RocketRide Branding

Colors, logos, and illustration styles. tokens/ is the source of truth for color. Everything else references it.

Structure

tokens/                        color tokens, machine readable
  rocketride.tokens.json       canonical values
  rocketride.css               --rr-* custom properties, generated from the JSON
  gen_css.py                   the generator
  check_contrast.py            verifies every contrast obligation in the JSON
logos/                         logo and icon files
  export_png.py                re-exports the PNGs from the SVGs, preserving alpha
styles/                        illustration styles, one directory each
  moebius-scene/               full-bleed narrative scenes (25 assets)
  minimalist-stipple/          isolated black-ink subjects for small formats (20 assets)
deprecated/                    superseded, kept for reference only
MIGRATION.md                   what changed in v2.0 and what it breaks

Rules

1. Color values live in tokens/rocketride.tokens.json and nowhere else. Do not hardcode hex in a doc, a deck, or a site. If a value is missing, add it to the token file first.
2. rocketride.css is generated from the JSON. Do not hand-edit it. Run python tokens/gen_css.py tokens/rocketride.tokens.json and commit the result.
3. Every illustration style gets a STYLE.md before any asset lands in its directory. The spec comes first, then the assets, so the style is reproducible by someone who was not in the room.
4. Asset filenames are kebab-case and describe the subject, not the campaign. astronaut-planting-flag.png, not q4-banner-3.png. Campaign use is tracked outside this repo.
5. Anything in deprecated/ is reference only. Do not pull from it.
6. After changing a color, run python tokens/check_contrast.py tokens/rocketride.tokens.json. It must exit clean. Every ratio quoted in the token file is produced by that script, so a stale number is a test failure rather than folklore.

Verify the repo

python tokens/check_contrast.py tokens/rocketride.tokens.json
python tokens/gen_css.py tokens/rocketride.tokens.json | diff - tokens/rocketride.css

The first asserts every contrast obligation. The second proves rocketride.css really is generated and has not been hand-edited.

Color at a glance

Role	Token	Light	Dark
Brand / accent	brand.accent	#f93822	#fa4c38
Page background	surface.bg	#ffffff	#12111a
Body text	text.primary	#1a1a1a	#f4f3f0
Illustration ink	illustration.ink	#12111a	#eeede7
Illustration ground	illustration.ground	#eeede7	#12111a

Two constraints that are easy to break by accident:

The primary button is ink-filled, not accent-filled. White on #f93822 is 3.74:1, which fails the 4.5:1 a normal-size label needs. The button fills with #12111a (18.74:1) and the accent survives as a hard block offset down-left behind it, carrying no text. This is the construction the shipping Cloud hero already uses. Anyone who "simplifies" it back to an accent-filled button reintroduces an AA failure.

The accent is large-text-only on light grounds. 3.74:1 on white and 3.19:1 on the illustration ground. Legal at 24px and above, illegal below it. Small display units are ink-only.

Resolved in v2.0

Logo color vs brand token. The logo used #f93822 red while the draft token file called brand #f7901f orange. Sampling the shipping Cloud hero settled it: the product was already using the logo red as its UI accent. Red is now brand.brand; orange is retired. Orange could not have taken the job even if wanted — it measures 2.00:1 on the illustration ground and fails as an accent at any size. The decision was made deliberately rather than left to the site to decide by default.

Abyss Blue in the logo. #1e1a34 came from the superseded palette, which made the logo the last artifact in the repo built on the old system. Replaced with logo.ink #12111a.

Hex casing. All logo SVGs are lowercase.

Open decisions

Dark theme, status colors, and interaction states are proposed, not approved. They are in the token file marked $status: proposed. Contrast is verified on every one of them; the hues have had no design review. dark.accent is deliberately not brand.accent — the pure brand red only reaches 4.22:1 on dark.widget — and that divergence should be reviewed alongside the rest.

Trademark mark. The wordmark now carries a circle-™, ported from the unmerged chore/update-logos branch. Whether it should be ™ or ®, and whether the icon variants need one too, is a legal question this repo cannot answer.

The stipple assets are a thirteenth of their own spec. 20 assets at ~300px against a 4000px target, cropped from a single contact sheet with no higher-resolution source. Usable for web thumbnails and small display units, unusable for print or hero. See styles/minimalist-stipple/STYLE.md.

moebius-scene has no locked generation prompt. It can be used but not extended — a matching 26th asset is currently guesswork.

Typography, spacing, radius, and elevation do not exist here. This repo is color, logos, and illustration only.