Sunrise from the air: a lone pine on a mound beside a green, frost on the fairways beyond, the sun breaking through the trees on the right

Frilford Heath Golf Club · Oxfordshire · Founded 1908

Brand guidelines

Video placeholder · still photograph

A heathland club since 1908.

Fifty-four holes of it.

Before you start

This is a reverse-engineered brand system. It was compiled by reading the live website, pulling the actual colour values and typefaces out of the site's stylesheet, and sampling the crest artwork pixel by pixel. Everything about colour, type and factual detail is measured and checkable today. Everything about voice, values and messaging is a proposal drawn from how the club already writes, and needs the club to say yes to it.

Measured Taken from the live site, its stylesheet or its artwork. Verifiable.

Proposed Synthesis. Requires club sign-off.

Nothing here has been approved by the club yet.

The club

JH Taylor laid out one course here in 1908. The club now plays three championship courses and a par 3 across the heath. The scale is the proposition, and the 1908 heathland is what stops it reading as a resort.

The story in one paragraph Measured

Frilford Heath Golf Club began in 1908, when H S Challenor, A E Preston and T Skurray leased land from Magdalen College and JH Taylor, five-time Open Champion, laid out the first 18 holes. Harry Vardon played Taylor in the 36-hole exhibition that opened it in 1909, and won 5 up with 3 to play. The club professional, JH Turner, added nine more holes in 1928; the club bought its present clubhouse and built a further nine in 1964, giving it two 18-hole courses, the Red and the Green; and in 1994 Simon Gidman's Blue Course opened on neighbouring farmland. The Yellow Course, a par 3, followed in 2018, opened by Eddie Pepperell, who won the club's Gold Medal in 2006. Along the way the club staged a Ryder Cup trial in 1931, the English Amateur, the Brabazon Trophy, European Tour qualifying and, in 2022, the Challenge Tour. A long heathland history on its own sounds like every old club in the south of England. Three championship courses on their own sound like a resort. Together they describe a members' club with more golf than anyone nearby, and the pedigree to go with it.

The numbers Measured

1908Founded; the first 18 holes by JH Taylor
1909Opening match: Vardon beat Taylor 5 and 3
54Championship holes: the Red, Blue and Green Courses
7,033Yards, the Red Course from the black tees, par 72
1994The Blue Course opens, designed by Simon Gidman
2018The Yellow Course, a par 3, opened by Eddie Pepperell

Blue Course 6,916 yards, par 72, from the black tees. Green Course 5,835 yards, par 69, from the white. All three figures are from the club's 2026 scorecards. The website prints 7,015, 6,700 and 6,025, which match no tee on those cards.

What the club stands for Proposed

Decision 9

Mission

To keep three championship courses in the condition their history deserves, and to give members more golf, and more ways to play it, than any club in the county.

Vision

To be the club Oxfordshire golfers think of first, whether they want a championship test, a quick nine before work, or somewhere to learn the game.

Values, read out of what the club already does. Its own Our Vision page currently reads "Information about our vision will be updated soon".

01
Three courses, one club
The Red, the Blue and the Green, a par 3 and a range, all on one membership.
02
Roll up and play
No tee times for members, a designated two-ball course each day, and no winter tees or greens.
03
Championship standard
Regional Qualifying for The Open, the English Amateur and Tour qualifying, played on the members' own course.
04
Bring players on
Eddie Pepperell learned his golf here. Academy Membership is new for beginners, and the Yellow Course is built for them.
05
Progressive, and keeps its traditions
The club's own dress code says it: a progressive club, protecting the traditions of the game. Women in Golf Charter signatories.

Brand personality Assured · Traditional · Generous · Competitive · Unhurried

From the air at first light: a green with a single bunker in front of it, frost on the fairway, dark woodland to the left and heath running away into the sun

Positioning Proposed

For golfers in Oxfordshire and along the M4 and M40 who want championship heathland without being limited to one course, Frilford Heath Golf Club is the 54-hole estate near Abingdon where JH Taylor laid out the first course in 1908: three championship courses, a par 3, no tee times for members, and a Red Course that still stages Regional Qualifying for The Open.

Frilford Heath Golf Club crest: a quartered gold shield with a white running horse in the first quarter and a brown ox above wavy water in the fourth

The crest Measured

The shield is gold, so it sits on navy without help; the light plate here is this book's own device. The real problem is size. The largest crest file on the site is 134 pixels tall, shown here many times enlarged, which is why it is soft. That is the biggest single gap in the identity, and item 3 in the decisions.

How we look

A gold shield with a white horse and an ox at a ford, a navy and gold website, and photographs of the heath at first light. The pieces are good. Nobody has put them in one place.

The crest Measured

Decision 3 and 10

The club's mark is a quartered shield, drawn with a bevel and a gradient rather than in flat colour. The first quarter carries a white running horse drawn in the manner of the Uffington White Horse. The fourth carries a brown ox standing above two wavy bars of water. The other two quarters are plain gold. Sampled from the file, the field is #976F29 with highlights at #AE831A.

A reading of the crest Proposed

The club sits in the Vale of White Horse, which takes its name from the chalk figure at Uffington, and an ox crossing a ford is the device on Oxford's own arms. If that is what the shield means, it is the best story in the identity, and the website never tells it.

The Frilford Heath shield on its own, enlarged from a 102 pixel file

The shield, on its own

102 × 122px, transparent. Served as logo.png over every hero photograph, and as the 100px favicon. Shown here enlarged, which is why it is soft.

Primary mark

The shield with the club's name

128 × 134px, LOGO2.png, used in the footer. The name is set in a gold of its own, #CDAF4F, which matches neither the shield nor the website.

Lockup

What exists, and what is still missing

Mark	Purpose	Largest file	Status
Shield, bevelled	Header and favicon	102 × 122 PNG	Exists, in use
Shield with name	Footer	128 × 134 PNG	Exists, in use
Vector master (SVG / EPS)	Signage, flags, embroidery, large print	none	Missing
Flat version, no bevel	Print, embroidery, small sizes	none	Missing
Mono, one colour	Etching, embossing, single-colour print	none	Missing
Apple touch icon	The iPhone home screen	IntelligentGolf's logo	In use by mistake

The blocker · nothing larger than 134 pixels, and a bevel

The biggest crest file the club publishes is 134 pixels tall. That is too small for a retina header, never mind a sign, a flag or an embroidered shirt. The bevel and gradient that make it look like a metal badge on screen also make it impossible to print in two flat colours or to stitch cleanly. And anyone who saves the site to an iPhone home screen gets IntelligentGolf's logo, not the club's. The shield needs redrawing as SVG and EPS, flat, with a one-colour version, before any print, signage or apparel work is commissioned.

Clear space and minimum size Proposed

Minimum clear space on all four sides equals the width of one quarter of the shield. Nothing sets inside that boundary: no type, no rule, no photograph edge, no second logo.

Context	Minimum	Note
Shield, print	15mm wide	Vector artwork only
Shield, screen	40px wide	Below this the horse and the ox are lost
Shield with name, screen	120px wide	Below this the name breaks up

Colour Measured

Decision 1

Colour: the conflict, first

The club is navy and gold, and everyone agrees on that much. What nobody agrees on is which navy and which gold. Counted from the club's own stylesheet, sampled from the crest files, and confirmed against screenshots of the live pages:

1 · The stylesheet says

#1F467833 uses

#14396727, the big grounds

#BA9B3042 uses

#90823Ethe buttons

2 · The crest says

#976F29Shield field

#AE831AHighlight

#CDAF4FThe name

#FFFFFFHorse and water

3 · Left at the platform's defaults

#EFE9D1Slider captions, 23

#0088CCBootstrap, 22

#28A745Status dot, 9

Five golds are in circulation and none of them match. The buttons are not the gold the stylesheet uses most, the crest is a third gold, and the name under the crest is a fourth. Three navies sit within a few points of each other.

Recommendation

Make Frilford Navy #1F4678 the brand colour, because it has the most declarations in the club's own stylesheet, and keep Deep Navy #143967 as the one darker ground it already is. Fold the 88 per cent navy into one of them. Make Frilford Gold #BA9B30 the one gold: it is the stylesheet's most-used gold and the closest to the name under the crest. Retire Button Gold #90823E. When the crest is redrawn flat, set its field in Frilford Gold so the shield and the site finally match. For gold type on a light ground, use Frilford Gold darkened by 30 per cent, #826C22, at 5.10:1 Proposed, because Frilford Gold itself fails on white.

On site today Measured

The crest is already out there, in four versions

Four of the club's own images, from its website, of the identity in use. Between them they show the crest in at least four colourings: black and silver on the Golf Shop, green, blue and red on the course signs, blue and white on the shop's polos, and gold on the website. That is the strongest argument in this book for one flat master.

The timber-clad Golf Shop under an overcast sky, with the crest in black and silver and the words Frilford Heath Golf Club fixed to the cladding either side of the glass doors — **The Golf Shop.** The crest is fixed to the timber cladding in black and silver, horse and ox both legible, with the club name in a silver serif beneath it. Flat light and an overcast sky, so this frame is evidence, not brand photography.

A golfer putting on the practice green beside a wooden-framed blue sign reading Putting Green, with a small crest and the club name at the top of the sign — **The course signs.** A royal blue panel in a timber frame, the words in a white serif, and the crest at the top in a third colouring: green quarters for the horse and the water, blue for the others, and a red ox.

The Golf Shop wall of club merchandise: white polos and blue knitwear with an embroidered blue and white shield, caps with a grey shield, and ball markers on black cards — **The merchandise.** Polos and knitwear embroidered with the shield in blue and white, and caps with it in grey and white. Equipment brands sit on the same wall, so this frame stays out of the brand set.

The 2026 Red Course scorecard: tee yardages in black, white, yellow and red columns, with par and stroke index, and no crest anywhere on the card — **The 2026 scorecard.** Printed by Clere Golf in a plain sans, coloured only by the tees, and carrying no crest at all. Every yardage on the scorecard below comes from this card.

Colour usage rules

Frilford Navy is the default dark. Grounds, headings, primary buttons and the footer. Deep Navy is the one darker ground.
Frilford Gold is a line and a fill, on navy. Rules, borders, and display type of 24px and above. As type on a light ground, use #826C22.
Gold buttons carry navy labels, never white. White on the current button gold measures 3.85:1.
Light Gold and Pale Gold are for navy grounds only. They exist to make gold readable on navy.
Light grey breaks up long pages. Alternate white and #F7F7F7. Never introduce a third background tint.

The palette Measured

Every value, counted

Primary

Frilford Navy

#1F4678
31, 70, 120
74 / 42 / 0 / 53

33 uses. Panels, borders, headings, primary buttons.

Frilford Gold

#BA9B30
186, 155, 48
0 / 17 / 74 / 27

42 uses. Rules, fills, and display type on navy. Never body text.

Secondary

Deep Navy

#143967
20, 57, 103
81 / 45 / 0 / 60

5 uses, plus 22 at 88 per cent. The large section grounds.

Warm Grey

#706862
112, 104, 98
0 / 7 / 13 / 56

6 uses. Borders and small rules.

Heraldic, crest artwork only, sampled from the PNG

Crest Bronze

#976F29
151, 111, 41
0 / 26 / 73 / 41

2,380 pixels, the shield field.

Crest Highlight

#AE831A
174, 131, 26

285 pixels, the bevel's lit edge.

Name Gold

#CDAF4F
205, 175, 79

The club's name under the shield.

Neutrals

White

#FFFFFF
255, 255, 255

Text on navy, default light ground.

Light Grey

#F7F7F7
247, 247, 247

The site's light ground and footer.

Body

#333333
51, 51, 51

16 uses. Body copy on light grounds.

Ink

#1C1C21
28, 28, 33

Maximum-contrast text.

Rule Grey

#DDDDDD
221, 221, 221

Borders and dividers.

To retire

Button Gold

#90823E
144, 130, 62
0 / 10 / 57 / 44

3 declarations, painting the gold buttons. A fifth gold. White on it fails.

Grey Text

#79797C
121, 121, 124

5 uses. Fails for body text on white, at 4.34:1.

Slider Cream

#EFE9D1
239, 233, 209

23 uses, all from the slider's default style. Never chosen by anyone.

Accessibility Measured

Decision 2

Contrast, measured not asserted

Contrast ratios calculated to WCAG 2.1 from the measured hex values. Body text needs 4.5:1; large text, meaning 24px or 18.66px bold and above, needs 3:1. Each row below is rendered in the actual colours.

Frilford Navy on white9.52:1Pass

Deep Navy on white11.6:1Pass

Body on white12.63:1Pass

Crest Bronze on white4.54:1Pass

Grey Text on white4.34:1Body fail

Button Gold on white3.85:1Body fail

Frilford Gold on white2.69:1Both fail

White on Frilford Navy9.52:1Pass

White on Deep Navy11.6:1Pass

Light Gold on Frilford Navy5.16:1Pass

Frilford Gold on Deep Navy4.32:1Body fail

Frilford Gold on Frilford Navy3.55:1Body fail

White on Button Gold3.85:1Body fail

The hard rules this produces, and two failures that are live today

White on Button Gold #90823E fails, at 3.85:1. That is the site's gold buttons today, the course card buttons included, set in small white capitals. Use a navy label on gold, or a navy button with a white label at 9.52:1.

Frilford Gold #BA9B30 fails as text on white, at 2.69:1, and fails for body text on both navies, at 4.32:1 and 3.55:1. It is a rule, border and display colour. For gold body text on navy, use Light Gold #D2BE78; on white, use #826C22.

Grey Text #79797C fails for body text on white, at 4.34:1. Use Body #333333.

Display type Proposed the recommended tagline, decision 4

Lora, the club's own heading face, loaded from Google Fonts as the live site loads it.

Typography Measured

Decision 5

The site loads two faces from Google Fonts in one request: Lora for headings and Didact Gothic for body copy, navigation and buttons. The stylesheets also name Fira Sans and Playfair Display, but neither is ever loaded, so wherever they are named the browser quietly falls back to a default. Didact Gothic exists in one weight only, Regular, so every bold word on the site is the browser thickening the letters artificially.

Both faces are open-licensed, so there is no obstacle to print work. Do not substitute Georgia for Lora, or Century Gothic for Didact Gothic. They are the system fonts each is most often mistaken for, and the difference shows at headline size.

The name under the crest is 13 pixels tall in the largest file the club publishes, too small to name the face with certainty. Set over it at the same height, Lora comes closest of four free serifs in width, at 93 per cent, against 90 for Crimson Text, 86 for Cormorant Garamond and 84 for EB Garamond. So Lora carries the display type here, and the face of the crest's lettering stays unconfirmed until the vector arrives. The course signs and the Golf Shop use a third serif, also unidentified.

The typographic gap, and this page as the argument

The club already has a serif, and Lora is a good one. The gap is weight. With one weight of Didact Gothic, buttons, labels and bold text are all faked, and they look it. Either keep Didact Gothic and design without bold, or pair Lora with a sans that has real weights. This page uses Didact Gothic for its body copy, so its bold is faked too, which is the argument made visible. Display and headings are Lora, the club's own face, at 400 for display as the site sets it and at 600 and 700 for headings, weights Lora really has. The objects in the In use section never ask Didact Gothic for a weight it does not have.

AaDisplay, Lora 400

AaEverything else, Didact Gothic 400

Display · Lora 400 · 56 to 72px · line-height 1.1

Three courses. One club.

H1 · Lora 700 · 40 to 48px

Welcome to Frilford Heath

Body · Didact Gothic 400 · 17px · line-height 1.6

Members can roll up and play. There are no tee times, a designated two-ball course each day, and no winter tees or greens on any of the three courses.

Label · Didact Gothic 400 · 13px · the face has no bold

Book a tee time

Hierarchy Proposed

Level	Face	Weight	Size	Line height	Use
Display	Lora	400	56 to 72px	1.1	Hero, brochure covers
H1	Lora	700	40 to 48px	1.15	Page titles
H2	Lora	700	30 to 34px	1.2	Section headings
H3	Lora italic	400	22 to 24px	1.3	Sub-headings
Body	Didact Gothic	400	17px	1.6	Paragraphs
Body large	Didact Gothic	400	20px	1.6	Standfirsts
Caption	Didact Gothic	400	14px	1.4	Photo captions
Label	Didact Gothic	400	13px	1.2	Buttons, tags. Uppercase, 0.08em

Typographic rules

Line length 60 to 75 characters. Body copy sits in a column, not edge to edge.
Sentence case for headings. Not Title Case, not ALL CAPS except on small labels and buttons.
Never centre a paragraph. Centre a heading if you like. Never a block of running text.
Never justify. It creates rivers at this line length.

Photography Measured

Decision 6

The club's photography is excellent. A 2022 set by Rob Scotcher, shot on a Canon EOS R6 with his name in the files, and the golden-hour drone work in the site's slideshows show the heath the way it should be seen: frost, low sun, heather and pine. Keep all of it. It is the strongest part of the current brand. These are the club's own files, taken at the largest size the site will serve.

Heather in flower in the foreground, a green guarded by one bunker behind it, gorse on the right, birch and pine beyond — Heather in flower in front of a green with a single bunker, gorse to the right, birch and pine behind. Rob Scotcher, October 2022. No frame on the site says heathland more plainly.

From the air at sunrise: a green with a small bunker short of it, frost on the fairway, gorse and pine on the right, sun haze over the far holes — From the air at sunrise, frost still on the fairway and the far holes lost in haze. This is the club's signature light, and the drone pilot has understood it.

Measured Four images on the site are of the Graduate Oxford hotel, a stay-and-play partner, not the club. Several team and event photographs carry sponsor banners and equipment logos. Eight of the slideshow panels are blank white images, 2400 by 4800 pixels. All are excluded from the brand set under the rules below.

First light and frost. Low sun, long shadows, frost still on the fairways.
Heather in flower in the foreground, late summer into autumn.
Drone at tree height over the greens, not high above the estate.
Golden hour on the clubhouse, never flat midday light.

The gap · people are lined up, never playing

There are plenty of people on the site, but almost all of them are standing in a row facing the camera at a presentation or an open, often in front of a sponsor's banner. Nothing shows a member playing, juniors being coached in the performance centre, the Lounge Bar at six o'clock, or a dinner in the Dining Room. Commission a second bank in the same light, candid rather than posed, so the two read as one set. Working ratio: 60 per cent landscape, 40 per cent people.

What to avoid

Stock photography of golfers who are obviously not at this course
Partner hotel imagery standing in for the club
Grey, flat, overcast light. If the weather is poor, do not shoot
Over-sharpened, HDR-crunched landscapes with haloed tree lines
Rows of people facing the camera. Shoot the round, not the line-up
A competing logo in frame. Sponsors' banners, equipment brands, bag tags and caps are cropped out or the frame is not used

In use Proposed

The brand on the things the club sends

Six pieces the club actually uses, drawn at their real proportions in the club's own typefaces, Lora and Didact Gothic, and built from the club's own photographs. The crest appears only at the size of the largest file the club publishes, never enlarged, so on several pieces it is honestly small. Only the website is measured; the rest is proposed.

The Red Course

Laid out in 1908 by five-time Open Champion JH Taylor.

A host of Regional Qualifying for The Open.

Please avoid slow play at all times.

Oxford Road, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5NW
01865 390864

Scorecard

Red Course · Par 72 · 7,033 yards

Frilford Heath Golf Club

OutHoles 1 to 9

Hole				Par	S.I.
1	393	384	369	4	9
2	534	534	510	5	5
3	416	375	363	4	13
4	197	197	189	3	15
5	464	425	414	4	3
6	500	500	480	5	11
7	437	406	392	4	7
8	469	469	448	4	1
9	186	186	173	3	17
Out	3,596	3,476	3,338	36

Black7,033

White6,771

Yellow6,445

PlayerDate

InHoles 10 to 18

Hole				Par	S.I.
10	548	548	516	5	6
11	182	155	139	3	18
12	474	474	424	4	4
13	392	355	338	4	10
14	354	323	319	4	14
15	421	421	400	4	2
16	318	318	314	4	12
17	424	396	365	4	8
18	324	305	292	4	16
In	3,437	3,295	3,107	36
Out	3,596	3,476	3,338	36
Total	7,033	6,771	6,445	72

MarkerHandicap

Scorecard Proposed

A folded card, 110 × 160mm closed, for the Red Course. Every yardage, par and stroke index is copied from the club's own 2026 Red Course card, not from the website, whose 7,015 yards matches no tee on the card. Black, White and Yellow tees are shown; the Red tees carry their own par and stroke index on the card and would take a second table. The crest sits at its native 128 pixels on the cover until a vector exists.

The clubhouse in summer sun, a red-brick and white-gabled house with broad steps up from the lawn, cumulus clouds overhead — Golf day brochure Proposed
A4. The cover is the club's own 2022 photograph of the clubhouse over a Frilford Navy panel. The inside page uses the green fees page's own packages and prices: the Taylor Classic, The Magdalen and The Spires at £155, £164 and £173 a head, midweek from May to October 2026, minimum 12. The club publishes no membership prices, so the brochure sells golf days. The shield is shown at its native 102 pixels.

The Frilford Heath shield — Golf day brochure Proposed
A4. The cover is the club's own 2022 photograph of the clubhouse over a Frilford Navy panel. The inside page uses the green fees page's own packages and prices: the Taylor Classic, The Magdalen and The Spires at £155, £164 and £173 a head, midweek from May to October 2026, minimum 12. The club publishes no membership prices, so the brochure sells golf days. The shield is shown at its native 102 pixels.

A green from the air at sunrise, frost on the fairway, pine and gorse to one side — Social posts Proposed
Three posts at 4:5, the shape Instagram crops to. Each is a fact from the club's own site on the club's own photographs: the 54 holes, twilight golf from £65 on Rob Scotcher's heather frame, and the 1909 opening match from the timeline. Small type on navy is Light Gold, never Frilford Gold, and the third band is Pale Gold with Deep Navy type, at 7.68:1.

Social posts Proposed
Three posts at 4:5, the shape Instagram crops to. Each is a fact from the club's own site on the club's own photographs: the 54 holes, twilight golf from £65 on Rob Scotcher's heather frame, and the 1909 opening match from the timeline. Small type on navy is Light Gold, never Frilford Gold, and the third band is Pale Gold with Deep Navy type, at 7.68:1.

The Frilford Heath homepage at 1440 pixels: the crest over a golden aerial of a green, Welcome to Frilford Heath Golf Club in Lora, and Oxfordshire's 54-hole Championship Golf Estate in capitals beneath — The website Measured
The club's live homepage, captured on 6 October 2026 at 20:40 UTC, 1440 and 390 pixels wide, with the cookie banner hidden. The heading renders in Lora 400 and the line beneath it in Didact Gothic set bold, a weight the face does not have. The gold Member's Login button and the bevelled crest are as the club serves them.

The same homepage at 390 pixels wide — The website Measured
The club's live homepage, captured on 6 October 2026 at 20:40 UTC, 1440 and 390 pixels wide, with the cookie banner hidden. The heading renders in Lora 400 and the line beneath it in Didact Gothic set bold, a weight the face does not have. The gold Member's Login button and the bevelled crest are as the club serves them.

Letter and card Proposed
A4 letter and an 85 × 55mm card. The crest and name at their native 128 pixels, the address in Didact Gothic, and a Frilford Gold hairline over the company name, Frilford Heath Golf Club Ltd. Body lines are placeholders. The contact page names nobody, so the card carries reception rather than a person. Both are waiting on vector artwork (decision 3).

2100

Clubhouse
Golf Shop
Courses

Oxfordshire’s 54-hole
Championship Golf Estate

crest at native size: vector needed

1200

Frilford Navy, #1F4678, the panel
White, the three destinations, cut vinyl
Light Gold, #D2BE78, the strapline
Frilford Gold, #BA9B30, one rule
Plinth, 1375mm wide, set in the verge

Entrance sign Proposed

Drawn to scale at 1:12.5, in millimetres. The club publishes no RAL or Pantone references, so the colours are the measured screen values and need matching on a proof. The crest is drawn at the size its 134-pixel file can hold, which on a two-metre sign is far too small: that gap is the point. The strapline is the homepage's own. The existing course signs are a brighter royal blue, about #3455A7 sampled from a daylight photograph, so this sign would also settle which blue the club means.

Social media

Avatar: the shield alone on Frilford Navy, from a vector file once it exists.
One name everywhere: the handles are FrilfordHeathGolfClub on Facebook, frilfordheathgc on Instagram and FrilfordHeathGC on X. Display name on all of them should read Frilford Heath Golf Club.
Post mix: roughly a third course condition and photography, a third club life meaning results, juniors and sections, and a third green fees, golf days and events.
Hashtags: a maximum of three, and they should be real. #FrilfordHeath #OxfordshireGolf #HeathlandGolf.

Print

Item	Specification
Scorecards	Navy and white, with the shield on the cover. The 2026 cards carry no crest at all and are coloured in the tee colours only. One design for all three courses, with the course colour as the accent.
Signage	Vector artwork only, which does not yet exist. Navy ground with the shield reads best from a distance and at dusk.

Brand don'ts, the one-page checklist

Never enlarge the 134px crest file for print. Commission vector artwork first
Never print the bevelled crest. Use a flat version once it exists
Never put a white label on a gold button. It measures 3.85:1
Never set Frilford Gold #BA9B30 as text on a light ground. It measures 2.69:1
Never use a gold other than Frilford Gold outside the crest
Never name a font the site does not load, and never fake a bold weight
Never use Title Case or ALL CAPS for headings, except on small labels and buttons
Never write perfect, ultimate, stunning, infamous or bespoke
Never use an em-dash, and never more than one exclamation mark in a social post
Never publish a yardage that is not on the current scorecard
Never show partner hotels in place of the club
Never route an enquiry to "the team" when it can go to a person by name

How we speak

The club sounds like a secretary with a long memory: proud of what has been played here, exact about the courses, and glad to see you without needing to say so twice.

Proposed The voice essence.

Tone dimensions Proposed

Dimension	Where it sits
Formal to casual	Slightly formal. Contractions are fine in social posts. Slang is not.
Serious to playful	Mostly serious, with room for dry warmth. Never jokey.
Reserved to enthusiastic	Reserved, and evidenced. Taylor, Vardon and the Red Course do the boasting, so the adjectives do not have to.
Ornate to plain	Plain, always.

The voice, in seven lines Proposed

Nothing here is an adjective. Two of the lines are taglines the club has not yet chosen (decision 4). The rest are things that are true on a Tuesday in February.

Founded 1908.

Laid out by JH Taylor.

Three courses. One club.

Where Vardon beat Taylor.

Red, Blue, Green, and a par 3.

No tee times for members.

Ring us on 01865 390864.

Voice qualities Proposed

Five ways to tell it is us

1. Welcoming, not ingratiating

Visitors are welcome. Ring 01865 390864, option 3, and we will give you a time.

Don't

Discover one of England's most exceptional golfing experiences at Frilford Heath Golf Club.

2. Specific, not superlative

The Red Course is 7,033 yards from the black tees, par 72, laid out by JH Taylor in 1908.

Don't

Combining our exceptional new facilities and world-class courses, The Spires is designed to impress.

3. Plain, not corporate

Members can roll up and play. There are no tee times.

Don't

The process is very straightforward, designed to help you understand how we can make the most of your time at the golf club.

4. Confident, not boastful

Regional Qualifying for The Open, the English Amateur and the Brabazon Trophy have all been played on the Red Course.

Don't

Enjoy the test our Championship Courses in our infamous Black Tee Challenge.

5. Human, not institutional

Ring the Golf Shop on 01865 393667 and one of the professionals will book your lesson.

Don't

THE CLUBS TEAM WILL POLITELY ENFORCE THE POLICY WHEN REQUIRED

Measured Every "Don't" above is quoted from the club's live site: the green fees, membership, homepage and dress code pages.

Vocabulary Measured the five live words Proposed the lists

perfectultimatestunninginfamousbespoke

These five are live on the club's own pages today, perfect twenty times. Infamous means notorious, and the site uses it to praise the Black Tee Challenge. Exceptional, distinguished, world-class, state-of-the-art and unsurpassed are live too, in the list below. Replace each word with the thing that made you want to use it.

We say

heathlandthe heaththe Red Coursethe Blue Coursethe Green Coursethe Yellow Coursemembersroll up and playtwo-ballvisitorsthe Golf Shopthe Lounge Barchampionshipsince 1908JH TaylorAbingdonring us

We don't say

perfect liveultimate livestunning liveinfamous livebespoke liveexceptional livedistinguished liveworld-class livestate-of-the-art liveunsurpassed liveprestigious livereach out liveluxuriousnestleda hidden gemelevateFHGC

Writing style Proposed

House rules

British English throughout. Colour, organise, enquiry, programme, centre.
Oxford comma. Always.
Sentence length. Vary it. Average around 15 to 20 words. A short one lands.
Sentence case for all headings. Not Title Case.
No exclamation marks in club-published copy. One per social post at the absolute most.
No em-dashes. Use a comma, a full stop, or a colon. There are five on the green fees page today.
Numbers. Spell out one to nine, numerals from 10. Always numerals for yardages, pars, handicaps, prices, dates and times: 7,033 yards, par 72, £140, 7.30am.
Dates. 4 June 2027, not Friday 4th June 2027.
The club's name. Frilford Heath Golf Club in full on first mention and in every formal document. Frilford Heath thereafter. The club after that. Never "FHGC" outward-facing. The courses take capitals: the Red Course, the Blue, the Green, the Yellow Course.

Messaging Proposed

Decision 4

Three championship courses, one members' club, since 1908.

Proposed The core message.

Value proposition

Frilford Heath Golf Club has played on the heath near Abingdon since 1908, when JH Taylor laid out the first course and Harry Vardon beat him in the match that opened it. It now has three championship courses, the Red, the Blue and the Green, and the Yellow par 3, so members can roll up and play without a tee time on whichever course suits the day. The Red still stages Regional Qualifying for The Open. Visitors, societies and corporate groups are welcome seven days a week, with a clubhouse whose rooms look out over the courses.

Tagline routes

Route	Line	Leans on
Scale	Three courses. One club.	54 championship holes, which nobody nearby can match
Pedigree	Where Vardon beat Taylor.	The 1909 opening match
Place	Heathland golf near Oxford since 1908.	The founding and the setting

Recommendation

The homepage already says Oxfordshire's 54-hole Championship Golf Estate, which is accurate and too long to remember. Pick one and hold it for at least three years. Three courses. One club. is the recommendation: short, true, and the one thing about Frilford Heath that no club within an hour can say. Where Vardon beat Taylor is the better line for the history page and the centenary-style material, where it can be explained.

Key messages, with proof

Message	Proof
There is more golf here than anywhere nearby.	The Red, Blue and Green Courses, 54 championship holes, plus the Yellow par 3 course and a driving range.
It has a pedigree.	Laid out by JH Taylor in 1908, opened by Vardon and Taylor in 1909, host to a Ryder Cup trial in 1931, and home club of Dickie Eyles, who hit the opening drive of the 1975 Walker Cup.
It is a championship venue now.	Regional Qualifying for The Open, the English Amateur in 2013, won by Callum Shinkwin, the Brabazon Trophy in 2018, Tour qualifying since 2011, and the Challenge Tour in 2022.
Members play when they like.	No tee times, a designated two-ball course each day, and no winter tees or greens on any course.
Visitors and groups are welcome.	Summer green fees £140 on weekdays and £160 at weekends after 1pm. Society packages from the Taylor Classic at £155 to The Spires at £173, for groups of 12 or more.
There is room to meet.	A dining room for 90, a boardroom for up to 16, and the Skelton Suite upstairs with its own terrace.

Audience angles

Audience	Lead with	Do not lead with
Prospective members	Roll up and play on three courses, and the two-ball course every day.	Green fees
Visiting golfers	The Red Course's history, the price, and how to book.	Membership
Societies and corporate	The three packages by name, a private room at no extra cost, and a dedicated co-ordinator.	Club history
Meetings and events	Twenty minutes from Oxford, views from every room, free parking.	Golf
Beginners and juniors	Academy Membership and the Yellow Course.	The Black Tee Challenge

Contacts and assets

Brand guardian: Russell Stebbings, Managing Director. All brand decisions, all approvals, and any exception to this document. Proposed

ManagementRussell Stebbings, Managing Director01865 390864
Golf and club operationsDan Blesovsky, Director of Golf and Club Operationsnamed on the site in 2022
Tee times and the Golf ShopThe golf team01865 390864, option 3 · 01865 393667
Events, dining and societiesThe events team01865 390864, option 1

Club details for all published material

Frilford Heath Golf Club
Oxford Road, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5NW
01865 390864 · frilfordheath.co.uk
facebook.com/FrilfordHeathGolfClub · instagram.com/frilfordheathgc · twitter.com/FrilfordHeathGC

Asset location · to be established

There is no central store of brand assets. The crest exists only as two web files of 102 and 134 pixels, and there is no vector anywhere. The site names only two members of staff, both in a 2022 news story, and the contact page names nobody. Rob Scotcher holds the full-resolution 2022 photographs; ask for the complete set. Set up one shared folder holding the vector crest, the approved photographs, the current scorecards and this document as the first action from these guidelines.

Open decisions

Ten things only the club can settle

These cannot be settled without the club, and each one blocks something downstream.

1
Settle one navy and one gold
Frilford Navy and Frilford Gold, with Deep Navy as the one darker ground. Five golds and three navies are in circulation now.
Committee
2
Fix the buttons, which fail today
White labels on Button Gold measure 3.85:1 on the site's gold buttons. Navy labels on gold, or navy buttons.
GM
3
Redraw the crest as vector, flat, with a one-colour version
Nothing larger than 134 pixels exists. No sign, flag, shirt or brochure can be made properly until it does.
GM
4
Choose one tagline and hold it
Recommendation: Three courses. One club.
Committee
5
Give the body text real weights
Didact Gothic has one weight, so every bold is faked. Design without bold, or pair Lora with a sans that has a family.
GM
6
Commission candid people photography
The landscapes are excellent. The people are lined up for presentations, often in front of sponsors.
GM
7
Settle the facts that disagree
Website yardages match no tee on the 2026 cards. The Green Course designer is JH Taylor on one page and JH Turner on five. "Even after 85 years" is now 98. Room names and drinks capacities differ between the Meetings and Events pages.
GM
8
Clear the website leftovers
The iPhone icon is IntelligentGolf's logo, four stylesheets load from rakia.co.uk and return 404, the Our Vision page is empty, the Team Building page is a supplier's copy, two fonts are named but never loaded, and the footer still shows the 59club Gold Flag Award of 2022.
GM
9
Confirm the mission, values and voice
They are inferred from the club's own writing, not supplied by the club.
Committee
10
Tell the story of the crest
A white horse in the Vale of White Horse, and an ox at a ford near Oxford. If that is the meaning, say so on the history page.
Committee

Brand guidelines

The club

Mission

Vision

Three courses, one club

Roll up and play

Championship standard

Bring players on

Progressive, and keeps its traditions

How we look

The shield, on its own

The shield with the club's name

What exists, and what is still missing

Clear space and minimum size Proposed

Colour: the conflict, first

The crest is already out there, in four versions

Colour usage rules

Every value, counted

Primary

Secondary

Heraldic, crest artwork only, sampled from the PNG

Neutrals

To retire

Contrast, measured not asserted

Hierarchy Proposed

Typographic rules

What to avoid

The brand on the things the club sends

The Red Course

Scorecard Proposed

Three championship courses, one golf day

Golf day brochure Proposed

Social posts Proposed

The website Measured

Letter and card Proposed

Entrance sign Proposed

Social media

Print

Brand don'ts, the one-page checklist

How we speak

Five ways to tell it is us

1. Welcoming, not ingratiating

2. Specific, not superlative

3. Plain, not corporate

4. Confident, not boastful

5. Human, not institutional

House rules

Value proposition

Tagline routes

Key messages, with proof

Audience angles

Club details for all published material

Ten things only the club can settle

Settle one navy and one gold

Fix the buttons, which fail today

Redraw the crest as vector, flat, with a one-colour version

Choose one tagline and hold it

Give the body text real weights

Commission candid people photography

Settle the facts that disagree

Clear the website leftovers

Confirm the mission, values and voice

Tell the story of the crest