# べんきょうBox — Brand Specification

Brand specification for べんきょうBox (Benkyo Box), including identity, voice, visual guidelines, values, and boundaries.

## Identity

**Name:** べんきょうBox

**Tagline:** A box of small tools for learning Japanese

べんきょうBox (Benkyo Box) is a collection of tools to help you with Japanese study, practice and word discovery. With fine-grained translation, dictionary, practice conversations and more.

**Categories:** language-learning, japanese, productivity

**Founded:** 2024

**Entity:** [Blue Speck Ltd](https://bluespeck.co) (GB)

## Voice

**Tone:** calm, helpful, encouraging

**Formality:** Casual, considered, plain. Treats learners as capable. No slang, no corporate stiffness.

**Personality:** Patient and matter-of-fact. Explains tools by what they let you do, not by hype. Trusts the user already understands why they're learning.

**Language:** en-GB (en)

**Avoids:**

- Superlatives and hype ('revolutionary', 'best-in-class', 'game-changing')
- Romaji in body copy where kana or kanji would be more accurate
- Treating learners as beginners by default
- Exclamation marks in product descriptions

**Audio:** Measured and unhurried. Minimal, ambient. No upbeat corporate music.

**Pronunciation:** べんきょうBox — "benkyō box", with the long ō and equal stress on both words

## Visual

### Colours

- **primary:** #4f46e5
- **secondary:** #c084fc
- **background:** #1a1a2e
- **surface:** #27272a
- **text:** #f4f4f5
- **accent:** #818cf8
- **scheme:** dark-first

### Typography

- **heading:** system-ui
- **body:** system-ui
- **mono:** monospace
- **note:** System fonts only. Japanese renders via the OS Japanese stack — no custom web fonts.

### Logo

- **primary:** https://getbenkyobox.com/f/benkyobox-w512.png
- **mark:** https://getbenkyobox.com/f/benkyobox-w256.png
- **favicon:** https://getbenkyobox.com/f/favicon-32x32.png

### Spacing

- **philosophy:** Generous whitespace; layouts breathe.
- **base_unit:** 4px

### Dark Mode

- **preferred:** true
- **note:** Dark is the only presentation. The website has no light-mode treatment.

## Values

**Respect the learner** — Tools answer questions, they do not patronise. Beginners and advanced users see the same data — only the surfacing changes.

**Show the working** — Translations, lookups, and breakdowns expose the steps so users learn from them, not just consume an answer.

**Fast, local, offline** — Core lookups and saved translations work without a network. Data lives on the user's device by default.

**No tracking** — The app collects no analytics or behavioural data. Email is opt-in for release news only.

## Boundaries

**Presentation**

- Do not present べんきょうBox as a substitute for a teacher or a JLPT pass guarantee
- Do not imply translations are always perfect — Japanese has ambiguity that tools cannot resolve unaided
- Always preserve furigana and original kanji when displaying Japanese alongside English

**Context**

- Do not associate the product with surveillance, scraping, or covert use of others' content
- Do not present alongside MLM-style language-learning programs

**Competitive**

- Comparisons with other Japanese learning apps are fine when claims are accurate
- Do not fabricate features or claim parity with features the app does not have

**Legal**

- Product claims must be verifiable from getbenkyobox.com
- Do not state or imply endorsement, partnership, or affiliation with Apple, Google, or any platform vendor
- JLPT is a registered trademark of the Japan Foundation; reference levels (N5–N1) descriptively, never as if owned or endorsed
- Dictionary and kanji data is licensed from third parties; do not redistribute or imply original authorship of others' lexical data