Brand Centre
Theme inheritance
How the theme you set in Brand Centre propagates across every public surface — and how to override it where you need to.
The Brand Centre default theme is the company-wide fallback. It applies to every public surface unless something more specific overrides it. Where that override gets applied — at the template, the running playbook, the session template, or the live session — determines who sees it and for how long.
This page is the practical Brand Centre view of the priority chain. The full mechanics, with worked examples and a debugging recipe for "why are these colours wrong?", live in Theme priority chain.
The chain, end to end
highest priority] ST[2. Session Template theme] PT[3. Playbook Template theme] PB[4. Playbook theme] CD[5. Company default
set in Brand Centre] S --> ST ST --> PT PT --> PB PB --> CD
Top is highest priority. Gleo walks the chain top-down and uses the first explicit theme it finds. Absence at one level falls through to the next. Eventually it hits the Company default — the one you set in Brand Centre — which is the catch-all.
Where each level lives
| # | Level | Set in | Brand Centre's role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Session theme | The Session, in the planner | None — overrides the chain entirely. |
| 2 | Session Template theme | The Session Template, in Studio | Brand Centre defines the theme; the template picks it. |
| 3 | Playbook Template theme | The Playbook Template, in Studio | Brand Centre defines the theme; the template picks it. |
| 4 | Playbook theme | The Playbook, on the running instance | Brand Centre defines the theme; the playbook picks it. |
| 5 | Company default | Brand Centre | Brand Centre owns this level entirely. |
Brand Centre is the library of themes. The other four levels just pick from that library. Whichever level is closest to the rendered surface wins.
Picking the right level for an override
Most of the time, you won't need an override — the company default does the job. When you do, the question is which level to set the override at:
Playbook Template theme
Use when the entire template should always render in a specific brand — e.g. a Marketplace template branded to its publisher, or a partner playbook that ships with its own colours.
Playbook theme
Use for an engagement-specific theme — a customer-co-branded instance of a generic template. Set once at the playbook level; every session inside that playbook inherits.
Session Template theme
Use when one specific session type needs a particular brand within an otherwise default-themed template — e.g. a partner-branded workshop in a wider engagement.
Session theme
Use sparingly. A one-off override for a single live session. Useful for an unscheduled co-branded session that doesn't fit any other rule.
The principle: set the override at the highest level (the broadest scope) that captures all the surfaces you want it to apply to. A playbook-level override is one decision that brands every session inside it; setting the same override per session is four or five decisions that all do the same thing.
A worked example
Picture a consultancy with one customer engagement they want to co-brand:
- Brand Centre holds two themes:
- Acme Consulting — the default. Acme's brand colours, logo, fonts.
- Northwind co-brand — a custom theme combining Northwind's primary colour and logo with Acme's typography.
- The consultancy's Strategic Planning Playbook Template carries no theme override → resolves to the Company default (Acme Consulting).
- They instantiate it as a Northwind Q3 Strategy Playbook and explicitly set the playbook theme to Northwind co-brand.
- The first three sessions in the playbook inherit Northwind co-brand automatically.
- The fourth session is a one-off internal review for the Acme team only — they set a Session-level override back to Acme Consulting.
Result: the public prep pages for sessions 1–3 render in Northwind colours; session 4 renders in Acme's. Other playbooks in the workspace continue to use Acme Consulting (the default).
Debugging "wrong colours"
If a public surface renders in a theme you didn't expect, walk the chain top-down:
- Does the Session carry an explicit theme? → that's it.
- Does its Session Template carry one? → that's it.
- Does its Playbook Template carry one? → that's it.
- Does its Playbook carry one? → that's it.
- Otherwise → it's the Company default in Brand Centre.
The first level with an explicit theme wins. If something looks wrong, that's where to look.
The longer-form recipe (with screenshots and the "unexpected default" edge case) is in the Theme priority chain reference.
Tips & pitfalls
Override at the highest scope that fits. Setting a theme on a playbook is one decision that brands every session inside it. Setting the same theme per session is the same decision four or five times — and a maintenance trap when a new session is added.
Brand Centre defines, the priority chain selects. Brand Centre never directly applies a theme to a surface — it just makes themes available. The chain decides which one is used at render time.
If overrides start sprawling, that's your signal. A workspace with overrides at every session and playbook is usually a workspace where the company default isn't quite right. Fix the default; the overrides become unnecessary.