Vol. 01  ·  No. 20 · Wednesday, June 10, 2026
CivicByte.
An independent NYC civic data project · Open source · MIT
The Brand · Version 1.0 · 2026 · Editorial reference

The mark, the palette, the type.

The Mark

One wordmark, one period.

v1.0 · 2026

CivicByte.

Setting
Newsreader · 500
Letterspacing
−0.02em
Period color
Ember · #B33E16
Lowercase
civicbyte.
Allowed sizes
16 – 200 px
Clear space
≥ 1× cap height
The Palette

Six colors. Earned.

Used in this order, this often
PaperBackground · everything#F4F1E9
InkType · 4px masthead bar#14110D
Ink · SecondBody text · prose#2A2620
MuteMeta · datelines · descriptions#6B6660
EmberOne accent · five places only#B33E16
Paper · SecondSparingly · tonal shift#ECE7D9
The Rule

Where ember goes. Nowhere else.

Five places · this is the whole rule
  1. 01 The italic accent word in each headline Exactly one word per headline, set italic, set ember. <span class="em"> does it. Use ·
  2. 02 The date tick in the masthead The 6px ember square next to Vol/No. The only solid color in the masthead row. Use ·
  3. 03 Key numbers in readouts The single most important number in a keystat. Open violations. Per-pupil dollars. Risk score. One per readout — never every number. Use ·
  4. 04 CTA arrows and section kickers The arrow inside a .cta-link; the mono kicker above each section h2. That's it. Use ·
  5. 05 Drop cap & pull-quote rules The 72px drop cap in longform articles; the 2px left border on pull quotes; the 28px tick before a citation. Editorial flourishes only. Use ·
The Type

Three families. No more.

Headlines · UI · Labels
Newsreader · 500 · Headlines & prose
Public data,  made usable.
Newsreader · 400 · Body editorial
The records your city already publishes — turned into tools a tenant, a parent, or a grandmother can actually use.
Inter Tight · 500 · Body & UI
Enter any address to pull HPD maintenance violations — class breakdown, registration, owner. Updated daily.
IBM Plex Mono · 500 · Labels, datelines, meta
Vol. 01  ·  No. 20  ·  Wednesday, June 10, 2026

That's the whole system. Everything else is hairlines and whitespace.

See it in use → Read the standards →

A voice that earns trust.

§07 · Tone

Read like a local newspaper, not a startup blog. Plain language, specific examples, attribution for every claim. When the data is uncertain, we say so. When a tool is in demo, we label it. The brand promise is the same as the editorial standard: accurate, useful, and public.