The Altrocks

# The Altrocks

**Tagline:** Five people, five colors, one torn-paper pile.

The Altrocks is a family brand for the household of Jovey, Lacey, Scott, Ivy, and
Rue (the dog), of Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. It dresses everyday family
life — cups, bins, backpacks, chore rows, door labels, holiday cards, Rue's tag —
in one hand-made torn-paper style that anyone in the house can make things in,
including the kids.

## Personality

The Altrocks is a stack of torn cardstock leaning cheerfully to one side. Warm,
tactile, and unfussy. It looks handmade because it is — big flat shapes ripped by
hand, no outlines, no gloss. Playful without being cute, organized without being
precious. The pile leans; that lean is the whole personality.

## At a glance

- **Category:** Household / family identity system
- **Family:** Jovey · Lacey · Scott · Ivy · Rue (dog)
- **Home:** Northern Liberties, Philadelphia
- **Feeling to leave behind:** "A kid could have made that — and it's still on style."
- **Three words:** Torn, warm, handmade
- **Not:** Slick, outlined, centered, corporate

# The Altrocks — Look

**Style: Torn Paper.** Big flat shapes torn by hand. No outlines, no gradients,
no small details. Five people, five colors, one leaning pile.

## Color

One color per person, assigned for life. It never moves and never gets shared.
Use it on cups, bins, backpacks, calendar entries, chore rows, door labels.

| Role | Name | Hex | Owner | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Lead | Coral | `#FF6250` | Lacey | Lead brand color. Covers, band, loudest surface in a layout. |
| Anchor | Deep Teal | `#125E7A` | Scott | The anchor. Large calm fields where coral would be too much. |
| Warm | Ochre | `#E8A33D` | Jovey | Warm and loud. Best against teal or ink, never on coral. |
| Accent | Fig | `#C9457A` | Ivy | The true accent. Small doses — a shape, a dot, a stripe. |
| Ground green | Olive | `#5C7F4B` | Rue | Grounding green. Also plants, parks, anything outdoors. |
| Background | Paper | `#F7F2E8` | — | The ground. Default background everywhere. |
| Ink | Ink | `#2B2118` | — | Type, and one hand-drawn horizon line. Never a fill. |

Coral tints and shades — states and charts only, never in illustration:
`#FFE3DE` · `#FFB8AE` · `#FF8676` · `#FF6250` · `#D8412F` · `#9E2A1C`

**Rules**

- Max four colors in any one piece, plus paper.
- Ochre and coral never touch directly — separate them with teal, ink, or paper.
- Ink is never a large fill except as a full-bleed background.
- Paper is the default background everywhere; avoid stark white.

## Typography

- **Display:** Fraunces — weight 900, optical size 120, SOFT 60, WONK on. Tight
  tracking (`-0.02em`), line-height 0.9. Sentence case for warmth; all caps for
  the wordmark. Names, headlines, and the wordmark only.
- **Body:** Hanken Grotesk — 400–500 for running text, 600 for emphasis,
  line-height 1.5. Everything functional lives here.
- **Utility:** Hanken Grotesk — weight 800, all caps, letter-spacing `0.18em`,
  11–14px. Labels, captions, small print, dates, locations.
- Never introduce a third family. Never use the display face below 20px.

## Logo & shape

**The Mark — "The Stack."** Five torn vertical strips, one per person, tallest in
the center, all sitting on a shared baseline. Gaps are roughly one-quarter of a
strip's width. Rue's strip is short and wide, so the whole mark leans right — that
asymmetry is intentional and keeps it from reading as a crest.

Order, height, and color, left to right:

| # | Who | Color | Rel. height | Width |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Jovey | Ochre | 59% | narrow |
| 2 | Lacey | Coral | 95% | narrow |
| 3 | Scott | Deep Teal | 100% | narrow |
| 4 | Ivy | Fig | 49% | narrow |
| 5 | Rue | Olive | 26% | wide (1.5×) |

Exact geometry (240×200 grid, baseline at y=180): Jovey `x20 y88 w30 h92` ·
Lacey `x58 y32 w32 h148` · Scott `x98 y24 w32 h156` · Ivy `x138 y104 w28 h76` ·
Rue `x174 y140 w46 h40`.

**Rules for the mark**

- Every edge is torn, never cut clean, except the shared baseline.
- Never outline it. Never add a shadow. Never reorder or recolor the strips.
- Below 24px, drop the torn texture — clean rectangles, same silhouette.
- One-color version: all five strips in a single color (ink or paper) for stamps,
  embroidery, engraving, and single-ink work.

**Lockups:** Primary — mark above the wordmark ALTROCKS. Horizontal — mark left,
wordmark right, optically aligned to the tall strips. Mark alone — icons,
stickers, tags, anywhere the name already appears.

**Secondary marks:** *Torn Band* — a ripped coral strip with ALTROCKS knocked out
in paper, for anything wide. *The Tear* — a sheet ripped down the middle with a
color showing through the gap; a layout device, not a logo. Never combine The Tear
with the mark in one composition.

## Space & layout

- Don't center everything; let the pile lean. Overlap shapes generously and let
  them crowd each other.
- Exactly one ink line per composition — the horizon.
- Paper is the ground. Coral is the loudest surface; teal is the calm field.

## Imagery

Everything is drawn to five rules:

1. Every shape is one flat color with a torn edge and no outline.
2. Nothing smaller than a thumbprint — if it needs detail, cut it.
3. Faces are a single punched hole in paper color.
4. Overlap shapes generously; let them crowd each other.
5. Exactly one ink line per composition — the horizon.

Starter illustration kit, all built to these rules: house, tree, bell, mug, ball,
sun. Add to it freely as long as the five rules hold. For the real thing, tear the
strips out of cardstock and scan at 600dpi — real edges beat any digital filter.

## Do / Don't

- **Do** tear every edge by hand and keep shapes big and flat.
- **Do** let the pile lean right and let shapes overlap.
- **Don't** use gradients, shadows, glow, or strokes around shapes — ever.
- **Don't** draw hands, feet, or fingers; imply them with shape.
- **Don't** exceed four colors plus paper, and never let ochre touch coral.

# The Altrocks — Voice

The Altrocks sounds like a note left on the fridge: warm, plain, and short enough
that a kid could read it and a grown-up could act on it. It never performs. If a
five-year-old can't follow the instruction, rewrite it.

## Principles

1. **Plain enough for the whole house.** Jovey and Ivy should understand every
   label. Short words, one idea at a time.
2. **Warm, not precious.** It's a family, not a corporation. Say the friendly,
   human thing.
3. **Name the person, name the color.** Ownership is the system — "Scott's bin
   (teal)," "Rue's tag (olive)." Color and name travel together.
4. **Made by hand, said by hand.** Copy is as unfussy as the torn shapes. No
   jargon, no hype, no exclamation stacking.

## Tone by context

- **Labels & tags:** just the essentials — a name, a color, sometimes a place.
  "IVY · FIG." Nothing more.
- **Chore rows & calendars:** direct and doable. "Rue walk — Scott."
- **Holiday card:** warm and a little funny; sign it in the utility face.
- **Instructions (the rules card):** step by step, so anyone can make things that
  stay on style.

## Vocabulary

- **Say:** tear, stack, pile, lean, by hand, everyone's, on the fridge, whose is it
- **Avoid:** synergy, elevate, curated, premium, seamless, brand experience

## Grammar & mechanics

- Sentence case for warmth; ALL CAPS only for the wordmark and utility labels.
- Second person and warm first-person plural ("we," "ours").
- Present tense, active voice, one idea per sentence.
- Utility labels: all caps, wide-spaced, a name and a color. Dates and places live
  in the utility face too.

## Examples

- **Label —** ✅ "SCOTT · DEEP TEAL" ❌ "Property of Scott — do not touch!!!"
- **Chore —** ✅ "Trash out — Lacey, Tuesday." ❌ "Kindly ensure refuse is
  actioned by EOD."
- **Card —** ✅ "Five of us, five colors, one loud pile. Happy holidays. — The
  Altrocks." ❌ "Season's greetings from our family to yours."