Savage is not a butcher shop, not a wildlife brand, and not a supplement. The reference frame is the clinical anatomical plate: scientific rendering, inspection marks, exact language, recorded data, zero decoration.

The category's central problem is that the honest form of the product is whole prey and the buyer has a disgust response to raw flesh. The name Savage forecloses the usual escape route of softness and humor. The specimen plate resolves the tension because a labeled anatomical diagram reads as authoritative rather than gruesome. It also gives the brand's strongest and least copyable argument, no fruits or vegetables, a native visual form.

Every asset is tested against that sentence at the gate in Section 13.

ink is warm-black rather than pure black by deliberate choice. Pure black reads cold and, in this category, aggressive. Do not substitute #000000 anywhere in the system.

Each protein owns one hue permanently. The lock does not change across format, size, or channel.

Base is for fills, bands, lids, and large solid areas only. Light is for type and line work set on ink. Dark is for type and line work set on bone. Never set small type in a Base value on ink.

Approximate surface allocation on any pack face or page: ink 70% — bone 25% — protein accent 5%. The accent is a wayfinding signal, not a mood. Any composition where the accent exceeds roughly 15% of surface has failed the system and is rejected at the gate.

Every pairing must be verified with a contrast checker before artwork release. Do not assume a pairing passes because it appears in this document.

Values above are sRGB, authored for screen and for the freezer-case digital mock. Do not auto-convert to CMYK. Warm near-blacks and plum in particular shift badly under naive conversion. Pantone matches must be selected by the print vendor from physical draw-downs on the actual substrate, once the substrate is confirmed (likely metallized or matte-laminate film for frozen application).

Final typeface selection depends on scope. Both a licensed option and an open-source fallback are specified below so work can begin at either level.

1. The display face never appears in an ingredient panel, guaranteed analysis, or feeding guideline. The chicken panel alone runs to roughly thirty items. That is a legibility engineering problem and it belongs to the grotesque.
2. The mono face never carries body copy. Its entire job is to make proof data read as recorded rather than marketed.
3. Two weights maximum per register in any single composition.
4. No faux bold, faux italic, or artificial condensing at any point.

Let W = cap height of the wordmark on a given face. Scale all pack elements proportionally so the system holds across packet, tub, and carton without re-derivation.

Ingredient panel: tracking +10 units, leading 120% of size minimum. Never set below 6pt regardless of copy volume.

Base 16px, modular ratio 1.25.

Left-aligned throughout, on pack and on screen. The only permitted centered text in the entire system is the type inside the inspection stamp (Section 6.2). No justified text. No centered headlines.

Minimum clear space on all four sides equals the cap height of the first letter. Nothing enters that zone, including pack seams, die-cut edges, and other brand elements.

Below the horizontal minimum, switch to stacked. Below the stacked minimum, switch to monogram.

Do not: rotate, outline, apply gradient, apply shadow or glow, stretch or condense, recolor outside ink / bone / a single protein accent, place on photography without a solid scrim, add a tagline inside the clear space, or reconstruct the lockup from separate elements.

The signature asset. Highest distinctiveness and highest execution risk in the system.

The rendering brief matters more than the concept. Brief the illustrator on the anatomy-plate reference explicitly and reject any pass that reads as hunting illustration. Secondary use: retailer wall poster, site hero module, and shelf talker.

Geometric rather than illustrated. Sits in the proof badge row. Nobody in raw cat food currently owns this symbol. It encodes a genuine process difference: no High Pressure Processing, which the brand argues damages helpful bacteria and alters taste.

The exclusion list set as a deliberate typographic block rather than a bulleted afterthought. Content: no soy, wheat gluten, corn, rice, fruits, vegetables, kelp, algae, GMOs, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, or BPA. Set in Grotesque with each excluded item on its own line, ash-light on ink, with a single rule above.

Paw prints, whiskers as decoration, cat silhouettes, claw slashes, distressed or grunge texture, ribbons, banners, laurel wreaths, badges implying awards not actually held, and any produce imagery.

One rule, written down, so any freelancer can execute it without an art director present. This is the mechanism that makes the direction survive its authors.

Raw meat styled as a hero on its own, blood or fluid, any image where the product reads as gore, cats in costume, cats in baskets, and any image that would not pass the governing sentence in Section 2.3.

We'd like to audit the existing product shot library before recommending a new photography commission. Existing shots may satisfy packaging and product page needs even if new art direction is funded for campaign work. Please let us know whether the full library from the press kit is accessible.

Declarative, technical, unapologetic. Short sentences. Name the mechanism rather than the feeling.

Would a veterinary nutritionist sign this sentence? If it would embarrass one, cut it.

The brand's sharpest copy asset is the argument that produce imagery in pet food is aimed at the health-conscious human rather than the carnivorous cat. Use it. It is the one claim competitors cannot copy without changing their formulation.

8px base unit. Permitted values: 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128. Nothing between.

The system is sharp by intent. Rounded corners soften the brand in exactly the wrong direction.

12 columns, 24px gutter. Max content width 1200px. Margins 48px desktop, 32px tablet, 24px mobile. Breakpoints 640 / 1024 / 1280.

Fixed on every SKU, every format, every size, permanently. This fixed geometry is what makes a twelve-SKU range read as one brand at six feet.

The full size ladder per format needs to be confirmed before dieline work. Packaging scope is one of the questions we'd like your input on.

Color is spent on protein, so format is signalled structurally. Packets use a die-cut window revealing the diced muscle chunks. Tubs carry no window; full protein Base lid, designed for the overhead freezer read. Both formats carry an explicit format lozenge: packets say WITH CHUNKS, tubs say SMOOTH - FOR DENTAL SENSITIVITY. This is a clinical distinction a caregiver must get right on first purchase.

1. Product detail page, per SKU
2. Store locator
3. Retailer training portal
4. Why raw / the argument page carrying the produce counter-argument
5. Comparison module: Savage versus kibble, and Savage versus HPP-processed raw

• Buttons: 2px radius, bone on ink primary, protein accent reserved for in-SKU context only
• Cards: 0 radius, hairline ash rule at 0.5px, no shadow anywhere in the system
• Tables: hairline rules, Mono for any numeric column
• Proof badges: reusable component, Mono label, ash-light, never colored
• No carousels on product pages. Stack content.

Independent of any rebrand decision, three items ship first:

1. Remove the logo-ipsum placeholder partner logos currently live on the site.
2. Obtain or recreate a vector master of the existing logo. The 2016 PNG on the press kit may be the only asset currently available.
3. Rebuild the store locator and retailer training pages. The site itself names in-store as the recommended purchase path and the business runs through independent pet retail.

All source files, fonts with license documentation, and this specification are delivered to the client at project close. Font licenses must be transferred or separately purchased in the client's name.