# Farthingfold brand guidelines

Version 1.0 · 5 November 2026 · Approved launch direction

## 1. The idea

Farthingfold is an independent home for ventures with distinct characters. It provides a shared sense of belonging without making the businesses look or sound alike.

“Farthing” suggests small beginnings and a little British character. “Fold” means a place of gathering and belonging: a welcoming enclosure, with space to join it. It does not mean a folded sheet of paper. This is a broad commercial umbrella, rather than an agency, investment business or personal professional identity.

The brand should feel warm, observant, independent and quietly characterful. Understatement comes from restraint, clear language and generous space. Individuality comes from the mark, the lightly irregular illustrations, contrasting venture imagery and small editorial details.

## 2. Core language

| Role | Approved wording |
| --- | --- |
| Lead line | Different characters. Good company. |
| Illustration caption | A place to belong. |
| Plain descriptor | Different characters. A shared home. |
| Supporting line | Small beginnings. Remarkable possibilities. |
| Invitation | Come and meet the fold |
| Collection introduction | Meet the neighbours |

Use the lead line as a statement, with full stops. Use sentence case in ordinary prose. The lowercase wordmark is a visual treatment; write **Farthingfold** as one word with a capital F in prose. Do not use “Farthing Fold”, “FarthingFold” or “Farthingfold Ltd” without a confirmed reason to change the naming convention or legal description.

## 3. Brand architecture

Farthingfold is the shared home; the ventures remain recognisably themselves. Each may have its own wordmark, colours, typography, imagery, tone, website and product experience. A quiet endorsement such as “Part of the Farthingfold family” may connect a venture to the umbrella where the relationship has been confirmed.

The launch collection features Ridelark, ScoutDM and Shutter & Stove. Krites is shown as joining the fold under its existing name. Possible Krites renames are exploratory work, not part of this identity standard. Do not publish a replacement name until it is selected and checked.

PHP Boy Scout remains a separate professional identity. Shared authorship does not make unrelated software, projects, names or intellectual property Farthingfold assets. Brand presentation does not by itself establish legal ownership.

## 4. The mark

The primary mark contains three unlike shapes within an open, slightly irregular enclosure. The arch, star and circle represent difference and gathering; they are not a permanent count of ventures. Keep the mark unchanged when a new venture joins. Larger illustrations may introduce additional characters.

Use the supplied SVG master. The approved primary mark is `assets/mark.svg`; its SHA-256 is `5766344d0ea8ad957b99068be915b9fa2abf56422b7ee6cda0caea12fc567e4c`.

### Variants

- **Colour:** primary choice on parchment or another clear, light background.
- **Light:** use on damson or a similarly dark, plain background.
- **Single colour:** use when colour is unavailable or the reproduction method requires it.
- **Horizontal lockup:** mark beside the lowercase wordmark, for introductions, headers and correspondence.

### Space and size

Let **x** equal one quarter of the mark's overall width. Keep at least x clear on every side. The horizontal lockup needs the same clearance, measured from its mark. Keep clear space free of type, rules and other logos.

The mark's normal minimum digital width is 24 px; the favicon is a controlled 16 px exception. The horizontal lockup should be at least 160 px wide. For print, start at 8 mm for the mark and 40 mm for the lockup, and inspect a proof at the intended size.

Do not stretch, crop, redraw, outline, recolour or close the mark's entrance. Do not place it directly over a busy photograph. Do not add a shadow, gradient, border or enclosing badge to the logo itself. Keep the individual shapes in their supplied positions.

## 5. Wordmark and typography

The wordmark is lowercase: bold **farthing** followed by italic, regular-weight **fold**, using Georgia. The contrast gives the name character without ornamental lettering.

Georgia is the display face for headlines, editorial captions and the wordmark. A system sans-serif stack (`Segoe UI`, Arial, sans-serif) handles body text, navigation and labels. The website makes no external font requests. System fallbacks can vary slightly between devices. SVG lockups retain editable text; when making press-ready artwork, use Georgia or convert the lettering to outlines in a licensed design environment.

| Use | Digital guidance |
| --- | --- |
| Hero headline | Approximately 48–94 px, responsive; line height 1.02 |
| Section headline | Approximately 39–57 px; line height 1.1 |
| Card headline | Approximately 27–32 px; line height 1.2 |
| Body | 14–16 px; line height 1.7–1.85 |
| Navigation and small labels | Usually 11–13 px; never use small text for essential explanatory copy |
| Illustration caption | 27–32 px Georgia, dark damson |

Use restrained negative tracking for large Georgia headings, around −0.035 to −0.055 em. Body text uses normal tracking. Uppercase belongs to short eyebrows and index labels, with modest letter spacing; not paragraphs or long titles. Use italic display type selectively, often for one phrase in a heading.

## 6. Colour

| Name | Hex | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parchment | `#F6F0E4` | Main canvas and reversed text |
| Damson | `#392B36` | Primary ink, dark sections and key controls |
| Quiet ink | `#70636A` | Secondary copy on parchment |
| Clay | `#D96543` | Character illustration and small accents |
| Lilac | `#B7A4C9` | Character illustration |
| Blue | `#88AEB6` | Character illustration |
| Gold | `#E8C85D` | Character illustration and a selective highlight |
| Rust ink | `#A84F37` | Coloured hero text on parchment |
| Rule | `#CFC4B7` | Subtle dividers, not essential text |

Parchment and damson should do most of the work. The accent colours distinguish characters; they are not a requirement to recolour a venture's own identity. The small logo uses its supplied darker lilac and blue for definition. Do not replace those with the large-illustration values.

Use damson text on parchment, lilac, blue and gold. Clay is an illustration accent; do not use it behind normal-sized damson text. Quiet ink and rust ink are supported secondary text colours on parchment. Use parchment text on damson. Do not use gold, lilac or blue as small text on parchment. Accent marks and decorative boundaries do not carry information by colour alone. Recheck contrast when introducing a new background, opacity or photograph.

RGB/hex values are the digital masters. Obtain a colour-managed print proof before choosing CMYK or spot-colour equivalents; no untested print conversion is defined here.

## 7. Illustration

The hero is an informal gathering of four differently shaped characters. Its enclosure is a gently uneven open loop with a fine companion line. Slight differences in scale, angle and spacing make it feel gathered rather than arranged on a rigid grid. A short winding dotted path suggests the entrance.

Preserve the middle ground: characterful, but deliberate. Do not replace the enclosure with a perfect circle or arrange the characters in a symmetrical four-square formation. Do not add stray pen marks, unexplained stars, scratches or flourishes. A very light hatch may add texture to a shape; the silhouette and internal symbol must stay clear.

The caption is **“A place to belong.”** Set it as readable HTML beneath the illustration, in dark Georgia type. Do not angle it against the boundary, embed it into the artwork or use “room for more” as a loose annotation. Avoid continuous animation. Small hover changes must respect reduced-motion settings.

The larger illustration is available as `brand/illustration.svg`. It complements the logo; it does not replace it.

## 8. Venture imagery

Use each venture's own marketing photography, illustration and product branding. The launch site uses Ridelark's sunset-road scene and motorcycle logo, ScoutDM's moonlit landscape and star identity, Shutter & Stove's campervan scene, and Krites's existing aperture-and-laurel mark.

Keep each scene's focal point visible at desktop and mobile crops. Add a restrained dark overlay where a wordmark needs separation, rather than changing the source image's colour identity. Preserve aspect ratios and avoid placing a label over a face or another meaningful subject. Decorative images may have empty alternative text when the enclosing link and adjacent heading already identify the destination.

Use imagery with a clear right to publish. Do not substitute private customer photographs, fabricate screenshots or imply that a mockup is a shipped feature. Keep source provenance in `docs/asset-sources.md`. Do not include venture assets in the general Farthingfold brand-kit download.

## 9. Layout and motion

The approved site has generous margins, fine rules, a mixed serif/sans hierarchy and a two-column venture collection. The second column begins 32 px lower on desktop. This stagger is intentional and approved: preserve it. At small widths, use a single column with no stagger.

Card structure is consistent even when imagery differs. Use the image area for the venture's identity, then a category and status, a short headline, a plain description and an explicit destination link. Do not make unreleased features look available. Krites's “Joining the fold” label describes the proposed relationship, not a release status.

Hover effects are small: a card may rise by up to 4 px and imagery may scale to 1.035. Avoid bounce, parallax, automatic carousels and perpetual floating shapes. Keyboard focus must be plainly visible. Keep links usable by touch and honour `prefers-reduced-motion`.

## 10. Voice

Write as a thoughtful host introducing interesting neighbours. Be friendly, specific and lightly wry. A little British character should come from phrasing and confidence, not faux-Victorian language, crests or exaggerated nostalgia.

- Prefer “A motorcycle navigation app” to an abstract claim about transforming journeys.
- Prefer “Meet the neighbours” to corporate portfolio language.
- Describe what a venture does before making a playful observation about it.
- Keep launch stages honest. Do not invent customer numbers, awards, testimonials, ownership arrangements or release dates.
- Avoid agency sales copy, investment language, tax or administrative background, and repeated exclamation marks.

## 11. Digital accessibility

Use semantic page landmarks and one h1 per page. Ensure all controls work with a keyboard, label link destinations clearly, include a skip link and support reduced motion. Essential wording must be ordinary readable text rather than tiny text inside an SVG. Do not hide horizontal overflow to conceal a layout problem.

When adding a page or changing a major component, check at 320, 390, 768 and 1440 px. Inspect actual image loading and focal points, not only empty layout boxes. Verify that no important text is obscured at increased text size.

## 12. Files and stewardship

The public brand page is `brand.html`. The downloadable kit contains these guidelines, the supplied mark variants, horizontal lockups, the hero illustration, a colour palette, CSS tokens and the social card. It excludes exploratory naming work and venture artwork.

Treat this document and the supplied assets as the version 1.0 baseline. Changes to the logo, core language, palette or meaning of the name require an explicit brand decision. Ordinary site updates should build on the approved direction. Keep the repository, guide and asset kit in agreement when an intentional change is made.