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
EB 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
EB 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.

Photography for Vestry has not been commissioned yet. The six tiles below are art-direction prompts — the kind of shot, the treatment, the feeling. A photographer brief, not the final library.
SHOT 01
Photograph · TBC
§ THE LETTER
A folded letter on linen. Late-afternoon light from the left. Wax seal, just cooled.
50mmf/2.8natural lightwarm gradefine grain
SHOT 02
Photograph · TBC
§ THE ROOM
A study with the chair empty. Books on a side table. Door slightly ajar.
35mmf/4window lightcool shadowno people
SHOT 03
Photograph · TBC
§ THE HANDS
Two pairs of hands across a table. Coffee gone cold. Papers between them. Faces out of frame.
85mmf/2diffusedshallow DOFno eyes
SHOT 04
Photograph · TBC
§ THE REGISTER
A leather-bound book, opened, a fountain pen mid-stroke. Detail: not the writer.
100mm macrof/5.6top lighttexture
SHOT 05
Photograph · TBC
§ THE THRESHOLD
A doorway, half-shadow. A coat on a hook. The hour after, not during.
35mmf/2.8raking lightstillno motion
SHOT 06
Photograph · TBC
§ THE OBJECT
A wedding ring on a saucer. A photograph face-down. The thing that was held.
100mm macrof/8side lightshadow visible
YES
Light. Texture. Hands. Rooms. Objects held. Pauses. The hour after.
NO
Stock smiles. Grief tropes. Candles. Tombstones. Hospital corridors. Doctors in white coats.
NEVER
Faces of grief. AI-generated people. Hand-drawn illustrations of loss.
Treatment notes
Palette
Bone, linen, sage. No cool blues except where lapis already lives.
Grain
Fine. 800 ISO film, or digital with subtle grain pass.
Time of day
Late afternoon, early morning. Never midday, never night.
People
Hands only. Faces always out of frame or out of focus.
§ 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.