First Ledger

The First Ledger mark is built from two elemental shapes. A diagonal form represents a pencil — the act of recording. A rounded square represents paper — the surface that holds the record. Combined, they create a single icon that reads as a ledger: a record of transactions.

Two shapes, one idea, no decoration. The mark works at any scale — from a 16px favicon to a billboard — because there's nothing extraneous to lose at small sizes. For a product that spans Telegram chats, a full web trading interface, and compact mobile UIs, that scalability was a hard requirement from day one.

The primary logo pairs the icon with “FIRST LEDGER” in a heavy extended typeface — confident, wide, and engineered to feel fast. The secondary lockup abbreviates to “FL” for compact contexts. Both are specified with clear-space rules measured in multiples of the icon's own width.

The extended letterforms were a deliberate choice to differentiate from the condensed, aggressive type that dominates crypto branding. Width signals confidence and stability — qualities that matter when you're asking people to trade real money through your platform.

Fun — “a lil meme never hurt anyone.” Reliable — “passion and years of experience.” Fast — “we're first for a reason.” The identity threads the needle between trader credibility and community personality.

These pillars directly informed every visual decision. The playful tone kept the brand approachable in a space full of overly serious competitors, while the emphasis on speed and reliability ensured the identity could hold up in professional contexts — exchange listings, partnership materials, and ecosystem reports.

Three weights of an extended grotesque: Heavy Extended for headlines, Medium Extended for subheads, and Roman for body text. The extended widths give the brand a wide, confident stance that reinforces the “fast” positioning.

Because First Ledger emerged from the same ecosystem as xrp.cafe, the brand guidelines include specific co-branding rules — exact spacing relationships for how the two logos sit together. Pre-built co-branding rules mean every collaboration looks intentional rather than improvised.

As the platform grew into partnerships and ecosystem integrations, these guidelines became essential — ensuring the brand appeared consistently across CoinGecko listings, DappRadar profiles, Messari reports, and co-marketing materials with other XRPL projects.