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.
Type
Fraunces · Serif 4 · Inter · Mono
Color
2 locked core · 12 signature
Reach
Properties today · by build-out
Edition
A working draft
Two brands look related when they share structure, not palette.
When somebody sees Leander Scoop and WilCo Guide side by side, they should know they are related on the first glance. Not because they share a color. Because they share a grammar: the same wordmark construction, the same headline serif, the same hairline rules, the same mono kicker over every story.
That is what makes a portfolio feel like siblings even when the colors and the content could not be more different. So the rules here are tight where they must be tight and loose where they should be loose. The structure is locked. The signature color, the photography, the voice - those flex. That is how you go from 25 properties to 250 and still recognize yourself in the mirror.
The chapters
14 chapters · 1 systemArchitecture
The brand family tree. How Luckiest Man Ventures, lightbreak, Local Media HQ, and 25+ local titles relate without making lightbreak the roof. 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. 08 · Coming soonPhotography
Warm hill-country light, real people on real porches. The mood, the rules, and the kinds of imagery we never use.
Coming soon 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 → Ch. 13 · NewSaaS shells
Two reusable product-UI shells, extracted from lightbreak and coaching-os. A summary-to-detail fly-out, and a clean primitive library with a command palette. Pick one per product.
Read chapter → Ch. 14 · NewBuild with this
The surface contract, the hard rules, and the machine layer. Hand the link to a person or an AI and it can build on-brand. The dual human and LLM document.
Read chapter →This 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.