Future Tropical — Brand Book

FUTURE TROPICAL

Brand Book

Sam Feldt's imprint for warm-weather house — a curated sister brand under Heartfeldt Records.

The story

The controlling idea

Press play on endless summer.

Everything here runs on one throughline: the listener is the hero, Future Tropical is the guide.

"The summer feeling always fades. Future Tropical brings it straight back — press play, and it's golden hour again." The guide earns trust through empathy + competency, and every line stays clear because if you confuse, you lose.

The story, in seven beats

Character

A listener chasing the golden-hour feeling on a grey Tuesday.

Problem

Playlists are cheesy or cold; the summer's slipping; joy feels like a guilty pleasure.

Guide

FT gets it — "we take fun seriously" — plus Sam Feldt / Heartfeldt competency.

Plan

Press play → follow the imprint → feel the endless summer.

Call to action

Direct: "hear it first." Transitional: "get the summer drop."

Avoid failure

Another grey week, the same tired queue, summer happening to other people.

Success

Golden hour on demand. Light, warm, alive — fun without the cheese.

One script, every surface leads with a different beat — homepage: want + success · cover: success + title · flyer: plan + CTA · Canvas: success, no text. Full sourced deep-dive: the messaging research →

A Heartfeldt imprint

Why a sub-imprint

Heartfeldt is the broad umbrella — label, publishing, radio, events, foundation. Future Tropical is one focused room inside it, running on the parent's infrastructure and wearing the Heartfeldt lockup + Sun Yellow pill as its endorsement.

How it differs

Heartfeldt is broad and yellow; FT is narrow and strict — progressive tropical house only, with its own fire/night/cream release palette, all-Unbounded type, and one idea: press play on endless summer.

The subset rule. Everything Future Tropical is, is also Heartfeldt — but not everything Heartfeldt releases is Future Tropical. Heartfeldt freely puts out tracks that don't meet FT's strict brand + genre rules; those release on Heartfeldt or another imprint, never under the FT badge.

The 10-point test — all must pass

✓Tempo ~120–130 BPM, tropical/progressive pocket.

✓Warm, organic textures — not cold saw-lead EDM.

✓Feel-good, major-key arc — never dark or aggressive.

✓Daytime / golden-hour energy — not warehouse peak-time.

✓Festival hook that stays breezy — no novelty or air-horn clichés.

✓Vocal-forward / strong topline — song-first, human, warm.

✓Radio- & playlist-ready — premium, clean; a ≤ ~3:30 edit exists.

✓Sam Feldt's curatorial co-sign — his release or an artist he's A&R'd in.

✓Meets the FT visual convention — lockup + pill, golden-hour grade, Unbounded title.

✓Ladders to the controlling idea — one line on how it presses play on endless summer.

Fewer than 10 checked? It's a Heartfeldt release, not a Future Tropical one.

Heartfeldt × Future Tropical

A natural sister brand, built the way Heartfeldt builds its Foundation pillar: it inherits the whole backbone and flexes only its accent world.

The parent · umbrella

The whole house — label, publishing, radio, events, foundation. Broad feel-good dance, one signature yellow, the Monument wordmark.

Records · Publishing · Radio · Events · Foundation

The imprint · one genre

FUTURE TROPICAL

One room, done strictly — progressive tropical house only, its own fire/night/cream palette, all-Unbounded type, one idea.

Curated · Strict · Single-minded

Shared DNA — inherited

Real Heartfeldt logo assets · signature yellow #F6E911 · rounded-terminal radii · fast no-bounce motion · warm feel-good voice · full-bleed sunny imagery · pill + 24px card shapes.

FT's only flex

The fire/night/cream release palette, and the "endless summer" idea. Nothing else diverges — exactly like Foundation flexes only teal.

The leader · release 001

Sam Feldt goes first.

As founder he's the guide behind the whole Heartfeldt house; as an artist he's the flagship hero launching Future Tropical. "Need That Love" is release 001, the proof-of-sound. Every artist signed after him must clear the same ten checkboxes.

The sound, in one breath

Avicii- and Calvin Harris-esque progressive tropical house — great buildups, euphoric hands-up moments, a signature drop. Plays in any club and stands alone on radio. Stripped to the essentials, mixed clean, zero fluff. Never EDM, never heavy, club-friendly without going too hard.

First release

Sam Feldt · out now

Need That Love

Release 001 — sets the real cover-art convention: Heartfeldt lockup + Sun Yellow pill, golden-hour grade, Unbounded title.

Foundations

Colour, type and space that render the success beat — golden-hour warmth you feel before a word is read.

Colours — Primary open ⤢

Colours — Neutrals open ⤢

Signature Gradient open ⤢

Type — Display open ⤢

Type — Release Title open ⤢

Type — Body open ⤢

Type — Scale open ⤢

Spacing — Scale open ⤢

Spacing — In Use open ⤢

Brand

The guide's identity — borrowed Heartfeldt authority plus FT's own warm, credible voice.

Brand Architecture — The Imprint open ⤢

Voice & Messaging open ⤢

First Release — Need That Love open ⤢

Artist Brand Foundations open ⤢

Mark & Wordmark open ⤢

Heartfeldt Lockup + Pill open ⤢

Shape & Motion open ⤢

Motion — Canvas Loop open ⤢

Components

The interaction layer of the script — every button is a call to action, every confirmation a success payoff.

Core open ⤢

Forms open ⤢

Navigation open ⤢

Feedback open ⤢

UI kit & templates

The script, shipped — each surface leads with a different beat so nothing repeats.

Website UI Kit open ⤢

Release Cover open ⤢

Event Flyer open ⤢

Release Canvas (Vertical) open ⤢

The system, on disk

Everything above lives as real files. Tokens are the single source of truth — retheme by swapping tokens, never component code.

Tokens

styles.css — entry point
tokens/ — fonts · colors · typography · spacing · effects · base

Assets

assets/logos/ — mark, lockup cut, cream variants
assets/imagery/ · assets/video/ · assets/lyrics/

Guidelines

guidelines/colors/ · type/ · spacing/
guidelines/brand/ — architecture, artist brand, mark, lockup + pill, voice, shape & motion

Build with

components/ — core · forms · navigation · feedback
ui_kits/website/ · templates/ · strategy/ · SKILL.md

Grounded in an established customer-as-hero messaging framework, adapted for Future Tropical.

Messaging research → Written guide →