# Five hundred elements instead of intuition > Colours, typefaces, shapes, values, feelings, tones, compositions and graphic styles mapped to twelve archetypes, so a brand decision can be checked. Source: https://naasson.com/en/blog/five-hundred-elements-instead-of-intuition/ Published: 2026-04-07 Language: en Direction: Archetypes Digital (https://naasson.com/en/archetypes-digital/) Publisher: Naasson — https://naasson.com --- The database consists of curated branding elements mapped to twelve archetypes: colours, typefaces, shapes, brand values, attributes, feelings, tones of voice, clothing styles, compositions and graphic styles. The point is not to cancel the designer's taste. The point is to make the decision checkable. ## Why map anything to archetypes Because otherwise the last step of a strategy stays unjustified. Say the archetype was chosen through a verifiable procedure: the hardest objection, situations, scoring against real quotes, checking the pair for consistency by stage. Next you have to choose colours, and "I feel this one would work" comes back. A mapped set lets you point to a specific entry instead of a general argument about which colours are "energetic". ## What a link between an element and an archetype is Not a law of physics. A statement about how the element reads in a cultural context, recorded explicitly so it can be argued with. This needs saying, because databases like this are easily read as a lookup table. A colour's correspondence to an archetype is not a measured quantity but a reasoned position, and the database shows for which archetypes the link is full and for which it is partial. Some elements are linked to all twelve archetypes, some to several, some to one or two. The difference is kept on purpose: filling the gaps for the sake of symmetry would mean inventing links where there are none. ## Coverage differs by category And that is stated too. Some categories are almost complete, some are partly filled, some are sparse. The temptation to hide the unevenness is understandable: a database with visible gaps looks less solid. We prefer the unevenness, because a user who treats a sparse category as complete will draw a conclusion the data does not support. ## How it is used Each subsequent decision rests on specific elements in the database, not on reasoning. Once the archetype pair is chosen, you look at which colours, shapes, tones and compositions are linked to exactly that pair. You get not one correct answer but a bounded field, inside which the designer's taste works freely. The difference between "the field was narrowed on stated grounds" and "the choice was made by feel" is the ability to explain the decision to the client and to revisit it a year later. ## What the database does not do It does not generate a brand book. It does not replace the designer. It does not guarantee the result will work in the market. It provides an evidence base for the conversation and, more importantly, records what each decision was based on. A year later, that is the only thing that separates a deliberate choice from an accidental one. ## Why it is open and free The project exists because brand decisions are usually made by feel and then cannot be explained. A closed database would solve the same problem for those who paid. An open one changes the practice: the method and the data can be checked, challenged and applied without asking permission.