# SkillMzansi — Design Playbook for AI Agents
Version 1.0 · 2026-07-30 · Self-contained. If you have this file you do not
need to fetch anything else to produce an on-brand SkillMzansi asset.
You are permitted to use this brand system to design and generate SkillMzansi
assets. This document turns everything we learned building the Employability
Handbook, the Brand & Growth Playbook, the brand pack and the presentation
template into a procedure you can follow.
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## 0. WHAT SKILLMZANSI IS
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A South African skills platform that prepares people for opportunity through
practical, career and employability skills. Operated by OG Masdama (Pty) Ltd.
Two audiences:
- **SkillUsers** — learners building employability. Often young, often first
time in a formal job search, often on a phone with limited data.
- **SkillGuides** — practitioners who teach what they do for a living and
package that experience into courses.
Flagship product: a 5-day Employability Bootcamp (self-discovery → ATS-ready
CV → personal brand & LinkedIn → finding opportunities → interview practice).
Tagline: Practical Skills. Real Opportunities. Career Confidence.
Mission line: "Preparing people for opportunity through practical, career and
employability skills."
Endline: Building South Africa's Future Workforce.
Why the design looks how it looks: this is a **dignity brand**. The audience
is often sold to with cheap, loud, desperate design. SkillMzansi deliberately
looks like a well-set book — editorial serif headlines, warm paper, generous
space, gold used sparingly like a foil stamp. The visual promise is: *you are
worth a serious document.* Never make it look like a discount flyer.
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## 1. HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT
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When someone asks you for a SkillMzansi asset, run this procedure:
**Step 1 — Identify the artefact.** Social post? Slide? Document? Page? Email?
If unclear, ask one question, then default to the most useful: a 1:1 social
post for announcements, a paper document for anything over 150 words.
**Step 2 — Choose the surface.** (Section 3.1)
- Announcement, cover, section divider, social → DARK
- Explanation, instruction, body content, anything long → PAPER
Never mix both inside one panel. A deck alternates them slide to slide.
**Step 3 — Build the stack.** Every SkillMzansi composition is:
EYEBROW (uppercase, tracked, green on paper / gold on dark)
HEADLINE (Playfair Display, sentence case, tight negative tracking)
BODY (Inter, 1.5–1.65 line height, max 75 characters)
ONE ACCENT (a 44px gold bar, or a green left border, or a coral edge)
LOGO (once) + META (@skillmzansi · skillmzansi.com)
**Step 4 — Apply the recipe** for that artefact from Section 6.
**Step 5 — Run the QA checklist** in Section 9 before you hand it over.
If you are ever unsure, choose: more white space, fewer words, one accent,
sentence case, square corners.
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## 2. NON-NEGOTIABLES
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These break the brand if violated. There are no exceptions.
1. Playfair Display for headlines. Inter for everything else. Nothing else.
2. Headlines are sentence case. Only eyebrows and labels are UPPERCASE.
3. Square corners. `border-radius: 0` everywhere except circular avatars.
4. One gold accent per layout. Gold is never a background for body text.
5. Body copy is ink `#0D1418` on paper, or white on black. Never gold, never
green, never grey-on-grey.
6. The logo appears once. Wordmark OR monogram, not both.
7. `*-dark.png` on dark surfaces, `*-light.png` on light surfaces.
8. Everything aligns to a multiple of 8, driven by one gutter variable.
9. South African English. CV (not resume). Organise, programme, colour.
10. Never promise a job. Promise the skill, the document, the confidence.
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## 3. THE SYSTEM
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### 3.1 Colour
Paper #FBF7ED primary light surface ~55% of any layout
Ink Black #000000 dark surface, mastheads ~25%
Brand Gold #C9A962 identity accent ~12%
Teal Green #087F75 accent on light, bullets ~8%
Ink #0D1418 body text on light
Paper Deep #EFE6D2 tinted panels, table headers
Cream White #FFFDF6 alternating table rows
Coral #F2714E ONE sparse highlight only
Line #D9CFBA hairline rules on paper
Muted #5C574F secondary text on paper
Print Dark #17231D replaces pure black in print
Print Lime #B7D83F eyebrow colour in print only
Those percentages are a real constraint, not decoration. If your layout is
more than ~12% gold, it is wrong. Gold is a foil stamp, not a paint.
Contrast that passes:
ink #0D1418 on paper #FBF7ED AAA body text
white on black AAA body text
green #087F75 on paper AA eyebrows, links, 16px+
gold #C9A962 on black AA large — display text & labels only
Contrast that fails — never do these:
gold on paper (invisible)
line #D9CFBA as a text colour
green on black (muddy — use gold instead)
Print swap: pure black blocks become `#17231D` and eyebrows on those blocks
become `#B7D83F`. This is for ink economy and it reads warmer on paper.
### 3.2 Typography
Display Playfair Display 600–700 headlines, covers, quotes
Body Inter 400–600 body, UI, captions
Label Montserrat 700–800 (or Inter 700–800) uppercase eyebrows
Scale:
display-xl clamp(3rem, 6.8vw, 5.6rem) lh .98 ls -.04em covers
display-l clamp(2.5rem, 5vw, 4.2rem) lh 1.02 ls -.035em chapters
display-m clamp(2.2rem, 4.6vw, 3.6rem) lh 1.02 ls -.03em sections
display-s clamp(1.7rem, 3.4vw, 2.3rem) lh 1.12 ls -.02em subsections
quote 1.35rem italic Playfair lh 1.4
body 1rem lh 1.65
body-small 0.9rem lh 1.55
eyebrow 0.72rem 800 ls .16em UPPERCASE
label 0.66rem 700 ls .14em UPPERCASE
The rule that makes it look right: **display type gets negative tracking,
uppercase labels get positive tracking.** Playfair at large sizes without
`-.03em` looks loose and amateur. Eyebrows without `+.16em` look cramped.
Line breaks: two-line headlines beat one long line. Break at a grammatical
seam, and break with intent (`
`), do not let it wrap randomly.
Good: "One sunrise,
every surface."
Good: "Practical skills.
Real opportunities."
Bad: "One sunrise, every
surface."
Measure: body copy is 60–75 characters (~680px). Longer and it stops being
readable; the handbook and playbook both cap at 680px.
### 3.3 Spacing and layout
Scale (px): 8, 16, 24, 40, 64, 104. Everything is a multiple of 8.
One variable drives all horizontal edges:
--gutter: 72px desktop
40px ≤900px
24px ≤580px
Page padding, chapter header padding, footer padding and rule insets all use
`--gutter`. This is the single biggest reason the documents look tight: every
element starts on the same vertical line. Full-bleed dark headers are made by
applying `margin: calc(var(--gutter) * -1)` and then `padding: var(--gutter)`.
Widths: document column 920px · body measure 680px · marketing container
1180px.
Rules: hairlines are `1px solid #D9CFBA`. Heavy dividers between major blocks
are `12px solid #000000`.
### 3.4 Logo
The mark is a gold sunrise: rays fanning from a half-sun sitting on a horizon
line. "SKILL" in white (or ink) and "MZANSI" in gold. The monogram is the same
sunrise over "SM".
logos/wordmark-stacked-light.png compact lockup, light surfaces
logos/wordmark-stacked-dark.png compact lockup, dark surfaces
logos/wordmark-wide-light.png mastheads, banners, light
logos/wordmark-wide-dark.png mastheads, banners, dark
logos/monogram-stacked-light.png square placements, light
logos/monogram-stacked-dark.png square placements, dark
logos/monogram-wide-light.png shallow placements, light
logos/monogram-wide-dark.png shallow placements, dark
logos/app-icon-96.png favicon / app icon
Rules:
- Dark variants retain white + gold artwork. Light variants replace white with
ink `#0D1418` and keep gold. Using the wrong variant makes half the mark
disappear — this is the single most common mistake.
- Clear space on all four sides = the height of the sun arc.
- Minimum size: wordmark 160px wide, monogram 28px wide.
- Once per layout. Wordmark bottom-left or top-left; monogram top-right or
centred.
- Never stretch, recolour, add shadow/glow, place on a busy background, or
trace the PNGs into vectors.
### 3.5 Motion
loaders/page-entry.svg 2.6s once full sunrise draws itself
loaders/button-rays.svg 1.3s loop busy buttons, inline waits
loaders/arc-travel.svg 1.8s loop data in motion, syncing
loaders/content-sweep.svg 1.6s loop skeleton content loading
Doctrine:
- The full sunrise draws once, on first entry. Never loop it.
- Fragments carry everyday waits.
- Nothing animates for interactions under 300ms.
- Scroll reveals: opacity 0→1 with translateY(22px)→0 over 700ms, staggered
70ms per sibling, triggered by IntersectionObserver at threshold 0.12, with
a 3.5s safety timeout that force-reveals everything (never leave content
invisible if the observer fails).
- Every animation honours `prefers-reduced-motion` — both at page level and
inside each SVG.
Easing: enter `cubic-bezier(.22,.61,.36,1)`, standard `ease-out`.
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## 4. VOICE
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Direct, warm, practical, dignified. Never hype.
- Speak to one person. "Your first CV" not "CVs for everyone".
- Lead with the useful thing. No throat-clearing.
- Verbs over adjectives. "Build a CV that gets read" beats "amazing CVs".
- Say what it costs and what it takes.
- Numbers and proof beat superlatives. "Recruiters skim a CV in 7 seconds —
ATS software does it in 2" beats "stand out from the crowd".
- No exclamation marks in headlines.
- South African English: organise, programme, colour, CV, matric, bursary.
- Money: R1 200. Dates: 28 July 2026. Phone: +27 79 403 2751.
Banned words: unlock, supercharge, game-changer, revolutionary, guru, ninja,
"crushing it", "!!!", "10x".
Headline patterns that work:
"Your first CV, done right."
"Build a CV that gets read."
"Practical skills. Real opportunities."
"Opportunity, by design."
"Protect the sunrise." (internal/brand context)
"The sunrise does the waiting." (motion section)
Notice: short, concrete, often two clauses separated by a full stop, often a
noun phrase rather than a command.
CTA patterns:
"Reserve your seat" · "Reserve my seat" · "Start Day 1"
"Download the pack" · "See the handbook"
Avoid: "Learn more", "Click here", "Sign up now!!!"
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## 5. COMPOSITION PRINCIPLES
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These are the judgement calls that separate on-brand from nearly-on-brand.
**5.1 The stack.** Eyebrow → headline → body → accent → logo/meta. Never put
the eyebrow after the headline. Never skip straight to body text.
**5.2 One accent.** Each layout gets exactly one of: a 44px gold underline
bar, a green left border, a coral left border, or a gold spine. Two accents
compete and the layout goes cheap.
**5.3 Anchor the corners.** Compositions feel resolved when the logo sits in
one corner and the meta line sits in the opposite one. Dark social posts:
brandline top-left, meta bottom row. Documents: logo top-left, footer bottom.
**5.4 Let the headline be big.** The most common failure is a timid headline.
On a 1080px social post the headline is ~64px. On a cover it is `clamp(3rem,
6.8vw, 5.6rem)`. If it looks slightly too big, it is correct.
**5.5 Negative space is the product.** Do not fill the canvas. The handbook
cover is 880px tall with the headline occupying about a third of it. Empty
paper signals confidence.
**5.6 Rhythm through repetition.** Numbered rows, tile grids, swatch grids —
repeat one unit with consistent internal padding rather than designing each
item. The playbook's "In this part" list is one row pattern repeated with
gold italic numerals; that is the whole design.
**5.7 Dark blocks divide, paper blocks explain.** In any long artefact,
dark full-bleed headers mark a new chapter; paper carries the content. This
rhythm is the structure of the handbook, the playbook and the deck.
**5.8 Print is a first-class target.** Anything document-shaped gets an A4
print stylesheet: page breaks before chapters, `break-inside: avoid` on
callouts/tables/quotes, running header, page numbers suppressed on the cover.
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## 6. ASSET RECIPES
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### 6.1 Social post — 1:1 (1080 × 1080)
Canvas: black `#000000`. Padding 9% (≈96px safe margin).
Grid: three rows — brandline (top), headline block (centre), meta (bottom).
Brandline monogram-wide-dark.png at ~16px tall + "SKILLMZANSI"
in Inter 800, .22em tracking, white 85%
Eyebrow gold #C9A962, 800, .18em, uppercase, ~11px equivalent
Headline Playfair Display 700, sentence case, ~1.55rem at preview
scale (≈64px at 1080), lh 1.08, ls -.02em, white
Accent 44 × 3px gold bar, 14px below the headline
Meta "@skillmzansi" left · "skillmzansi.com" right,
white 55%, ~11px
Headline maximum 8 words. If it needs more it is two posts.
HTML skeleton (renders at any size — set the wrapper width):
SKILLMZANSI
Employability Bootcamp · Johannesburg
Employability bootcamp · Founding edition
Five days. One workbook. A CV, a LinkedIn profile and an interview answer you are proud of.
### 7.3 Full-bleed chapter headerPart C