# Branding

A brand is what people expect from you before you speak, and whether you then keep that promise. The visible part (colour, type, logo, shape, motion, words) only works when every part says the same thing. This page is a short method for deciding what that thing is, and for choosing a MIAN noodle that says it.

## Six decisions, in order

- **Position.** Finish this sentence: “For [who], we are the [what] that [does what no one else does].” If two competitors could sign the same sentence, it is not a position yet.
- **Personality.** Choose three adjectives and, for each, the adjective you refuse to be: “confident, not arrogant”, “warm, not cute”, “precise, not cold”. The refusals are what make it usable.
- **Evidence.** List what you can actually prove: numbers, names, years, materials, guarantees. A brand built on adjectives without evidence is decoration.
- **Signature.** Pick one thing people will remember: a colour, a shape, a way of writing, a sound, a motion. One is memorable; five are noise.
- **System.** Turn the decisions into rules: the palette and what each colour is for, the typefaces and their jobs, the radius, the motion, the voice. A noodle is exactly this kind of system.
- **Consistency.** Apply the system everywhere without exceptions for a year. Recognition comes from repetition, not from novelty.

## Five kinds of personality

Research on how people describe brands keeps finding the same five dimensions. Most brands lead with one and borrow from a second. Each maps to visible choices, and to noodles that already make them.

### Sincerity

Honest, warm, down to earth.

Warm neutrals, rounded or humanist type, plain words, photographs of real people and places.

[Udon](https://mian.ro/noodles/udon)[Orecchiette](https://mian.ro/noodles/orecchiette)[Pici](https://mian.ro/noodles/pici)[Hōtō](https://mian.ro/noodles/hoto)[Linguine](https://mian.ro/noodles/linguine)

### Excitement

Daring, lively, current.

Saturated colour, heavy type, strong contrast, quick motion.

[Ramen](https://mian.ro/noodles/ramen)[Biangbiang](https://mian.ro/noodles/biangbiang)[Maccheroni](https://mian.ro/noodles/maccheroni)[Rigatoni](https://mian.ro/noodles/rigatoni)[Laksa](https://mian.ro/noodles/laksa)

### Competence

Reliable, intelligent, efficient.

Cool neutrals, blue or ink, a neutral sans, grids, tabular numbers, little motion.

[Mian](https://mian.ro/noodles/mian)[Kalguksu](https://mian.ro/noodles/kalguksu)[Ditalini](https://mian.ro/noodles/ditalini)[LaMian](https://mian.ro/noodles/lamian)[Penne](https://mian.ro/noodles/penne)

### Sophistication

Refined, elegant, exclusive.

Much white space, a serif or a light sans, black with one metal or deep hue, slow motion.

[Tajarin](https://mian.ro/noodles/tajarin)[Tagliatelle](https://mian.ro/noodles/tagliatelle)[Somen](https://mian.ro/noodles/somen)[Inaniwa](https://mian.ro/noodles/inaniwa)[Soba](https://mian.ro/noodles/soba)

### Ruggedness

Tough, outdoors, honest materials.

Earth colours, texture, sturdy type, visible structure.

[Daoxiao](https://mian.ro/noodles/daoxiao)[Naengmyeon](https://mian.ro/noodles/naengmyeon)[Sanuki](https://mian.ro/noodles/sanuki)[Juksing](https://mian.ro/noodles/juksing)[Hōtō](https://mian.ro/noodles/hoto)

## Tone of voice

- Write the way the brand would speak to one person across a table.
- Say the specific thing. “Reconciles 1,200 transactions a minute” beats “blazing fast”.
- Buttons say what happens next (“Create invoice”), never “Submit” or “Learn more” on its own.
- Cut words that could appear on any site: seamless, powerful, next-generation, unlock, elevate, supercharge, revolutionary.
- Keep one register. A brand that is formal in its headline and jokey in its error messages is two brands.

## Five checks

- Cover the logo: can people still tell whose page it is from the colour, type and tone?
- Read the home page aloud. Does it sound like a person, and like the same person as the pricing page?
- Put it next to three competitors. Is yours the one that is different, and different in the way you chose?
- Does every claim have its evidence within one screen?
- Does the dark mode, the email, the invoice and the 404 page still look like you?

## From brand guidelines to a noodle

If you already have brand guidelines, the [noodle studio](https://mian.ro/studio) turns them into a noodle: enter the brand colours, choose the personality, pick shape and type, and take away a stylesheet. An AI agent can do the same through `POST /api/v1/noodles/create` or the MCP tool `create_noodle`.

If you have a website but no guidelines, the [site inspector](https://mian.ro/inspect) reads its colours and type and suggests the noodles closest to it.

[Open the noodle studio](https://mian.ro/studio)[Inspect a site](https://mian.ro/inspect)

Source: https://mian.ro/docs/branding