Brand Guidelines · v2.0The McKerrow History brand
A Modern Oxbridge identity — the gravitas of a university press, the clarity and motion of a modern product. Prestigious, precise, and quietly cutting-edge.
We make the truth of history exciting — and exam success inevitable.
McKerrow History exists for parents and pupils who refuse to settle for bland teaching and sterile textbooks. Dr John McKerrow is a PhD historian and an exam-board examiner — so the brand must feel as rigorous as it is inspiring. It is his academy, not a faceless platform: every design decision serves one end — earned trust.
Truth over decoration
Every claim earns its place. The design clears the way for substance — it never shouts over it.
Quiet prestige
Confidence needs no exclamation marks. Generous space, restrained gold, considered type.
Scholarly, not stuffy
The gravitas of a university press with the clarity and motion of a modern product.
Earned trust
Credentials, testimonials and guarantees are shown with calm precision — the proof, not the pitch.
Four marks, one family
The wordmarkis Dr McKerrow's original logo and leads every page. The serif M is cut from it and serves as the icon. The academy seal confers institution and heritage. The signature makes it personal. Each has its place; none competes with another.
Clear space & minimum size
Give the M breathing room equal to half its height on all sides. Never render it below 24px, nor the wordmark below 120px wide — the fine serifs come first.
40pxmin 24pxMisuse
The marks are fixed assets. Do not distort, rotate, recolour, add effects, or place them on low-contrast fields.
A palette with manners
Roughly 60 / 30 / 10: warm parchment carries the page, Oxford navy commands structure and headlines, and gold appears only where distinction is earned. Tap any swatch to copy its hex.
Oxford Navy
The voice of the brand. Authority, scholarship, trust. Used for primary surfaces, headlines and the crest.
Warm Gold
The mark of distinction. Reserved for accents, rules, and moments of prestige — never large fills. A little gold goes a long way.
Parchment & Ink
The reading surface. Warm creams replace cold white; ink greys carry long-form text with comfort and gravitas.
Aa
Fraunces
A modern old-style serif with optical sizing and a literary soul. Carries headlines, pull-quotes and numerals. Medium for display; Italic for emphasis, citation and index numerals. Old-style figures are on by default.
Aa
Inter
A neutral, highly legible grotesque for long-form reading, UI and data. Quietly gets out of the way so the history can speak.
Jm
Pinyon Script
Reserved for the founder's signature and nothing else. Never used for headings, labels or body text.
The house style
A small vocabulary of editorial devices, borrowed from the title page and the ledger rather than the app store. Used consistently, they make the site feel bespoke, scholarly and of one hand. Prefer a hairline to a box; a numeral to an icon; a rule to a shadow.
A framed panel
A framed panel
Drop capitals open a lede paragraph — one per page, never in a list. Publishers rush books into print and leave grievous errors for teachers, parents and children to stumble over.
Learn at your own pace
Pause, rewind and rewatch whenever you need to.
Ask me anything, live
Elite members join weekly live online lessons.
GCSE
Edexcel International- 01Russia and the Soviet Union, 1905–24
- 02The Cold War, 1943–72
- 03Modern China
Building blocks
Pill-shaped, sentence case, one gold action per view. The arrow eases forward on hover; external links open in a new tab.
Elite Membership
£199 / year
- Every audio & video course
- New courses during your term
- Schemes of work & exemplar answers
- Weekly live “ask me anything”
“Dr McKerrow not only helped me achieve top grades but developed a genuine fascination in me for the subject.”
A three-pixel gold track on parchment. Progress is stated plainly — lessons done, of lessons total — never gamified.
Direct. Truthful. Unafraid of a strong opinion, backed by evidence.
The brand speaks as John does in the classroom — plainly, with conviction and a dry wit. It respects the reader and never resorts to the breathless hype of a hard sell. First person singular: it is his academy, and he says so.
Archival, not stocky
Favour authentic historical material — documents, maps, period photography — and warm, candid portraits of teaching. Apply a unified treatment so disparate sources feel of one library. Caption archival photographs (regiment, place, year) in spaced capitals.
Composed, never busy
Reveal, gently
Content rises 16–20px and fades in once, on scroll. Calm entrances signal confidence.
y 18 · opacity 0→1 · once
One easing
A single soft ease-out gives the whole site a coherent, expensive feel.
cubic-bezier(.22,1,.36,1)
Honest timing
200ms for interface, 600ms for entrances. Respect reduced-motion preferences.
200ms UI · 600ms reveal