Chris Matthews

Personal brand. Solo and operator-led.

chrismatthews.co.uk is the master identity. The brand is solo and personal-brand-led; no operating company sits beneath it. Every asset nests beneath the hub: SSAMM Method™, the @christheaiguy handle, books, and speaking.

Signature line

Making AI practical for business.

The only codified brand line. Appears on the website, email signature, and book covers. Consistent across every touchpoint.

Framework

SSAMM Method™, the trademarked operating framework: Simplify, Systemise, Automate, Monitor, Manage. Introduced as a sequence, not a menu. Use the trademark symbol on first mention per piece.

Values

Audiences (in priority order)

1. Family office professionals managing UHNW wealth and technology modernisation
2. Healthcare clinic owners seeking operational efficiency and AI-driven growth
3. SME leaders ready to adopt AI strategy without the jargon or hype

Three typefaces. No substitutions.

Cabinet Grotesk for headings, Satoshi for body, JetBrains Mono for labels and technical detail. Fallbacks: Inter for sans, Courier New for mono. PDF stand-ins: DM Sans Bold (display), Inter (body).

Display · Cabinet Grotesk

Body · Satoshi

Technical · JetBrains Mono

Font CDN URLs

• Cabinet Grotesk: https://api.fontshare.com/v2/css?f[]=cabinet-grotesk@700
• Satoshi: https://api.fontshare.com/v2/css?f[]=satoshi@400,500,700
• JetBrains Mono: https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=JetBrains+Mono

Rules

• Headings always Cabinet Grotesk 700. Never substitute the body font.
• Section eyebrows are JetBrains Mono, XS, all-caps, gold. This is a distinctive signal of the brand.
• Maximum body measure: 72 characters per line (narrow content width 640px).
• Letter spacing: -0.02em on display, normal on body, 0.05em on mono labels.
• Never use all-caps for body text. All-caps is reserved for labels and the monogram.

The CM mark.

Open-C arc, angular M, rounded square container, gold underline. The monogram changes only three colours between themes. Geometry, stroke weights, and underline position are identical.

Monogram colours per theme

Rules

• Pair with the gold accent underline in all applications.
• Never stretch, skew, rotate, or recolour outside the approved palette.
• Never place on busy photographic backgrounds.
• Minimum size 24px. Below this, switch to the pixel-optimised favicon variant.
• Clear space: maintain space equal to the height of the M letterform on all sides.

Conversational authority.

Direct. Numbers-first. UK English. Confident without hype. Warm but unsentimental. Reads as if Chris is speaking directly to one person over coffee.

Non-negotiables

1. UK English, always. Colour, organise, programme, realise, recognise, per cent.
2. No em dashes. Ever. Replace with a comma and space, a full stop, or a rewrite.
3. No exclamation marks unless directly quoting someone.
4. First person. I, you. Never ‘one should’.
5. Specific numbers beat vague claims. Not ‘many clients’, use ‘47 clients’.
6. No LLM tells. Strip on sight.

Banned phrases

Strip every instance, on sight, no exceptions.

• synergy
• leverage
• paradigm shift
• game-changing
• revolutionary
• world-class
• cutting-edge
• delve
• unpack
• unlock
• seamless
• holistic
• circle back
• bandwidth
• low-hanging fruit
• deep dive
• move the needle
• touch base
• reach out
• align on
• loop in
• empower
• journey
• ecosystem
• curate
• leapfrog
• In today’s fast-paced world
• It’s important to note
• Navigating the landscape of
• Moreover
• Furthermore
• In conclusion
• Tell me which bits sing
• which option fits your appetite
• Speak soon
• Hope this helps
• I trust this finds you well

Signature moves

Use two or three per piece, not all six.

Before & after

Stripped: ‘in today’s’, ‘leveraging’, ‘empower’, ‘unlock’, ‘transformative’, ‘journey’. Added a specific time saving and a flat closer.

Tone register

One signature. Two themes.

Table-based HTML for email-client compatibility. Official CM monogram, dark rounded-square icons, four contact lines, four social icons, and a styled book button. Switch between dark and light variants below, then copy the HTML straight into Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail.

	Chris Matthews Founder  |  Author  |  Speaker
[email protected] chrismatthews.co.uk +44 7356 210420 Book a 15-minute discovery call
Click for My Latest Book  →

How to install: click Copy signature HTML, then in Gmail go to Settings › See all settings › Signature › Create new and paste. Outlook and Apple Mail accept the same paste. Email clients fall back to system fonts when Cabinet Grotesk and Satoshi can't load, this is expected.

Dark, moody, warm gold cast.

Every image evokes quiet confidence and depth, matching the brand’s premium, understated identity. No cool tones, no neon, no corporate blue, no glowing AI brains. Photography is part of the atmosphere, not the focal point.

Treatment

Filter specification

Hero portrait rules

• Chris is not the focal point of any image, the brand is.
• Headshot uses a 6:9 ratio with a gradient mask blending into the dark background.
• Portrait opacity set to 0.65, never dominant or attention-grabbing.
• The portrait sits inside the atmosphere, not on top of it.

Approved subjects

• Highland road into golden fog at dawn
• City skyline with warm light at dusk
• Grand library interior with golden light
• Moody writing desk, open notebook, pen, coffee
• Chess pieces with dramatic lighting on dark wood
• Auditorium with spotlight on lectern
• Suspension bridge at golden sunrise through fog

Icons

Simple single-colour line SVGs on service and philosophy cards: terminal >_, grid, cube, person, lock, graph, search. Minimal, geometric, monochromatic. No gradients, no illustrations, no mascots.

Section images

320px height, full width, gradient fade to background at the bottom edge. Never hard-crop.

Banned

• handshakes
• diverse-colleagues-pointing-at-screen
• bright saturated stock
• skyscrapers-from-below
• abstract blue network diagrams
• glowing AI brains
• HUDs and sci-fi robots
• low-resolution images
• images without the brand filter

One portrait. Four formats.

The current Chris Matthews headshot, ready for every use case. Right-click to save, or use the download button under each version. Same source, four crops: master file, social-ready landscape, social square, and circular head-and-shoulders for podcasts, panels, and bylines.

Master file

Original, uncropped headshot. The source for any new crop, or any full-frame use: website hero, speaker pages, press kit.

• Format JPG
• Size 1497 × 1080
• Ratio 4:3 landscape

Download original

Social post

Pre-cropped to the 1.91:1 ratio used by LinkedIn and Facebook for link previews and feed images. Drop into posts, OG tags, or featured-image slots.

• Format JPG
• Size 1200 × 630
• Ratio 1.91:1 landscape

Download social

Social square

A clean 1:1 square at the LinkedIn and Instagram in-feed standard. Drop into single-image posts, carousels, Instagram grid, or any square slot.

• Format JPG
• Size 1080 × 1080
• Ratio 1:1 square

Download square

Circle · head & shoulders

Tight circular crop on a transparent background. For podcast tiles, panel thumbnails, publication bylines, directory listings, and avatars.

• Format PNG, transparent
• Size 1000 × 1000
• Ratio 1:1 circular

Download circle

Usage notes

• These versions sit outside the moody brand-filter treatment. They are the clean, unfiltered headshot for use where a recognisable likeness matters: podcasts, press, speaker bios, social profiles.
• For hero-area placements on chrismatthews.co.uk, apply the imagery filter (Section 07) before use.
• Circle PNG has a transparent background. Test against both dark (#0a0a0a) and light (#fafaf8) surfaces.
• Do not stretch, recolour, or add filters that change skin tone. Crop and scale only.

Three lanes. Two solutions. One mission.

The services architecture is both a content framework and a sales taxonomy. Across all three lanes, the underlying promise is the same: help owners build something that works without them in every problem.

One mission

Making AI practical for business.

That means strategy before tools, infrastructure you own, and guidance you can trust, so the operations you build today compound into the business you want tomorrow.

Three lanes

Two solutions

Speaking

Formats: keynotes, workshops, SME days, panel moderation, board briefings. The signature talk uses the Niagara Falls analogy to frame AI adoption for non-technical audiences, the mismatch between overwhelming capability and the small, specific thing a business actually needs.

CTA style

CTAs are personality-driven, not generic. A little wit, a clear action, first-person phrasing where appropriate. Never Learn More. Never Click Here.

• Read My Story
• Ignore My Story, Just Find Out How I Can Help
• Book Chris To Speak
• WhatsApp Me
• Meet Me Now

Pricing

Pricing is never listed publicly. Every CTA leads to a conversation.

Three widths. One spacing scale.

Layout decisions are tokenised so every asset, website, PDF, deck, signature, lines up to the same rhythm. Pick a width, then a spacing token, then build.

Content widths

Spacing scale

Border radii

Section structure

Every content section follows the same pattern, top to bottom:

1. Hero image, full-width, 320px height, gradient fade to background at bottom.
2. Section label, JetBrains Mono, XS, uppercase, gold.
3. Section heading, Cabinet Grotesk, 2XL, text colour.
4. Body text, Satoshi, base size, max 72ch measure.
5. Card grid, equal-height, consistent gap, responsive columns.

Grid rules

• Cards use equal-height grids with a consistent gap (token 6, 1.5rem).
• Responsive: 1 column on mobile, 2 on tablet, 3 on desktop.
• Card content alignment: image top, label, title, body, action at bottom.
• No orphan cards. If the last row has fewer items, centre-align or use full width.

Organic. Unhurried. Never flashy.

Motion guides the eye and creates a sense of craft. It is never a spectacle and never demands attention. If an animation is doing the heavy lifting, the design has not done its job.

Animations

Default transition

180ms · cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3, 1) applied to all interactive elements: buttons, links, cards, toggles. Snappy but not instant. Organic but not sluggish.

Reduced motion

All animations are disabled via @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce). This is non-negotiable.

The must-never-break list.

1. UK English always.
2. No em dashes (use comma + space).
3. LinkedIn is active at linkedin.com/in/christheaiguy. Handle @christheaiguy across X, YouTube, LinkedIn.
4. Gold is the only accent colour (#d4c5a0 dark / #8a7d5a light).
5. Dark theme is the default. Light theme for healthcare and wellness sector work. Never mix tokens between themes in the same asset.
6. Chris’s headshot is subtle, never dominant.
7. Title: AI Strategist, Speaker & Author. Every context. No exceptions.
8. No operating-company title on covers, bios, signatures, or proposals.
9. Monogram uses Option B Refined.
10. No exclamation marks unless quoting.
11. A4 portrait is the default for all PDFs.
12. SSAMM Method™ is the framework. Simplify, Systemise, Automate, Monitor, Manage.
13. Signature line: ‘Making AI practical for business.’ The only codified one.