Brand Guidelines v1.1
The Pelagora
Brand System
A living guide for how Pelagora looks, sounds, and feels across every touchpoint — from landing pages to terminal output.
01 — Origin
Where the name comes from
Pelagora is a portmanteau rooted in two ancient Greek words that together capture the essence of the project: open, borderless exchange.
Pelagic
πελαγικός — pelagikós
The Open Sea
Relating to the vast, open ocean. Unbounded, deep, and connected. The pelagic zone is where life moves freely, without borders or walls.
Agora
αγορά — agorá
The Marketplace
A public open space for assemblies and markets in ancient Greece. The center of civic and commercial life — where people gathered to trade.
An open marketplace on a vast, borderless network.
02 — Logo & Mark
Logo brief
An octopus-column mark paired with the Pelagora wordmark in Josefin Sans. The octopus tentacles form the ionic volutes of a Greek column capital.
Concept
An octopus whose body or tentacles subtly incorporate Greek column or arch shapes. The octopus is dominant — the column is structural subtext.
Style
Flat and geometric. No gradients, no gloss. Must work as a favicon, GitHub avatar, and terminal icon at 16px.
Versatility
Monochrome versions required. Mark can be used standalone or alongside the wordmark. Think: cut from a single sheet of paper.
Primary mark — light
Primary mark — dark
Full lockup — light
Full lockup — dark
Minimum clear space: 1x the mark’s width on all sides
Never rotate, stretch, or apply drop shadows / effects
Mono versions for single-color contexts (stamps, embossing)
Mark can appear standalone or paired with the wordmark
03 — Color Palette
Colors
A Mediterranean palette grounded in ocean blues and terracotta warmth. The accent is used sparingly for maximum impact.
Primary
Deep Ocean
#0A5E8A
Headers, primary UI, logo
Teal
#1A8A7D
Supporting elements, code, links
Terracotta
#D4602A
CTAs, highlights, badges
Neutrals
Ink
#1A1A2E
Body text, dark backgrounds
Slate
#4A5568
Secondary text, borders
Sand
#F5F0EB
Page backgrounds, cards
Marble
#FFFFFF
Clean space, contrast
Extended / Semantic
Aegean
#2D8A6E
Success states
Amber
#D4922A
Warnings
Coral
#C94444
Errors, destructive
Sky
#4A90D9
Informational
Color Rules
Terracotta is the accent — use sparingly for CTAs and key callouts
Deep Ocean + Sand is the default page pairing
Dark mode: Ink background, Marble text, same accent colors
Never place Terracotta on Teal (low contrast, visual clash)
04 — Typography
Type system
Fira Sans Bold handles all headlines and display text. DM Sans is the workhorse for body copy, UI, and everything else. JetBrains Mono handles code, CLI output, and technical identifiers.
The open sea of commerce
Build on the Pelagora mesh
Every Beacon is a marketplace
Skills extend what your Beacon can do
Pelagora nodes discover each other via DHT. Your data stays on your machine. You choose what to share, who to trade with, and what rules to follow.
Version 1.1 — March 2026 — Draft pending logo design
Monospace — JetBrains Mono
// Spin up a Beacon in one command npx create-reffo-beacon my-surfboard-shop # Your Beacon is live at http://localhost:3000 # Connected to 12 peers on the mesh
05 — Visual Language
Mediterranean + Technical
The visual world blends Cycladic architecture with developer-native elements. Clean whites, blue domes, arched doorways alongside terminal windows and network diagrams. Neither dominates.
Architectural References
Arches, columns, terraces, and domes as framing devices. Flat geometric illustration style — consistent with the logo direction.
Network Diagrams
Dot grids suggest network nodes. Clean diagrams over cluttered screenshots. Subtle wave patterns for backgrounds at low opacity.
Iconography — Flat, 2px stroke, rounded
Beacon
Skill
Mesh
Terminal
Ref
Code
06 — Brand Voice
Three registers, one personality
Pelagora shifts tone by context but never changes who it is. The default is builder-to-builder; visionary and community registers are used at specific touchpoints.
Primary
Builder-to-Builder
Peer-level, technical, concise. Respects the reader's intelligence. No hand-holding.
Landing page, docs, README, GitHub, blog
Spin up a Beacon. Connect to the mesh. Start building.
Elevated
Visionary
Aspirational, movement-oriented. Paints the picture of what open commerce becomes.
Hero sections, manifesto, keynotes, launches
Every marketplace ever built chose the same architecture: one company, one database, one set of rules. What if commerce worked like the internet itself?
Warm
Community
Friendly, welcoming, inclusive. No gatekeeping. Makes newcomers feel like they belong.
Onboarding, community channels, contributor docs
First Beacon? Nice. Here's what to try next.
Voice Rules
Write like this
Active voice, second person. Short sentences.
Contractions are fine — it's, you'll, don't.
Code snippets over paragraphs when possible.
Never like this
We are pleased to announce the availability of…
Simply follow these easy steps to get started…
The developer should then proceed to configure…
07 — Key Terminology
The Pelagora lexicon
Consistent terminology builds shared understanding. Use these terms exactly as defined across all communications.
Beacon
A node on the Pelagora network.
Always capitalized. “Your Beacon” not “your beacon server.”
Skill
A modular feature plugin for a Beacon.
Capitalized as a concept. A Beacon can have many Skills.
SKILL.md
The file an AI agent reads to learn Pelagora.
Always monospace/code-styled. The entry point for AI-assisted onboarding.
Mesh
The peer-to-peer network of connected Beacons.
“The mesh” or “the Pelagora mesh.”
Ref
A Schema.org-based item listing on the network.
Short for reference. A product, service, or asset.
MCP Server
The AI integration layer for interacting with Beacons.
Spell out on first use; abbreviate after.
DHT
Distributed Hash Table — how Beacons discover each other.
Spell out on first use in non-technical contexts.
08 — Brand Separation
Pelagora vs. Reffo
Two distinct brands. One builds the network; the other is an app on it.
| Pelagora | Reffo | |
|---|---|---|
| What | The open-source network / protocol | A marketplace app built on Pelagora |
| Audience | Developers, builders, contributors | End users buying & selling items |
| Voice | Builder-to-builder | Consumer-friendly |
| Visual | Mediterranean + technical | Its own brand system |
| Relationship | The platform | One of many apps on the platform |
Pelagora and Reffo should never share branding in the same context. Reffo can be referenced as an example of what you can build on Pelagora, but it gets no visual preferential treatment over other example apps.
09 — Usage Guidelines
Do’s and Don’ts
Quick reference for brand decisions.
Do
Use the octopus mark consistently across all contexts
Lead with the builder narrative: “what will you build?”
Show real code and terminal output in marketing
Reference the Mediterranean aesthetic in illustration, not cliché
Keep copy concise — this audience scans
Don’t
Use the Reffo logo alongside Pelagora as co-brands
Use stock photography of people in suits
Say “blockchain” or “web3” — decentralized, not crypto
Over-explain what an AI agent is — the audience knows
Use gradients on the logo or write paragraphs when a code snippet would do
10 — Asset Naming
File conventions
All brand assets follow this naming pattern for consistency across teams and tools.
pelagora-logo-primary.svg
pelagora-logo-mono-dark.svg
pelagora-logo-mono-light.svg
pelagora-mark-primary.svg
pelagora-wordmark.svg
pelagora-icon-[name]-[size].svg
pelagora-og-image.png (1200×630)
pelagora-favicon.png (32×32)
pelagora-logo-mono-dark.svg
pelagora-logo-mono-light.svg
pelagora-mark-primary.svg
pelagora-wordmark.svg
pelagora-icon-[name]-[size].svg
pelagora-og-image.png (1200×630)
pelagora-favicon.png (32×32)