S1 · Episode 3
Your MFA Is Annoying for a Reason
with Sample Guest
SAMPLE EPISODE. Why multi-factor authentication feels like friction, why that friction is the point, and how to roll it out without a staff revolt.
Version 1.0 — November 2026
Brand Guide
How to use the Refreshingly Human IT name, logo, colors, type and voice.
1. The brand at a glance
Refreshingly Human IT is a podcast from Tech Dynamix about technology as it is actually lived: by people, in real businesses, with real constraints. We talk about IT without the jargon, the fear-selling, or the vendor gloss.
| Show name | Refreshingly Human IT |
| Endorsement | A Tech Dynamix Podcast |
| Tagline | IT conversations, minus the jargon. |
| Promise | Smart, honest tech talk you can use on Monday. |
| Audience | Business owners, operations leaders and IT generalists who want straight answers. |
| Personality | Warm · plainspoken · curious · quietly expert · a little bit funny |
Writing the name
- Always Refreshingly Human IT, with “IT” in capitals and no “the” in front.
- Don’t abbreviate to “RHIT” in public copy. It is fine for file names and internal use.
- Write Tech Dynamix with a capital T and D: never “tech dynamix” or “TECH DYNAMIX” in running text. The endorsement reads A Tech Dynamix Podcast. Only the logo lockup sets it in all caps.
2. Voice and tone
We sound like the smartest person in the room who also happens to be the friendliest. We explain, we don’t lecture.
✓ Do
- Use plain words: “your backups,” not “your data-resilience posture.”
- Lead with the human problem, then the tech.
- Admit trade-offs and say “it depends” when it does, then explain what it depends on.
- Keep a light touch. One good joke beats five puns.
✕ Don't
- Use fear to sell (“Hackers are coming for YOU”).
- Stack acronyms without defining them.
- Talk down to listeners or guests.
- Use hype words: revolutionary, game-changing, synergy, leverage.
Episode titles are short, specific and conversational: “Your MFA Is Annoying for a Reason” beats “Multi-Factor Authentication Best Practices, Part 2.”
3. Logo
The logo combines a microphone (the conversation), a person (the human) and a lightning bolt (energy and technology), with the wordmark underlined by our signature double swoosh.
Lockups
Choosing a color version
| Background | Use | File suffix |
|---|---|---|
| White, Paper or light photos | Ink type + orange symbol | -light- |
| Ink, charcoal or dark photos | White type + orange symbol | -dark- |
| One-color print, engraving, fax | Solid ink | -black- |
| Single-color on dark or on orange | Solid white | -white- |
Prefer the SVG files for screen and print. Use PNG only where SVG isn’t accepted.
Clear space and minimum size
- Clear space: keep a margin equal to the height of the capital “H” in “Human” on all sides. Nothing (text, edges, other logos) enters that zone.
- Minimum size: endorsed lockups no narrower than 240 px / 2 in (below that the endorsement becomes unreadable). Clean lockups no narrower than 160 px / 1.25 in. Below that, use the icon alone (min 24 px).
Don’t
- Recolor, add gradients, outlines or drop shadows to the logo.
- Stretch, skew, rotate or rearrange the elements.
- Retype the wordmark in another font.
- Place the light logo on busy photos without a solid or darkened backing.
- Put the orange symbol on an orange background (use the white version).
- Recreate or imply the official Tech Dynamix corporate logo. The endorsement is set as text only.
4. Color
Our palette is deliberately small: one confident orange, a near-black ink, and warm neutrals that keep things human rather than clinical.
Core
Aa
Signal Orange
#ED7A1C RGB 237 122 28The brand color. Symbol, swooshes, highlights, primary buttons.
Aa
Ink
#111111 RGB 17 17 17Type on light, dark backgrounds, header and footer.
Aa
White
#FFFFFF RGB 255 255 255Type on dark, cards on Paper.
Supporting
Aa
Ember
#A84F0A RGB 168 79 10Orange for text and links on light backgrounds (passes WCAG AA).
Aa
Paper
#FAF6F0 RGB 250 246 240Default page background. Warmer than pure white.
Aa
Charcoal
#1C1A17 RGB 28 26 23Body text, raised surfaces on Ink.
Aa
Stone
#5A544C RGB 90 84 76Secondary text, metadata, captions on light.
Aa
Ash
#B8B2A8 RGB 184 178 168Secondary text on dark.
Aa
Sand
#E7E0D5 RGB 231 224 213Borders, dividers, subtle fills.
Proportion
Roughly 60% neutrals (Paper/White), 30% Ink, 10% Signal Orange. Orange is the spark, not the wallpaper. The one exception is a full-bleed orange call-to-action band, used no more than once per page.
Accessible pairings
| Foreground | Background | Contrast | OK for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink | Signal Orange | 6.7 : 1 | Buttons, labels, all text |
| Signal Orange | Ink | 6.7 : 1 | All text, links, highlights on dark |
| Ember | Paper | 5.2 : 1 | Links and orange text on light |
| Stone | Paper | 7.0 : 1 | Secondary text |
| Ash | Ink | 9.0 : 1 | Secondary text on dark |
| White | Signal Orange | 2.8 : 1 | Never for text. Use Ink on orange. |
| Signal Orange | White / Paper | 2.8 : 1 | Never for text. Decorative only, or use Ember. |
5. Typography
The wordmark is set in a bold neo-grotesque. On the web we echo that with two free, open-source Google Fonts.
Display · Archivo 800
Tech talk for humans.
Body · Inter 400
We sit down with the people who keep businesses running and ask the questions you'd ask if you weren't worried about sounding silly. No jargon, no fear-selling, just useful conversations.
| Role | Font | Weight | Size (desktop / mobile) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display / H1 | Archivo | 800 | 64 / 40 px | Tight tracking (-0.02em), line-height 1.05 |
| H2 | Archivo | 800 | 40 / 30 px | |
| H3 | Archivo | 700 | 24 / 21 px | |
| Eyebrow / label | Archivo | 700 | 13 px | ALL CAPS, +0.12em tracking, mirrors the endorsement |
| Body | Inter | 400 | 18 / 17 px | Line-height 1.65, max 68 characters per line |
| Small / meta | Inter | 500 | 14 px | Stone on light, Ash on dark |
Fallbacks: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif. In Office documents, use Arial Bold for headings and Arial for body.
6. Graphic elements
The double swoosh
Lifted straight from the wordmark. Use it to underline one key phrase per headline, like minus the jargon . Never more than one per screen, and never under body text.
Use the master artwork, rhit-double-underline.svg: two hand-drawn strokes in #E87722, a heavier top stroke and a lighter, shorter one below at 72% opacity. Stretch it to the width of the phrase; don’t redraw it, recolor it or replace it with a straight line.
The bolt
The lightning bolt from the icon marks energy and “aha” moments: list bullets, key takeaways, the “now playing” state. Always Signal Orange or white, never on its own as a logo replacement.
Shapes and corners
- Generous rounded corners echo the microphone capsule: 12 px on cards, 999 px (pill) on buttons and tags.
- Flat color, no gradients or glassy effects. A single soft shadow is allowed on raised cards.
7. Imagery and episode art
- People first. Candid photos of hosts and guests mid-conversation, natural light, real workplaces. Avoid stock photos of hoodies, padlocks and binary code.
- Episode art (3000 × 3000 px square, plus 1920 × 1080 px for YouTube): Ink background, guest photo in a rounded capsule shape, episode title in Archivo 800 white, one word underlined with the swoosh, small icon bottom-right.
- Photo treatment: if a photo is too busy behind type, overlay Ink at 60–70% opacity. Don’t tint photos orange.
8. Web components
These live examples come straight from the website theme, so the guide and the site can’t drift apart.
Episode card
Text link and tags
9. Asset files
All artwork is in the logo kit at refreshingly-human-it-logo-kit/ and published on this site under /brand/.
| File pattern | What it is |
|---|---|
rhit-horizontal-endorsed-{light,dark,black,white}-transparent.svg | Primary lockup |
rhit-stacked-endorsed-… | Stacked lockup with endorsement |
rhit-horizontal-clean-… / rhit-stacked-clean-… | Lockups without endorsement |
rhit-icon-… | Microphone icon only |
…-solid | Same artwork on a supplied white or ink background |
png/… | 3200 px wide raster versions (icon 2048 px square) |
The Signal Orange value (#ED7A1C) is a refined approximation from the concept artwork. Confirm it with Tech Dynamix before commissioning print or merchandise, where a Pantone match should be specified.