§ BR.0 — Brand & Design System
Version · 2.4.1 Updated · 2026 Q1 Status · Production

The Arkhive
design system.

A banking-grade institutional language for a regulated escrow rail. Deep cocoa, cream paper, burnt orange — set in Inter, IBM Plex Mono, and Instrument Serif. Every component on the platform is built from the vocabulary documented below.

§ BR.1 — Logo

Vault frame · Tumbler dial · Hand-drawn A.

PRIMARY MARK
Use on bg-deep · Cream stroke + accent A
COMBINED LOCKUP
Arkhive
Vault · Verify · Release
Nav lockup · 36–56px symbol
COMPACT MARK
Favicon · App icon · 16–48px

The mark reads as a strongbox. The outer square is the vault frame; the inner circle is the tumbler dial; the sketched A in burnt orange is hand-drawn rather than typeset — a deliberate human signature against the institutional geometry.

§ BR.2 — Color Palette

Cocoa, cream, burnt orange.
Eleven tokens. No grey.

--bg
#F0EBE0
Page background. Aged cream — the base canvas.
--bg-deep
#2D1F17
Dark sections. Deep cocoa — used for institutional contrast bands.
--paper
#F5F1E7
Card & component background. Warmer than --bg.
--paper-2
#E8DFCD
Image placeholders & muted card surfaces.
--ink
#1A120C
Primary type colour. Headlines, body, rules.
--ink-soft
#4A382C
Secondary type. Body paragraphs, mono labels.
--ink-mute
#7A6A5A
Tertiary metadata. Timestamps, sub-captions, light prefixes.
--accent
#B8552A
Primary accent. Burnt orange — the signature of the brand. Used sparingly.
--accent-deep
#8A3D1C
Hover & press states for accent.
--gold
#C9A96E
Reserved for pilot states & special institutional flags.
--rule
#1A120C
Hard 1px rule. The institutional grid line.
--rule-soft
#1A120C / 18%
Softer rule between secondary content rows.
§ BR.3 — Typography

Inter for display.
IBM Plex Mono for chrome.
Instrument Serif for editorial accents.

H1 / Display Inter · 500 · -0.035em clamp(48px, 7vw, 104px)
Talent gets paid.
H2 / Section Inter · 600 · -0.025em clamp(32px, 4.5vw, 56px)
Four layers of protection.
H3 / Subhead Inter · 600 · -0.02em 20–26px
Regulated Escrow
Lede Inter · 400 · 22px line-height 1.5
A regulated bridge between talent and capital — built for South Africa.
Body Inter · 400 · 16–17px line-height 1.55–1.65
Funds are ring-fenced in a Standard Bank escrow account via TradeSafe — FSCA-compliant, Liberty-insured, released only on verified delivery.
Mono / Eyebrow IBM Plex Mono · 500 11–12px · 0.16em letter-spacing
§ 01.0 — INSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENT
Mono / Numeric IBM Plex Mono · tabular nums For ledgers, stats, IDs
R 14,200,000.00 · #4291 · 16:42 SAST
Serif / Editorial Instrument Serif · 400 For pull-quotes & flourish accents
Born from the gig. Built for the stage.
§ BR.4 — Section Numbering

Every section is numbered.
Like a regulatory document.

Every page on Arkhive uses an institutional § XX.X sectioning convention — borrowed from regulatory filings, banking term sheets, and academic legal writing.

The number sets the page (01–04 for top-nav routes, P/A/B/T for audience pages, R for compliance, BR for brand). The decimal sets the section within the page. The em-dash and topic name follow.

§ 01.X

Home page sections

§ 01.1 Live Ledger · § 01.2 The Solution · § 01.7 Get Started.

Top nav
§ P.X

Audience pages

§ P.0 For Promoters · § A.0 For Agencies · § B.0 For Brands · § T.0 For Talent.

Footer · Platform
§ R.X

Compliance pages

§ R.0 FSCA · § R.1 POPIA · § R.2 Liberty · § R.3 Standard Bank.

Footer · Compliance
§ BR.X

Brand & design system

This page. § BR.0 Hero · § BR.2 Colour · § BR.3 Type · § BR.5 Components.

Footer · Documentation
§ BR.5 — Component Vocabulary

The bricks every page is built from.

CMP / 01 — BUTTONS
Primary CTA → Ghost button

Primary fills with --ink; ghost is transparent with --ink outline. Both shift to --accent on hover. Mono label, 12px, 0.14em tracking.

CMP / 02 — BADGE & EYEBROW
FSCA-Regulated Escrow Infrastructure
§ 01.4 — Get Started

Badge: accent border, soft accent fill, mono. Eyebrow: mono in --ink-soft, 0.18em tracking — used as section numerals.

CMP / 03 — PILLAR CARD
01 / Financial
Regulated Escrow

Funds ring-fenced in a Standard Bank escrow account.

4-up grid building block. Numbered prefix in accent, display-weight title, ink-soft body. Used across home, about, and audience pages.

CMP / 04 — LEDGER ROW
16:42 Vault Booking #4291 R 240,000 Secured
16:18 Release Booking #4287 R 38,500 Cleared

Mono activity feed. Time · action verb · description · status — with pulsing dot for .live. The "alive" pulse of the platform.

CMP / 05 — QUOTE BLOCK
"We didn't set out to build fintech. We set out to make sure the next artist never has to chase an invoice again."
— The Arkhive Founding Team

Editorial pull-quote. 2px accent left rule, Instrument Serif. Use sparingly — once per page maximum.

CMP / 06 — STAT
R14.2M
In active escrow

Display-numeric on top, mono accent label below. Used in hero stats, numbered bands, and footer summaries.

CMP / 07 — FORM FIELD

No box. Mono uppercase label, accent *, baseline rule. Border shifts to accent on focus. Borrowed from terms-sheet typography.

CMP / 08 — PARTNER CARD
TradeSafe
Escrow Gateway

FSCA-regulated escrow infrastructure handling every transaction end-to-end.

Partner / institutional logo lockup. Display name, mono accent role, body description. Placed in 3-up bands on home, regulatory, and audience pages.

§ BR.6 — Voice & Tone

Calm, regulated, confident.
Never punchy. Never apologetic.

Say this
"Funds are ring-fenced in trust until verified delivery."
Not this
"Your money is safe with us!"
Say this
"Multi-factor release. PIN, biometric, six-digit code."
Not this
"Super-secure payouts you can trust."
Say this
"Operating under TradeSafe's FSCA licence since 2024."
Not this
"Trusted by tons of artists nationwide!"
Say this
"Onboarding completes within 48 hours."
Not this
"Sign up in just minutes — it's so easy!"
Say this
"The handshake era is over."
Not this
"Time to disrupt the industry!"

Arkhive writes the way an FSCA-licensed bank writes — quietly precise, declarative, never persuasive. We name the regulator. We cite the partner. We give the figure. We let the reader draw the inference. The institutional confidence comes from accuracy, not adjectives.

§ BR.7 — Press & Brand Use

Logos, palette, and templates
are available on request.

For media, partner co-marketing, or design-team handoff: write to brand@arkhive.co.za. We'll send a press kit with vector logos, the full palette as a .ase file, and approved typographic specimens.

Request press kit → Back to home