identity · marks & favicons

The mark.

A lotus, in one continuous stroke. Drawn small enough to live in a favicon, drawn precisely enough to live at the size of a billboard.

the primary mark

ZeroCourse

A reading desk for engineers, for the longer arc.

construction Three petals from a single base — past, present, the page you're reading. The base seat is the desk; the dot in the center is the reader. One stroke, gold gradient, no fill. Renders cleanly down to 16px and up to print.

lockups· five contexts

The mark, in lockup.

Horizontal for nav, stacked for splash, mark-only for tight spaces. The wordmark uses Source Serif 4 at opsz 48 · weight 300/400 italic with the «C» dropped into italic gold.

01 · horizontal · dark

ZeroCourse

For the global nav. Mark at 36px, wordmark at 44px.

02 · horizontal · light

ZeroCourse

For print, paper exports, light email signatures. Darker gold range.

03 · stacked · splash

ZeroCourse

a reading desk · est. 2026

For loading splash, posters, the manifesto cover. Add the year and tagline.

04 · mono · on gold

ZeroCourse

When the brand color is the surface — letterhead, stickers, the back of business cards.

05 · mark only

For favicons, app icons, ⌘K marks, watermarks. Stands on its own.

anatomy & color· what makes it the mark

What the lotus is doing.

The three petals

Upright petal — the present. The page open in front of you, the paragraph you're stopped on.
Left petal — what you've read. The takeaway you saved last Tuesday.
Right petal — what's coming. The next lesson, the next horizon.
The base — the desk. A single arc, suggesting a long flat table. The longer arc.
The dot — the reader. Centered, anchored, present.

Color & weight

Bodhi gold

#D4B87F → #B8975A

Bodhi deep

#B8975A

Ink

#06070B

Ink soft

#0A0A0E

Paper

#F1ECE4

One color, two tones. Brushed gold on near-black, never the reverse. The mark is meant to be read on a desk lit by lamp, not bleached by office light.
Stroke only, no fill. A single 3px stroke at 200px. Scales linearly — 1.5px at favicon, 6px at lockup, 12px at billboard.
Gradient runs top→bottom on the petals. Solid on the base. The light falls from above, where light should.
Never recolor. No school-blue version, no holiday red. The gold is the brand.

favicons· six sizes, three masks

The mark, shrunk down.

The lotus was drawn to read at 16px — pixel-aligned strokes, no anti-aliased gradient at the smallest sizes. The full SVG ships everywhere; the 16/32 raster fallbacks use a single ink color so they don't muddy.

16 px · favicon