Civilizational Optionality
The system is the document.
The living style guide for xCO — every primitive, every rule, and the instruments that compose them into assets. Colour carries meaning here rather than decorating, which is also what makes it testable.
v0.2 · both registers validated · switch them, top right
00 / The move
Consistency from a grammar, not from sameness.
This guide states a rule, shows it applied, and names what it refuses. Where a rule is unsettled it is marked, not hidden.
A palette expresses a brand; an encoding carries information, and can therefore be wrong. Everything below is built to be checkable.
01 / Domain colour
Four jurisdictions, and a shape apiece.
Each hue names a domain. The pale tint is a ground that ink sits on; the saturated value is a stroke, border or fill; and the -ink token is the only form allowed to be text.
Biophysical. Thresholds, cascades, irreversible loss.
circleInstitutional. Mandate, authority, commitment, method.
squareTechnological. Operation, inference, divergence.
triangleCultural. Subject, witness, refusal, affect.
diamondColour cannot carry domain alone. Under deuteranopia, institutional and cultural collapse toward each other. So the shape channel is not decoration — it is what survives when hue is gone, in print and under forced colours.
02 / The system
Every piece, with a name you can type.
Eight sections. Each one documents its primitives and the rules that govern them.
- LogoWordmark, lockups, clear space, export.
- TypographyDisplay tight and negative, labels wide and positive.
- ColourWarm paper, six meanings, four domains.
- GridGolden ratio, Fibonacci spacing, 12 and 24 columns.
- Diagrammatic GrammarTwo line weights. Three node types.
- Tone of VoiceThree registers, live linter, US English.
- ComponentsMarks, ports, callouts, epistemic tags.
- Polyphonic GrammarLicences, operators, relations, release gates.
- AccessibilityWCAG 2.2 AA, measured on every build.
03 / Instruments
Generators, not templates.
Each instrument composes the primitives into an exportable asset — SVG, PNG or token file.
04 / Templates
Where the system leaves the repo.
Working documents for the team, already carrying the system.