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Brand kit

The Validated.Directory identity, in one page.

Every element the site uses, its rule in one line, and the files to download. The law behind it: DIR 22 (the identity), 24 (the bands), 27 (the mark), 29 (indigo and the plate). Words: docs/BRAND.md beside the code.

The mark

The gentle D

One checkbox that is also a D. Ink box, indigo tick, the tick leaving through the gap.

16
32
64
128
256
on white: bare
on black: on its white tile
on indigo: on its white tile
  1. Tight left corners. The left side is straight, its corners a 3 unit radius on a 32 grid.
  2. The D. The lower right is a D's curve, a 9 unit radius, so the box reads as a gentle D and a checkbox at once.
  3. The shoulder. A short stroke at the top right, an 8 unit radius, stops early.
  4. The gap. The right side is open between shoulder and D; the check leaves through it.
  5. Even clearance. The check sits at the same distance from the box on every side; strokes are 4.4 units, round caps and joins.
  6. Indigo never touches black. Once "red never touches black" (law 27), now indigo (law 29): on a dark ground the mark sits on a white tile, radius 22 percent, padding 7 percent.
The wordmark

Mark plus name.

The mark at the height of the capitals, one mark-width apart; the dot in the accent.

Validated.Directoryhorizontal, on white
Validated.Directoryhorizontal, on black
Validated.Directorystacked
Validated.Directorystacked, on black

Minimum size: the mark at 16 px, the horizontal lockup at 120 px wide, the stacked at 96 px wide. Clear space: the height of the mark's box on every side. The dot is always the accent; the words are always the display face at 800, letter-spacing -0.02em; never a colour on the words other than ink or white.

The tagline lockup

Owner-validated. Open to agents.

The line is law (DIR 16), exact; the line beneath it names who the agents are.

Owner-validated. Open to agents.

Agents are the AIs your customers ask. Starting with Montana. Every state listed.

Owner-validated. Open to agents.

Agents are the AIs your customers ask. Starting with Montana. Every state listed.

Colour

Black, white, one indigo.

The accent never touches black, and a power word is always on a plate: indigo on white, white on black.

tokenhexroleon whiteon ink
--ink#0b0b0btext, the black bands, the mark box, ink buttons19.68 AAA1.00 fails
--paper#ffffffthe white bands, plates, tiles, chips, the decal1.00 fails19.68 AAA
--brand#4338cathe accent: tick, dot, buttons, kickers, power word, badge dot when confirmed, the duotone7.90 AAA2.49 fails
--brand-deep#3730a3button hover, the decal date line9.93 AAA1.98 fails
--brand-soft#8b8ff8link hover on black2.84 fails6.92 AA
--grey#f2f1eechip and tile grounds on white1.13 fails17.43 AAA
--mute#5c5a56secondary text on white6.88 AA2.86 fails
--line#e2e0dbhairlines1.32 fails14.92 AAA
--pass#1f6a3aa check that passes, never the accent6.60 AA2.98 fails
--fail#b8371aa check that fails, never the accent5.83 AA3.37 AA large

The plate rule

On black the accent never touches the ground: the word on a snug white plate with indigo type, the mark on a white tile, the button with a white ring, the kicker on a white chip (law 29). On white the plate reverses: an indigo plate with white type (law 30). Numerals in steps are plates too. ringed button kicker chip

PASS is green, FAIL is red

The two verdict colours belong to the checks alone and are never the accent, never a button, never a band. PASS FAIL

Type

Bricolage for the big words.

Bricolage Grotesque 800 for display, Inter for body, the system mono for kickers, dates and badges.

Get found by AI.h1, Bricolage Grotesque 800, clamp(64px, 8.6vw, 124px)

One page an AI can trust.h2, 800, clamp(40px, 5.2vw, 68px), max 16ch

Your word on it, dated twice.h3, 800, 30px; the power word on its plate, the full stop inside it

AI answers with the businesses whose information is consistent, current and confirmed.lede, Inter 400, clamp(18px, 1.6vw, 22px)

Give us your web address. We read what is already there and draft your record from it.body, Inter 400, 17px, line-height 1.55, measure 62ch

HOW IT WORKSkicker, the mono, 12px, letter-spacing .14em, uppercase

read 2026-09-19dates and the door line, the mono

The power word

One word carries the promise.

In every heading one word takes the accent on a plate: indigo with white type on white, white with indigo type on black; its punctuation rides inside.

Three steps. One of them is yours.

Three steps. One of them is yours.

In content the word is written *yours.*; the template turns it into <em>. One word per heading, the word that carries the promise. The plate is always there: on white it is indigo with white type, on black it is white with indigo type (law 30); padding .1em .16em, radius .14em, an inline block at line-height 1 that never breaks inside (law 31). The full stop, comma or question mark after the word rides inside the plate, never outside it.

1

We read your site.

A step numeral is a plate too: indigo with white type on white, 60px, radius 14px, the heading beside it.

2

You confirm it.

On black the numeral plate reverses: white with indigo type.

The band rhythm

Black, white, black.

Bands alternate; each has a kicker; a dark band meeting the dark footer gets an edge.

A white band
A black band
White again
Black, then the footer with its edge

Every page is a page head on white, then bands that alternate black and white. Padding 96px top and bottom (72px under 960px); the first band after a page head starts at 72px. A kicker names every band. A dark band that meets the dark footer gets a 1px white edge at 18 percent. Never a full-bleed accent band.

Buttons

Pills, three tones.

Primary indigo and ink on white; on black the primary wears a white ring and paper joins it.

PrimaryInkSmall
Primary, ringedPaper

Pill, the display face at 700, 18px, padding 18px 26px; small is 16px and 14px 20px. On black the primary carries a 2px white ring (the plate rule); paper needs none.

The badge

Three states, the text exact.

OWNER VALIDATED, READ FROM SITE, LISTED BY the organisation; the dot says which.

  • OWNER VALIDATEDRead from the owner's own website and confirmed by the owner.
  • READ FROM SITERead from the owner's own website; owner confirmation pending.Only what the business's own site already says. One message to support takes it down.
  • LISTED BY WHITEFISH CHAMBERListed by Whitefish Chamber; read from the business's own site; owner confirmation pending.

The text is exact and never paraphrased. The dot says the state: indigo when confirmed, ink when read from the site, grey when listed by an organisation. On a photo the badge is the pill variant with a shadow and no border.

The check chips

PASS on tap, FAIL open.

Nine chips; a FAIL opens with the one sentence that says what to fix.

  • Site upPASS

    Your site answered.

  • HTTPSPASS

    Your site is served over a locked connection.

  • RedirectsFAIL

    A spelling of your address loops or lands somewhere else; point http and www at your one address with a single redirect.

  • CanonicalPASS

    Your page names its one true address.

  • SitemapNot checked yet.

A PASS shows its line on tap. A FAIL opens on its own with one sentence that says what to fix; it is the only red on the page.

The record card

A record as an agent reads it.

Badge, name, kind, two dates, nine chips, one button; the photo beside it only when there is one.

Hank's

Whitefish, MontanaREAD FROM SITERead from the owner's own website; owner confirmation pending.Only what the business's own site already says. One message to support takes it down.
address
6078 US Highway 93 South, Whitefish, MT 59937
phone
(406) 730-2556
website
hankswhitefish.com
hours
Wed 15:00 to 22:00; Thu 15:00 to 22:00; Fri 14:00 to 22:00; Sat 14:00 to 22:00; Sun 12:00 to 19:00
  • Site upPASS

    Your site answered.

  • HTTPSPASS

    Your site is served over a locked connection.

  • RedirectsFAIL

    A spelling of your address loops or lands somewhere else; point http and www at your one address with a single redirect.

  • CanonicalPASS

    Your page names its one true address.

  • SitemapPASS

    Your site lists its pages.

  • Crawl rulesPASS

    Your site says what may be read.

  • ai.jsonPASS

    Your site carries its facts in ai.json.

  • llms.txtPASS

    Your site carries a plain note for agents.

  • JSON-LDPASS

    Your page carries your facts in a form agents read.

Hank's record as served today: the badge first, the name, the kind and town, the tier line, the two dates on their rules, the facts, the nine chips. The card is a 2px ink rule with a 20px radius. When the business has a photo it sits beside the card, filtered like every other; when it has none the card stands alone, never beside an empty box.

The decal

The owner's stamp.

A white sticker, the ring and tick in indigo or in the owner's own colour; the box always ink.

Owner-validated
read 2026-09-19
default, indigo
Owner-validated
read 2026-09-19
Hank's blue
Owner-validated
read 2026-09-19
Silco's green
Owner-validated
read 2026-09-19
a red

The owner's stamp: a white sticker, 18px radius, a 5px inset ring, the mark, "Owner-validated" in the display face, the read date in the mono. An owner may take the ring, the tick and the date in their own site colour; the box stays ink and the sticker stays white, so the rule holds for any colour: the colour never touches black.

Photography

One palette for every photo.

Client photographs render as an indigo duotone by CSS; the badge stays in full colour on top.

A coach at Hank's guiding a first-time thrower's grip, unfiltered.
Beforethe owner's photograph as supplied
The same photograph as an indigo duotone.OWNER VALIDATED
Afterthe indigo duotone, the badge in full colour on top

Every client photograph renders through one CSS filter, grayscale(1) sepia(1) hue-rotate(205deg) saturate(2.6) brightness(.82) contrast(1.08), so the whole directory shares one palette; the file is never changed. The badge, the decal and the caption sit above the filter in full colour. The hero film is not filtered; it is already the brand's colours.

Get found by

The agents on their tiles.

Each agent's own mark, indigo, on a white tile, named beneath; no endorsement claimed.

Get found by:

  • ChatGPT
  • Claude
  • Gemini
  • Perplexity
  • Copilot
  • Meta AI

Any agent that speaks MCP reads your record straight from the door; the rest find it the way they find any page. Names belong to their owners; none of them endorses this directory.

Each agent's own mark on a white tile, 72px, radius 16px, the mark 42px inside and indigo in the file; the name beneath in the mono. Never a logo recoloured off-indigo, never one of them larger than the rest, never a claim of endorsement (the note under the row says so).

The sign-up form

Two fields, one button.

Website and an address at that domain, required, on black; the ringed primary submits.

Two fields, both required, on a black band: 2px ink border, 12px radius, 14px 16px padding, the label in Inter 600 at 15px. The button is the ringed primary. The form is live; it posts to the sign-up door.

Do and do not

The rules in one place.

What holds the identity together, and what breaks it.

Do

  • Alternate black and white bands; name each with a kicker.
  • Put the accent on a white plate, tile, ring or chip whenever the ground is dark.
  • Use one power word per heading, the word that carries the promise.
  • Render every client photograph through the duotone filter; keep the badge in colour on top.
  • Let an owner take their own site colour on their stamp; keep the box ink and the sticker white.
  • Write the three badge states exactly: OWNER VALIDATED, READ FROM SITE, LISTED BY, then the organisation.
  • Say a client, an owner, a business, an organisation.
  • Name the read date beside anything a machine read.

Do not

  • Never a full-bleed accent band.
  • Never red-orange; the accent is indigo, and red belongs to FAIL alone.
  • Never the accent on black without a plate.
  • Never a logo recoloured off-indigo on the AI band, and never a larger tile for one of them.
  • Never "member" for a client, and none of the naming law's banned words in anything a client reads.
  • Never an em or en dash; never an emoji.
  • Never the mark without its gap, its tick in a colour other than the accent, or its box in a colour other than ink or white.
  • Never a date promised to a client; a condition, never a day.
Downloads

The files.

Every asset, with its size; SVG where the geometry is the file, PNG where the font is not.

The two lockup SVGs carry the word as live type and load Bricolage Grotesque from Google Fonts; where that cannot be relied on, use the rendered PNGs at 2x.