Manual Basic

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8 lessons | 5 minutes

Brand
Intro

How the Namche brand works. Type leads, Hestia points, the metaball signs, the photo comes last.

Start

European AI | Human Systems

Lesson 01Order

Four things, in this order.

Every Namche view is built the same way: type first, then one hook, then the mark, then the photo. Add a layer only when the one before is doing its job. Each lesson ends with what is fixed and what can flex.

01 | Type

Start with type. On a dark ground the headline is the picture.

02 | + Hook

Add the one Hestia hook: the CTA, the first rule, the active item.

03 | + Mark

Add the metaball where it works: the sign, the scroll cue. Not as decoration.

04 | + Image

Photo last. Close, warm, unfiltered. It answers the type, it does not compete with it.

Fixed

The order: type leads, the photo comes last.

Flexes

How many layers a view needs. Many stop at type and hook.

Lesson 02Ground

The ground picks the ink.

Dark is home. Selene is for human moments. Colour fields carry cards and services. Type and logo then wear #111111 or Selene, never a third colour.

Sovereignty for European AI

Ink | Selene

Dark | #111111

The default. Hero, nav, closing.

Sovereignty for European AI

Ink | #111111

Selene | #F1EFE8

Human moments: story, quote.

Sovereignty for European AI

Ink | #111111

Colour field | Okeanos, Helios

Cards and services.

Sovereignty for European AI

Ink | #111111

Hestia field | #EB4629

The footer field.

Fixed

The ink: #111111 or Selene, whichever the ground needs.

Flexes

The ground itself: dark, Selene, a colour field, or night mode.

Lesson 03Type

One family, one weight.

Namche Shadow Sans says it. Namche Shadow Mono files it. Both in Medium: no Regular, no Bold, no italic.

Namche Shadow Sans

Medium | says it

Sovereignty

Headlines, running text and the wordmark. Line breaks are chosen: they follow the thought.

Namche Shadow Mono

Medium | files it

47.4060° N | 9.7453° E – CampusVäre, Dornbirn, Austria

Labels, nav, coordinates, codes. Always capitals. A coordinate, never a clock.

Baseline

8 px | keeps it level

2
4
8
16
32
64

Space moves in these steps only, and every line of text sits on the 8 px baseline.

Fixed

Namche Shadow Sans and Mono, Medium, on the 8 px baseline.

Flexes

Size and line breaks, within the type scale.

Lesson 04Hestia

One hook per view.

Hestia is the only loud colour. It marks the one thing to do or to look at: the CTA, the first rule, the active item. Never a wash, never a second.

Do | one hook

European AI | Human Systems

Sovereignty for European AI

Talk

Don't | four hooks

European AI | Human Systems

Sovereignty for European AI

TalkNew

The rest of the colour, in three families

Gaia

Neutrals | the interface

Ink
Erebos
Nyx
Rhea
Selene
Olymp

Okeanos

Cool | illustration, fields

Demeter
Artemis
Amphitrite
Atlas
Poseidon
Uranos

Helios

Warm | editorial, the hook

Helios
Eos
Hestia
Chloris
Apollon
Aion

Colour only from the system, no outside tones. The landing uses a few of these; the rest stay available.

Fixed

Hestia is the hook, once per view.

Flexes

What carries it: the CTA, the first rule, the active item. And which of the other tones fill fields.

Lesson 05Metaball

A sign, not an illustration.

One flat metaball form. It comes as three logos and moves in three ways. It is never a 3D render used as decoration: the 3D coral appears once, as the video on the landing.

The mark and the lockup from the master files. The wordmark is the type.

Mark

The sign alone. Favicon, app icon, avatar, the nav.

Wordmark

The name, set in type. Titles, large surfaces, the footer.

Lockup

Sign and name as one unit. Partners, press, co-branding.

The colour follows the ground: #111111 on light, Selene on dark. Never redrawn, never recoloured, never with a shadow or a glow.

Three ways the metaball moves

Point

The scroll cue: an arrow that grows once and drips as you scroll.

Follow

The cursor: a plus that turns into a cross over links.

Join

The neck between two steps. Without a neck it is only a circle.

Fixed

The master files, in #111111 or Selene.

Flexes

The metaball's jobs. The hook object: the milky coral is the main one, a fluffy variant exists for other products.

Lesson 06Image

Two image layers, no filter.

Close-ups of the body, where people meet each other and where they meet technology. And one hook object, the coral. The close-ups and the coral are AI-generated and stay unfiltered: Hestia is a field or a hook, never a filter.

Close-up of an amber eye in low, warm light

Layer 1 | Close-up

Warm light on skin, a cool edge, shallow focus, grain.

A fingertip, the print sharp against a deep blue ground

Layer 1 | Close-up

The body as interface: to technology as much as to each other.

The coral: a porous, milky white object against a blue sky

Layer 2 | Hook object

The coral: milky, porous, against blue sky. It appears once.

Fixed

Two layers, and no filter.

Flexes

The subjects. New close-ups are welcome if they stay warm, close and unfiltered.

Lesson 07Motion

Slow, sliding, never fading.

Motion follows the scroll. Things slide and clip into place; they do not fade, scale or loop.

01

Scroll leads.

Pins and scrubs follow the scroll: slow, never snappy.

02

Slide and clip.

Lines rise into place from behind their own edge. Nothing fades in, nothing scales in.

03

Hover is colour or line.

A button changes colour, a link gains a line. Size never changes.

TalkHover it

04

Nothing loops.

Motion happens once, on purpose. With reduced motion you get the final state, at once.

Fixed

Nothing fades, scales or loops.

Flexes

What moves, and how slowly. Each scene sets its own pace.

Lesson 08Never

Six things it never does.

If a design seems to need one of these, change the design.

#

Never

Instead

01

Muted, grey type

Full-strength ink. Rank comes from size and voice, not from grey.

02

A Hestia filter over photos

Photos as shot. Hestia is a field or a hook.

03

Blur, glass, shadow, glow

Solid grounds. Hover changes colour or line.

04

Colours outside the system

Gaia, Okeanos, Helios. Nothing else.

05

A live clock

Coordinates: 47.4060° N | 9.7453° E – Dornbirn, Campusväre.

06

A redrawn or recoloured logo

The master files, in #111111 or Selene.

Open

Still to decide with Jodok: the focus ring on dark grounds, one ink or two on light. Clear space and minimum size are decided (Michael, 2026-10-04).

Change

Michael and Jodok decide. The decision is written into the notes, with date and name.

Go deeper88 chapters

Now the details.

The core stays fixed, the expression flexes, and every change is a decision, written down. The pages below hold the detail.

Type leads | Hestia points | The metaball signs | The photo comes last

Namche × Jodok