PROPERbrand board ← Back to the prototype

PROPER

a proper job, online

The site is built like a signwritten van side: gloss white, one deep livery colour, sign-painter letters with a gold drop shade, and coachlines. Every tradesperson already knows what a well-lettered van says about a business. We say the same thing online.

Hand-painted PROPER lettering in cream with a gold shade and red keyline on green paint

The name

Working names for ideation only. None has been checked for trademark or domain availability.

Proper

British for done right and done honestly: "a proper job". Short, warm, a little cheeky, and impossible to read as a tech product. It also works as a promise we can actually keep: the work, done properly.

Coachline

The thin painted stripe that makes a van look finished. A good name for the craft angle, though more obscure.

Signwritten

Says exactly what the brand world is. Long, but descriptive and trade-native.

Kerbside

Where the van parks: local, on the street, close to the customer. More about place than craft.

Wordmark and lettering

Block slab capitals with +0.04em tracking and a solid 45° drop shade of about 0.07em, gold with a darker edge. The brush-script tag is optional and used only where there's room. On green, the letters go cream and the shade gets a dark edge.

PROPERfor local tradesPrimary, on van white
PROPERReversed, on livery green
A signwriter painting a gold letter onto a van doorReference: hand-painted

Paint colours

White does most of the work. Racing green is the committed colour and owns whole bands of the page, never sprinkled about. Gold is only ever a shade or a coachline; red is only ever a coachline, keyline or script.

Van white#f8f9f7Page ground, panels
Livery green#0f4a36Bands, buttons, headings
Gold shade#d9a43aDrop shades, coachlines
Coachline red#c3302aStripes, keylines, script
Lettering cream#f7f0dcLetters on green only
Primer#c3c6c1Planned features only
White ~56%Green ~30%Gold ~5%Red ~2%Primer ~7%Ink #16211c for body text

Type

Three voices, as on a van: block letters to be read from across the street, a script for the personal touch, and a plain workhorse for everything you actually read.

Alfa Slab OneDisplay · headings · prices · signs
Easier to find.
Mr DafoeScript accents · one line at a time
Good at your trade.
Libre FranklinBody 17–19px · labels 800 caps +0.14em

A professional website, a well-looked-after Google profile and an easier way to ask for reviews, planned at £50 a month for local trades.

Websites · Google profiles · Reviews · Looked after

Components

Every control is rebuilt in the van's vocabulary: painted lozenges with a hand-pulled inner coachline, signboards on posts, and a grey primer state for anything not ready yet.

Painted lozenge buttons

Register your interest Small On green Sending…

Inputs

Working names are fine.
That number looks too short. Check the area code.

Labels and states

PlannedIllustrative examplePreparing to launch

Signboard plate

Stop 4ReviewsIncludedWebsite.

Coachline divider

Livery rules for customer sites

The idea scales to the product: each customer's small website can borrow their van's livery, so the street and the screen match. Our own brand stays in the background.

The rules

  • One livery colour, white, and one shade colour, taken from the customer's van or logo.
  • Name in script or block; trade in plain capitals underneath.
  • Phone number and web address sit where the eye lands, as they would on a van door.
  • Real work photos only, from the customer, with permission.
  • Anything optional or not yet live is shown in primer grey, never painted.
J. Pryce & Sons029 2018 0412

Roofing & guttering across Cardiff.

Repairs, re-roofs and gutters · Free quotes · Photos of recent jobs
Illustrative customer site, not a real business

Photography

Real British streets, overcast daylight, damp pavements, natural colour with a little film grain. Hands, paint, ladders and vans: proof of work, not poses. Generated people are always labelled and never presented as customers or staff.

A signwritten roofer's van on a Victorian terraced street
The van in its street. Also the seamless loop in "Why it matters".
A signwriter painting gold lettering
Craft close-ups: hands, brush, paint.
A roofer on a tea break by his van
Tea-break moments, phone in hand. Illustrative person.

Motion

Everything moves the way paint and vans do: brushed on left to right, driven between stops, and then still. Each state is derived from scroll position, so going back un-paints cleanly. Reduced motion shows finished stills.

Brush on

Left-to-right clip reveal. 1.1s · cubic-bezier(.65,0,.35,1)

Proper.
Drive between stops

The street slides past, the van bobs, and speed lines show. 1.1s · same ease

One star at a time

Five stars painted with a springy settle. 180ms stagger

Calm arrivals

Two enquiry tags at most, gentle ring arcs, no counters, no sound.

Voice

Plain, practical and a bit warm. The way a good tradesperson talks to a customer: what they'll do, what it costs, and what they won't promise.

  • Good at your trade. Easier to find.
  • Your van already does your marketing. We'll do the rest.
  • A proper job, online.
  • We'll look after it, so you don't have to think about it.
Say

"Register your interest"

"Not sure? That's a fine answer."

"Planned", "costs extra"

"We can't promise rankings. We promise the work."

Don't say

"Start now", "Sign up free"

"AI-powered growth engine"

"Coming soon!" with a date

"3× more calls" or any number we can't source