Brand system v1.0

CreditShark

Trade Risk. Calmly Managed.

CreditShark empowers SMEs with clear, affordable credit insights and practical risk awareness. It helps growing businesses understand who they are trading with, spot potential risk early, protect cash flow and make confident commercial decisions without unnecessary complexity.

The central visual idea is the Calm Fin: a clear signal above a smooth waterline. It represents visibility before risk fully surfaces, measured decision-making and calm control.

Homepage Check a company

Brand idea

Clear credit insight for SMEs, delivered calmly.

A practical finance SaaS identity for UK limited-company trade-risk screening.

Calm Fin motif

CalmClarityConfidencePracticalTrustworthySME-friendly

Principles

Brand principles

The brand should sit between heavy corporate credit-bureau complexity and lightweight novelty.

Calm, not passive

Composed and reassuring, with enough structure to give users confidence that risk can be understood and managed.

Clear, not simplistic

Simplify trade-risk insight without losing the evidence, source freshness or commercial context that users need.

Practical, not theoretical

Help SMEs decide what to review next, which terms to consider and when to record a decision.

Alert, not alarming

Surface review points early without dramatic, threatening or fear-led language.

SME-first, not corporate-heavy

Keep the product accessible to owners, finance users and credit-control teams, not only bureau specialists.

Affordable, not cheap

Communicate value and accessibility while preserving trust, precision and commercial credibility.

Calm Fin

Logo and mark direction

The final logo should use a clean Calm Fin mark with the CreditShark wordmark. This page uses a concept illustration only.

Concept illustration - not final logo artwork

Calm Fin above a smooth waterlineVisibility, measured awareness and calm control.

Primary logo: Calm Fin mark plus CreditShark wordmark
Icon direction: Simplified Calm Fin for favicon, app icon and small UI placements
Monochrome: Must work in black, white and single-colour navy
Clear space: At least the height of the fin around the mark
Minimum size: Full logo 140px wide; icon-only 24px in product UI
Avoid: No teeth, mascot details, distortion, glow, 3D effects or aggressive sharpness

Colour

Colour system

Use deep navy, teal, aqua and soft surfaces to support clarity. Risk colour should inform, not dominate.

Deep Navy

#0D2B45

Wordmark, headings, primary text, strong UI elements

Signal Teal

#1CA3A6

Wave mark, highlights, active states, CTAs, key accents

Fresh Aqua

#6DD1D6

Secondary accents, soft panels, gentle emphasis

Soft Mist

#F0F2F4

Page backgrounds, panels, subdued card surfaces

Clean White

#FAFBFC

Main surfaces, cards, reports and dashboard areas

Functional colour guidance

Colour supports clarity, not decoration. Always pair colour with text labels.

Caution amberReview recommended

Muted coralMaterial risk signal

Signal tealMonitoring state

Deep navyNeutral structure

Avoid harsh red-dominated screens, neon fintech gradients, corporate royal blue and overly complex risk scales.

Typography

Use the current Inter-first sans-serif stack, with clear hierarchy and readable numerals.

Display heading

Trade Risk. Calmly Managed.

Company overview and current risk summary

Body copy should be plain, direct and practical. It should help users understand what matters without overwhelming them with raw database output.

CreditShark Trade Risk Score

Tabular numerals support dashboard scanning.

Recommended limit

£7,500

Advisory indicator, not a lending decision.

Metadata

Updated today

Small, quiet, but legible.

Voice

Voice and tone

CreditShark should sound calm, clear, practical, commercially useful and measured.

Preferred language

Clear credit insights
Trade risk awareness
Spot risk earlier
Protect cash flow
Make informed decisions
Review before extending further credit

Avoid language

Dangerous debtor
Guaranteed credit decision
Approved / declined
Safe / unsafe
Creditworthy / not creditworthy
Fear-led warning copy

Use advisory phrases such as "may indicate", "worth reviewing", "consider checking" and "review before increasing credit terms".

Components

Component examples

These examples are visual references only. They do not call live services or write data.

Company search

Prominent, simple and trustworthy.

Company name or numberConcept example only. Use the live search route to check a company.

Open live search

Company summary card

A fast view of identity, current risk context and source freshness.

Moderate

Status

Active

Companies House evidence

Watchlist

Watching

Monitoring workflow aid

Watchlist card

Useful status without false continuous-monitoring claims.

Automated monitoring and alerts are planned for a later phase. Current watchlist views are a practical workflow aid.

Insight panel

Explain what a signal means and why it matters.

Filing and status signals should be connected to practical review points, not presented as a judgement about whether to trade.

Reports

Company reports and risk results

Results should make the most important point quickly, then support it with structured detail.

Recommended structure

Company overview
Risk summary
Key signals
Watch points
Practical guidance
Monitoring or watchlist action
Legal and compliance boundary

Advisory result language

Use measured wording such as "worth reviewing" and "consider staged credit limits". Do not present CreditShark as approving, declining, broking or rating credit.

Review company

Layout

Layout and spacing

Create confidence through order, generous whitespace and calm grouping.

Waterline rhythm

Section rhythm

Use clear bands, restrained cards and enough room for the user to scan before reading deeply.

Avoid

Overloaded surfaces

Do not cram tables, badges, action stacks and legal text into the same first viewport.

Secondary detail

Audit metadata

Keep source timestamps and IDs available, but place them beneath the decision summary.

Motion

Motion and iconography

Motion should be quiet and useful. Iconography should clarify actions, not decorate the interface.

Use

Soft fades, small upward transitions, smooth card reveals, subtle line movement and simple line icons.

Avoid

Distracting motion, mascot-style imagery, dramatic warning animations or novelty visual language.

Data visualisation

CreditShark Trade Risk Score

The brand direction uses a simple 0-100 circular gauge, plain-English rating and source freshness.

Moderate RiskSome indicators may need review before increasing exposure.Last updated 27 May 2026

Brand guidance only. This does not change scoring logic, persisted risk labels or model outputs.

Preferred score bands

Use text labels with colour so meaning is never colour-only.

Score	Label	Interpretation
80-100	Low Risk	No major visible concern in the current advisory view.
60-79	Moderate Risk	Some indicators may need review before increasing exposure.
40-59	Elevated Risk	Multiple review factors or limited confidence may affect terms.
0-39	High Risk	Material review factors should be considered before extending further credit.

Supporting chart guidance

Future visualisations should focus on score movement over time, filing or status change timelines, watchlist summaries and risk signal breakdowns. Keep charts lightweight and source-aware.

Trust

Trust, compliance and boundaries

Legal clarification should be present, readable and used in the right places.

Approved legal wording

CreditShark provides advisory trade-risk screening for UK limited companies only. It does not provide consumer credit reports, regulated credit ratings, lending decisions, credit broking, debt advice or debt collection services.

Use in: Footer, legal/compliance page, terms, product/legal information and relevant report footer.
Do not: Repeat the full legal wording across every card, panel, header or marketing section.
Reports: Reports retain standalone limitations because they may be saved, printed or shared outside the app.

Checklist

Production checklist

Use this checklist before shipping new public, app or report surfaces.

Does the work feel calm, clear and commercially useful?
Is the next action obvious without turning the UI into a dense bureau screen?
Are risk colours restrained and paired with plain-English labels?
Is manual data clearly labelled separately from Companies House evidence?
Does the copy avoid consumer-credit, regulated-rating and lending-decision language?
Is the approved legal wording present in appropriate footer, legal or report contexts without repeated blocks?