# ADR 0002: Brand Guidelines

**Status**: ✅ Accepted  
**Date**: 2025-12-12  
**Deciders**: Delivery Lead (Content) + Design Team

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## Brand Essence

### Name Origin
**"1000 Planets"** represents a constellation of marketing tools and partners, each with its own trajectory. It is a metaphor for a nonhierarchical marketplace of creative momentum and autonomous growth.

### Mission Statement
We build AI-assisted marketing tools for small and micro businesses so they can own their customer journeys, run their own outreach, and make decisions with confidence—no gatekeepers, no jargon.

### Social Signal
We target small teams, solo founders, and micro operators who want high-caliber marketing without enterprise complexity. The language is friendly, grounded, and direct.

## Brand Personality

1. **Trustworthy & Human**  
   - Speak plainly, explain value clearly, and show how humans stay in the loop.  
   - Lead with service, not buzzwords.
2. **Approachable Premium**  
   - Premium feel through typography, subtle animation, and gradients, but never stuffy.  
   - Accessible dark/light interplay with shimmering highlights.
3. **Purposeful & Practical**  
   - Center on lead capture, microsites, and content modules built for the small-business timeline.  
   - Emphasize reliability and human oversight.

## Visual Identity

### Design Inspiration
- **Primary references**: Linear, Vercel, Studio builds with dark/light accessibility, shimmering prisma surfaces.  
- **Motion**: Subtle, premium animations (floating prisms, skeleton loads, gradient tilt) that hint at high-touch craftsmanship.

### Core Principles
- **Control**: Designs should feel like a cockpit, not a ledger.  
- **Clarity**: Avoid marketing haze—text must feel like a conversation.  
- **Accessibility**: Maintain WCAG 2.1 AA contrast and respond gracefully across devices.  
- **Energy**: Use prism/surface lighting, shimmering strokes, and layered glass to suggest future-focused polish.

## Color System

### Ground Palette
| Role | Light | Dark | Usage |
|------|-------|------|-------|
| Background | `#FFFFFF` | `#08080F` | Base surfaces |
| Surface | `#F5F7FF` | `#0F172A` | Cards, overlays |
| Border | `#E5E7EF` | `#1F2937` | Dividers |
| Primary Text | `#111827` | `#F8FAFC` | Paragraphs |
| Secondary Text | `#4B5563` | `#CBD5F5` | Supporting copy |

### Accent Tokens
- **Prism gradient** (`#8B5CF6` → `#6366F1` → `#EC4899`): Primary CTA, highlights, prism glows.  
- **Support glow** (`#38BDF8`, `#22D3EE`): Floating rings, hover states, animation traces.  
- **Success** (`#22C55E`), **Warning** (`#F59E0B`), **Error** (`#EF4444`): Semantic markers for forms.

## Typography

### Font Stack
- **Headings / Display**: `Dela Gothic One`, tight tracking, uppercase when needed, accessible sizes from 36px+ for important modules.  
- **Body**: `Space Grotesk`, 16px base, 1.6 line height.  
- **Data / Price / Metric**: `JetBrains Mono`, use for counts, module specs, and "data" callouts. This reinforces the dual tone of premium and technical assurance.

### Type Scale
| Element | Size | Weight | Line Height |
|---------|------|--------|-------------|
| Display | 64px | 700 | 1.15 |
| H1 | 48px | 700 | 1.2 |
| H2 | 36px | 700 | 1.3 |
| H3 | 28px | 600 | 1.4 |
| Body Large | 18px | 400 | 1.6 |
| Body | 16px | 400 | 1.6 |
| Caption | 12px | 500 | 1.4 |
| Data / Mono | 20px | 500 | 1.3 |

## Voice & Tone

### Writing Principles
1. **Plainspoken** – No jargon, no marketing fluff (e.g., “Lead capture AI” or “Intelligent CTAs”).  
2. **Empowering** – Frame the experience from the customer's control.  
3. **Results-oriented** – Speak to outcomes (“clear lead flows”, “human-reviewed copy”).  
4. **Warmly confident** – Honest and calm, without hype.

### Language Guidelines
- **DO**: “Run a five-page microsite in days.” “Each output is reviewed by a human before you ever publish.” “You keep control of the journey.”  
- **DON’T**: “Disruptive,” “synergy,” “next-gen,” “published costs,” “partner operations,” “Valerian,” “data stays where you want it.”  

## Components & UI Notes

- **Buttons**: Rounded-full, gradient from violet to pink, high contrast on dark surfaces.  
- **Cards**: Glass-morphic surface, gently rounded corners, slight drop shadow, and border gradient for hovered states.  
- **Loaders / Skeletons**: Use shimmering bars (via `shimmer` utility) whenever content is late to render.  
- **Animation**: Use floating prisms, animated SVG glows, and `framer-motion` transitions for the hero/module grids.  
- **Forms**: High-contrast inputs, clear labels, and error/success feedback using semantic colors.