A design kit in patina and print

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Images are content, not filler

A photo earns its place by showing the thing the page is about. Mood shots, textures and text set on pictures don't.

The kit welcomes photos, artwork and screenshots. It asks one question of each: does it show the work, the person, the place or the thing this page is about?

Plain rectangles

An image keeps its own edge. No rounded corners, no frame, no shadow, no tint. It sits on the grid, lines up with the text beside it, and comes in one of four shapes: 1:1, 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9.

Text goes beside it

Captions and titles sit below or beside an image, never on it. If text must overlap, it goes on a solid dark block, so it stays readable whatever the picture does behind it.

Color stays

An image’s colors don’t count against the one-accent rule. A red photo on a verdigris site is fine; it is content, not interface.