ASK KSA

Design Guidelines

The source of truth for the KSA visual identity — colour, type, logos, icons, spacing, and the rules around them. Follow these whenever you create or update anything for KSA.

Draft

v3.30.58 (Aug 2026)

Built by

Lara Kroeker

Foundation

What ASK KSA stands for.

Purpose

To give small- and mid-sized public accounting firms the technical and quality management support larger firms hold in-house — so the standards a firm is held to are matched by the resources it can actually draw on.

Vision

Public practice where meeting professional standards is a matter of confidence rather than uncertainty, and where a firm of any size can face an inspection knowing its work will hold up.

Mission

Working directly alongside Canadian firms on the matter in front of them — a complex engagement, a system of quality management, an inspection, a team that needs developing — and leaving them able to move forward with less uncertainty and less unnecessary effort.

Voice & mood

Practical Candid Collaborative Experienced Reassuring

Logo

Two marks, both self-contained.

Primary — On light

On light

Primary

Primary — On dark

On dark

Primary

PD — On light

On light

PD

PD — On dark

On dark

PD

Stock photography

Used sparingly, and only for Services.

Stock is only for the Services page, standing in until we have real photography for each one. Choose corporate imagery with cool blue tones that reflects the service it represents — not a generic office mood shot. Every stock photo in the media library is shown below for reference.

Icons

Two systems, different jobs.

Animated icons

Static, for utility and inline use.

Phosphor, Light weight, always this suffix. A sample below, 1412 in the full set.

calculator
chart-bar
chart-line-up
chart-pie
clipboard-text
clock
briefcase
bank
certificate
book-open
check-circle
graduation-cap
seal-check
shield-check
scales
magnifying-glass
handshake
envelope-simple

Browse the full library, 1412 icons →

Patterns

Pattern library

Pattern 1
Pattern 2
Pattern 3
Pattern 4
Pattern 5
Pattern 6
Chevron
Circles Light
Light Grey
P2
P4
P5
Papyrus
Qbkls
Spiration Light
Vertical Waves
What The Hex

Colour

Navy and blue for trust, one orange for action.

Surface

Pure #FFFFFF --ksa-white Cards, surfaces
Neutral #F4F5F6 --ksa-grey-5 Default page canvas
Dark #011F41 --ksa-navy Hero slabs
Darker #000C1E --ksa-navy-darker Navy-darker surfaces, footer

Primary

Brand blue #00529B --ksa-blue Logo, interactive, emphasis
Blue dark #003C73 --ksa-blue-dark Hover, pressed
Blue light #E5EEF7 --ksa-blue-light Tinted background, selected

Greys

Grey 1 #54595F --ksa-grey-1 Secondary text, subtext
Grey 2 #8D9299 --ksa-grey-2 Labels, placeholders
Grey 3 #B3B8BD --ksa-grey-3 Secondary borders, disabled
Grey 4 #D2D7DC --ksa-grey-4 Dividers, borders
Grey 5 #F4F5F6 --ksa-grey-5 Hairline surface, alt rows

CTA

Orange #E07D2C --ksa-orange Primary button only
Orange active #A6570F --ksa-orange-active Hover and pressed
Orange light #FBF0E6 --ksa-orange-light Tinted background
Orange disabled #EFC7A0 --ksa-orange-disabled Button disabled — not clickable

Additional

Two pairs, one per course category on the Professional Development page — a strong colour for the label, a light tint for the surface behind it. These exist to tell categories apart, nothing else, and normally exclude orange and blue for that reason (action stays orange, interactive stays blue). Audit Engagements is the one deliberate exception: it retired its teal pair and now reuses the core --ksa-blue / --ksa-blue-light directly, shown in Primary above.

Burgundy #8B3F4D --ksa-burgundy Other Engagements — label
Burgundy light #F4E7EA --ksa-burgundy-light Other Engagements — surface
Gold #C18D2E --ksa-gold Ethics & Practice Mgmt — label
Gold light #FBF2E1 --ksa-gold-light Ethics & Practice Mgmt — surface

Semantic

Error #C13515 --ksa-error Icons, borders, error text
Success #2B7F4D --ksa-success Icons, borders, success text
Info #235AF3 --ksa-info Icons, borders, info text
Warning #E0AA2C --ksa-warning Icons and borders — never text on light (2.11:1)

Text

The semantic aliases that actually get typed in template/CSS code — three tiers on light surfaces, the same three tiers again for dark surfaces, so no template ever hardcodes a grey or reaches for white directly. Every one is the same colour as a swatch already shown above, not a colour of its own. Links use --accent (Brand blue, above) and CTA button text uses --cta-text (Dark, above — fixed 2026-07-26 after the original white-on-orange failed WCAG AA).

Primary --fg
Body copy, headings, on light surfaces — same colour as Surface — Dark (--ksa-navy).
Muted --fg-muted
Secondary text on light surfaces — same colour as Greys — Grey 1.
Subtle --fg-subtle
Tertiary text, labels on light surfaces — same colour as Greys — Grey 2.
Primary, on dark --fg-on-dark
Body copy, headings, on navy surfaces — same colour as Surface — Pure (--ksa-white).
Muted, on dark --fg-on-dark-muted
Secondary text on navy surfaces — same colour as Surface — Pure, 72% opacity.
Subtle, on dark --fg-on-dark-subtle
Tertiary text, labels on navy surfaces — same colour as Surface — Pure, 45% opacity.

Type

Roboto Condensed for display. Roboto for reading.

No serif or accent face — every page uses the same two families, weight and size doing the differentiating work.

Display / UI

Aa Aa

Roboto Condensed · Light 300 / Black 900

Body

Aa Aa

Roboto · Light 300 / Regular 400

Hero Headline Hero · Homepage only
.ksa-hero-video__heading · --type-display-size
Roboto Condensed 900 · 60px / 45pt · lh 1.2
The single biggest heading on the site, used once, on the homepage. Reintroduced Sept 2026: it used to render at the same size as every page's H1.
Page Title H1 · Page title
.ksa-page-hero__title · --type-h1-size
Roboto Condensed 900 · 45px / 33.75pt · lh 1.3
Page titles. One per page.
Section Heading H2 · Section heading
.ksa-page-section__heading · --type-h2-size
Roboto Condensed 700 · 35px / 26.25pt · lh 1.2
Section headings within a page.
Lead paragraph, the first sentence in a section. Lead · Intro paragraph
.ksa-lead · .ksa-page-section__text--lead · --type-lead-size
Roboto Condensed 300 · 31px / 23.25pt · lh 1.3
Intro paragraphs, pull-quotes, standfirsts — never a heading, always a bigger lede on body copy. Renamed from "Subhead" (Sept 2026): it never functioned as one.
“An attributed quote, set apart from body copy.” Quote · Attributed testimonial
.ksa-testimonial-card blockquote · --type-quote-size
Roboto Condensed 300 · 26px / 19.5pt · lh 1.35
Attributed testimonial quotes only — never used for a page's own copy.
Prose Heading H3 · Prose subheading
.ksa-page-content h3 · --type-h3-size
Roboto Condensed 700 · 24px / 18pt · lh 1.3
Subheadings inside long-form content (Terms, Privacy).
Component Title H4 · Component title
.ksa-course-card__title · --type-h4-size
Roboto Condensed 700 · 20px / 15pt · lh 1.3
Card and component titles (course cards, testimonials, cart items) and long-form h4s. Was 18px, identical to body, until Sept 2026.
Body copy, the standard reading size. Body · Paragraph text
body (sitewide default) · .ksa-body · --type-body-size
Roboto 400 · 16px / 12pt · lh 1.6
The default reading size. Bound to the <body> tag itself (Sept 2026) so unclassed text can't fall back to the browser's generic system font. Was 18px.
Small print, captions and meta text. Small · Captions and meta
.ksa-small · .ksa-footer__text · --type-small-size
Roboto 400 · 14px / 10.5pt · lh 1.5
Captions, meta text, list items, buttons, footer copy and legal text.
Eyebrow Label Eyebrow / caps · Label above a heading
.ksa-page-hero__eyebrow · --type-caps-size
Roboto Condensed 900 · 13px / 9.75pt · uppercase
Short labels above a heading, category tags.
Micro label, below Eyebrow. Micro · Design-guidelines-only
--type-micro-size
Roboto Condensed/Mono · 12px / 9pt · lh 1.4
The meta caption under every specimen on this very page — not used anywhere else in the theme.

Spacing, radius & elevation

Consistent spacing, restrained radius, subtle shadow.

4
8
12
16
24
32
48
64
80
120

Radius

0 Square --radius-none
4px Dense UI --radius-sm
8px Cards --radius-md
16px Image wells --radius-lg
24px Large surfaces --radius-xl
Pill CTAs --radius-pill

Elevation

Flat Hairline border, default rest
Shadow SM Hover lift on cards
Shadow MD Elevated panels
Shadow LG Modals, popovers

Site components

Three real styles, not new ones.

These are the exact classes running in production today — not a fresh component invented for this page.

PD Courses

.ksa-nav__cta
Solid orange pill — primary action (nav, footer CTA)

.ksa-course-filter__btn.is-active
Active filter state — fills orange

.ksa-course-filter__btn
Resting filter — 1px navy outline

Add to Cart

.ksa-course-card__cart a.button
Quiet outline — secondary action on cards