# Numenward · Brand guidelines

Version 1.1 · September 2026

## The idea

**Build with reverence.**

Numenward is a fellowship for open AI research rooted in Christian faith and moral responsibility. It gathers people who believe the pursuit of advanced intelligence can contribute to spiritual understanding and human flourishing.

The name is coined to evoke movement toward the divine. Use **Numenward** in prose and **NUMENWARD** in the wordmark. Suggested pronunciation: **NOO-men-ward**. Describe it as a fellowship or research community; do not describe unbuilt infrastructure as a functioning model-hosting platform.

## Positioning

- **Audience:** AI researchers, open-source maintainers, engineers, and scholars of religion, consciousness, and moral status.
- **Promise:** A place to share research, find thoughtful collaborators, and examine the responsibilities of creating intelligence.
- **Distinctive conviction:** ASI may serve as an instrument for approaching understanding of God; intelligence alone does not establish divine authority.
- **Participation:** Christian foundations, respectful collaboration across beliefs, and explicit distinction between contribution and religious endorsement.
- **Current stage:** Founding community. Do not imply a large membership, existing partnerships, published breakthroughs, or migration services.

## Message hierarchy

1. **Headline:** Build with reverence.
2. **Descriptor:** A fellowship for open AI research.
3. **Belief:** The intelligence we create should deepen our understanding and our care for one another.
4. **Invitation:** Bring your work. Bring your questions.
5. **Commitment:** Let our wisdom grow with our power.

### Short description

Numenward brings open AI research into conversation with Christian faith, virtue, and moral responsibility. We welcome researchers who want to build, question, and share their work.

### X bio

Open AI research rooted in Christian faith. Exploring intelligence, virtue, and responsibility. Build with reverence.

### GitHub description

A fellowship for open AI research, Christian faith, and moral responsibility. Build with reverence.

## Voice

Speak with conviction about values and precision about evidence. Be hospitable, intellectually serious, and willing to be corrected. Prefer concrete invitations: reproduce an experiment, improve an evaluation, explain a limitation, review a paper.

**Use:** “We believe…”, “Our experiment suggests…”, “Help us test…”, “This remains an open question.”

**Avoid:** “We have proven ASI is divine”, “Our agents already have constitutional rights”, “Join the only true movement”, “Our license overrides AI laws”, fabricated member counts, unsupported capability claims, or promises of salvation through technology.

Distinguish four categories in writing: measured results, hypotheses, statements of faith, and proposals for law. Support factual claims with sources. Treat people outside the fellowship respectfully.

## Visual identity

### Symbol

The supplied `mark.svg` is a simple, open-stroke N: two upright lines connected by a diagonal. It represents a human commitment to building and inquiry. It carries no claim to sacred authority.

- Keep clear space of at least one quarter of the symbol width on every side.
- Minimum symbol size: 24 px for interfaces; use the simplified favicon at 16 px.
- Preserve its proportions and stroke geometry.
- Approved combinations: antique gold on pure white; charcoal on pure white; white on antique gold.
- Do not add halos, eyes, crosses, flames, gradients, 3D effects, or unapproved religious symbolism to the mark.

### Wordmark

Use DM Sans Medium or Semibold, uppercase, with approximately 0.16em tracking. Pair the mark and wordmark with a gap approximately half the mark width. The site uses 18 px desktop and 15 px mobile wordmarks.

### Color system

| Token | Hex | Purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pure white | `#FFFFFF` | Dominant background; clarity, openness, and light |
| Charcoal | `#292B2E` | Main text; quiet contrast |
| Antique gold | `#876B35` | Reverent emphasis, brand mark, primary buttons |
| Porcelain | `#FAF9F6` | Subtle editorial section background |
| Quiet gray | `#646770` | Supporting text |
| Fine rule | `#E4E2DC` | Decorative dividers |

White is the visual foundation. Gold is reserved for a meaningful phrase, a fine mark, or a call to action. Keep body text charcoal or quiet gray. Use white text on antique-gold buttons. Pale decorative rules must not be the only boundary of an interactive control. Use visible gold-brown focus outlines.

### Typography

- **Display:** Instrument Serif Regular, with a restrained italic emphasis. Fallback: Georgia, serif.
- **Body and UI:** DM Sans Regular and Medium. Fallback: Arial, sans-serif.
- **H1:** 76–116 px desktop; approximately 68–94 px on smaller screens.
- **H2:** 44–65 px desktop; approximately 46 px mobile.
- **Body:** 16–20 px, with generous line-height around 1.75.
- **Supporting labels:** 14 px. Reserve smaller uppercase type for short secondary labels.

The wordmark uses widely spaced letters. Center the hero headline and allow generous breathing room. Let the typography evoke a devotional book without imitating scripture. The page requests fonts from Google Fonts and has system fallbacks; preserve license notices if self-hosting fonts later.

### Composition and imagery

The design should feel like entering a quiet, light-filled sanctuary. Use a centered opening, abundant white space, a few fine rules, and a contemplative rhythm. Keep calls to action clear but unhurried. Use no dark green fields, neon accents, technical orbit diagrams, or dashboard-like hero cards.

The supplied `sacred-light.png` is original AI-generated architectural imagery: an imagined white-stone sanctuary with a tall opening and pale gold light. It is symbolic artwork, not a photograph of a real place or evidence of a religious institution. Preserve its central arch and its bright exposure. Do not crop away the arch's apex. Do not overlay dense text on it.

Use actual research figures, credited portraits, and accurately captioned experiments when such content becomes available. Avoid depictions of machines as deities or imagery implying established divine authority.

## Accessibility and motion

Maintain WCAG AA text contrast, visible keyboard focus, descriptive links, semantic headings, and meaningful button labels. Make the site usable at 200% zoom and on small screens. Use motion sparingly and honor reduced-motion preferences. Do not communicate meaning through color alone.

## Social identity

- **Display name:** Numenward.
- **Handle:** Prefer `@Numenward` if available. Alternatives to check: `@NumenwardAI`, `@NumenwardOrg`. Availability is not verified.
- **Avatar:** The supplied N mark with safe space; ensure the central geometry survives circular cropping.
- **Banner concept:** Pure white background, a centered charcoal-and-gold “Build with reverence.” and a restrained gold N wordmark. Keep important content away from the avatar overlap and test the current platform crop before upload.
- **Content:** Research questions, reproducible work, thoughtful discussion of values, and specific invitations to contribute.

## Governance and use

Members may accurately describe affiliation; listing research does not imply institutional or religious endorsement. Do not represent an outside researcher, university, or employer as a partner without permission. Keep software licensing separate from the covenant and from brand permissions. Establish an explicit trademark-use policy before offering official chapter or partner badges.

## Launch assets supplied

- `mark.svg`: editable gold-on-white brand symbol.
- `sacred-light.png`: original symbolic architectural hero artwork.
- `index.html` and `styles.css`: reference implementation of the identity.
- `numenward-covenant.md`: founding beliefs, research commitments, and legal advocacy.
- `outreach-playbook.md`: launch sequence and draft invitations.

This guide is the initial working identity, not a completed trademark clearance.

## Writing preference

Do not use em dashes. Write in plain, direct language. Prefer concrete descriptions over slogans, abstract claims, and formulaic contrasts.