Precision. The diagnostician.
The Sage earns trust by seeing clearly and telling the truth.
Pattern-recognition over pitching. Diagnosis over prescription. Specificity over adjectives. The weapon is precision; the risk is coldness. Ref: Phase 11 §2.2 Guide register.
Sage speaks like a senior operator who has already read the room. Every claim is published, timestamped, and verifiable. No hype. No adjective-swarm. No "starting from" pricing. The voice Sam is pattern-matched to recognise as credible before re/start has said a word.
- Lead with observation, then reasoning, then recommendation
- Publish numbers, dates, ranges. Specificity as emphasis
- Typography carries authority. Not color, not shadow
- No hype adjectives, no exclamation marks
- No stock photography, no mascots, no glow gradients
Color system
Cool, muted, intellectual. Near-black ink with faint navy undertone reads as "serious intelligence" in B2B SaaS, category-shared with Linear, Vercel, Railway. The mandatory brand violet carries the slash.
WCAG 2.2 AA · computed numerically via relative-luminance formula
| Foreground · Background | Ratio | AA body (≥4.5) | AA large (≥3) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slate Ink on Mist | 14.75 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Brand Violet on Mist | 6.43 : 1 | ✓ AA | ✓ AAA |
| Paper on Brand Violet | 7.13 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Slate on Mist | 6.74 : 1 | ✓ AA | ✓ AAA |
| Mute on Paper | 3.43 : 1 | ✗ body | ✓ large. Metadata only |
| Signal Coral on Paper | 4.03 : 1 | ✗ body | ✓ large. Non-text only |
Typography system
DM Serif Display on hero h1 only. Honors the `_project-config.md` Always-Do rule. Inter for everything else (industry-canonical Sage grotesque). JetBrains Mono for metadata, pricing, timestamps.
| Role | Size | Weight | Typeface | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 72px · 1.05 / -0.02em | 400 | DM Serif Display | Display |
| H1 | 48px · 1.1 / -0.015em | 700 | Inter | Heading 1 |
| H2 | 36px · 1.15 / -0.01em | 600 | Inter | Heading 2 |
| H3 | 28px · 1.2 | 600 | Inter | Heading 3 |
| Body | 16px · 1.55 | 400 | Inter | The marketing stack. |
| Overline | 12px · 1.3 / 0.08em | 500 UPPERCASE | Inter | Eyebrow label |
| Button | 16px · 0.02em | 500 | Inter | Book discovery call → |
| Metadata | 13px · 1.4 | 300 | JetBrains Mono | $660/mo · 2026-04-24 |
Component preview
Sharp register. 4px button radius, 8px card radius. Borders preferred over shadows. Try the focus ring, 2px Brand Violet outside the border.
Hero section. Live
Actual Phase 11 value proposition, rendered in Sage register. DM Serif Display on h1 with one Brand Violet italic emphasis word.
The marketing stack you keep firing. Consolidated.
Brand, website, HubSpot Pro, Google Ads, and ongoing strategy. One partner, one subscription, one set of assets you own from day one. $660–$1,350/mo. Ten founders per month.
Brand voice · four channels
Same register across every surface: peer-operator diagnostic. Specificity over adjectives. Ref: Phase 05 §5.1 Sam VOC patterns.
Sovereign. The governor.
The Ruler creates order in a world that lacks it.
Through governance, standards, and visible authority. Commands not by volume but by the confidence to publish rules, prices, and commitments no one else will. The weapon is sovereignty; the risk is distance.
Ruler opens with what re/start has published, not what re/start does. Pricing is not a page, it's a statement. The on-time guarantee is a hero claim, not a footer clause. The ten-per-month intake cap is governance made visible.
- Publish commitments in first-person and plain dollars
- On-time guarantee as hero-level claim
- Intake cap as proof of governance, not availability
- No "starting from" prices, no hedging language
- No discount theatre, Founding Member is a trust-gate
Color system
Midnight navy (institutional confidence) + warm champagne substrate (editorial register) + gilded ceremony (trust-transfer moments only) + ox wine (Ruler's refusal color). No top-8 competitor uses this palette.
WCAG 2.2 AA · computed numerically
| Foreground · Background | Ratio | AA body | AA large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midnight on Champagne | 14.45 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Ink Warm on Champagne | 9.17 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Gilded on Midnight | 7.67 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Ox Wine on Champagne | 8.37 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Brand Violet on Champagne | 5.18 : 1 | ✓ AA | ✓ AAA |
| Stone on Champagne | 4.40 : 1 | ✗ body (marginal) | ✓ large. Metadata |
Typography system
Fraunces with optical-size variation on display (replaces DM Serif; divergence from config guardrail flagged). Source Serif 4 for body, editorial register throughout. JetBrains Mono for pricing, contracts, specifications.
| Role | Size | Weight | Typeface | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 84px · 1 / -0.025em | 700 | Fraunces | Display |
| H1 | 52px · 1.08 / -0.02em | 600 | Fraunces | Heading 1 |
| H2 | 38px · 1.15 / -0.01em | 600 | Fraunces | Heading 2 |
| H3 | 28px · 1.25 | 600 | Source Serif 4 | Heading 3 |
| Body | 17px · 1.65 | 400 | Source Serif 4 | Published pricing. |
| Overline | 12px · 0.1em | 500 | Source Serif 4 | Ceremony label |
| Metadata | 13px · 0.02em | 400 | JetBrains Mono | §4.2 Day 30 |
Component preview
Architectural register. 2px button radius (sharper than Sage). Gilded underline on button hover. Ceremonial microinteraction.
Hero section. Live
Phase 11 value proposition in Ruler register. Fraunces 84px with opsz 144 axis activated. Italic for the statement word.
The end of vendor-shopping.
One productised growth partnership at $660–$1,350/mo. Brand, website, HubSpot Pro CRM, Google Ads, and ongoing strategy. You own every asset from day one. Miss a milestone, next month is free.
Brand voice · four channels
Declarative. Contract-register. The tone of a firm that publishes its terms instead of negotiating them.
Studio. The publisher.
The Creator earns trust through craft.
Wants its work to be seen, copied, studied. The process is the product. Weapon: generosity. Risk: twee-ness. re/start in Creator register publishes the Playbooks openly and lets the method prove itself.
Creator opens with the Playbooks. The AI Brand Discovery 45-question process, the GHL→HubSpot migration, the Vendor Consolidation Audit. As category-creation proof. Transparency is the craft.
- Publish Playbooks openly as category proof
- Show work-in-progress. Transparency is the craft
- Editorial pull-quotes and signed founder notes
- No emoji, no mascots, no begging for community
- No process-over-outcome. Craft produces outcomes
Color system
Warm off-white substrate (published-register). Warm terracotta as editorial accent. Muted sage as tertiary support. Notion-adjacent but distinct.
WCAG 2.2 AA · computed numerically
| Foreground · Background | Ratio | AA body | AA large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio Ink on Studio White | 16.64 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Graphite on Studio White | 9.09 : 1 | ✓ AAA | ✓ AAA |
| Brand Violet on Studio White | 5.52 : 1 | ✓ AA | ✓ AAA |
| Clay on Studio Ink | 5.31 : 1 | ✓ AA | ✓ AAA |
| Clay on Studio White | 3.25 : 1 | ✗ body | ✓ large only |
| Stone on Studio White | 4.27 : 1 | ✗ body | ✓ large. Metadata |
Typography system
Instrument Serif on display (romantic editorial). Space Grotesk for headings and UI (geometric-playful). DM Sans for body (warm humanist sans, Notion-adjacent register). JetBrains Mono for metadata. Four voices, four registers.
| Role | Size | Weight | Typeface | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 76px · 1 / -0.02em | 400 | Instrument Serif | Display |
| H1 editorial | 44px · 1.1 / -0.015em | 400 | Instrument Serif | Editorial H1 |
| H2 | 32px · 1.15 / -0.005em | 500 | Space Grotesk | Heading 2 |
| H3 | 24px · 1.25 | 500 | Space Grotesk | Heading 3 |
| Body | 16px · 1.6 | 400 | DM Sans | The vendor-stack. |
| Button | 15px · 0.02em | 500 | Space Grotesk | Read the Playbooks → |
| Metadata | 13px · 1.4 | 400 | JetBrains Mono | v2026.04 · 24 pp |
Component preview
Medium-rounded register. 8px buttons, 12px cards. Clay accent on editorial moments. Published Playbooks lead the navigation.
Hero section. Live
Phase 11 value proposition in Creator register. Instrument Serif with Clay italic emphasis.
The vendor-stack Playbooks we wish had existed in 2023.
Brand, website, HubSpot Pro, Google Ads, and strategy. One partnership, $660–$1,350/mo. We publish the method. You own every asset from day one. Ten founders per month, on-time guaranteed.
Brand voice · four channels
Craft-forward. Studio-door-open. The tone of a firm that would rather you copy the method than sign the contract blind.
Same Phase 11 value proposition. Three voices.
The hero copy below uses the exact same Phase 11 §2.3 value proposition. Only the archetype translates. Genuine voice difference, not color-swapping.
Commit to Sage. Precision.
Strategic Sam. Skeptical, urgent, pattern-matched to Linear and Apple, tests every claim on the discovery call. Is set up to recognize Sage as credible before re/start has said a word. Phase 11 casts re/start as the Guide; Sage is the Guide archetype. Phase 12 recommends Balanced / Bowling Pin; the decision heuristic for Balanced is "archetype most persona-resonant + most competitor-differentiated", Sage wins both. Lowest production risk. Most compounding register. No dependency on Playbook cadence or commissioned ceremonial assets. If Sage simply ships precise specifications consistently, it compounds.