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Brand guidelines

The living file

For press and partners: how to present L’Arbre aux absents. An investigator’s desk at night, paper under the lamp, an archivist’s moves. Every value on this page is read from the game’s design system.

Title

The game’s title

Fraunces black, “absents” in vermilion italics, a fern flourish. Three sizes: poster, title screen, header.

Poster, on the night of the desk (main use)
Title screen, on paper
Header and emblem: icon, avatar, favicon

Colours

A palette of ink and paper

Values in OKLCH (the source) and their approximate hexadecimal equivalent, for print and for tools that lack OKLCH.

Night ink

The desk steeped in the blue of night: a deep ink blue that melts into the wall of the key art, and vellum text.

  • Night ink Desk background --canvas #07152e
  • Night Panels --surface-1 #0e203c
  • Light night Fields, hover --surface-2 #162a47
  • Slate Control borders --line-strong #7a95b4
  • Vellum Text --text #f6f1e7
  • Faded vellum Secondary text --text-muted #d2cab9

Saffron, vermilion, celadon

Three colours, three roles: saffron for action (only one per screen), vermilion for the brand, celadon for the fern. Stamp violet marks what is established.

  • Saffron Action, link, focus --accent #ffbe3d
  • Burnished saffron Button edge --accent-edge #c48225
  • Vermilion Titles, kickers, rules --brand #fc7754
  • Dark vermilion Red label --brand-fill #c1291b
  • Celadon Fern, ornaments --fern #7bceb4
  • Deep celadon Fern on paper --fern-deep #166355
  • Stamp ink “Established” slot --established #c1a0fb

Papers and inks

Everything you read is paper under the light, written in iron-gall ink.

  • New paper Cards, letters --paper-new #fbf8ef
  • Paper Documents, map --paper #f5f0e1
  • Aged paper Cuttings, directories --paper-aged #eee6d2
  • Foxed paper Hollows, stains --paper-stain #e5d9c2
  • Iron-gall ink Text on paper --ink #19263f
  • Diluted ink Secondary text --ink-muted #42536e
  • Pen ink Handwriting --ink-hand #18417c
  • Burnished brass Action on paper --paper-accent #8b4e00

The desk’s materials

Kraft folders, bristol index cards with blue ruling and a red header line, label-maker tape.

  • Kraft Folder --kraft #d1a978
  • Shaded kraft Back of the folder --kraft-shade #be8d5a
  • Manila Labels, inside --manila #ead9b2
  • Bristol Index card --card #fbf8ef
  • Ruling Lines of the card --card-rule #86b9d8
  • Header line Red rule of the card --card-margin #e54728
  • Blue tape Label maker --label-tape #073b7a
  • Red tape Label maker, notice --label-tape-red #c1291b

The key art’s setting

The wood of the lamp, the velvet of the curtain, the dusk at the window. Setting only: never text.

  • Shaded wood Desk, lamp --wood #543429
  • Lit wood In the pool of light --wood-lit #9e715c
  • Velvet Curtain --velvet #785560
  • Rose dusk Sky --dusk-rose #ebc1cc
  • Lilac dusk Sky --dusk-lilac #cac6e6
  • Peach dusk Sky --dusk-peach #f1c7ac
  • Quiet-zone scrim Under a title set on the art --scrim-art oklch(0.14 0.045 260 / 0.9)

The colourist’s washes

Eight transparent pigments laid over the engraving, plus two waters. They never carry text on their own.

  • Saffron Squares, civic buildings --art-wash-safran #efcc83
  • Carmine Houses, roof tiles --art-wash-carmin #eca4a9
  • Indigo Administrations, uniforms --art-wash-indigo #a8bbe2
  • Sienna Workshops, earth --art-wash-sienne #e9af90
  • Sage Forests, gardens --art-wash-sauge #bed3aa
  • Lilac Chapels, mourning --art-wash-lilas #d0bae2
  • Celadon Marshes, glass --art-wash-celadon #b1dccc
  • Slate Roofs, stone --art-wash-ardoise #b4bfca
  • Water Sea, lakes --art-water #afdadf
  • Deep water Channels --art-water-deep #8bc2cf

Typography

Seven open typefaces

All under the SIL Open Font License, self-hosted. No pixel-art typeface.

  • Fraunces · Poster titles, an “old style” face with soft, wobbly axes

    A family erased from the registers.

  • Oswald · Labels, tabs, buttons, stamps (capitals)

    ORC 74 · RELEASE · ARCHIVES

  • Literata · Reading: printed documents, long texts

    Rebuild a family’s tree, document by document.

  • Instrument Sans · Interface: panels, navigation, settings

    Archives · Notebook · Map · 12 / 30 identified

  • Courier Prime · Typewriter: reports, telegrams, cards

    CIVIL RE-REGISTRATION OFFICE — FILE No. 74-0112

  • Caveat · Handwriting: letters, backs of photographs (replaceable)

    Love and kisses from Bains-de-Mérande…

  • Atkinson Hyperlegible Next · The game’s legibility option

    A typeface designed for easy reading.

Materials

The desk, in materials

Nothing is an abstract “card”: every surface is an object on the desk, laid down, pinned, taped.

  • The sheet

    Paper, with straight, torn or punched edges; tape, paper clip, drawing pin.

  • The folder

    ORC 74-118

    Kraft or manila, a reference on a label-maker strip, a tab.

  • The index card

    RG-09

    Bristol board, blue ruling, vermilion header line.

  • Label maker Notice
    Sticky tape
    The violet stamp marks what the player has established.

Icons

Inked with a pen

An irregular main stroke, a second thin pass of ink, and sometimes a watercolour wash behind. The same shapes, crisp, below 14 pixels.

  • Tree
  • Archives
  • Reader
  • Catalogue
  • Notebook
  • Map
  • Pinboard
  • Faces
  • Search
  • Stamp
  • Lamp
  • Quill
  • Letter
  • Photo
  • Compass
  • Typewriter
  • Fern
  • Lock

Ornaments

  • Corner
  • Fern
  • Rule
  • Seal
  • Paper clip
  • Drawing pin
  • Flourish

Motion

An archivist’s moves

Everything moves like paper in a hand: dealt, laid down, inked, stamped. Soft curves, a slight bounce, never a cartoon bounce. With reduced motion, everything fades in and the atmosphere stands still.

  • No. 1
    No. 2
    No. 3

    Deal

    The cards cascade in and settle at an angle.

  • Velmarche

    Ink

    The line is laid down from left to right, and the ink dries.

  • Stamp

    The stamp strikes, the ink spreads, the slot takes the blow.

  • Breathe

    A pinned sheet sways, the lamp flickers.

Illustration

Engraving heightened with watercolour

A blue-black line of iron-gall ink, hatching for volume, then transparent washes that spill over a little, like a colourist’s hand. The game’s documents are paper in the light; the interface around them stays dark, clean and discreet.

Usage

Do, don’t

Do

  • Set the game’s title on the night of the desk, in vellum and vermilion, or on paper, in ink.
  • On the key art, only in its quiet zone, on the scrim provided.
  • Show the illustrations on their paper, with no crop that cuts through a face.
  • Saffron for a single action per screen; vermilion for the brand.

Don’t

  • Recolour the title, distort it, or add a shadow or an outline.
  • Set the title over a busy illustration or over the map.
  • Use a pixel-art typeface or a novelty typeface.
  • Reveal a name, a secret or an ending of the investigation in any communication.

Signature

The house logos

In this order, on a single baseline: CARDOR Media, CM Interactive, CM Creative Lab. Monochrome on the site and in the game; original colours below, for the press.

  • CARDOR Media Publishing
  • CM Interactive Development and publishing
  • CM Creative Lab Writing, illustration and map

Resources

To download