How we look.
How we sound.
One operating system for a holding company of local media brands. Locked grammar, controlled variety, room to grow from 25 properties to 250 without ever losing the thread.
The single biggest design decision we'll make is not a color. It's a structure.
The question we're really answering is this: when somebody sees Leander Scoop and WilCo Guide next to each other, do they know they're related? When somebody sees Lightbreak's sales site and a Round Rock Scoop story, do they feel like the same company is behind both? The cheap answer is "yes, they share a color." The right answer is "yes, they share a grammar."
Two brands look related when they share structure, not when they share palette. Same wordmark construction. Same headline serif. Same hairline rules between sections. Same mono kicker above every story. Same sentence-case voice. That is what makes The New York Times Company's portfolio — Cooking, Wirecutter, The Athletic, Games — feel like siblings even though their colors and content could not be more different.
So the rules in this book are tight where they need to be tight and loose where they need to be loose. The structure is locked. The signature color, the photography, the kicker language — those flex. That is how you go from 25 properties to 250 and still recognize yourself in the mirror.
The chapters
12 sections · 1 systemArchitecture
The brand family tree. How Lightbreak, Local Media HQ, and 25+ local titles ladder together. Voice and positioning live here too.
Read chapter → Ch. 02Color
The 14-color editorial palette, named and roled. Two locked core colors, twelve signature colors, full do-and-don't.
Read chapter → Ch. 03Type
Four families, narrow roles. Fraunces for headlines, Source Serif 4 for reading, Inter for UI, JetBrains Mono for everything stamped.
Read chapter → Ch. 04Logo
Four logo directions explored across WilCo Guide, Lightbreak, Local Media HQ, and Leander Scoop. One direction recommended.
Read chapter → Ch. 05Sub-brand toolkit
How to spin up a new Scoop, a new demographic title, or a new vertical without breaking the system. The rules and the slots.
Read chapter → Ch. 06Components
Buttons, cards, badges, kickers, ad slots, section rules, icons. The Lego bricks every property is built from.
Read chapter → Ch. 07Social & newsletter
Instagram feed, carousels, stories, TikTok covers, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the newsletter masthead. Templates with rules.
Read chapter → Ch. 08Photography
Warm hill-country light, real people on real porches. The mood, the rules, and the kinds of imagery we never use.
Read chapter → Ch. 09Voice & tone
The smart neighbor, not the local TV anchor. Good copy, bad copy, and the words we never use again.
Read chapter → Ch. 10 · New in v0.8Ad system
Four products, six surfaces, one contract with the reader. Display, sponsored content, Pro listings, premier partner stripe — with the rate card.
Read chapter → Ch. 11 · v0.3Print & out-of-home
Yard signs, business cards, vendor flyers, swag, and the print edition layout. Coming in the next edition.
Coming soon Ch. 12 · New in v0.9Motion & video
Animation principles, video lower-thirds, podcast cover art, social motion templates. Five duration tokens, five easings, six named gestures.
Read chapter →The brand stack
See Ch. 01 for the full diagramThis is a draft of an operating system. We iterate together until it's right.
- In v0.1Architecture, palette, type, components, sub-brand toolkit, social templates, photography rules.
- New in v0.8Ad system: four products, six surfaces, the disclosure table, the rate card.
- v0.2Final logo direction selected. Wordmarks delivered as SVG with type spacing locked.
- v0.3Print & out-of-home — yard signs, business cards, vendor flyers, swag.
- LaterMotion principles, video lower-thirds, podcast cover art, merch system.
- LaterToken export package — CSS, Tailwind, Figma variables, iOS/Android tokens.