Moodboard

Moodboard

Inspiration, not instructions. These references are mainly for fonts and feel, not the site model. Most are magazines or studios, but SoR's essence is a movement and community (see brand.md). Take their type, texture and atmosphere, not their structure. The visual search starts clean: no palette, type or layout carried over from existing 2R, Canva or earlier design work.

Reference websites (from Rufus, 2026-09-28)

Reviewed 2026-09-28 in the browser. Notes on what each does and what we might take from it.

Emergence Magazine: emergencemagazine.org

Ecology, culture, spirituality. The closest peer in subject matter.

  • What it does: a slow, ceremonial entrance (the wordmark types itself in). Then the homepage runs as a sequence of large modules: a feature, the print volume ("Seeds and Structures", fittingly), a short editorial statement, selected stories labelled by form (POEM, ESSAY, FILM) and ways to engage.
  • Type: one neutral grotesk (GT America) for almost everything, set in small caps-style labels. A single characterful display face for the wordmark (Windsor). Courier for meta.
  • Take: each story gets its own commissioned artwork and atmosphere while the frame stays quiet and neutral. Content is labelled by form (poem / essay / film / audio). There is a short editorial statement on the homepage saying what they believe. Audio and meditations sit as first-class content. The print issue is presented as an object.
  • Watch: the entrance animation is slow. It is beautiful once, then friction.

Openhouse Magazine: openhouse-magazine.com

Architecture, people, slow living. Print magazine with a web presence.

  • What it does: a full-bleed documentary photo hero with the issue title set in a large classical serif, partly italic ("Issue №25 / Obsessions: A Self Portrait"). Below, a staggered two-column story list: small images offset against each other, with lots of air, title and standfirst in a plain sans.
  • Type: EB Garamond (classical serif, heavy use of italics) + Sneak (clean grotesk).
  • Take: warm documentary photography of real people in real places, which is exactly our gap and our need (the farmhouse, the gatherings). An asymmetric, breathing grid that feels curated, not templated. Serif italics for poetry, sans for clarity.
  • Watch: it is lifestyle-coded. Beautiful but "aspirational interiors". We need depth, not taste.

ECC Performance Art: ecc-performanceart.eu/coursesandworkshops/courses

Performance art courses. Very plain site.

  • What it does: a no-frills course listing: image left, then title, "with [tutor]", a two-line description, dates, fee, "View more". It explains remote/recorded access plainly. A huge italic participant testimonial closes the page.
  • Type: PT Sans throughout.
  • Take: practical offers stated plainly: who, what, when, how much, how to join. No selling. That fits "honest, we don't pretend" and the lucid register for courses and events. The big testimonial as the emotional moment of an otherwise plain page.
  • Watch: it looks dated and amateur. Take the honesty and information design, not the finish.

Cargo, Sites in Use: cargo.site/community/in-use

Showcase of artist and designer sites built on Cargo.

  • What it does: a gallery of independent artist, typographer and architect sites. Tiny nav on a dark UI, sites shown in browser frames.
  • Common traits of the showcased sites: index-style layouts, raw HTML energy, one strong or strange display typeface, monospace meta, image grids, publications shown as objects (book spreads, type specimens). One example (lucapetrucci-index) mixes engraving and occult imagery with blackletter-ish display type, close to our mythic register.
  • Take: the artist's-studio feeling: made by people, not a brand agency. Freedom to be strange. Treating the magazine and manifesto as art objects.
  • Watch: it can become cool and cold, and exclude people who aren't designers.

Lee Holmes: leeholmes.uk

Designer/developer for alternative clothing brands.

  • What it does: a pixel/bitmap blackletter display headline with a text-scramble effect. Scattered little pixel glyphs float around a white page. Then a very large grotesk statement paragraph. Project images appear pixelated and resolve into focus as they load. Monospace labels in parentheses ("(AVAILABLE FOR NEW PROJECTS)"). Asymmetric grid.
  • Type: Neue Montreal (grotesk) + Xanh Mono + a custom pixel blackletter.
  • Take: old letterforms made contemporary, a blackletter/manuscript echo reborn in pixels. That is a literal "renaissance" gesture: old forms, new medium. Images resolving from coarse to clear, which fits "seeds becoming". A big plain-spoken statement paragraph as the core of the homepage.
  • Watch: the streetwear and gaming edge. It must be tempered for 40–60-year-old renewers.

Across the five

  • Quiet frame, loud content. The frame is neutral, and the artwork, photography or type carries the soul (Emergence, Openhouse).
  • One characterful display face + one plain workhorse (all of them).
  • Label content by form (poem, essay, film, course) and state practical things plainly (Emergence, ECC).
  • Print objects shown as objects (Emergence, Openhouse, Cargo).
  • Old forms, new medium (Lee Holmes, Cargo's engraving and blackletter sites).
  • Real people in real places (Openhouse). This is what we most lack in current imagery.

Sylvie's boards

Links are in the project README inbox (Cosmos and two Pinterest boards). Lower priority, loose inspiration only.

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