Partner logos
Standing next to other brands
We often appear with others: government entities, partners, customers, sponsors and technology providers. The goal is a lockup where every logo is respected and no logo shouts. North should look confident, never dominant and never lost.
The shapes you will meet
| Shape | Example | How to pair it |
|---|---|---|
| Landscape wordmark (text only) |  | Size by optical area; usually smaller in height than icon logos |
| Icon + wordmark (landscape) | | The easiest partner for our horizontal logo |
| Square icon only |  | Pair with our icon or lockup at equal area; never with our wordmark alone at the same height |
| App tile (filled square) |  | Treat as a square icon; keep its tile |
| Portrait / stacked |  | Use our stacked lockup or give it the height it needs |
| Emblem with text (government) | | Follow the entity's protocol; emblems often lead |
Optical sizing
Equal area, not equal height
Logos of different shapes look equally important when they cover roughly the same area, not when they share a height. Set each logo's height from its aspect ratio:
height = √(target area ÷ aspect ratio)
- Wide wordmarks get shorter; square icons and stacked logos get taller.
- Clamp extremes: no logo shorter than 60% or taller than 160% of the average.
- Then check by eye: heavy, dark or colourful logos may need to come down a step.
Same height: the wide logos dominate
Optically balanced by area
Logo balancer
Lockups with partners
| Situation | Lockup | Order |
|---|---|---|
| Joint announcement, co-hosted event, case study | North (or sub-brand) | rule | partner | North first, unless the partner hosts |
| Government programme | Entity emblem | rule | North | The government entity leads, per its protocol |
| Our product inside a partner's offering | “Powered by” + NorthStar lockup | Partner brand leads; our badge is smaller |
| Sponsorship | Sponsor tier walls (see below) | By tier, then alphabetical |
| Technology we integrate with | Technology logo tiles, never a lockup | Alphabetical or by relevance |
Construction
- A 1px vertical rule in the text colour at 30–50% opacity separates the logos. Gaps on both sides are equal: 1× the height of our N.
- Both logos are vertically centred on the rule, optically sized.
- Same colour treatment: if North is Midnight, the partner is its one-colour version if they allow it; otherwise both appear in full colour on white.
- No words in the lockup except an agreed connector (“in partnership with”, “powered by”) in Text Medium, caption colour.
- In Arabic-first materials the order mirrors: the leading logo is on the right.
powered by
Logo walls
- Grid of equal cells (white tiles on dark backgrounds), each logo optically sized inside a fixed box with 24% padding.
- One colour mode for the whole wall: all full colour on white, or all one-colour. Never mixed.
- Tiers for sponsors: larger cells for higher tiers, never larger logos in equal cells.
- Get written approval for every customer and partner logo, and use the files they supply.
On dark backgrounds
- Use the partner's official reversed (white) version if they have one.
- Colourful logos without a reversed version sit on a white tile with 12px radius and generous padding.
- Never recolour a partner logo into our palette, and never put our Snow logo next to a full-colour partner logo on dark without a tile.
Dos and don'ts
Do
- Size logos by optical area.
- Use the partner's official files and one-colour versions.
- Separate logos with a rule and equal gaps.
- Follow government protocol on precedence.
Don't
- Match heights mechanically.
- Recolour, outline or redraw partner logos.
- Mix full-colour and one-colour logos in one wall.
- Imply endorsement without a signed agreement.
Last updated on 14 October 2026