References

Official, current material from OTTO (the retailer) and the Otto Group (the holding), collected 28.09.2026 to produce OTTO-style and Otto Group style apps, pages and PDFs. Every file carries its source URL and date in the README of its folder. Re-runnable scripts: scripts/references/.

Key findings

1. Two brands, two systems. OTTO (otto.de) = OTTO Sans / OTTO Sans KO Black, OTTO red #EB001F, du-voice, bold italic wordmark; this repository's design system is OTTO's. Otto Group (ottogroup.com) = Optimist (Newglyph), red #F00020, pastel panels, outline + solid headlines, lowercase „otto group" wordmark, wir/third-person voice.
2. Use OTTO style for anything a customer, seller or OTTO employee sees from OTTO; use Otto Group style only for group-level reports, finance, strategy and group HR. Never mix the two wordmarks as senders.
3. Current report: Otto Group Annual Report 2025/26 „Our future: powered by people and tech" (28.05.2026): revenue EUR 13.8 bn, EBIT EUR 641 m, 34,831 employees; About You sold; OTTO revenue about EUR 4.8 bn (+8 %), GMV about EUR 7.5 bn, 12.6 m active customers.
4. OTTO has a public Brand Hub (brandhub.otto.de) with the binding logo, colour and typography rules; captured in brandhub/. Key rules: logo only red or white (never black), red ≤ 30 % of an area, headlines only red on light or white on dark, never all caps, OTTO Play only for campaign headlines.
5. PDF recipes with concrete sizes, grid and colours for both brands: pdf-style.md.

Everything in this section

• OTTO Brand HubOTTO's public brand portal: logo, colour and type rules as binding source.
• PhotographyOfficial OTTO and Otto Group photographs as the reference for light, colour and framing.
• LogosOfficial OTTO and Otto Group logo files, unchanged, with the rules for each ground.
• OTTO or Otto Group?Which brand speaks when: the shop OTTO or the holding Otto Group.
• PDF stylePage sizes, grids, type and colours of real OTTO and Otto Group PDFs.
• Annual reports and PDFsThe current annual report and other official PDFs of both brands.
• Tone of voiceHow OTTO and the Otto Group write, from their own published texts.
• Websitesotto.de and ottogroup.com captured as full-page screenshots.

Related: the design-system logos, the OTTO typefaces and the rules for functional communication.

Gaps

• Optimist (Otto Group typeface) is licensed and not in the repository; Otto Group style PDFs need a licence or a declared fallback.
• The Brand Hub logo packages („mit/ohne Schutzraum") require accepting OTTO's partner usage terms; not accepted, not stored.
• No OTTO annual report, no current OTTO factsheet after 2023/24, no OTTO sustainability report, no OTTO or Otto Group brand manual PDF, and no investor presentation slides are public. The Otto Group corporate design manual (Strichpunkt, 2022) is not published.
• Brand Hub pages behind login (templates, imagery rules, contacts) and the colour overview swatches (images) are not captured.
• otto.de/unternehmen desktop screenshot is at 1280 px with some scroll-animated photos blank; the shop start page is personalised.
• OTTO social media profiles were not captured.