Oction Labs - Photography & Pattern

From the brand book art-direction section, p.20, p.23-25.

1. The rule (p.20)

Photography is desaturated and architectural. The mark never sits directly on an image - apply an Ink scrim at 45-70% opacity (or a solid Ink panel) first, then the reversed lockup. Verify 4.5:1 contrast against the darkest scrim area behind the mark.

Subject rules: octopus anatomy only, one hard light, wet speculars, tight crops. Colour never enters imagery - coral exists only in the dot and in vector accents layered above.

2. Two fields (p.23)

v3 photography is strictly black & white at maximum contrast, in two fields: - White field - background forced to pure #FFFFFF; the organism looks printed onto the page. Sits on light surfaces. - Ink field - floor crushed to Ink #0A0A0B; the organism emerges from the brand surface. Sits on dark surfaces.

The test (both directions): place the image on its surface and the edge must vanish. If a boundary is visible, the grade failed - fix the image, never add a frame or feather.

3. The two grade recipes (p.24)

Shared grade: 1. Convert to monochrome via luminance (never desaturation). 2. Auto-contrast with 1% clip at both ends. 3. Sigmoid contrast curve, strength k = 6.5 (deep shadows, brilliant speculars, steep mids). 4. No sharpening halos, no vignettes, no grain, no duotones.

Then, per field: - Ink field: floor every value below 14 up to RGB 10 10 11 (#0A0A0B) → matches Ink surfaces. - White field: multiply highlights above 200 by 1.04, clip at 255 → background becomes paper.

4. The sucker field (derived vector pattern, p.25)

When photography is unavailable or too literal, use the sucker field - the vector translation of the art direction: - Rings of light on Ink, arranged on a logarithmic spiral, growth 0.215/rad (the curve a resting arm makes). - Outer disc: white at 16-90% opacity, rising along the spiral. - Inner disc: Ink at 62% of ring radius. - Centre point: white at 22%. - Exactly one sucker is coral (the active agent) - never more; it counts toward the coral budget. - Use on hero backgrounds, deck dividers, event walls. Never behind body text, never on light surfaces.

5. The ghost mark (p.16, p.20)

The icon at 5% white opacity, cropped at the frame edge, is the only approved decorative use of the mark - and only on Ink or scrimmed surfaces, one per composition.

6. For an agent

• Never place the mark or type over the octopus subject - scrim first, or set headlines on the field colour beside the subject (p.27: "headlines set in Technor Light on the field colour, never over the subject").
• Imagery in the current kit is licensed reference; replace with final licensed photography graded through the recipes above before public use (p.27).