Mike & Matty

01 — Identity

Two modes, one system.

ICC and Mike & Matty share one visual language. The only thing that flips is the mode — ICC reads clean and editorial on cream, Mike & Matty reads cinematic and moody on near-black.

Increator Company

Light Room

Increator Company

Editorial, warm, restrained. Think a premium print magazine: generous whitespace, serif display in italic, the palette pulled back to let the content breathe.

Mike & Matty

Dark Room

Cinematic, moody, contemplative. Think a documentary opener: deep charcoal field, a single source of light, hand-drawn textures glowing through pencil shade.

We explain the why behind the work — clear, considered, a little contrarian.

Never hype. Never clickbait. Never a 10-word sentence when 6 will do.

02 — Color

The palette, in three tiers.

Every swatch is a one-click copy. Tier 1 is the foundation — almost every surface lives here. Tier 2 is the warm-earthy supporting cast. Tier 3 is for accents, highlights, and data visualization.

Tier 1 — Foundation

Use these for 90% of surfaces. Buttermilk is the ICC canvas. Pepper is the M&M canvas. Emerald is our brand accent (the glow color).

Tier 2 — Secondary

Warm, earthy, editorial. For section accents, print applications, and richer compositions. Never use more than two at once.

Tier 3 — Accents & Data

Bright, saturated, friendly. Use for data viz, highlights, badges, and motion-graphic flourishes. Honey is the go-to emphasis color in Mike & Matty lower-thirds.

03 — Typography

Structured sans, expressive serif.

Lausanne carries structure, weight, and clarity. Larken adds emphasis and emotion. Every headline pairs the two — a structural phrase interrupted by a single expressive word in Larken italic.

Display · Emphasis

Larken

Contemporary serif · 9 weights · Adobe Fonts

The system for thinking.

Italic for one word of emphasis.

Weights used: Regular 400, Medium 500, Italic.

Aa Ee Gg Rr 1234 & italic

Body · UI · Structure

Lausanne (TWK)

Grotesque sans · 8 weights · Spotter Studio

Structure is a form of care.

Weights: 300 / 400 / 500 / 700.

Body copy, captions, lower-third descriptors, UI chrome, data viz labels.

Aa Ee Gg Rr 1234 & bold

Signature pairing

but what most people think is learning

Lausanne Medium carries the line; the emphasis word is Larken italic in the emphasis color. The single-word emphasis is the hook — never emphasize more than one word per line.

04 — Canvases

Four paper canvases.

Beyond Buttermilk and Pepper, we have signature gradient canvases — each a deep saturated color washing into cream paper, with visible film grain. They're the bedrock for editorial covers, video thumbnails, deck title slides, and motion-graphic backgrounds.

DEFAULT

Emerald

Strategy & ICC

Our default canvas. The brand-emerald wash. Use for ICC editorial, strategy decks, motion-graphic halos, and the M&M hero frame.

RESEARCH

Navy

Research & deep dives

For long-form research, technical breakdowns, and any content that should signal “studious, considered, after-hours.” Pairs well with white type.

EDITORIAL

Maroon

Editorial & story

Wine-purple wash for narrative-led pieces, founder stories, longform editorial, and year-end retrospectives. The most “magazine” of the set.

WARM

Orange

Lifestyle & warm

Carnelian-burnt-sienna wash for personal pieces, behind-the-scenes, lifestyle and travel. The most approachable canvas.

MOTION

Emerald canvas · grid

Full-screen titles & stats

The branded backdrop behind on-screen stats, chapter titles, and Frame Studies — emerald vignette with a hairline grid. 3840×2160.

Do

Keep the paper grain visible. The canvas is paper, not flat color.

Do

Place type in the cream side of the wash where contrast is highest.

Don't

Mix two canvases in the same piece. Pick one and commit.

Don't

Recreate the gradient from scratch in CSS. Always use the source file.

Motion canvases — three valid options

For Style A storyboards and hero illustrations, default to Emerald vignette. It ties Style A to Style B visually so cuts feel cohesive.

Pepper

Flat dark

#211F20 — classic M&M canvas. Use when you want the figure isolated against pure dark.

Emerald vignette · M&M default

Cohesion canvas

#1C2F2C → #0B0D0D radial. Default for storyboards. Gives depth and ties to Style B.

Buttermilk

Editorial

#FAFAF3 — ICC default and occasional Instagram editorial moments.

05 — Logos

Three marks. Three jobs.

One brand, three logo systems. The wordmark is the universal identity — used everywhere except YouTube. The illustrated sticker mark is the YouTube channel avatar. The plain Lausanne text is the minimal fallback for footers and captions.

01

The Wordmark / universal

For ICC, decks, PDFs, web, print, and any context where the brand needs to read clean and editorial. Available horizontal and stacked, in four colorways.

Horizontal

Pepper on Buttermilk

Buttermilk on Pepper

Buttermilk on Emerald

White on photo

Stacked

Pepper on Buttermilk

Buttermilk on Pepper

Buttermilk on Emerald

White on photo

02

The Sticker Mark / YouTube only

The illustrated hand-lettered mark with the green wave. Used as the YouTube channel avatar and inside channel-card pills only. Never use elsewhere — it's a sub-brand voice, not the universal identity.

YouTube avatar context

Mike & Matty

@mikeandmatty · 247K

Channel-card pill

03

Plain Text / minimal contexts

Just "Mike & Matty" set in Lausanne — the quietest version of the brand. For email signatures, footers, captions, and lower-thirds where even the wordmark would be too loud.

Mike & Matty

Lausanne 550 · light on dark

Mike & Matty

Lausanne 550 · dark on light

Do Maintain clearspace equal to the cap-height of the “M”.

MIKE & MATTY

Don't Distort, skew, recolor off-brand, or add effects.

Do On busy photography, use the white wordmark with a subtle drop shadow.

MIKE & MATTY

Don't Use the sticker mark anywhere except the YouTube channel.

06 — Motion graphics

Editor-ready shapes. No text.

A growing library of multi-clip motion shapes — venn, bars, line graphs, funnels, pyramids, matrices, spectrums, timelines, flywheels, plus an editor-style text layer for headline + emphasis word + caption. Each is a parameterized HTML scene that records cleanly clip-by-clip at 4K. No copy is baked into the shape primitives, so editors stay free to type-set their own in Premiere or DaVinci.

The motion language

2px emerald stroke with an outer glow on dark; a clean hairline on light. One source of light per scene — let darkness (or paper) do the rest. Recorded at 4K for delivery.

Do One emphasized word per frame. Italic Larken on sans Lausanne.
Do One source of light per scene. Let darkness (or paper) do the rest.
Don't Multiple colors of glow in the same frame. Pick accent OR emphasis.
Don't Use flat mode for motion. Use halo mode for motion. Flat is for PDFs.
Do Export at 4K (3840×2160) for YouTube. Screen-record the HTML kit for animation.
Don't Use canned After Effects templates. If it looks like Envato, it's off-brand.

Venn

2 or 3 circles, horizontal bowtie or equilateral.

Bars

3–7 bars · ascending, descending, or wave.

Line graph

4–8 points · rise, fall, wave, J-curve.

Funnel

3–4 stages · closed stack or open V.

Pyramid

3–4 tiers · base up or top down.

Matrix 2×2

Axes + boxes, or axes-only mode. Quadrants ignite in order.

Spectrum

1D scale · marker or range, optional end poles.

Timeline

3–6 phases · dot + line builds dot-by-dot, optional current-state ring.

Flywheel · Cycle

3–6 nodes · each clip reveals a node + its outgoing arc.

Text layer

Lausanne headline + Larken italic emphasis word + uppercase caption. The only primitive with copy.

Template builder

Configure, preview, record.

Pick a shape, set the parameters, then play it through or record it clip-by-clip. Every primitive supports dark M&M and light ICC canvases plus auto / emerald / honey / carnelian stroke recipes, adjustable speed and easing.

Open the builder →

07 — Thumbnails

The face of every video.

Thumbnails are where editors most often go off-brand. The rules are simple: one subject, one emphasis word, one source of light. Never more.

The recipe

Cinematic library photo, 3–4 word headline in Lausanne 550 white with one Larken Italic emphasis word in Honey. Headline on top-third or bottom-third over the body — never on the face. Optional channel-card pill with the sticker mark. When the photo carries the whole idea — a strong expression, a charged moment, an unusual composition — drop the overlay and let the image do the work (use sparingly, ~1 in 5). Drag any slider to see the before / after grade.

Headline left-third · italic verb in honey

Centered phrase · single italic noun

Boring strategy thumbnail — Channel-card pill optional

Italic noun in bottom phrase

Composition does the work · before / after color

Diagram-as-thumbnail (case study)

The thumbnail formula

1 subject +1 emphasis word +1 light source = on-brand thumbnail

Text grid: 3–4 words max. Place on top-third or bottom-third, never on the face. Emphasis word in Larken Italic, Honey #FAC53A. Rest in Lausanne 550, Buttermilk. Never all-caps. Never stroke outlines. Never full sentences.

The four ways thumbnails go off-brand

YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!

Don't All-caps shouting, multiple accent colors, stroke outlines.

How to think better about many things at once

Don't Full sentences. If it doesn't fit in 4 words, cut words.

watch this NOW

Don't Stroke outlines and hard drop shadows. The font already does the work.

Mind Blown Truth

Don't Multiple emphasis words. One italic word per thumbnail — always.

08 — Photography

The room is the brand.

Our visual identity isn't only logos and type — it's a specific room, a specific wardrobe, a specific lighting recipe. Library shelves, vintage hi-fi, plants, denim, tungsten warmth, teal-black shadow. The set is itself a brand asset.

The studio

Plywood walls, Persian rug, slatted shelving, big diffuser globe, hanging vintage workwear, vintage tripod with film camera. Two configurations: the close-up library set, and this wider studio frame.

What makes a shot on-brand

Set

Library room. Warm-wood floor-to-ceiling shelves, paperbacks shot edge-on, vintage hi-fi speakers as symmetry anchors, vinyl, plants, ceramic vases, the silver YouTube plaque.

Lighting

Single warm key from camera-right at ~30°. Tungsten highlights, teal-black shadows. Practical lamps as ambient fill. Subtle film grain in shadows.

Wardrobe

Earthy workwear. Denim chore jackets, olive sherpa, emerald velour track jacket, charcoal canvas, grey crewnecks. No brights. No logos beyond their own pieces.

Camera

Eye-level, ~50mm feel. Medium-shallow depth of field. Subject sharp, room readable but soft. 16:9. Direct-to-camera or angled at the chalk-table.

Mike

In the emerald velour track jacket — the brand color worn on his body. The on-brand outfit when a thumbnail or banner needs the brand color in-frame.

Matty

In the vintage denim chore jacket — the editorial-workwear default. Pairs against any of the four canvases without clashing.

The Duo

At the chalk-marked stone table with candy-button magnets. The platonic “Mike & Matty in their workshop” image — use as the About / Bio hero.

Matty solo selected frames

Mike solo selected frames

Duo close-ups selected frames

Wide environmental selected frames

How to use the photo library

Do

Use the wide-vibe shots as hero images on websites and decks. The room sells the brand.

Do

Use library close-ups for thumbnails. Tight crop, neutral expression, direct-to-camera.

Do

Use the chalk-table duo shot for About pages, bios, and partnership decks.

Don't

Crop the photos to remove the room. The room is the brand.

Don't

Apply heavy filters, B&W, or duotone. The existing color grade IS the look.

Don't

Add stock textures or graphic overlays on the photos. The photo is the design.

09 — Applications

Decks, docs, carousels, and more.

The system scales from a 16:9 slide to a vertical carousel. Here are the patterns — every one built from the same tokens.

01 / 12

Creator decisions, explained.

Mike & Matty · 2026

Slide · 16:9

Stop posting.

Start thinking.

Swipe →

Carousel · 1:1

Output vs input

Infographic · 4:3

Jesse Increator

FOUNDER · MIKE & MATTY

Lower-third · 16:9

10 — Downloads

Grab what you need.

Logos in four colorways, the headshot library in Canva, the canvas gradients, the color palette in Adobe Swatch format, and the approved thumbnail reference set — everything you need to ship work that's on-brand.

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