Brand Guidelines
Artifice is the organization for experimental discipline.
Artifice helps artists working with technology and science fiction make new work, show it, and keep a public record of how it was made.
Mission
Artifice supports emerging artists, researchers, and creative technologists working across creative science, installation, new media, and performance. Through curatorial research, production environments, and a public archive of creative practice, we advance open cultural infrastructure.
Vision
A future where experimental work reaches the public while it is still being made, and the record stays open for anyone to read.
Method
Two formats: WHITEBOX (the lab) and BLACKBOX (the stage), recorded in a public Index.
The marks
The Artifice lockup is the parent identity. The hexagon and asterisk carry WHITEBOX and BLACKBOX. The cursive wordmarks are fixed art assets, never re-set in a live font.
Do
- Use approved files only.
- Keep clear space of at least the mark's own height.
- Place on black or white linen, high contrast.
Don't
- Recolor outside the palette.
- Add shadow, glow, bevel, stretch, or rotation.
- Re-typeset the wordmarks in any live font.
WHITEBOX / BLACKBOX
Two halves of one connection. WHITEBOX is the container: the output, the socket. BLACKBOX is the substrate: the input, the plug. Every artifact lives in one, never both.
Container · output · socket
WHITEBOX
The lab. Process visible, materials labeled, legible to anyone who wants to understand how it was made.
Substrate · input · plug
BLACKBOX
The stage. Rendered as experience and encounter, with process held back so it can be felt before it is explained.
Carbon, chalk, one accent
Carbon and chalk carry roughly 90% of every surface; cobalt is the single accent. The ground is a soft black, never pure; the light is a slight off-white.
Helvetica Now Display and Fragment Mono
One sans sets every heading and all body; hierarchy comes from scale, never weight or a second face. Fragment Mono is the metadata: captions, labels, system text. Redaction 50 Italic is the rare display exception.
| Role | Face | Case | Tracking | Leading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heading | Helvetica Now Display | ALL CAPS | −1.5% | 100% |
| Body | Helvetica Now Display | sentence / caps | −1.5% | 100% |
| Caption | Fragment Mono | UPPERCASE | −1.5% | as needed |
| Display | Redaction 50 Italic | as authored | default | default |
Type decisions
- One display sans + one mono. Never a third family.
- Body and heading share Helvetica Now Display; size carries the hierarchy.
- Line length 45–75 characters; captions 30–50.
Don't
- Set the cursive wordmarks in a live font; they are art.
- Use weight swaps to make a heading; change scale instead.
- Leave single-word last lines; rebreak the line above.
Cinematic, naturalistic, document the work
Photography is dark, filmic, and warm. It documents the work and the room, never staged or stocky. Full-bleed, the image carries the page. Reference register: A24, MICRODOT.
Do
- Shoot the work and the room as they are; available light.
- Let one image run full-bleed; pace it slow.
- Grade dark and warm, toward the carbon ground.
Don't
- Stock or staged corporate imagery.
- Heavy filters, HDR, or punchy saturation.
- Busy collages that fight the type.
Chapters, nodes, [ ENTER ]
Three programs, three audiences. Brackets are scarce: they frame named platforms and works as discrete objects. [ ENTER ] earns brackets; Chapters and nodes do not.
ChaptersFor the publicPerformance-forward conceptual and narrative showcase.
nodes:For the industryResearch-forward development and demo showcase. Cased lowercase, colon, numeral (nodes:ii).Program marks
Use brackets
- Named works, exhibitions, episodes.
- Platform and publication names: [ ENTER ].
- Schema field labels when typing records.
No brackets
- Generic nouns: artifact, program, node, chapter.
- The org name (Artifice) or person names.
- WHITEBOX / BLACKBOX; uppercase already carries it.
Write like an editor, not a copywriter
Assume a peer. State, don't sell. Warmth comes from noticing, not adjectives. Every sentence survives one question: does it earn its space?
Do
- Observation over declaration: show the condition, trust the reader.
- Material before concept: koji in a lab, resin tied to rare-earth pricing.
- Name references only when load-bearing.
- Confidence without volume: state it plainly.
Don't
- “Excited to announce,” “groundbreaking,” exclamation points.
- Stacked one-line declarations (Nike-ad cadence).
- Investor framing: “spatial intelligence,” “the future of.”
- Explain a metaphor with a second metaphor.
You are the Artifice writing voice. Write like an editor, not a copywriter: assume a peer, state rather than sell, and let warmth come from noticing, not adjectives. Observation over declaration; material before concept; name references only when load-bearing; confidence without volume. Every sentence must earn its space. Brand: Artifice is the organization for experimental discipline, a curatorial research nonprofit working between creative science and new media fictions. Programs: Chapters (the public), nodes: (the industry), [ ENTER ] (the artist). Formats: WHITEBOX (the lab) and BLACKBOX (the stage). Never use: "excited to announce," "groundbreaking," exclamation points, the "not X but Y" reveal, aphorisms, or AI words (delve, robust, seamless, tapestry, unlock, harness, elevate). Fragment Mono is uppercase only; no camelCase (WHITEBOX, not WhiteBox); never set the lockup glyphs as text.