Seeds of Renaissance · Brand and design system

Grounded hope, set in ink and paper

How the Seeds of Renaissance looks and why: the feel, the rules, the colours, faces, graphics and components, with the code to build pages from them.

Version: 0.1 · 5 October 2026
Source: The home and manifesto mockups (v7) and the four-page mockup (v2)
Status: Colour, type, graphics and components set. Logo, photography and slides still open.
Home: Published at sor-design-system-rufuspollock.flowershow.me. This page is a snapshot.
Images: All photographs are mood board placeholders, not cleared for public use.

Chapter 1

The feel

Every colour, face and layout decision is judged against one phrase.

Grounded hope.

Supporting note

Deep sourcing

Supporting note

Crafted rigour

Supporting note

Liminal integration

Wellness or new ageLuxury, glossyCorporateHard sellingSleek and contemporaryChaotic artist siteLooking backwards

The feel, registers and eight principles: feel.md · How we sound: voice.md

Chapter 2

Colour

Four grounds, three inks and one accent. Colour comes from photographs.

White--white

Default ground

Paper--paper

Off-white ground, sometimes

Sunlight--sunlight

Pale yellow ground, at times

Night--night

One section and the footer

Ink--ink

Text and every button

Muted--muted

Captions and labels

Chalk--chalk

Text on night

Logo red--red

Occasional link, red woodcuts

White

Paper

Sun

Night

Roles, proportion, do and don't: colour.md · Values: system/tokens.css

Chapter 3

Type

Four faces. Length decides: Polyamine while it's short, Restora when it runs long.

Display · Polyamine

Seeds of a Renaissance

Quote · Restora

We are the bridge between the dying past and the future unborn.

Body · Bricolage Grotesque

Something is ending, and you feel it before you can name it. What is breaking down is not only the economy or the climate but the story beneath them.

Label · Apfel Grotezk

Gathering · Thursday 15 October · Fig. 3

Poem · Restora italic

Life as an art. In this soil we plant the seeds of a Renaissance.

Scale

--t-hero

Connection Call

--t-title

The Manifesto

--t-section

Mythos

--t-card

Community gardens

--t-quote

We are seed-bearers.

--t-lead

Within that breakdown something is trying to be born.

--t-reading

Long-form text in articles and the manifesto, at 680px measure.

--t-body

Default text, card descriptions, forms.

--t-caption

Fig. 1Carrying stones by the lake.

--t-label

What we believe

Roles, the length rule, licences: type.md

Chapter 4

Grounds and rhythm

A page is a stack of grounds, often joined by torn edges.

Header · paper

Hero photograph

Statement · white

Pathways · paper

Selected work · night

Printed object · sun

Calendar · white

Interlude · sun

Engage · white

Footer · night

The home page, top to bottom.

Rules for grounds, torn edges, grid and spacing: layout.md

Chapter 5

Woodcut graphics

Printmade marks in ink or chalk, and a red set.

The swallow

Plate 1 · single · #wsw

Plate 2 · flock, over a hero · .flock

Plate 3 · seal, to close a page · #seal

Seeds

Sunflower · Gather

Wheat · Practise

Bean · Belong

Maple key · Seed

Acorn

Pumpkin

Stone

Dandelion

Clusters

Spiral · behind a page title

Scatter · above an interlude

Sown row · a divider · .seed-row

All twenty woodcuts on any ground · How to use them: graphics.md

Chapter 6

Photography

Real people outdoors beside engraving and printmaking. All photos here are placeholders.

Two women carrying stones by a lake — Fig. 1People, outdoors, carrying something together.

Friends laughing at a long table in a garden — Fig. 2Joy that isn't staged.

Doré's engraving of the celestial rose — Fig. 3Engraving: depth and myth.

Snow peak under star trails — Fig. 4Night and weight, for the dark section.

What to choose and avoid: photography.md

Chapter 7

Logo

Provisional: on a white disc or tile, so it sits on any ground.

White disc

White tile

Disc on night

Disc on sunlight

Placement and open issues: logo.md

Chapter 8

Components

Each one is the real component, rendered live. Class names are in the caption; HTML to copy is in components.md.

Buttons, links and fields.btn .btn--solid .text-link .link .field

Save a place How to join RegisterRead the manifesto

Listen now All episodes

Site header.site-header with .wordmark; centred variant .site-header--centred over a full-bleed hero

Hero, photograph.hero-photo: one statement over a full-bleed image, a flock, a torn white edge into the page

Two women carrying stones beside a lake and a small wooden bridge

Gathering · Thursday 15 October

The Global Connection Call

An hour together, online, for those who sense the old world is ending and want to help seed the new.

Save a place

Hero, split.hero-split with a laid-down .print; the alternative when there is no strong landscape photograph

Gathering · Thursday 15 October

The Global Connection Call

An hour together, online, for those who sense the old world is ending.

Save a place

Friends laughing around a long table in a garden — Fig. 1A shared meal in the garden, after a gathering.

Statement.statement: a light lead paragraph, one sentence in the poetic voice (.poem-strong), a red link, a sown row, and a plate

What we believe

Something is ending, and you feel it before you can name it. Within that breakdown something is trying to be born. We are a movement of people making sense of this moment and practising what comes next, together. Read the manifesto

Pathways.pathways / .pathway: four ways in, each with its seed

Take part

Collage of people walking toward a yellow field

Gather

Connection calls

Monthly, online, open to all.

Calligraphy scrolls hanging in a stone attic

Practise

Courses

Small groups, practices for daily life.

Belong

Community gardens

Conversation between the calls.

Seed

Gardens of Change

Start something where you live.

Selected work, on night.night + .selected: a list that changes the picture (needs sor.js); torn edges in and out

Selected work

PodcastOver the MountainsConversations with Iain McGilchrist, Dougald Hine and Roberto Mangabeira Unger
EssayThe Second Renaissance: A Very Short IntroductionReal risk, root cause, radical response, real possibility
ArtOrpheusFrom the magazine, Issue #2

Printed object.object-feature: a magazine or book, with the deeper object shadow

In print · Issue #2

Mythos

How myths shape what we call sacred and remember. Art, poetry and essays from forty contributors, in a yearly printed issue.

Subscribe · €35 a year

Calendar.calendar: date, title and detail, one action per row

Coming up

15 OctGlobal Connection CallOnline · 19:30 UK / 20:30 CET · freeSave a place

7 – 14 OctIntro to Collective ActionSix short online sessions · €20, refunded if you attend all sixRegister

Interlude.interlude: a scatter of seeds and one poetic line, set alone on sunlight

Life as an art. In this soil we plant the seeds of a Renaissance.

From the manifesto

Engage.engage: three ways to stay in touch, each under a heavy rule

Engage

The Greenhouse

Our newsletter: new releases, gatherings and ways in.

Join the movement

Come to a call, then find your people in the community gardens.

How to join

Support the work

Become a patron of the magazine and the artists it pays.

Become a patron

Long-form reading.reading with .drop, .pull, .verse and .litany; a seal to close

Human civilization has always been a story of transformation, of old worlds dying and new ones being born. We are living through such moments. The crises of our time are not separate emergencies to be managed one by one.

We are a movement called to bring forth a renaissance.We are the bridge between the dying past and the future unborn.

We gather once a month on a Global Connection Call, open to anyone who feels this call too.