a system for
refraction

The wordmark is the brand. The dot does the work.

Lowercase italic serif for the words; bold sans gradient for the dot. The dot is where light enters and refracts — keep it visible at every scale. Where a single glyph is needed — favicon, avatar, watermark — the cat mark stands in, haloed in the same refracted spectrum.

One lockup, everywhere. In code the wordmark is a single component — .wordmark in site.css (nav.js mirrors it in its own scoped .brand). Never restyle the name ad hoc; paste the markup:
<span class="wordmark">aura<span class="dot">.</span>refract</span>

aura.refract

Primary · on dark

aura.refract

Primary · on bone

aura.refract

Atmospheric · over imagery

Cat mark · favicon, watermark, social avatar

Seven bands, one black.

The palette is a spectrum, not a swatch. The seven prism colors are the personality; black and bone are the stage. Use neutrals 80% of the time. Let color enter like light through a prism — focused, not flooded.

Two jobs, one spectrum. The seven bands are the data — the measured aura colors — so they stay full-spectrum wherever a band is named or shown (band cards, the reading, this palette, the wordmark's refraction dot). Ambient / atmospheric light — the hero refraction, social-card fans, background washes — uses the brand tritone: rose · violet · cyan. It reads as spectral and ownable without turning every surface into the full rainbow.

Serif for soul. Sans for signal. Mono for proof.

Three typefaces, three jobs. The serif carries emotion. The sans carries information. The mono carries credibility — labels, metadata, anything that should feel like a readout.

Confident, lowercase, a little dangerous.

Aura culture is sincere, soft, and a little woo. We sit one step left — same world, sharper edge. We don't explain ourselves. We don't promise outcomes. We refract what's there.

How we write field notes.

Field notes (the blog) are where the brand voice goes long. Same soul as our micro-copy — honest, human, refractive — but in full sentences and real paragraphs. Think personal essay, not press release. Anyone on the team can write one. Read the two that set the standard: Ashley's "why I built the lens" and the field notes — punchy-honest and warm-reflective both work, as long as they're true.

The shape of a note

Mechanics

• Length: ~600–1,200 words (a 3–6 min read). Say it, then stop.
• Person & tense: first person; present or past as the story needs.
• Title: lowercase, evocative, often two beats — "why I built the lens.", "your color isn't fixed."
• Tag: a short category eyebrow — Founder note, Industry note, Honest answer, Color guide.
• Rhythm: vary sentence length; an occasional three-word punch. White space is a feature.
• Honesty rule: never promise outcomes or mysticism. If unsure, say less.
• Sign-off: "— Name" in mono caps; footer byline = name + role.
• Register note: field notes use normal sentence case (the all-lowercase rule is for UI & social micro-copy, not essays).

Three motifs. All built from refracted light.

The cat is the mark; the prism is the light it refracts. The prism stays the genetic shape of the pattern language — every texture is a derivative of it, outlined, refracted, or scattered. Use sparingly as accent, never as wallpaper.

How the brand shows up.

A few directions for social, merch, and product-adjacent surfaces. Same DNA: lowercase italics, prism color, generous black.

Lines that do the work.

A small bank of brand-true lines. Use them in product, in social, in merch. Build new ones against the voice rules.

Who we're for. And who we run ads to.

We're for people who want a beautiful, honest read on their own light — no booth, no plane ticket, no dogma. In ads we lead with the image and the ten-second promise, then let people self-select into the feeling. We sell the artifact and the ritual, never an outcome.

Where to reach them

Consumer: TikTok and Instagram Reels/Stories first (image-led, sound-on), then Pinterest for aesthetic search and Snapchat/YouTube Shorts for the youngest skew. Lead organic with real auras; put spend behind the ones that already traveled. B2B: LinkedIn + direct outreach + event partnerships, never the same playful creative as consumer.

For when you set up payments.

Two things live in Stripe. The two paid products (the full reading and the aura portrait) are one-time Prices the app charges through Checkout — set them up once, drop the price IDs in Vercel. The tips are three standalone Payment Links ($3 / $7 / $13). Every product image, title, description, and statement descriptor below is copy-paste ready.

◆ The two paid products — Checkout

◆ The tips — three Payment Links

Every platform, one voice.

Copy-paste bios for every social profile, tuned to each platform's character limit. The voice stays consistent — lowercase, optic-language, no woo, no shouting. Pick the matching handle on every platform: @aurarefract everywhere. Lock them all tonight.

People follow people.

The lens is the product, but the team is the story. These "meet the team" posts introduce us one human at a time, so followers feel like they know us before they ever book. Everyone here matters and everyone has a story worth telling — write your own, or send Ashley three honest facts and she'll tell it for you. Pair each with an aura-lit portrait and the band that fits their energy.

Post caption — fill in the blanks

meet [name].
[hook — the surprising, human thing].

[name] is our [role]. [one true detail — what they're like off the clock].
what lights them up: [their why, ideally in their own words].
the moment we knew: [one specific, real story].

aura runs on people like this. their band? [color] — [one word why].
say hi 👇 — and read your own light while you're here.

Story version — 4 frames

1. Frame 1 — portrait + name + role, big text, aura glow behind.
2. Frame 2 — the hook, as text on the photo.
3. Frame 3 — their "light" quote + a question sticker so followers can ask them something.
4. Frame 4 — their aura band + "welcome [name] 🤍" + the "drop your aura" poll/link sticker.

Starting angles, per person

A thread to pull — replace with their real story, or hand it to Ashley to write.

• Kim — CEO. the operator who's built before; why she bet on light.
• Ashley — founder. the "why I built the lens" origin (ties to the field note).
• Jacey — social & QA. the eye that keeps us real; the detail no one else catches.
• Jordan — accounting & social. keeps the lights on and the calendar full; the numbers mind who's secretly creative.
• Demi — creative & events. the room-maker; what a great pop-up actually feels like.
• Jason — creative & film. sees the shot before it happens; the b-roll brain.
• Paul — advisor, photography. the craft conscience; decades of reading light.
• Troy — advisor, marketing. the growth head; why aura spreads.