Wednesday, November 11, 2026

Visual specification

1. Color Specification

• Primary hue: 218° service navy. Reasoning: the Color Mandate's 40–80° target sits inside its own forbidden 0–124° band (recent builds drowned in gold: 46°, 48°, 48°, 22°, 14°), so a fresh warm hue isn't available. 218° is in the non-forbidden 188–228° window, it's the flag/remembrance color a Veterans Day page wants, and it sits far from the recent gold cluster. The mandated warm hue survives as the brass accent, not the field.
• Neutral palette (navy-tinted cool): 50 #f1f5fb, 100 #d6e3f1, 200 #aec8e3, 300 #7aa2cf, 400 #4a7cb8, 500 #2a5e9c, 600 #1f4a7d, 700 #16365c, 800 #102743, 900 #0a1a2e
• Accent color (medal brass): light #eecd7f, default #e3b354, dark #cf9a33, glow #eecd7f
• Secondary accent: brass is the only accent; used as the gold point between the elevens, hairlines, and the one warm mark.
• Background: page bg #16365c (the drench field), card/surface bg #1f4a7d, second ground / footer flood #102743
• Text colors: primary text #f1f5fb, secondary text #aec8e3, muted/faint text #7aa2cf

2. Typography

• Hero phrase rendering: The hero OBJECT is the figure 11.11, set in the display face (DM Serif Display) at the hero clamp, outlined/engraved, centered, the dot between the pairs flooded brass as the mirror axis. The hero PHRASE "Veterans Day" steps down to 4xl, roman, directly beneath the figure as its caption and the page's single h1.
• Type treatment: hero for the figure (engraved outline); 4xl for the hero phrase caption; lede/xl for the standfirst "The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."; base for the honor-note and body; sm for the signal strip; 2xs tracked for micro labels. Spend the middle: the standfirst and section head keep the page off the two-size cliff. Body measure held 60–70ch, leading at the ramp's body step.

3. Layout Specification

• Composition: single / radial / mirrored / full-bleed / measured / syncopated / standard / drenched / hero-only / figure. A single centered figure that mirrors across its own dot wants one column, a radial center, and the navy flooding full-bleed behind it; nothing competes with the date.
• CSS grid/flex structure: hero display: grid; place-items: center; min-height: 100vh single column; below, display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(280px, 1fr)) for the work index; footer strip display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between.
• Major dimensions:
  • Hero/featured area height: min-height: 100vh, drenched #16365c
  • No sidebar.
  • Max content width: max-width: none; side padding clamp(24px, 6vw, 96px); body blocks inset to ~66ch.
  • Section padding: clamp(48px, 8vh, 112px) vertical.
• Nav placement: thin top bar, 64px, on the navy drench. stacked-md mark at left (white disc carries), single title-case word "Index" at right revealing Work / About / Contact. Not the rejected wordmark-left / links-right bar.
• Hero phrase grid zone: figure 11.11 occupies the centered cell, rows center, roughly the middle 60% of the viewport at clamp(96px, 12.5vw, 160px); "Veterans Day" sits directly below at 4xl; standfirst below that.
• Home callout slot: <SiteCallout /> sits below the work index and above the footer signal strip, between those two sections, full width in bgAlt #102743.

4. Component Character

• Border radius: cards 2px (sm), buttons 4px (md), tags 2px. Minimal, dignified.
• Border treatment: hairline border #2a5e9c; emphatic rules borderStrong #4a7cb8; the one brass hairline under the figure uses accent #e3b354.
• Shadow: none. Depth comes from surface lightness (#1f4a7d over #16365c).
• Density: measured, spacious hero, quiet index below.
• Interactive states: links brighten toward #f1f5fb and show a brass #e3b354 underline on hover.

5. Signal Integration

• Where signal elements live: footer data strip, one ruled row in field #102743.
• Sports scores: Red Wings 2–3 loss, set in sm tabular figures, label in brass #cf9a33, score ink #f1f5fb.
• Quote: Schwarzenegger "Help others and give something back." set as a small attributed caption in the strip, author Arnold Schwarzenegger visible in #aec8e3. Not the hero.
• Holiday: Veterans Day is the hero; 11.11 is the figure.
• Music: My Morning Jacket, Radiohead, Tobin Sprout listed as "in rotation" in the strip, taste not event.
• Other signals: SPY 749.92, down 0.37%; Aldie VA, 51°F, sunny, calm; waxing crescent, 6.5% lit; Austin Championship, scheduled, all as tracked facts in the strip.

Self-check

1. Hero quotability: Yes — "Veterans Day" is a sanctioned signal-event holiday name carried as the caption of a poster-scale 11.11, legible and screenshot-worthy on the navy field.
2. Because-of chain: Yes — the mirrored date drives mirrored symmetry, centered radial single column, the drench, the engraved didone, and the brass axis-point.
3. Render feasibility: Yes — "11.11" is five glyphs at ≤160px, centered at 1440 with room to spare.
4. Canvas floor feasible: Yes — a full-bleed drench with a centered marquee figure fills ≥80% by construction.
5. Phone: Yes — at 360 the figure holds at the hero step (~110px), five glyphs fit inside the first fold without cutting, with "Veterans Day" beneath.

Rationale

The phrase is "Veterans Day," carried by the figure 11.11, so the composition had to be a mirror. The two elevens reflect across the dot, which means the page reads from its center outward: single column, radial axis, mirrored symmetry, the figure full-bleed on a drenched field with nothing beside it to break the reflection. The one hero object is the date; everything else is caption, standfirst, and quiet evidence below the fold.

The chassis is DM Serif Display because a memorial date wants engraved, high-contrast letterforms, the voice of a monument or a plaque, not a signage grotesque. I set it outlined so the numerals read as cut into the field rather than pasted on it, and centred because the mirror demands it. It loads one display weight, so the treatment commits to regular and lets scale and the stroke carry the drama. The brass dot between the elevens is the still point the whole reflection turns on.

The palette deviates from the gold mandate on purpose: that mandate's warm target sits inside its own forbidden band after a week of gold builds, so I took the flag's color instead. Service navy drenched across the full viewport is the committed gesture the gold standard asks for, the warm mandate hue preserved as a single medal-brass accent, which is exactly where gold belongs on navy. The shell is a thin standard top bar with the nav collapsed to one word so it reads as dignified chrome, not the rejected links-right pattern, and the signals, score, market, weather, moon, rotation, and the Schwarzenegger line with his name attached, sit in one ruled strip at the foot.

Composition rationale

I moved hero_object off the mandate's start (statement) to figure, which the mandate discourages, because today the date IS the event: 11.11 is Armistice, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, so the number earns marquee and "Veterans Day" captions it. Symmetry mirrored is literal, the two elevens reflect across the brass dot. I moved columns to single and hero_zone to full-bleed (off the three/lower-third start) because a drenched memorial figure wants one centered field and nothing beside it; the rest holds on the mandate's suggestions (radial, measured, syncopated, standard, drenched, hero-only).

Signal integration

• Where signal elements live: footer data strip, one ruled row in field #102743.
• Sports scores: Red Wings 2–3 loss, set in sm tabular figures, label in brass #cf9a33, score ink #f1f5fb.
• Quote: Schwarzenegger "Help others and give something back." set as a small attributed caption in the strip, author Arnold Schwarzenegger visible in #aec8e3. Not the hero.
• Holiday: Veterans Day is the hero; 11.11 is the figure.
• Music: My Morning Jacket, Radiohead, Tobin Sprout listed as "in rotation" in the strip, taste not event.
• Other signals: SPY 749.92, down 0.37%; Aldie VA, 51°F, sunny, calm; waxing crescent, 6.5% lit; Austin Championship, scheduled, all as tracked facts in the strip.