Visual and brand guidelines for amplifying the movement.
Start here
Most things that go wrong go wrong here — not in the colours. Everything on this page is copy-and-paste ready.
Every step towards education.
1 Million Schools.
Every Child Future Ready.
Boilerplate — three lengths
Shikshagraha is a people's movement to strengthen India's 1 million public schools, so every child can learn well and be ready for the future.
Shikshagraha is a people's movement to strengthen India's 1 million public schools. It brings together teachers, parents, young people, civil society organisations, government and funders to improve schools from within — so that every child receives an enriching learning experience and is ready for the future.
Shikshagraha is a people's movement to strengthen India's 1 million public schools, so every child can learn well and be ready for the future — for the well-being of themselves, their communities, and a changing planet.
121 million children are in India's public schools today. The crisis facing them is not only about resources. It is about deeply held beliefs — about who public schools are for, whose responsibility they are, and what a good education even means. Shikshagraha exists to change those beliefs.
The movement works on the conviction that those closest to the child — teachers, school leaders, parents and communities — are central to improving schools, and that education must be a collective responsibility and a public priority. Across districts, it brings together government, civil society and citizens to make change the system itself owns.
The three beliefs
Every child deserves an enriching learning experience that makes them future-ready.
Those closest to the child — teachers, school leaders, parents, and communities — are central to improving schools.
Education must be a collective responsibility and a public priority — a shared agenda for all of society.
Numbers you can quote
Words & naming
The short list that prevents most of the errors we see in weaver material.
| Say | Not | Why |
|---|---|---|
| shikshagraha | Shiksha Graha · SG | One word, always. The brandbook says don't capitalise our name. |
| weaver | partner | Includes momentum partners leading on-ground change initiatives, and strategic partners providing critical financial, strategic and technological support. |
| collaborator | partner · vendor | Academic institutions, design labs, consultants and other entities contributing specialised knowledge and services. Collaborators may be paid, and support the design, research and implementation of Shikshagraha initiatives. |
| a people's movement | an NGO · a programme | Shikshagraha is not an implementing organisation. |
| organisation, prioritise | organization, prioritize | Indian English spellings throughout. |
| public schools | government schools | Except when quoting a belief the movement is challenging. |
| micro-improvement | micro improvement | Hyphenated, lowercase unless starting a sentence. |
| Samaaj · Sarkaar · Bazaar · Sanchaar | samaj · sarkar · bazar | Fixed transliteration, capitalised. All four, in this order. |
| future-ready | future ready | Hyphenated when used as a modifier. |
| Systemic Leadership Collective | System Leadership Collective | Systemic. Currently inconsistent across the site — needs one fix everywhere. |
Tone of voice
Yes — Effort that stays outside the system stays small.
No — It may be observed that efforts external to the system tend to have limited sustainability.
Yes — I tried one small thing differently in my classroom. It worked.
No — Beneficiary-level interventions demonstrated positive outcomes.
Yes — You don't have to wait for permission to start.
No — Help us save India's children.
Naming the initiatives
Systemic Leadership Collective
Women Leadership Collective
Youth Leadership Collective
Centre of Excellence (CoE)
Shikshagraha Commons
Shikshagraha Awards
Shiksha Samvaad
Shikshagraha Dashboard
Logo
It has no single root. It scatters and takes hold wherever someone decides to act — a teacher, a parent, a student, a school. Each one a seed, each one enough to start something on their own.
Variations
Two elements — the dandelion icon and the shikshagraha wordmark. Set them horizontally or vertically, coloured or white, whichever is clearest on your background. The dandelion can also stand alone, and often does.
Use the height of the “S” in the wordmark as the measure of clearance on all sides. Keep the size legible and always give it breathing room.
When the logo sits near an edge, leave at least three times the height of the S between the logo and the trim.
Common mistakes
Colour
Shikshagraha’s brand includes an almost full spectrum of colours, so that anyone can find a resonant colour in it. This can help in co-branding with weavers and collaborators, without either brand losing itself.
Click any swatch to copy its HEX.
Our favourite colours
Indigo is the base, named for the Indigo Revolt of 1859. Purple and pink are its close relatives. These three carry the brand.
Our accent colours
The favourites can be too strong on their own. Accents break them up — details, call-outs, highlights. Not fields.
Our secondary colours
For graphs, tables, charts and illustrations. Clay and maroon sit outside the bright spectrum — reach for them when a layout needs weight or warmth without another bright. This palette also lets us co-brand or merge identities with weavers and collaborators without either brand losing itself.
Where each colour works
| Colour | On white | On indigo | As a background | Use for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indigo #572E91 |  |
— | white text · 9.52 | Base colour. Body text, headings, large fields, buttons. |
| Purple #99459A | |
 |
white text · 5.72 | Headings on white, filled panels, gradient partner. |
| Pink #ED2388 | large text only | |
white text · 4.04 | Headings and accents. Never body copy. |
| Red #D11F44 | |
|
white text · 5.26 | Call-outs and alerts. |
| Vermilion #EE4533 | large text only | |
black text · 5.53 | Accent fills and call-outs. |
| Tangerine #FF9911 | |
large text only | black text · 9.82 | Fills, highlights, large text on indigo. |
| Yellow #FFDE59 | |
|
black text · 15.84 | Strongest text colour on indigo or black. Never on white. |
| Teal #00DDBB | |
|
black text · 12.06 | Charts, fills, text on dark grounds. |
| Cyan #33DCEE | |
|
black text · 12.61 | Charts, fills, text on dark grounds. |
| Blue #1177FF | large text only | |
white text · 4.11 | Charts and large headings. |
| Clay #CA7862 | large text only | |
black text · 6.37 | Muted fills, infographics, co-branding. |
| Terracotta #961C00 | |
|
white text · 8.53 | Deep fields and text on white. The heaviest colour we have. |
Typography
Both are free on Google Fonts, so any partner can install them. There is no reason to substitute.
Comfortaa
Headings, statements, numbers — and our watermark. Rounded and warm. Weights 400–700.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
abcdefghijklm 0123456789
Source Sans 3
Body text, captions, UI, long documents. Highly legible at small sizes and on low-quality prints. Weights 300–700, with italics.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
abcdefghijklm 0123456789 italic
The scale
A type scale is a controlled set of font sizes that relate to each other in a mathematical ratio, creating better visual harmony, hierarchy and consistency across designs.
H2 sits close to body text because Comfortaa runs optically smaller than Source Sans. If hierarchy ever feels flat, raise H2 to 32 rather than shrinking the body.
Photography
These formats and compositions are suggestions for field photography. The same principles apply to pictures of our core stakeholders in any setting.
Framing the subject
A clear subject taking up about a third of the frame, with enough space around them.
Four compositions to shoot
Who may appear in an image, what release is required for children, who to ask before reuse, and which images on this site are not free to reuse.
Cleared photography from across the districts, tagged by state, initiative and orientation.
Assets & resources
Every file here is already made. Click a link to open it. Some files are restricted to team accounts. Ask us if one will not open.
Brand basics
Narrative & overview
Books & photobooks
Women Leadership Collective. Latest edition, Hindi and English.
Templates
Stories & recognition
Before you publish
One channel for approvals, edge cases and anything this page doesn't answer.
sg.communications@mantra4change.com →Request an asset, a translation, or a format that isn't here yet.
