Seeds of Renaissance brand: status

Seeds of Renaissance brand: status

Updated 2 October 2026

Where we are: the feel is agreed (Grounded hope) and a first design system is in place: ink, white, paper and pale yellow, torn edges, woodcut graphics, black buttons and red links. It has been applied to six website pages and four YouTube thumbnails. Next come photography, the logo, slides and print.

Main artifacts

★ = look at these first.

ArtifactWhat it isLatest
★Seeds Polyamine PagesHome page and manifesto in the current design system. The best single view of where we are.v7: full-screen hero, original layout
★Seeds Website PagesFour more page types (gatherings, join, magazine, white paper) and the graphic elements sheetv2: woodcut swallow, pale yellow
★Seeds WoodcutsGallery of all the woodcut graphics on white, paper, pale yellow and nightv2: red seeds added
Seeds YouTube ThumbnailsFour thumbnail templates, full size and in a YouTube feedv2
Seeds Ink and PaperEarlier exploration (directions A, B, C) where black buttons and red links were decidedv5

All photos are mood board placeholders, not cleared for public use.

The design system in brief

FeelGrounded hope. Deep sourcing, crafted rigour, liminal integration. A little off-centre.
NotWellness or new age, luxury, corporate, hard selling, sleek and contemporary
ColoursWhite and paper #fbfaf6 grounds · pale yellow #fbefc4 as background only · ink #1b1916 for text and all buttons · one night section #171613 per page · logo red #E5201C only for occasional links
TypePolyamine (headings), Bricolage Grotesque (text), Appful Grotesque (labels), soft italic serif (poetry)
GraphicsTorn edges, woodcut swallows and seeds, figures captioned like plates, logo on a white disc

More detail: design-system-plan.md

Next steps

PriorityWhat
HighJoyful photos with people and children
HighLogo: deeper red? redrawn swallow? small version for avatars (logo.md)
MediumTest slides and print (a poster or magazine page)
MediumDecide whether to hand-draw the woodcuts or base them on public-domain prints
LaterType scale, image rights rules, whether the doula is part of the brand story

Key files

FileWhat's in it
design-system-plan.mdPlan, reasoning and decision log
moodboard.md · moodboard-not-us.mdWhat we like and don't, with notes
../system/woodcuts/Woodcut graphics (SVG) and the script that draws them
logo.mdLogo notes and issues
references/Studies of Dark Mountain and Emergence Magazine
mockups/HTML source of every artifact

Appendix: version history

Each artifact keeps all versions in claude.ai (open its version history). Source copies are in mockups/ and ../system/woodcuts/.

Seeds Polyamine Pages · mockups/direction-e/

VersionChange
v7Full-screen hero in the original layout (default), photo switcher; split hero still available
v6Rebuilt in the current system, with woodcut swallows and seeds
v5Night to Dawn palette (didn't work). Saved as index-v5-night-to-dawn.html
v4#1F338A tested as a button colour (rejected)
v1–v3Before this work: Direction E, Restora against Polyamine, Polyamine chosen

Seeds Website Pages · mockups/pages/

VersionChange
v2Woodcut swallow and elements sheet; pale yellow as background only
v1Joy layer with bright yellow, drawn suns, highlighting (bright yellow and highlighting rejected)

Seeds Woodcuts · ../system/woodcuts/gallery.html

VersionChange
v2Seeds in red added
v1All 29 woodcuts with a ground switcher

Seeds YouTube Thumbnails · mockups/youtube/

VersionChange
v2Photo fix on the talk thumbnail
v1Four templates, full size and in light and dark feeds

Seeds Ink and Paper · mockups/ink-and-paper/

VersionChange
v5Photo fix
v4Black buttons, red only for links (became part of the system)
v3Pure white sections; red buttons tried
v2Lighter, original photos back
v1Directions A and B; too dark

Links to this page:

  1. Maintaining the design system
Built with LogoFlowershow