Brand Book · Vol. I · MMXXVI

The Vestry identity.

Prepared for · internal & partner use Revision · 01 Maintained by · the vestry.io team
§ 01 · Principles

Four things we never forget.

The brand sits on four load-bearing principles. Every design decision answers to them.
I · Quiet
Whisper, don't pitch.
Grief doesn't need adrenaline. Small type earns more trust than big type.
II · Unmistakable
Say who can see what, and why.
Permissions and status should read the way they work. No surprises.
III · Plainspoken
Human first, lawyer second.
Legal accuracy, stated plainly. "Executor" over "fiduciary" every time.
IV · Earned
Trust is not a color.
Every claim backed by craft, receipts, and architecture. No trust badges.
§ 02 · Wordmark

VESTRY in a clean serif.

Six letters. No awkward combinations. Looks like it has been around for a hundred years — because the reference material has.
Primary wordmark
VESTRY
VESTRY
Cormorant Garamond · 500 · tracking +4% · optical set in uppercase
A · Ink on Bone VESTRY Primary
B · Bone on Ink VESTRY Night / inverse
C · Bone on Sage VESTRY Identity hero
D · Ink on Linen VESTRY Paper / print
E · Monogram mark Monogram mark UI / favicon
F · Seal / crest Vestry seal Membership / print
§ 03 · Typography

A pairing that reads like a letter.

A warm serif for what matters. A humanist sans for what needs to be clear. A mono for what needs to be exact.
Primary · Display & editorial
Cormorant Garamond
WEIGHTS · 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 ITALICS · yes
Keep what matters.
D / 104Everything
H1 / 64In its place
H2 / 40Quiet title
BLOCKQUOTE"A room for the record."
Secondary · UI & reading
Inter Tight
WEIGHTS · 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 NUMERALS · tabular
Plain language, accurate. The kind of sentence you want to read out loud to someone you love, and have it still be legally correct.
BODY · 16Vestry holds the documents your family needs.
UI · 14Shared with 3 stewards
BTN · 14Continue
Tertiary · Labels, metadata, receipts
JetBrains Mono
USE · labels, timestamps, code, IDs, page numbers TRACKING · +0.14em for uppercase labels
§ 03.b · UPDATED MAR 14, 2026 · STEWARD · KEVIN M. · KEY ROTATION · 90 DAYS · vestry.io / vault / household
§ 04 · Color

Bone, Linen, Sage-Stone, Ink.

Materials you'd actually find in a vestry — cloth, stone, wood, and ink on paper. Nothing digital-flat.
I · Foundation
Bone
#F4EFE6 · oklch(94% 0.014 80)
Primary surface · page
II · Warmth
Linen
#D9CBB0 · oklch(83% 0.04 85)
Accent · panels, placeholders
III · Voice
Sage-Stone
#3D4A3E · oklch(38% 0.02 140)
Primary action · links · marks
IV · Text
Ink
#1A1A17 · oklch(14% 0.005 80)
Type · deep contrast
RATIO
70% Bone · 18% Ink · 8% Sage · 4% Linen
WHAT WE DON'T USE
Red, gold, gradients, and trust-badge blue.
CONTRAST
Ink on Bone · AAA
Sage on Bone · AA
§ 05 · Voice

Plain, literary, short.

A carta for human beings. Shorter than a brochure, longer than a slogan, written to be read by someone tired.
Sounds like Vestry
  • "Everything in its place. Everyone taken care of."
  • "Kevin can see the will. He can't change it."
  • "We'll save where you are. Come back tomorrow."
  • "The people you love are already carrying enough."
  • "Three stewards. Two confirmations. One key."
Not Vestry
  • "Unlock peace of mind today with our premium offering!"
  • "Securely empowering your end-of-life journey."
  • "Revolutionary AI-driven estate planning."
  • "Don't leave your loved ones with a mess 😢"
  • "Enterprise-grade, bank-level, military-grade, HIPAA-adjacent."
§ 06 · Imagery

Quiet photography. No faces.

Hands, rooms, light on paper. The moments before and after, never during. Warm tone, natural light, nothing staged.
A sealed letter The Register Floor plan of the Vestry Owner and stewards Pattern: register
YES
Light. Texture. Hands. Rooms. Pauses.
NO
Stock smiles. Grief tropes. Candles. Tombstones. Doctors.
NEVER
Hand-drawn illustration of loss. AI-generated faces.
§ 07 · Motion

Motion that settles, never demands.

Movement in Vestry is the feeling of a page being turned. Slow in, slower out. No bounces, no hovers that wave.
I · Settle
Fade and drop, 320ms, ease-out.
For content arriving on a page. Never slide from off-screen.
II · Confirm
A mark, a pause, a breath.
When a step completes, hold for 400ms before advancing. Let the user feel the confirmation.
III · Reveal
A rule extends, then the title appears.
The line draws itself before the words arrive. Motion like a printmaker's registration mark.
§ 08 · Applications

The brand, placed in the world.

Not every surface is the home page. Here is how Vestry sits on a letter, a card, an app, and a partner document.
VESTRY vestry.io
Dear Keen household,
This is a record of the decisions you've made, the documents you've stored, and the people you've trusted with them. Nothing has changed since last month.
Annual register · MMXXVI · p. 1 of 4
A · Annual register (mailed, printed)
VESTRY
Kevin, you've been named a steward.
Traci has invited you to help safeguard what matters to her family.
Accept invitation
Email · invitation
B · Steward invitation email
VESTRY
The room where the important things are kept.
Out-of-home · identity
C · Transit / OOH placement
VESTRY membership · nº 00041
Traci Keen
Est. MMXXVI · household plan · stewards · 3
D · Membership card (physical, linen paper)
§ 09 · Things we don't do

The quickest way to stop being Vestry.

A short list worth re-reading before any new surface ships.
  • 01No gradients. Ever.
  • 02No stock photography of families smiling at sunsets.
  • 03No emoji in product copy.
  • 04No fear-based marketing. Ever.
  • 05No "AI" in headlines. It's a means, not a feature.
  • 06No drop-shadow card soup. Pages, not cards.
  • 07No military-grade, bank-grade, anything-grade.
  • 08No trust badges. Receipts only.