Brand configuration
Each institution gets its own look. Branding is a per-tenant configuration that drives both the student app and the staff console so they read as the university's own. The visual essentials (accent colour, logo and browser-tab icon) are self-serve, either in the setup wizard when you first come on board or any time after at Settings → Brand identity; the rest (fonts, crisis copy, sign-in) is set with us at onboarding.
What a brand carries
The brand configuration covers:
- Identity: the institution name and a short mark.
- Logos: a primary (light-mode) logo, with an optional dark-mode variant; when the dark variant is omitted, the primary is reused.
- Colours: a single accent colour plus an accent text colour. The UI brightens the accent automatically for dark mode, so one colour re-themes cleanly in both.
- Type: the body font.
- Favicons: light and dark browser-tab icons, self-serve since August 2026. Browsers that support media-aware favicons pick automatically; others fall back to the primary. A dark icon can only be set alongside a primary one, because on its own it would leave light-mode browsers showing the First Six icon.
- Sign-in: how people authenticate (see below).
- Crisis overrides: institution-specific crisis copy, resources, and additional trigger phrases (additive to the safe default. See the note). The extra trigger phrases are self-serve for admins at Settings, Integrations, Crisis distress signals; the crisis copy and resources are still set with us at onboarding.
- Events link: an optional "browse all events" URL for when the in-app list is empty.
Sign-in configuration
The auth portion declares how the tenant signs in:
- Mode: SSO (sign-in is SSO-only platform-wide; the email box on the login page is home-realm discovery that routes to the right IdP, not a credential).
- The connection details live in the SSO configuration (issuer, client id, discovery URL, scopes). See the OIDC flow.
A tenant can customise crisis copy and resources and add its own trigger phrases, but the built-in safety floor of crisis signals can't be removed. Overrides extend detection; they never weaken it. The institution-facing context is in breach and incident response.
How it's set
Brand configuration is applied during onboarding and managed by First Six. In the console it appears read-only (for example on the Settings screen) so staff can see the identity without accidentally changing it. To change branding, raise it through onboarding or support.
Branding vs. domains
Branding is what it looks like; a custom subdomain is where it lives. They're independent. A tenant is fully branded on the shared host before any custom domain exists. See custom subdomains.
Common questions
Can we manage our own brand in a dashboard?
Mostly. Your accent colour, your logo and your browser-tab icon are self-serve at Settings → Brand identity, with a live light and dark preview, and saving re-themes both apps with no redeploy. The same three are offered in the setup wizard when you first come on board. Your extra crisis trigger phrases are also self-serve, at Settings → Integrations → Crisis distress signals. The rest (fonts, crisis copy and resources, sign-in) is still set with us at onboarding so the result stays consistent and accessible. Send those updates through onboarding or support.
Does dark mode need separate assets?
Optionally. A dark logo and a dark tab icon are supported; if you don't supply them, the light versions are reused, which is fine for marks that read on both backgrounds. Worth knowing for the tab icon specifically: it is drawn at about 16 pixels, so a logo with words in it is unreadable there. Upload your symbol on its own, square, 64 by 64 or larger. The editor previews it at real tab size so you can see this before you save.
Where does the crisis copy come from?
The safe default, plus any tenant overrides. Overrides can add resources and phrases but can't remove the default safety floor. Extra trigger phrases are self-serve for admins (Settings → Integrations → Crisis distress signals); the crisis copy and resources are set with us at onboarding.
Related
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