FRAME

Broadside at frame scale is a protest-poster system where type is so large it stops reading as text and becomes graphic primitive. Barlow display at 13cqw puts a single lowercase word nearly across the frame. The system runs in two registers: a dark ink-black ground with cream text for documentation, and a fire-orange ground with dark ink for declaration. Fire-orange is the only color — accent on dark, environment on orange. The plane is flat; hierarchy is weight, size, and 1px hairlines.

Barlow carries every text role from display to body — expressive range from weight (400–900) and size, not face contrast. IBM Plex Mono is chrome only (numbers, kickers, tags, axis labels, the / bullet marker), always uppercase and tracked. Display is lowercase — the system’s most distinctive single decision, a deliberate inversion of the brutalist norm.

Key characteristics at frame scale:

• Two registers — dark (cream text) / orange (ink text). No cream/paper register.
• Massive lowercase Barlow 900, negative-tracked, as graphic primitive (display 13cqw).
• Fire-orange is the only color — accent on dark, full environment on orange.
• IBM Plex Mono chrome — uppercase, 0.14em; the / bullet marker; mono catalogue numbers.
• Flat plane — no shadow, no radius (save nav dots), no gradient; 1px hairlines carry structure.
• Low density — one statement per frame, bullets capped at three, chrome suppressed on declarative frames.

The Frame

Frame Craft Bar

Three eyeball tests gate every frame before any structural check:

• Squint — exactly one display moment dominates at 3–6× everything else; nothing competes.

• Silence — declarative frames read 45–55% empty; the stat grid is the one dense exception.

• Restraint — one register per frame; fire-orange is the only color (accent on dark, environment on orange); one display moment; bullets capped at three.

• Reference — aim at broadside printing / a SPACE10 report / a Wim Crouwel grid with one loud color; failure looks like a multi-accent corporate slide deck.

• Primary: 1920×1080 (16:9). Type authored in cqw (px ÷ 1920 × 100 = cqw; or carry the source’s vw 1:1).

• Vertical: 1080×1920 (9:16). Square: 1080×1080 (1:1).

• Safe area: pad-x/pad-y 5.5cqw — deliberately tight so the massive type crowds the frame edge.

The container law (load-bearing). Every frame ground sets container-type: size; ALL frame-relative units are cqw/cqh against it — never vw (a vw-sized frame inflates when not full-screen). 1px hairlines stay 1px.

Colors

Tokens identical to the source, in two registers. Dark: {colors.ink-black} ground, {colors.cream} text, {colors.fire-orange} accent (kickers, accent stat, bullet /, lead bar, quote mark, rule stub). Orange: {colors.fire-orange} ground, {colors.ink-black} headlines + body, with the dark-ink overlays (75/55/40/20%) as the muted tones. Choose one register per frame and commit. No second accent color — on orange, emphasis is weight/opacity on the ink, never a new hue. Cream text on orange does not exist (ink-on-fire is absolute).

Typography

Two ramps. The reading ramp (Barlow body 1.2cqw, mono label 0.72cqw) carries copy + chrome; the display ramp (Barlow h2 4.5cqw → display 13cqw, weight 700–900) carries every statement.

• Legibility floor: any load-bearing line ≥ 1.4cqw; mono labels are chrome only.
• Fit-to-measure: size the headline to its length. Cap the block at ≤ 78cqw; ≤2 words → display; 3–4 → h1; 5+ → h2. Broadside packs only ONE display moment per frame.
• Barlow display is lowercase, weight 700–900, negative-tracked (−0.04em largest, −0.02em h2). Mono chrome is uppercase, 0.1em+. No italic, no underline, no uppercase display.

Depth & Surface

Flat plane, the only technique. Hierarchy from:

• Weight + size contrast — the dominant signal (900 lowercase display).
• 1px hairlines — chrome bars, stat-card top, compare divider, bar-track left, chart baseline.
• Color shift — orange on ink, ink on cream, cream-muted on cream.
• Negative space — generous, intentional empty regions.

Ceiling: no box-shadow, no elevation, no rounded surface (save nav dots), no gradient ground.

Shapes

• 0 radius everywhere except nav dots (50%). Cards, panels, tags, stat blocks, bars — sharp rectangles.

Components

• registers — the two-surface system. slide-chrome — optional hairline bars, suppressed on declarative frames.
• kicker (mono eyebrow) / rule (36×2 stub) / broadside-num (catalogue mark) — the chrome ornament set.
• stat-card (top-border only) / bullet (orange /, max 3) / bar-track (one accent bar) / compare-panel (orange payoff) / fadelist (1.0/0.5/0.22 stack).

Frame Treatments

Recipe: ground · register · composes · focal · chrome · accent · silence · Fixed/Free · density. One statement per frame; chrome suppressed on declarative frames.

1 · Cover (identity · move: massive type · ORANGE register · left)

Ground fire-orange. Composes broadside-num, rule, kicker, display, lead. Focal a 1–2 word Barlow display (13cqw) lowercase in ink, left-anchored, over a small ink rule stub + mono kicker; a Barlow lead line beneath in 75% ink. Chrome mono catalogue number top-left, mono meta top-right (no chrome bars). Accent the ink itself is the pop on orange. Silence ~45%. Fixed ink-on-fire, lowercase 900, flat. Free the word, kicker, lead. Density low.

2 · Statement (declarative · move: type IS composition · DARK register · left)

Ground ink-black. Composes kicker, display. Focal a 2–4 word Barlow display/h1 lowercase in cream, with ONE clause inked {colors.fire-orange}. Chrome mono kicker; no bars. Accent the orange clause. Silence ~55%. Fixed lowercase 900, one orange clause, flat. Free the statement, which clause is orange. Density low.

3 · Stat Grid (data · move: top-border cards · DARK · the dense frame)

Ground ink-black, chrome bars present. Composes slide-chrome, kicker, 3× stat-card. Focal a row of three top-border-only stat-cards — big Barlow-900 numeral in {colors.fire-orange}, Barlow label, mono note. Chrome top + bottom hairline bars (label + number). Accent the orange numerals. Silence moderate — the density exception. Fixed top-border-only cards, orange numerals, 1px hairlines. Free figures (from script), labels. Density dense-exception.

4 · Fadelist (narrative · move: opacity stack · DARK)

Ground ink-black. Composes fadelist (3 stacked Barlow-900 words at 1.0/0.5/0.22), fadelist-title. Focal the three-stage word stack opposite an oversized display title in {colors.fire-orange} (before/during/after). Accent the orange title. Silence moderate. Fixed the opacity ladder, lowercase 900. Free the three words, the title. Density low-moderate.

5 · Pull Quote (quote · move: oversized mark · DARK · left)

Ground ink-black, chrome suppressed. Composes quote-mark, quote-text, attribution. Focal a Barlow quote-text (700, lowercase) at ≤78cqw under an oversized fire-orange quote-mark (10cqw, line-height 0.6). Chrome mono attribution (name + role). Accent the orange quote mark. Silence ~50%. Fixed orange mark, lowercase quote. Free quote, attribution. Density low.

6 · Compare (argument · move: split + orange payoff · DARK→ORANGE)

Ground ink-black left panel + fire-orange right (payoff) panel, 1px divider. Composes compare-panel pair, kicker, h3. Focal two panels — left documents (cream on dark), right declares (ink on orange). Chrome mono panel labels. Accent the orange payoff panel. Silence moderate. Fixed ink-on-fire right panel, 1px divider, flat. Free the before/after content. Density standard.

Composition Rules

Do

• Set every Barlow display in lowercase weight 900, negative-tracked — the system’s signature.
• Use fire-orange as full environment on declarative frames, the lone accent on dark.
• Keep chrome in IBM Plex Mono uppercase, 0.14em; use the / mono bullet marker.
• Cap bullets at three; one statement per frame; build hierarchy from weight, size, 1px hairlines.
• Suppress chrome bars on cover/chapter/statement/quote/end; let type fill the field.
• Lean left on most frames; the type IS the composition.

Don’t

• Never uppercase Barlow display; never add a second accent color.
• Never put cream text on orange (ink-on-fire is absolute); never a cream/paper register.
• No drop shadow, no rounded surface (save nav dots), no gradient ground.
• No serif companion; chrome is never Barlow.
• Don’t pack two display moments into one frame; don’t blow a long line edge-to-edge — step down.

Aspect-Ratio Behavior

pad-x holds tight on the short edge; re-step display so the one big line stays ≤78cqw and above the 1.4cqw floor. Mono chrome stays Latin/digit-only.

Approved Entities

No real customers, logos, or vendors are defined in the source — render any such mark as a placeholder (the dashed img-placeholder at 55cqh). The system supplies type and one color, not brands.

Numerals & Claims (hard rule)

Never invent figures, percentages, dates, or counts at frame scale. Render slots as — figure —, {metric}, NN%. Stat-card numerals and bar heights carry placeholders until the script supplies them. Catalogue numbers (No. 01) are decorative chrome and may be sequential.

Pre-Render Self-Audit

• Squint — exactly one display moment dominates; nothing competes.
• Silence — declarative frames ~45–55% empty; only the stat grid runs dense.
• Register — one register per frame; ink-on-fire on orange, cream on dark; no second hue.
• Type — Barlow lowercase 900 negative-tracked, fit-to-measure; mono chrome uppercase 0.14em; ≥1.4cqw floor.
• Depth — 0 shadow, 0 radius (save nav dots); 1px hairlines only.
• Bullets — capped at three, orange / marker.
• Fabrication — every numeral traces to the script, else placeholder.

Known Gaps

• Motion intentionally out of scope. frame.md specifies composition only; the source’s 0.8s deck slide + per-element entry animations are deck mechanics.
• Barlow + IBM Plex Mono via Google Fonts; Noto Sans SC is the CJK fallback (the lowercase-display signal has no CJK equivalent — the two-register color system carries the identity, per the source).
• 9:16 / 1:1 are guidance; verify the one big line stays ≤78cqw and above the floor per ratio.
• Bars, compare panels, and the dashed image placeholder are CSS-only; no external imagery is required.