WELCOME TO
The City Lifestyle Brand Guide
Our mission is to be the local voice that people trust in their communities. We become the experts, offering guidance in where to go, who to know, and what's worth their time.
This site is the one source of truth for how City Lifestyle looks, sounds, and shows up — everywhere. Built for publishers, editors, and HQ alike — you do not need a marketing background to use this site.
Learn our system
start here
Core Elements
About the Brand
Who we are, and how HQ + local publishers work together.
Core Elements
Visual Identity
Logo, color, type, and imagery.
Core Elements
Tone of Voice
The Insider Neighbor — how we sound, everywhere.
Application
Templates & Resources
Ready-to-use files for every channel.
Application
Do's & Don'ts
The fast cheat sheet.
Support
FAQ & Learning Hub
Onboarding, questions, and updates.
Our Mission & Messaging
Everything the brand says ladders up to one line: “We don’t publish for cities. We publish in them.” Every team also has its own sign-off line — see the full table on the Core Elements tab, under Tone of Voice.
About the Brand
City Lifestyle is a network of 250+ city-based publications, each locally owned and locally written, unified under one national brand and one voice. HQ sets the brand rules; local publishers bring the on-the-ground knowledge that makes every market feel like its own city.
core elements
overview
Across all 250+ cities, City Lifestyle has one voice. We call it the Insider Neighbor — someone who lives where you live, knows the area better than most, and talks about it the way a trusted friend would: warm, sure of themselves, and specific.
THE SIMPLE TEST:
Everything we write should inspire, teach, or lift people up. If it does none of those, leave it out.
Brand Personality — The Insider Neighbor
The voice of someone who lives where you live, knows the area better than most, and talks about it the way a trusted friend would — warm, sure of themselves, and specific.
The Nine Traits:
- Confident and trustworthy — a local voice people rely on.
- Upbeat, for a reason — positive about something specific, never vague cheer.
- Warm and neighborly — an insider letting you in, not a stranger selling to you.
- Local and specific — real places, real people, real names.
- Nice but not fancy — aspirational, never snobby.
- Selective and sure — we don’t feature everything, only what’s worth it.
- Detailed and vivid — concrete details you can picture.
- Bring people together — we stay out of divisive topics.
- Written by a real person — never sounds like AI.
The biggest mistake to avoid: writing like an ad. It’s tempting to pile on praise for advertisers — but empty praise reads like a commercial. The fix: be more specific, not more flattering.
Naming & Brand Architecture
- Local editions are named “City Lifestyle [City Name].”
- Internal programs: Share the Lifestyle Podcast, CL Connect, future.citylifestyle.com.
- The yearly National Conference theme is internal-only training language — it never replaces the main tagline on anything customers, advertisers, or owners see.
Tone of Voice
Source: City Lifestyle “How We Sound” guide — Brand Voice Guidelines, Section 02, V4, June 2026.
The one thing to remember: Write like a knowledgeable neighbor telling a friend about the best of your town. Be specific, be warm, be confident. Never sound like an ad.
Confident, upbeat, and friendly — and always about a specific place. Not an influencer. Not a sales brochure. More like a tasteful friend with great recommendations and real reasons behind them.
Five checks before you hit publish:
- Lead with the good
- Be specific
- Warm, but not sloppy
- Confident, not salesy
- Report, don’t opine
Taglines & sign-off lines:
| Team | Sign-off line | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The magazine | We don’t publish for cities. We publish in them. | Locked |
| Paid ads | LOCAL | LUXURY | LIVING | Locked |
| Organic social | Every community has a story. We’re the neighbor who tells it. | Locked |
| Recruiting new owners | In business for yourself. Not by yourself. | Locked |
| Advertiser sales | Print, digital, and events. One partner. | Locked |
| Brand / corporate | Local, on purpose. | Locked |
| National content / podcast | Spotlighting impactful stories from the people around the nation. | Proposed |
| Local events | The magazine, off the page. | Proposed |
| Publisher updates (CL Connect) | One network. Every neighbor. | Proposed · internal |
Social media voice:
- Short and sure — one strong line beats three soft ones
- Let the photo lead — the caption adds the name, the street, the day
- Warm, never breathless — no “obsessed,” no “you guys!!”
- Go easy on emoji — rare, and only when one does a real job
- Hashtags in the first comment, not the caption
Instagram bios
Corporate (@citylifestyle, locked): “The local voice of 250+ American cities. Published by a neighbor in each one. Share the Lifestyle Podcast” — use exactly, do not change.
Local publications (template): “The local voice of [City]. Published by your neighbor, [First Name]. Your story, in print and online.”
Good vs. bad:
“At Corbin, Chef María Sanz is rewriting the Saturday lunch with a short menu of wood-fired vegetables and a market-driven paella.”
Specific. Names the chef, the dish, the day.
“Corbin is an amazing new restaurant with incredible food that you definitely need to try — you’ll love it!”
Sounds like an ad. Big empty words, no real details.
visual identity
Our Brand
Logos
Please note the correct usage of our Registered Trademark Symbol. The symbol ® should be legible, but unobtrusive. Do not use the ™ logos.
Main Logo
Logo + wordmark horizontal
Logo + wordmark vertical
Magazine-specific Logos
You can find and download publication-specific logos in Arc by using the following path:
[placeholder]
Color Palette
Primary
#0B0F0F · headlines + text on light
#131E2E · backgrounds, headlines + text on light
#3A160A · backgrounds, buttons, headlines on light
#AE9486 · accents, labels, headlines on light
#D5DBDA · accents, headlines + text on dark
#F9F8F3 · backgrounds, buttons, headlines on dark
Secondary / Accents
#261306 · deep warm contrast
#325A6E · accents, extras, needs for vibrancy
#5396B8 · links, accents, extras, needs for vibrancy
Retired colors. Pure White #FFFFFF and Black #000000 should be used minimally — replace with off-white #FBFBFB and off-black #0B0F0F, or primary colors, as much as possible. Teal #2B4447, Gold #CEB792, and Warm Gray #948C7C are no longer part of the brand.
Social rules of thumb
- Preferable use of navy, coffee, or ivory backgrounds.
- Sharp corners on photos and objects, excluding buttons.
- Overlays should be in Ink, Navy, or Espresso.
- Buttons or CTAs should be in Coffee, Ivory, or White.
- Lines and borders should be 1–2px only.
- Minimal use of drop shadow text.
- No emojis as decoration within designs.
Typography
IvyPresto Display
Our headline serif and the emotional voice of the brand. Set it Thin (100) at large sizes and Light (300) at smaller sizes, in title (or sentence) case with slightly tightened tracking. Use italic for an emphasized phrase inside a headline. Do not use it for body or small type.
If IvyPresto isn’t available, use a free Google look-alike — in order of preference: Arapey or Gilda Display, both set at their lightest weight.
Special Gothic
Used for all sans serif type: body copy, captions, UI, labels, and buttons. Regular (normal) for body, 500–600 (medium–semi-bold) weight for emphasis and buttons. Free and open-source (OFL) — download from Google Fonts, no license purchase needed.
Download Special GothicSpecial Gothic Expanded
Reserved for eyebrows, overlines, and short section headers — always all-caps with wide letter-spacing, weights 400–700. Limit text to 1–2 lines, never use for body copy. Free and open-source (OFL) — download from Google Fonts, no license purchase needed.
Download Special Gothic ExpandedRetired Fonts • Proxima Nova (all weights) and IvyPresto Headline (regular, semi-bold, and bold weights) are no longer part of the brand. Do not start new social assets with them — replace with Special Gothic as assets are refreshed. IvyPresto Text remains reserved for magazine use only. Alternate Gothic remains reserved for logo use only.
Using these fonts in Canva. IvyPresto must be purchased as a downloaded file and uploaded to Canva — we cannot provide the license for you, as we are only licensed at a corporate level. Special Gothic is free: download it from Google Fonts and upload it the same way. See Canva Help: Upload Fonts. If you can’t purchase IvyPresto, use one of the free look-alikes above.
Photography & Imagery
PLACEHOLDER — style guidance consistent with “detailed and vivid”: real, specific, unstaged local imagery; stock-photo policy.
templates & resources
social templates
Ready-to-use files for every channel — from the magazine itself to sales decks, email, social, stationery, and events.
applications
support & learning hub
Do’s & Don’ts
A fast, consolidated cheat sheet.
Voice
- Do name the chef, the dish, the street, the day. Don’t write vague copy that could describe any city.
- Do recommend with specific detail. Don’t pile on empty praise for advertisers.
- Do use emoji rarely on social, never in the magazine. Don’t use hype language.
- Do report and celebrate. Don’t criticize or wade into divisive topics.
PLACEHOLDER — Logo, Color, Typography, and Photography do’s and don’ts, to be added once Visual Identity assets are shared.
FAQ & Learning Hub
PLACEHOLDER — FAQ: “Which tagline do I use?”, “Who approves new templates?”, “What if my city’s content doesn’t fit a template?”
PLACEHOLDER — Learning Hub: new-publisher onboarding, voice training modules, downloadable quick-reference guide.
PLACEHOLDER — News & Updates: changelog (e.g. “Tone of Voice V4 published June 2026”), yearly conference theme announcement.
PLACEHOLDER — Contact the Brand Team: HQ brand team contact info and feedback form.