A working visual system for Rural Valley — the European initiative to revitalise depopulating rural villages. This document defines the logo, palette, typography and voice that should hold across decks, web, EU briefs, signage and social. First-pass; iterate before externalising.
A V-shaped valley anchored by three nodes — host community, digital talent, replicable infrastructure. The amber disc carries warmth and recognition; the dark forms carry authority. Use the colour version on cream or white. Use monochrome on photography or institutional letterheads.
Clearspace. Reserve a margin equal to the diameter of the central node around the symbol. Never crop the disc. Minimum size: 24 px for the symbol, 120 px for the horizontal lockup. Below that, use the symbol alone.
Forest is the institutional voice — quiet authority, used on backgrounds and primary copy. Amber is energy and call-to-action — never the background of long copy. Cream is the canvas. The supporting palette adds texture: sage for growth and validation, stone for body text, granite for chart legends and EU-formal contexts.
Cormorant Garamond carries display headlines and pull quotes — its italic adds warmth without losing institutional weight. DM Sans handles body copy across decks and web. DM Mono labels every section eyebrow, tag and stat unit, so the system feels coherent at any zoom level.
Around the symbol, leave a margin at least as wide as the bottom node. This keeps the mark legible against busy photography or alongside other logos.
When the symbol sits over an image (hero, video, EU partnership), reach for the cream monochrome version. The amber disc reserves itself for cream and white surfaces.
The amber disc is fixed. No green, blue, or gradient versions. If amber clashes with the surface, switch to the monochrome variant instead.
The wordmark is set in Cormorant Garamond Light at the proportions defined here. Resetting it in DM Sans or any other face breaks the institutional pairing.
Rural Valley speaks like a project that is already taking responsibility for what it promises. Concrete numbers, named places, named partners. Two registers — institutional in EU contexts, warmer in resident-facing contexts — but always one project, one voice.
Three lightweight examples of how the system carries across surfaces. The full web pattern library lives in index.html alongside this guide.
Web · Header on hero
Social · OG / share card