Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement · General Conference
Pre-
face
A Word Before We Begin — What this document is about, who it was created for, and what it asks of its readers.
H
Hugo Cibalde
Brand Manager
General Conference · SDARM · 2026
These Brand Guidelines are not a set of rules. It represents a set of decisions, each one justified, each one reversible when better justified. What you will find here is reasoning applied to branding."

The Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement is present in over 140 countries. It speaks dozens of languages and has members who will never meet one another. Still, it carries the same message globally, the same conviction about the Sabbath, health, and the hope of the return.

The Reform Movement is united in doctrine. The challenge these Brand Guidelines seek to address is: how can its visual communication reflect that same unity? How can a poster created in Lagos, a post published in Berlin, and a certificate issued in Dallas all look as though they belong to the same Movement—without anyone needing to oversee every detail?

A visual identity is not vanity. It is hospitality. It is the way the Church tells the world—and itself—who it is.
Hugo Cibalde · GC Brand Manager · SDARM

The answer is a system— a set of principles and tools that allow creative freedom within a recognizable coherence. That is what these Brand Guidelines was built to be.

Eighteen chapters. From brand essence to approval governance. From the color palette to press specifications. From tone of voice to video export bitrate. Every section was written for a real reader: the worker who needs to make a flyer, the secretary who will order a sign, the communication officer who will publish on social media. People with limited time, varied resources and design backgrounds, and good intentions.

What we ask of those who read this document is only one thing: understanding before application. It is not enough to know that the blue code is #0F3999 — you need to understand why that blue was chosen, what it communicates, and what is lost when it is replaced by a "similar" blue. That understanding is what turns a user of the system into a guardian of the brand.

And the brand we guard is not ours. It belongs to the Church, to its message. It belongs to those who do not yet know it and will have their first contact with it through a post, a sign, a flyer or a video produced by someone who read—or did not read—this document.

Read. Understand. Apply. And when in doubt, ask.

Author's note
These Brand Guidelines were written in the conviction that beauty is a form of truth. That visual order is a form of respect. And that a Church which cares about the way it presents itself is saying, in silence, that it cares about the people it wants to reach.
Hugo Cibalde
Brand Manager · General Conference
Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement
Version 2026.1 · January 2026
← Cover SDARM Brand Guidelines · Preface · 2026 Full contents →
Preface · The letter
"Cinematic close-up of hands writing a letter beside an open Bible on a wooden desk, warm lamp light, shallow depth of field, modest long sleeves, film grain, low saturation, no legible text, 4:3"
Preface · Reading
"Documentary photo of a person reading a printed manual by a bright window, calm expression, modest dress, warm natural light, film grain, low saturation, no readable text, 4:5"