style guide
A brand guide for artfarm, organized around brand foundation, visual identity, voice and messaging, and reusable brand applications.
What artfarm is, and what it's for.
North Star Vision
A commons for art & organizing toward a more free, caring, & ecological world.
artfarm looks like…
Combining the creative autonomy of an artist-run space with the democratic spirit of a free school, artfarm fills a critical gap in Lexington's aesthetic ecology — an independent organization of, by, and for working-class artists and our neighbors. Every piece of communication should reflect one or more of these three identities.
🎨 Artist-Run Space
Studios, shared workspace, exhibitions, performances, screenings, and a shop — run by the artists who use them. Creative autonomy comes first: no gatekeepers, no curatorial elite.
🍎 Free School
Classes, workshops, skill-shares, a library and reading room. Everyone has something to teach and something to learn — knowledge moves sideways, not down.
🤝 Commons
Tool library, free store, meeting space, and shared resources sustained by members. We operate without grants, large donors, corporate sponsors, or government funding.
Seven points underneath everything
artfarm's Points of Unity are the brand's core principles. Copy, design, and programming decisions should be checkable against them.
Usufruct
Free use & enjoyment of shared resources, so long as use causes no harm or waste.
Direct Democracy
Democracy makes better decisions. All members have a real say through participatory self-governance.
Ecological Reharmonization
Society can be reconstructed along ecological lines by tending and healing relationships among people and the more-than-human world.
Community Ownership & Control
No elites, no gatekeepers — just us, building power where we live, keeping each other safe, and creating joy together.
Art for Everyone / Everyone an Artist
Creativity is our shared inheritance. Art is power — and all power belongs to all the people.
Radical Hospitality
Generosity that actively breaks down barriers to access — ensuring even the most oppressed and exploited flourish, not wilt, in our space.
Gumption
Collective courage — the determination to act, the nerve to resist, and the audacity to imagine boldly.
Core visuals.
Wordmark, typography, color, and the photo treatment. These are the fixed visual foundations of the artfarm brand system.
Always lowercase. Always inked.
The artfarm wordmark is set in Albiona Inked Heavy — a distressed slab serif that reads handmade, like chalk or screen print. It is always written lowercase as one word: artfarm. Never "Artfarm," "ArtFarm," or "ART FARM" — in the wordmark or in running text. Use black on light backgrounds and white on dark or gradient backgrounds; the gradient bar may sit beneath the wordmark as an underline. The wordmark is the only place Albiona Inked Heavy appears.
Wordmark — Black
Primary wordmark for white or light tint backgrounds.
Wordmark — White
Reverse wordmark for ink, dark photography, or saturated backgrounds.
Wordmark + Gradient Bar
The signature lockup: wordmark over the full brand gradient bar. The bar runs lavender → pink → chartreuse → mint, left to right, and should not be reordered or reversed.
Inked display, rounded headings, plain talk
Albiona Inked Heavy belongs to the wordmark alone — never headers or titles. Nebulas carries all headings, display copy, and buttons; Source Sans 3 is body copy. Roboto Mono handles eyebrows, labels, and metadata. Albiona and Nebulas are licensed fonts — share the files from the brand assets folder rather than public links.
Ink plus a sunrise of four
The palette is deep ink plus four candy-bright accents that always travel together in gradient order: lavender, pink, chartreuse, mint. Click any chip to copy its hex. The four brights are backgrounds and accents — never long text. Text is ink or white.
Source: artfarm Color Palette (brand PDF). All five are canonical.
The gradient is the brand's signature move: underlines beneath the wordmark, page footers, photo treatments, and borders. Always horizontal, always in this order. Use it as a stripe or wash — not as a text fill.
rgba(196,134,213,.12)
rgba(255,153,211,.12)
rgba(224,255,79,.12)
rgba(156,252,151,.12)
Tints are each brand color at 12% opacity over white — apply with the rgba values above, or use the flattened hex where opacity isn't available (email, print). For cards, callouts, and section backgrounds.
Real people, gradient-washed
Documentary photos of members, events, and the space — never stock. For collages, banners, and headers, photos get the gradient wash: desaturate, then screen the brand gradient over the top so adjacent photos shift hue across the lavender→mint spectrum.
Playful, plainspoken, and full of gumption.
How artfarm sounds
artfarm sounds like a friend inviting you to something good — not an institution announcing programming. Warm, a little irreverent, and direct about politics and money.
Words we use, words we don't
Vocabulary does political work. Prefer commons language over nonprofit and market language.
Avoid deficit framing of Lexington or its artists. artfarm fills a gap; it doesn't rescue anyone.
Adapt the core story by audience
The mission stays the same. Lead with the part each group actually shows up for.
"Pay attention to what you give as well as what you get."
"What can you take responsibility for?"
A commons runs on contribution. Messaging to every audience can close with one of these invitations — asking people in, not just selling them on.
Sample message frames
Reusable skeletons for the most common asks.
[playful hook riffing on the event name] + [what you'll actually do] + [date/time/place in mono style] + [free or sliding scale] + "rsvp in the member app or email hello@artfarm.coop"
[what the commons made possible this month] + [plain money talk: what dues cover] + [sliding scale, no one turned away] + "become a member 💜💖💛💚"
Reusable patterns.
Friendly pills, loud and clear
Buttons are fully rounded, set in Nebulas Bold. Primary is ink with chartreuse text; the gradient button is reserved for the single most important ask on a page (usually "Become a Member!").
Primary
Main actions: join, rsvp, sign up.
Secondary
Supporting actions alongside a primary.
Gradient
One per page, maximum. The big ask.
White cards, gradient edges, ink blocks
Surfaces are simple: white or tinted cards with a single gradient or brand-color edge, and ink blocks for emphasis. The gradient bar anchors footers and dark blocks.
this week at artfarm
- 🎥 friday: film screening + discussion, 7p (free!)
- 🍎 saturday: mending skill-share, 10a (bring a holey sweater)
- 🤝 sunday: tenants union potluck, 5p (bring a dish or just yourself)
all member seasonal assembly
We'll make plans for the commons, clarify new policies, unveil fresh resources, collaborate across teams, & practice shared governance. (And potluck!!!)
Member voices over marketing claims
Testimony from members and neighbors carries the brand better than copywriting. Quotes get the vertical gradient edge and Nebulas treatment.
"No elites, no gatekeepers — just us, building power where we live."
Emoji are the icon set
artfarm uses ordinary emoji as wayfinding — in lists, headings, and social posts. They're free, friendly, and render everywhere. Use one per line item, leading the phrase; don't stack several in a row outside of celebratory moments (💜💖💛💚 echoes the palette and is the signature run).