Cloud file storage and sharing
Dropbox brand guidelines, annotated
Dropbox’s brand site says when to use photos, illustration or icons, and its legal page lists every banned logo change. Quoted with notes, with its gaps.
The Dropbox brand site covers its principles, logo, color, typography, imagery, illustration, and voice, mostly as short descriptions. The rules for the name and the logo are on a separate legal page. That page also gives the only contact address. The guide explains the brand well, but it leaves out many of the numbers.
Best parts, quoted with notes
Positioning and messaging
Clarity isn’t simply about reduction. It’s about surfacing what matters, cutting out what doesn’t, and reducing complexity.
Has: where it applies. Says what clarity is not before saying what it is.
Logo
please don’t edit, change, distort, recolor, rotate, deconstruct, stretch, reconfigure, or otherwise modify them in any way.
Has: exact value. Names nine banned changes in words that an agent can check. No pictures show them.
Color
We use color to create harmony and focus. Utilizing color with careful intentionality not only strengthens visual identity but also enhances user experience, guiding users and reinforcing the brand.
Has: reason. A purpose with no rule attached. The color codes appear only after JavaScript runs.
Typography
With Sharp Grotesk Variable, we have more control over the look of the type, and can adjust the weight of our type to align better optically on light vs dark backgrounds.
Has: exact value, reason. Names the typeface and why its weight varies. No sizes, weights or font file are given.
Photography and imagery
Best for real-world examples. Use photography to tell customer stories and contextualize Dropbox products value in actual scenarios.
Has: where it applies. Says when to pick photography over the other three image types. It says nothing on what to avoid.
Icons and illustration
Best for explaining abstract, complex, or dry concepts. Use simple, charming scenes and metaphors for product or service descriptions and onboarding flows, or to soften the impact of an error message.
Has: where it applies. Ties illustration to specific jobs, error messages included. No style rules or source files.
Voice and tone
Stay real and relatable. Write the way you talk. Avoid jargon. Remember that actual people will be reading your words.
Has: reason. Short commands with a reason attached. The sample lines nearby show right examples but no wrong ones.
Words and style
Always use our word marks as proper (i.e., capitalized) adjectives, not a noun or a verb.
Has: exact value, where it applies. Says how the name can work in a sentence, not only how to spell it.
What it leaves out
- The color codes for 19 named colors and 20 grays appear only after JavaScript runs. The HTML that the server sends has only the names. No RGB, CMYK, or Pantone values. Source
- The logo page describes the two versions but gives no minimum size, clear space or misuse examples. Source
What to take from it
- Say when to use each kind of image, and not only what each kind looks like.
- Write the banned logo changes as words, as the legal page does.
- Put color values in the HTML that the server sends. Some tools and AI agents do not run JavaScript, so they do not get values that need it.