wordmark, for light backgrounds) and rc-logo-negative.svg (white wordmark, for navy or dark/photo backgrounds). Vector, PNG, JPG, PDF, AI and EPS versions are all in the shared workspace.

Two versions

• Positive - dark wordmark for light and white backgrounds.
• Negative - white wordmark for navy, dark or photographic backgrounds. The red/white ring device stays the same in both versions.

Always place the supplied master files - never re-typeset the wordmark or redraw the ring device by hand.

Clear space and size

• Keep clear space around the logo equal to the height of the ring device on all sides. Nothing - text, photo edge, other logos - enters that space.
• Minimum size: the CONNECT line must stay legible. Below roughly 90 px wide on screen or 25 mm in print, use the ring device alone rather than the full lockup.
• Use the vector (.svg, .ai, .eps or .pdf) files whenever the logo will be scaled up, so edges stay crisp.

Partner co-branding

Romania Connect regularly appears alongside institutional partners - the Romanian Embassy in Vienna, the Austrian Business Agency (ABA), the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO), the Vienna Business Agency - on invitations, event signage and press materials. Keep shared lockups calm and equal:

Partner logo

Partner logo

• Give every logo in the row equal visual weight - similar optical height, not necessarily identical box size.
• Separate logos with a thin hairline or generous white space, never by merging or overlapping them.
• Each logo keeps its own minimum clear space; do not compress the row to fit more names.
• On a single-event piece, order logos left to right in order of hosting role (host institution first, Romania Connect and co-organisers following) unless the partner's own guidelines say otherwise.
• Never resize, recolour or apply the Romania Connect palette to a partner's logo.

Colour

Royal blue leads, deep navy grounds, Romanian red accents - sparingly. Light greys and hairlines create the clean, spacious feel. Red is a spark, never a field.

How to use them together

• Default surface is white or cool light grey with body ink text.
• Royal blue for anything that carries the brand or invites a click.
• Deep navy for dark panels - covers, footers, feature blocks.
• Red stays under roughly 5% of any layout. If red fills a large area, it is wrong.

Typography

Two typefaces, no exceptions. Familjen Grotesk for headings, Arimo for body. Both are freely available, so every team member can install them.

Type scale (guidance)

Voice & tone

Sober, corporate, confident - and warm. We sound like a trusted senior partner: direct, community-led, action-oriented. We show results, not adjectives.

Principles

• Confident, not hypey. State what is true and let it stand.
• Concrete, not abstract. Real names, real dates, real outcomes.
• Warm, not corporate-cold. We are a community, not a brochure.
• Action-oriented. Every piece points to a next step - join, meet, register, talk.

Photography & imagery

The brand is photography-led. Images do the atmospheric work; text and logo sit cleanly on top. Real business settings, real people, real cities.

Style

• Natural light, professional business settings - meetings, networking, city architecture of Vienna, Bucharest, Timișoara.
• Composed and calm, never chaotic stock-photo energy.
• When text goes on a photo, the image is darkened so the copy stays readable.

Text on a photo - one flat image

When a visual needs a photo behind headline text (event graphics, road show cards), it is produced as a single flat PNG with the photo behind and the text on top - never two separate files, never a web page, and never a background that already contains text.

Photo don'ts

• No visible watermarks, no low-resolution or heavily filtered stock.
• No text baked into a photo that will then be used as a background.
• No imagery that reads as a different brand.

Graphic elements

A small, consistent kit of shapes gives every piece the same handwriting.

The tricolor bar

A thin blue-yellow-red bar used as a subtle national signature - a foot on a card, a divider, a small detail. Keep it thin and short; it accents, it never dominates.

The ring device

The overlapping red and white rings that form the O in ROMANIA are the brand's one expressive mark. Do not extract it and scatter it as decoration - it lives in the logo.

Hairlines and space

Thin #E4E8EF rules separate sections. Space is a design element in its own right - when in doubt, add breathing room rather than another graphic.

Eyebrow labels

Small uppercase, letter-spaced royal-blue labels ("Road Show 2026", "Business Circle") sit above headlines to orient the reader. One per block, never repeated as decoration.

Stationery & email signature

Business cards, letterhead and signatures are small pieces but they are often the first brand touch a partner sees - keep them as clean as everything else.

Business cards

• White or navy background, logo with full clear space.
• Name and role in Familjen Grotesk SemiBold, contact details in Arimo.
• Only confirmed contact details: name, role, office@romaniaconnect.at, www.romaniaconnect.at, and a direct line only if the person has one to publish.
• Optional thin tricolor bar as a foot detail - not on every element of the card.

Letterhead

• Logo top left or centered, generous top margin.
• Body copy in Arimo, navy or ink colour, single column.
• Footer line: full legal name, ZVR number, registered office, website - in small grey type.

Email signature

Keep it to plain text plus the logo - no photo banners, no motivational quotes, no social icon walls.

• Logo at a small, fixed size (roughly 120 px wide), positive version on white email backgrounds.
• No coloured background blocks or borders around the signature.
• One link only - the website - written as bare text or a simple hyperlink, not a button.

Presentations

Delivered as clean, spacious decks - cover, then one clear idea per slide.

• Cover slide: navy background, negative logo, title in Familjen Grotesk, one supporting line.
• Content slides: white or light-grey, navy heading, short body or bullets. One idea per slide.
• Royal blue for emphasis and section markers; red only as a small accent.
• Plenty of white space - resist filling every corner.
• Language: English by default; Romanian or German when the audience calls for it.

Print & press releases

Print materials (flyers, one-pagers, roll-ups)

• Same palette and type as screen. Navy panels, white space, royal-blue accents, red sparingly.
• Logo with full clear space; tricolor bar as an optional foot detail.
• Always include the website and one clear next step (register, apply, contact).
• Export print-ready PDF; keep the logo and photography high-resolution - use the .ai, .eps or .pdf logo master for large-format print.

Press releases

A press release is formal and factual. Structure:

• Header: logo, "Press Release", city and date (e.g. Vienna, 15 October 2026).
• Headline: Familjen Grotesk, factual, no hype or exclamation.
• Lead paragraph: who, what, when, where, why in the first lines.
• Body: supporting detail, one or two quotes attributed to board members (with correct titles - see the board list).
• Boilerplate: the standard "About Romania Connect" paragraph.
• Contact: office@romaniaconnect.at.

Invitations

Invitations feel considered and exclusive - many of our formats are invitation-only.

• Navy or photographic background, negative logo, generous space.
• Lead with the essentials, location prioritised visually: event name, date, time, venue, city.
• State the format clearly (Business Circle, Executive Breakfast, Leadership Forum) and whether it is invitation-only or members-only.
• One clear RSVP path - the Register button on the event, or a direct contact.
• Tone: warm but formal. No exclamation marks, no emoji.

Websites & landing pages

Clean, spacious, photography-led. The site sets the standard the rest of the brand follows.

• White and light-grey sections, navy feature blocks, hairline dividers.
• Familjen Grotesk headings, Arimo body, royal-blue links and buttons.
• One idea per section, real photography, restrained accent use.
• Every page ends in a clear action: register, apply, or contact.
• Honour the anti-slop rules - no metric strips in the hero, no repeated kicker labels, no 01/02/03 decoration.

Key links

Forms

Membership application, event registration, newsletter and contact forms all share one calm, trustworthy style.

• Generous spacing, one column, clear labels above each field in Arimo.
• Hairline field borders (#E4E8EF); royal-blue focus state and primary button.
• Short, human helper text. Ask only for what is needed.
• Clear confirmation after submit - tell the person what happens next.
• The membership application is a simple 4-step flow; keep each step short.

Social media

LinkedIn is our primary channel and has its own playbook. Instagram keeps its own conventions (hashtags are fine there).

LinkedIn post structure

• Hook - one short, punchy first line that fits before the fold (~140 characters on mobile).
• Body - 2-3 short paragraphs, or a short bullet list for people, outcomes or topics.
• Close - one clear call to action or the bare website URL.
• Aim for roughly 1,300-2,000 characters overall.

LinkedIn rules

• No em/en-dashes, no emoji, no hashtags, no separator lines.
• Write the URL bare (www.romaniaconnect.at), never as markdown.
• One external link at most, in the close - links in the body cost reach.
• Tag relevant people and institutions - but only those genuinely connected to the post.
• For posts that matter, draft two voices: the company page version and a personal board-member version (personal profiles reach far more).
• No engagement bait.

Visual formats

• LinkedIn feed: portrait (4:5) - it takes the most space in the feed.
• Event line-ups, road shows, agendas, quotes, key figures: branded template with real type, correct dates and the logo.
• New member / new partner: the established welcome card - navy with confetti, "Welcome!", the member's own logo, partner badge, tricolor foot.

Accessibility & file management

Contrast that works

Keep text on a background that is genuinely easy to read - navy or ink text on white/grey, white text on navy/blue. Avoid light grey text on white, or red text on navy.

• Never use red text on navy, or red on blue - the contrast and the clash both fail.
• Don't rely on colour alone to carry meaning (e.g. "red text means required") - pair it with a word or symbol.
• Alt text on web and email images: describe what is shown in one plain sentence.

File naming

Keep files findable months later. Suggested pattern:

rc-[type]-[topic]-[date or version].[ext]

Examples: rc-post-roadshow-2026-v2.png, rc-invite-businesscircle-nov2026.pdf, rc-press-launch-bucharest-2026-10-15.pdf.

Where things live

• Master brand assets (logo files, approved photography): assets/ in the shared workspace.
• Everything produced is mirrored automatically into the "Romania Connect" Google Drive folder, sorted into Posts, Texts, Images, Presentations, Website drafts, Uploads.
• When a design goes through revisions, keep old versions rather than overwriting - version numbers, not "final_final".

Before anything goes out

• Colours from the palette only - red used sparingly?
• Familjen Grotesk headings, Arimo body?
• Correct logo version for the background, with clear space?
• Plain hyphens - no long dashes, no exclamation marks, no emoji (official copy)?
• Real, correct event names, dates, venues - no placeholders?
• One clear next step and the right link?
• Clean and spacious - anti-slop rules respected?
• Text readable against its background - contrast checked?
• Website change? Preview only, Sergiu approves before publishing.