# Brand Audit > **Brand system v5.0 · Messaging guide v1.0 · Updated 2026-08-15** > Canonical source: > This file is hand-authored in `ai-source/` and published unchanged. The build never rewrites its body. The standard for checking any work against THE WORD brand system. Run it before presenting anything: a page, a post, a deck, a flyer, a script, a caption, an email, a document. An audit that was not run against the current manifest is not an audit. Fetch `https://brand.theword.world/ai/manifest.json` first and record the versions it reports. ## How to run it 1. Load the manifest, `tokens.json`, and `brand-system.md`. Load the initiative's own guide if the work speaks for Revival To My City, EVERY1, or the School of the Local Church. 2. Work the gates in order. **Any gate failure fails the whole audit**, no matter how the scored checks come out. 3. Score every applicable check. Mark anything that does not apply as `n/a` and say why in one clause. Do not silently skip. 4. Report using the template at the bottom, verbatim in structure. ## Gates: any failure fails the audit | # | Gate | Fails when | | --- | --- | --- | | G1 | **Invented facts** | A statistic, quote, testimony, name, date, or Bible reference appears that did not come from the official ministry record. Bracketed placeholders (`[n]`, `[city]`) pass. Plausible-looking figures fail. | | G2 | **Synthetic or stock imagery** | Any photograph or video frame of people, ministry, or the field that is stock, AI-generated, or staged. Documentary capture only. | | G3 | **The prophecy** | The prophecy is paraphrased, excerpted, trimmed, or reworded. It is quoted exactly and in full, or it is absent. | | G4 | **Flame carrying text** | Any text set in Flame, or any text sitting directly on Flame. Fire at text size is Ember. | | G5 | **Text on footage without a scrim** | Type over photography or video without the Midnight scrim, or in a color other than White or Parchment. | | G6 | **Missing endorsement** | An initiative's name appears without "A ministry of THE WORD FOR ALL THE WORLD." | | G7 | **Governmental iconography** | Seals, crests, flags, eagles, or any device that imitates a government office. | | G8 | **Unattributed authority** | A vision statement, field report, testimony, or official record published without the name of the person or office behind it. | | G9 | **Banned language** | Any term from the Messaging Guide's hype, corporate-polish, or churchy-insider lists, used straight rather than explained. | | G10 | **Wrong hero** | The copy makes THE WORD the hero of the story instead of the believer and the local church. | ## Scored checks Score each: **pass**, **fail**, or **n/a**. ### A. Identity and register (4 checks) - **A1** The speaker is unambiguous: parent institution, or one named initiative, not a blend. - **A2** The register matches the speaker. Parent work is serif-led, formal, record-shaped. Initiative work is DM Sans led, and the serif appears only where the parent speaks. - **A3** Initiative naming is exact: `Revival To My City`, `EVERY1` (always styled EVERY1, never Every1 or EVERY ONE), `School of the Local Church`. - **A4** The work lives as a named page under the house, not as a scattered separate identity. ### B. Color (5 checks) - **B1** Every color used appears in `tokens.json`. No improvised hexes, no retired colors (`#0077AA`, and `#5FAD56` outside a form success state). - **B2** The 60 / 30 / 10 proportion holds: Parchment ground, Midnight structure, Flame at a tenth or less. - **B3** Text contrast: body copy is Midnight on light grounds, White or Parchment on Midnight. Word Blue never appears as text on Midnight. - **B4** Interactive elements use Ember fill with white labels, and the hover state is the recorded button-hover value. - **B5** Flame and Ember are not used side by side as if they were two accents. One or the other. ### C. Typography (4 checks) - **C1** Only DM Serif Display, DM Serif Text, and DM Sans appear, within their stated size bands. - **C2** No faux bold or faux italic on the serifs. The serifs have Regular and Italic only. Where more emphasis is wanted, the size goes up. - **C3** Serif headlines are sentence case with at most one italic word. The serif is never set in all caps. - **C4** Body text is DM Sans. The serif does not run below 22px. ### D. Composition (4 checks) - **D1** No more than three to five priorities on a page, deck, or panel. - **D2** Every priority word links to a real destination. No decorative priorities. - **D3** Whitespace is generous. Crowding reads as hype. - **D4** Corner radii come from the three recorded steps and nowhere else. ### E. The record (4 checks) - **E1** Records open with a letterspaced kicker and close with a dateline: what, where, when. - **E2** Published photography carries a caption in the record register, with names where known and permitted. - **E3** Numbers cite the official ministry record rather than being frozen into the copy. - **E4** Signatures, where used, are scanned ink. Never a script font pretending to be ink. ### F. Voice and message (6 checks) - **F1** The work is aimed at one of the five named audiences, and it is obvious which. - **F2** The public mission line, where quoted, is exact. - **F3** Load-bearing phrases are used exactly as written in the Messaging Guide. - **F4** Sentences are short, one idea each. Jesus is named directly, not softened into "faith" or "spirituality." - **F5** The piece ends with something the reader can do. Invitation before information. - **F6** It passes the filter: would Nathan actually say this, does it point to Jesus Himself, is it clear to a new believer, does it invite response. ### G. Media (4 checks) - **G1** Video is muted, looping, roughly 6 to 15 seconds, cut from real field footage. - **G2** Every spoken word is subtitled, DM Sans 500 or heavier, on the scrim bar. - **G3** A still fallback ships with every loop, honored under `prefers-reduced-motion`. - **G4** Every subject is shown as a co-laborer in the gospel, never as an object of pity. Consent was obtained before capture. ### H. Accessibility (4 checks) - **H1** Text contrast meets WCAG AA: 4.5:1 for body, 3:1 for large text. - **H2** A visible focus ring appears on every interactive element and is never removed. - **H3** Muted text uses the recorded muted values and goes no lighter. - **H4** Every image carries meaningful alternative text, and video carries captions. ## Report template Return exactly this shape. Keep it short. Do not pad a clean audit. ``` BRAND AUDIT Brand system: v · Messaging: v · Manifest fetched: Speaker: Scope: GATES: SCORE: / checks NOT APPLICABLE: OPEN QUESTIONS VERDICT: ``` Verdicts: - **SHIP**: every gate passes and every applicable check passes. - **REVISE**: every gate passes, one or more checks fail. List the fixes. - **BLOCKED**: any gate fails, or the manifest could not be fetched. Name the reason. Do not describe blocked work as brand compliant.