Desert Coastal Development Co

Brand
Guidelines

The visual and verbal system for the Desert Coastal platform — how we look, speak, and build, from the coast to the desert. Version 1.0 · July 2026.

01

The Setting Sun

Our mark is an open composition — never enclosed in a container: a gold half-sun resting on the horizon, above a gold wave and a subtle blue second wave. It is the desert's dusk meeting the coast's water in a single image.

Primary Mark · On Deep Green
Primary Mark · On Light
DESERT COASTALDevelopment Co
DESERT COASTAL Development Co
Rules
Clear spaceKeep a margin equal to the sun's radius on all sides of the mark.
Minimum size24px digital · 10mm print for the mark; use the horizontal lockup down to 120px wide.
NeverEnclose the mark in a circle or box · add a mountain · fill the waves · rotate, outline, or recolor outside the palette · set it over busy imagery.
WordmarkCormorant Garamond, letter-spaced 14–16%, always uppercase; "DEVELOPMENT CO" in Inter, 40–50% tracking, gold.
02

Color

Off-white leads. Deep green and gold carry the brand's weight as accents. Coastal blue appears only as a whisper — a second wave, a fine line, a focus state. Never let an accent become the primary field of a page.

Primary Field
Ivory#F8F6F0 · page backgrounds, nav
White#FFFFFF · cards, alternating sections
Green Accent — Depth & Authority
Green 950#0A1D14 · hero, footer, panels
Green 900#0E241A
Green 800#143024
Sage#9DB4A0 · soft tints
Gold Accent — Warmth & Value
Gold#C3A15F · CTAs, sun, rules
Gold Light#D9BE8A · on dark
Gold Ink#A8823F · gold text on light
Gold Pale#EFE5CE · notices
Coastal Blue — The Whisper
Blue#8FAABB · second wave, lines
Blue Deep#5F8296 · tab underline, focus
Tide Blue#0E2830 · gradient blend on dark bands
Ink#15231B · body text
Usage Ratios

Roughly 70% ivory/white · 20% deep green · 8% gold · 2% blue. Gold text on light backgrounds always uses Gold Ink #A8823F for contrast; pure Gold is reserved for fills, the sun, and text on dark green.

03

Typography

Two voices: Cormorant Garamond speaks with heritage and confidence in headlines; Inter carries information with clarity. Uppercase Inter with generous tracking is our editorial signature for labels and navigation.

From the Coast to the Desert.Display · Cormorant Garamond 500 · 56–88px
Two geographies. One thesis.Heading · Cormorant Garamond 500 · 26–46px
We pair institutional discipline with an owner's eye for craft across Southern California and Arizona.Body · Inter 300 · 14–17px
Our Markets · CA + AZKicker · Inter 500 · 11px · 28% tracking
San DiegoList Item · Inter 400 · 13px · 20% tracking
04

Shape & Radius

The platform is round and elegant — echoing the sun. Rigid, sharp-cornered blocks are off-brand. Grids breathe: cells are individually rounded cards with gaps, never fused by shared borders.

32px · Hero cards, stat card
26px · Cards & panels
16px · Notices, inputs
Pill · Buttons, badges, tags
Signature Moves

Dark hero sections end in 48px rounded bottom corners. Key data (stats) floats in a rounded card with a gold hairline border and soft shadow, straddling section boundaries. Overlapping caption cards on imagery are rounded with a gold hairline border. Buttons are pills with a trailing em-dash line.

05

Illustration & Imagery

Solids and lines. Artwork is a solid deep-green field with a muted tone-on-tone sun disc and 1px contour lines in ivory, gold, and blue. Structures are drawn as fine line outlines — never filled shapes, never scenes.

Do
Solid field, muted sun, 1px line structures and contours.
Don't
No layered filled wave bands or pictorial filled scenes.
Headline text
Don't
Never run contour lines beneath or across text. Line work lives in clear zones.
Photography (When Introduced)

Golden-hour light, coastal haze, desert dusk. Architecture photographed at a distance with sky. Duotone or warm-neutral grading that sits beside the palette. Captioned with dark green rounded overlay cards.

06

Voice

Institutional discipline, an owner's craft, and a sense of place. We are confident without being loud, warm without being casual.

Assured

Short declaratives. "Two geographies. One thesis." We state, we don't sell.

Grounded

Place names, real numbers, disciplined claims. Every figure is defensible and every promise reviewed.

Warm

"With the same transparency we'd want as investors ourselves." Partnership, not transaction.

Tagline

"From the Coast to the Desert."