A consistent and polished visual identity is essential for building trust and reinforcing professionalism in client communications. Brand Themes, located under the Authoring Center, provide investment and wealth management firms with the ability to centrally manage their visual standards across all reporting and presentation outputs. Brand Themes ensure that every client-facing document—whether it is a PDF report or a PowerPoint deck—conforms to your firm’s branding guidelines for color, typography, and layout.
This article explains what Brand Themes are, how they work, and how to set them up and apply them within Assette.
What Are Brand Themes? #
Brand Themes in Assette are centralized style templates that control the visual formatting of content. They include settings for:
- Color palettes (primary, secondary, and accent colors)
- Font families and sizes
- Slide backgrounds and layouts
- Table and chart styles
- Logo placement and positioning
These settings are applied consistently across all content types—eliminating the need to manually format individual reports or slides and reducing the risk of inconsistency.
Why Brand Themes Matter #
A well-defined Brand Theme supports:
- Brand consistency across hundreds or thousands of reports
- Efficiency by reducing time spent on formatting
- Professionalism through polished, cohesive visuals
- Compliance with internal or regulatory presentation standards
By embedding these standards into templates, Assette ensures that all outputs meet your firm’s design expectations—regardless of who is building the content.
Key Capabilities of Brand Themes #
1. Centralized Visual Settings #
Brand Themes act as a single source of truth for all styling parameters. Updates to a theme are immediately reflected in all content that uses it, ensuring easy maintenance and global visual updates.
2. PowerPoint Integration #
Brand Themes are created using PowerPoint’s Slide Master View, enabling full control over layout, logo positioning, header/footer styling, and slide backgrounds. This is particularly important for firms that deliver client content as branded presentations.
3. Automated Style Application #
Once a Brand Theme is defined and assigned to a content template (e.g., a client report or pitchbook), all visual elements—charts, tables, text, and slides—automatically inherit the defined styles without manual adjustments.
4. Color and Font Management #
Themes support defining:
- Primary and secondary color palettes
- Font families and sizes for headings, body text, and labels
- Accent colors for data visualization consistency
5. Reusable Across Templates #
A single Brand Theme can be reused across multiple templates and content types, promoting scale and uniformity.
How to Create a Brand Theme #
To create a new Brand Theme in Assette:
- Navigate to the Authoring Center in the top navigation menu.
- Select Brand Themes from the dropdown list.
- Click on “Create New” to open the theme creation wizard.
- Upload or configure your PowerPoint template using Slide Master View. This sets your master styles for slides and layouts.
- Define brand-specific settings, including:
- Primary and secondary color palettes
- Font styles (family, weight, size)
- Table and chart formatting rules
- Default logo placement
Once created, the Brand Theme can be applied to content templates to enforce branding automatically.
How to Apply Brand Themes #
To use a Brand Theme in your content:
- Go to the Content Template (e.g., report or presentation) you are building.
- In the template settings, select the desired Brand Theme from the list.
- All visual elements will immediately align with the selected theme.
- Preview and export your content to validate consistency before final delivery.
Best Practices #
- Maintain a small set of approved Brand Themes for different business lines or client segments.
- Coordinate with your branding or marketing team to ensure the latest style guidelines are reflected.
- Use descriptive names for each theme to avoid confusion during template creation.
- Regularly review themes to reflect brand refreshes or new visual standards.
Assette Brand Themes are essential tools for ensuring visual consistency and professionalism in client-facing content. By centralizing control over styling elements such as colors, fonts, and layouts, Brand Themes reduce the burden on individual users and ensure that every report or presentation reflects your firm’s identity accurately and reliably.
Whether you’re producing a single client update or managing thousands of automated reports, Brand Themes offer a scalable and compliant approach to brand-aligned communication.