Coral — Frame (video / frame layer)

Overview

Coral at frame scale is a bold magazine poster built from three solid surfaces — coral fire, ink black, warm cream — that meet at hard color edges. The region boundary IS the layout: a frame splits into a coral plane + a cream plane, or a coral panel + an ink panel, each holding a self-contained composition. No gradient transitions, no rounded junctions, no drop shadows.

The voice is a two-face hierarchy: Bebas Neue — tall condensed caps, always uppercase, always tracked (1–12px) — carries every headline, stat, title, and meta figure; Inter carries every body line, label, and attribution across weights 300–700. Bebas declares; Inter explains. The signature atmospherics are the 45° diagonal hatch (6% ink) over coral regions and the oversized wallpaper numeral (12% ink) behind a region's title.

Key characteristics at frame scale:

• Three surfaces, hard edges — {colors.coral} / {colors.black} / {colors.cream} as solid regions.
• Bebas uppercase + tracking on every display element; Inter on every body/label.
• 45° hatch (6% ink) on coral regions; wallpaper numerals (12%) and giant marks (35%) behind content.
• Ink-on-fire — Bebas on coral is always ink, never white. Eyebrows coral on cream/ink, ink on coral.
• Flat — no shadow, no elevation; radius only on circles (nav dots, timeline nodes).
• Coral as accent AND environment — 4–5px coral borders, 48px coral icon squares, and full coral regions.

Frame Craft Bar

Three eyeball tests gate every frame before any structural check:

• Squint — one element dominates at 3–6× its nearest neighbor: the hero-title/jumbo-feature or a wallpaper numeral behind a region's title, never two rival headlines.
• Silence — coral/cream/ink regions read 40–55% empty; the three-column catalog is the one dense exception. A coral region underfilled gets a wallpaper numeral, never more content.
• Restraint — coral fires as either accent or one full region per frame (not both at full strength); one giant-mark per quote; ink-on-fire (never white on coral).
• Reference — aim at a sports-magazine cover / Saul Bass travel poster (solid planes at hard edges, condensed caps as architecture); failure looks like a soft drop-shadowed card deck.

The Frame

• Primary: 1920×1080 (16:9). Display sizes authored in **cqw** (px ÷ 1920 × 100 = cqw).
• Vertical: 1080×1920 (9:16). Square: 1080×1080 (1:1).
• Safe area: 5cqw (pad-x) standard frame padding; region edges may bleed full-frame.

The container law (load-bearing). Every frame ground sets container-type: size; ALL frame-relative units are cqw/cqh resolved against it — **never vw.** A vw-sized frame inflates whenever it isn't full-screen; cqw resolves against the frame at any render size.

Colors

Tokens identical to the source. At frame scale the three surfaces are intermixed by composition — coral/cream, coral/ink, ink/cream, or single-surface. {colors.coral} is both accent (borders, icon squares, timeline nodes, eyebrows on cream/ink) and environment (full regions). Headlines: ink on cream/coral, cream on ink — never gray, never white-on-coral. Eyebrows: coral on cream/ink, ink on coral — coral-on-coral does not exist. The only sanctioned gradient is the rare 135° coral-dark→coral feature region; everything else is flat.

Typography

Two ramps. The reading ramp (Inter body 1.0cqw, body-light 1.5cqw, labels in px) carries copy and eyebrows; the display/hero ramp (Bebas, card-title 1.9cqw → jumbo-feature 9.0cqw, plus the decorative background-numeral 10cqw and giant-mark 14cqw) carries every headline and stat.

• Legibility floor: any load-bearing line ≥ 1.4cqw; px labels are chrome only.
• Fit-to-measure: size the headline to its line length. Cap the block at ≤ 78cqw; ≤3 words → hero-title/jumbo-feature; 4–6 → section-headline; 7+ → column-title.
• Every Bebas element is uppercase with ≥1px tracking (2px standard, 4px hero, 12px jumbo). Every Inter label is uppercase, 1–4px tracked. No italic, no underline, no sentence-case Bebas.

Depth & Surface

Flat, with hard color edges. Depth signals only:

• Hard region boundaries — the primary structural device.
• Accent borders — 5px coral top (cards), 4px coral left (sidebar tiles), 4px ink (timeline).
• 45° hatch — 6% ink texture on coral regions (no depth).
• Wallpaper typography — numerals at 12%, giant marks at 35%, layered behind content.

Ceiling: no box-shadow, no elevated card, no soft gradient (save the one 135° coral feature), no rounded rectangle.

Shapes

• 0 radius on every rectangle — regions, cards, sidebar tiles, icon squares, info bars, accent lines.
• 50% on circles only — nav dots (10px), nav arrows (44px), timeline nodes (20px).

Components

• region-split — the layout device; surfaces meet at a hard edge.
• card (5px coral top) / sidebar-item (4px coral left) / card-icon (48px coral square) — the only chrome on each is its single coral border.
• diagonal-hatch / background-numeral / giant-mark — the atmospheric + wallpaper signatures on coral regions.
• accent-line — coral sub-headline rule. timeline — ink line, coral nodes, cream halos. info-bar — cream-dark footer band.

Frame Treatments

Recipe per plate: ground · container · composes · focal · chrome · accent · silence · Fixed/Free · density. Lean centered where the move allows; vary anchor; one idea per region.

1 · Region-Split Cover (identity · move: hard region edge · left)

Ground 38/62 split — {colors.coral} top band (hatch + wallpaper numeral) over {colors.cream}. Container grid rows; brand + meta in the coral band, hero title in the cream field. Composes region-split, diagonal-hatch, background-numeral, hero-title. Focal a 2-line hero-title in ink, second line in {colors.coral}, left-anchored in the cream field. Chrome Bebas brand left

• Bebas meta right in the coral band. Accent coral band + coral second line. Silence the cream field ~45% empty. Fixed ink-on-fire in band, hatch on coral, hard edge. Free title copy, which line is coral, meta. Density sparse.

2 · Feature Stat (anchor · move: scale · coral environment · left)

Ground full {colors.coral} with hatch. Composes diagonal-hatch, background-numeral, section-label, stat headline, body-light. Focal a stat-numeral/jumbo-feature figure or 2-line headline in ink, with a background-numeral (12% ink) behind it as wallpaper. Chrome an ink section-label eyebrow; an optional Inter-300 support line ≤44cqw. Accent the coral ground IS the environment; ink type, no white. Silence ~40% of the coral field empty. Fixed ink-on-coral, hatch present, wallpaper numeral behind. Free the figure, headline, support copy. Density sparse.

3 · Quote Layout (quote · move: panel split · giant mark)

Ground 40/60 split — {colors.coral} left panel (hatch + giant-mark) + {colors.black} right panel. Composes region-split, giant-mark, body-light, accent-line, quote-attribution. Focal a 2–3 line pull quote in {colors.cream} Inter weight 300 on the ink panel. Chrome a giant-mark (35% ink) on the coral panel; a 60×4 coral accent-line above the attribution. Accent coral panel + coral accent-line. Silence the coral panel is mostly the mark. Fixed Inter-300 quote, ink panel, ink-on-coral mark. Free quote, attribution, mark glyph. Density sparse.

4 · Closing Plate (closer · move: cream field + coral band · centered)

Ground {colors.cream} field with a bottom {colors.coral} band (hatch). Composes section-label, section-headline/hero-title, accent-line, info-bar. Focal a 2-line sign-off in ink, centered, with a coral accent-line beneath. Chrome an ink eyebrow above; a coral band footer carrying a Bebas sign-off + year. Accent coral band + coral accent-line. Silence ~55% empty cream. Fixed centered, ink type, one coral band. Free sign-off copy, band contents. Density sparse.

5 · Three-Column Catalog (catalog · move: density — the dense frame · centered head)

Ground {colors.cream} (or {colors.black}), pad-x. Composes section-headline, 3× card. Focal a centered section-headline over three white cards (5px coral top, 48px icon square, Bebas title, Inter body, coral stat). Accent the three coral top borders + icon squares. Silence tight — the density exception. Fixed 5px coral top as sole chrome, no shadow/radius. Free the three cards' content. Density dense-exception.

6 · Timeline (process · move: horizontal rail · left)

Ground {colors.cream}, pad-x. Composes section-headline, timeline. Focal the ink timeline-line with 4–5 coral nodes (cream halos) and Bebas labels. Accent coral nodes. Silence moderate. Fixed ink line, coral nodes, cream halos. Free node count, labels. Density standard.

Composition Rules

Do

• Compose as multi-surface region splits — coral / ink / cream meeting at hard edges; the boundary is the layout.
• Set every Bebas element uppercase + tracked (2px standard, 4px hero, 12px jumbo); every Inter label uppercase, 1–4px.
• Render eyebrows coral on cream/ink, ink on coral; headlines ink on cream/coral, cream on ink.
• Apply the 45° hatch (6% ink) on coral regions; fill underweight coral regions with a 12% wallpaper numeral.
• Use the 5px coral top (cards) / 4px coral left (tiles) as the only chrome on those elements.
• Lean centered on cover sign-offs and catalog heads; left/panel-split on features and quotes.

Don't

• Don't render Bebas in sentence case or untracked; don't pair it with a non-Inter body sans.
• Don't add a fourth surface, a drop shadow, an elevation, or a rounded rectangle.
• Don't put white headlines on coral (always ink) or gray headlines anywhere (gray is body/meta).
• Don't soften a region boundary with a gradient (except the rare 135° coral feature).
• Don't fill a coral region with sparse fragments — fully populate it or add a wallpaper numeral / giant mark.
• Don't blow a headline edge-to-edge — step the ramp down for long lines.

Aspect-Ratio Behavior

Safe area holds the 5cqw padding on the short edge; re-step display per ratio so no load-bearing line drops below the 1.4cqw floor. Bebas runs ~20% wider in CJK — adjust line breaks per ratio.

Approved Entities

No real customers, logos, or vendors are defined in the source — render any such mark as a placeholder. The system supplies surfaces and geometry, not brands.

Numerals & Claims (hard rule)

Never invent figures, stats, dates, or counts at frame scale. Render slots as — figure —, {metric}, N×. Real numerals appear only when the script supplies them — the feature stat, catalog, and timeline especially carry placeholders, not fabricated values. Wallpaper numerals (01, 02…) are decorative and may be ordinal.

Pre-Render Self-Audit

• Squint — one focal element per region dominates at 3–5× its neighbor.
• Silence — sparse frames 40–55% empty; only the catalog runs dense.
• Surfaces — two or three of coral/ink/cream, meeting at hard edges; no fourth surface.
• Type — Bebas uppercase + tracked, fit-to-measure; ink-on-coral; eyebrow color correct for surface; ≥1.4cqw floor.
• Depth — 0 shadow, 0 rounded rectangle; hatch + wallpaper carry texture.
• Anchor — centered on sign-offs/heads, panel/left on features/quotes; no 3 consecutive frames share an anchor.
• Fabrication — every numeral traces to the script, else placeholder.

Known Gaps

• Motion intentionally out of scope. frame.md specifies composition only; timing and transitions are a later stage. The 0.6s opacity fade in the source is a deck mechanic, not a frame spec.
• Bebas Neue + Inter via Google Fonts. CJK pairing (ZCOOL XiaoWei / Yozai) carries over from the source's CJK section; Bebas runs ~20% wider in CJK.
• 9:16 / 1:1 are guidance, not pixel-locked; verify the legibility floor per ratio.
• The 45° hatch, wallpaper numerals, giant marks, and timeline dash are CSS-only; no external imagery is required.