# Visual-System Direction

## Inherit from outside the Field

The outside-the-Field work establishes the strongest current visual foundation:

- deep espresso-black ground;
- warm cream typography;
- Goudy Heavyface for meaningful display moments;
- Avenir for interface clarity;
- sky blue as the primary action and selection color;
- gold for rare attention, value, and consequential moments;
- mint for success, completion, or healthy presence;
- restrained light, orbit, flare, and sparkle;
- high contrast and generous negative space; and
- motion that feels alive without becoming spectacle.

The inside Studio should feel like the same world becoming more capable and precise.

## Reduce the palette

Do not assign a saturated color to every entity type or Realm.

Use:

- **Cream** — content and identity.
- **Sky blue** — active selection, user action, conversational focus.
- **Camel/bronze** — warm structure, neutral Realm surfaces, historical continuity.
- **Gold** — attention, value, governance, deadlines, or an unresolved consequential choice.
- **Mint** — success, connected health, completion.
- **Red** — danger, prohibition, failure.

Additional color may appear in content, media, or a Realm's own identity, but it should not redefine the operating grammar.

## Hierarchy before decoration

At most three things may appear elevated in one frame:

1. the Focus;
2. the current instrument, Element, or Gate; and
3. the input or next action.

Everything else should be quiet, recessed, collapsed, or absent.

## Geometry

- Use circles, ellipses, arcs, proportional rectangles, and clear alignment.
- Organic means ordered as in nature: rhythm, orbit, growth, layering, and proportion.
- Avoid irregular blobs, wavy card silhouettes, gratuitous asymmetry, and unstable outlines.
- Use the strongest shape only for the selected or consequential Element.
- Field geometry may be spatial; working geometry should remain legible and exact.

## Surfaces

- Prefer one uninterrupted dark ground.
- Use borders and surface fills sparingly.
- Avoid permanent left and right sidebars unless a focused activity truly requires them.
- Let Lenses slide or unfold temporarily.
- Let a Stage replace the center rather than compressing it between fixed panels.
- Keep the main input persistent and visually calm.

## Typography

- Use display serif for Realm identity, major transitions, and meaningful outcomes.
- Use sans serif for actions, status, conversation, data, and controls.
- Avoid excessive uppercase labels and microscopic metadata.
- Use words to confirm meaning after shape, placement, and icon have established it.

## Icons

- Use specific icons for specific actions and entity kinds.
- Keep icon styling consistent across Field, conversation, Lens, Stage, Gate, and receipt.
- Do not rely on icon shape alone for authority, privacy, or irreversible consequence.
- Avoid abstract rune systems that require memorization.

## Motion

Motion should communicate:

- arrival;
- attention;
- relationship;
- work in progress;
- transition between scales; and
- completion.

Use slow orbital or breathing motion for ambient life. Use short, exact movement for interaction. Use stillness for authority and decisions.

## Vibe test

The Studio should feel:

- warm, not cozy;
- magical, not whimsical;
- alive, not busy;
- precise, not clinical;
- mysterious, not obscure;
- powerful, not aggressive; and
- human, without turning people into the permanent subject of every screen.
