Layouts in the Audition
Six layouts total. The first four are A/B/C/D variants of the same Producer Reel concept.
- 1A — Producer Reel, single hero image
- Hero structure with a 16:9 image/video slot on the right. Title block centered vertically alongside. Designed to swap to autoplay video later. Currently shows a placeholder for an environmental portrait or eventual reel video.
- 1B — Producer Reel, triptych
- Three BTS image slots above the title block. Tiles labeled by domain (AI Strategy / Film Production / Podcasts + Streams), alphabetical.
- 1C — Producer Reel, no hero image (tight)
- Same structure as 1D but with hero height compressed. Title block stays bottom-aligned, just less total vertical space. Test against 1D to see if the tightening helps.
- 1D — Producer Reel, no hero image (full)
- Cinematic-empty version. Name + tagline at full hero height. Negative space is the credit. Right side intentionally empty.
- 2 — Tortu / Original
- Two-column hero with credentials list left, square portrait + stats row right. The Tortu-derived layout we've been refining.
- 3 — Sanford-style
- Two-column grid with bio left, photo + pull quote right, footer trust band. Closest direct adaptation of kirstensanford.com's layout posture.
Editorial / Magazine layout — preserved but removed from stakeholder review. Was Layout 4 in v4. Accent side column with "01 / Issue Vol. I" branding, Playfair Display headline, byline strip with author photo, two-column body with drop cap, large pull quote.
View Editorial layout →
A Service Card / SaaS layout was prototyped in v3 and removed in v4 by request.
Contenders — Stakeholder Review Set
Ten palettes that have survived the cull. Test these against all six layouts. Listed in the order they appear in the audition dropdown.
C01Amur Tiger
Source: Russian Far East taiga + Panthera tigris altaica — anchored on blacks/grays with brown as supporting accent, not dominant
Pure near-black spectrum + warm burnt-orange accent. The brown signals only through the accent. Reads predatory rather than rustic. Schedule button uses accent consistently — no gray bleed.
C02Blue-Ringed Octopus
Source: Hapalochlaena — REVISED to lean black/gray forward, with the warm tone pulled in only via the cream highlight (former golden body) and electric blue as accent
Same treatment we gave Amur Tiger. The earlier version was brown-forward; this revision anchors the spectrum on near-black with cool gray progression. The blue accent stays sharp; the warm highlight nods to the species' golden skin without making the whole palette feel earth-toned.
C03Geographic
Source: National Geographic — Supernova yellow #FFCC00 + black, accent dialed back to #e8b524 (renamed "Geographic" for this audition)
Pure black spectrum + restrained yellow accent. Most editorially distinctive palette in the set. How it differs from Honey Badger and Steller's: all three share black-base + warm-yellow accent, but Geographic's accent is more saturated and slightly cooler (truer yellow); Honey Badger's accent is desaturated mustard-gold with a slight green undertone (savanna read); Steller's is the warmest of the three, an aged-honey gold that reads "metallic." Geographic = sharpest. Honey Badger = most natural. Steller's = most heraldic. Steller's was dropped from Contenders because its differentiation from Honey Badger was too narrow at this saturation level.
C04Mariana Trench
Source: Hadal zone — near-pitch-black ocean + bioluminescent cyan
Darkest palette in the audition. Goes deeper than Tortu or any marine institution palette. Bioluminescent cyan as the only color signal. Reads "I work where most people can't." Promoted to Contenders.
C05Honey Badger
Source: Mellivora capensis — silver dorsal + jet black ventral + savanna gold
Pure black spectrum + warm savanna-gold accent. The natural-history palette with the closest posture to Sanford. Reads "fearless reputation, low-key delivery."
C06American Kestrel
Source: Falco sparverius — male: rust-russet back + slate-blue head/tail + cream belly
Slate-blue base with rust-orange accent. Most colorful of the wildlife palettes. Reads "small, fast, sharp." Low risk of being mistaken for any other site.
C07Wildlife
Source: World Wildlife Fund — primary black/white + secondary nature-green palette (#007932). Renamed "Wildlife" for this audition.
Black/white discipline as primary, the green pulled from WWF's official secondary palette. Pure black spectrum + restrained nature green. Most disciplined of the black-base palettes.
C08Shearwater
Source: Shearwater Research — technical / rebreather diving computers
Graphite base + cyan instrument-display accent. Reads as serious gear, mission-critical equipment, tech-diving community.
C09Single Malt
Source: Peat smoke darks + amber whisky highlights — Scottish gravitas
Warm peat-brown spectrum + golden amber accent. Reads matured, considered, deliberate. Promoted to Contenders.
C10Descent
Source: Garmin Descent dive computer / Garmin outdoor instrument line. Renamed "Descent" for this audition.
Slate spectrum with bright lime accent. Reads "outdoor instrument crossover" — multi-sport, performance-focused, technical.
C11Lord of the Rings
Source: Peter Jackson trilogy branding palette — title treatment, book-cover lineage, One Ring engraving
Forest-charcoal spectrum (more green than pure black) + antique ring-gold accent. Parchment cream as warm tone. The discipline is keeping it subdued — this palette belongs to an old library, not a cosplay shop. Reads "long-running narrative work, weighted with history." Closest neighbor in the audition is Single Malt (C09) — both anchor warm-earth, but LOTR has a forest-green undertone in the spectrum and a more aged gold accent.
C12Dune: Spice
Source: Denis Villeneuve Dune films — surface-of-Arrakis palette: deep desert night + sandworm/spice orange
Warm-cast deep desert spectrum (brown-undertoned near-black) + muted spice-orange accent. Pale dune cream as warm tone. Reads "harsh world, rare resource." The accent is the orange of glowing eyes-within-eyes filtered through dust. Closest audition neighbor is Iron Foundry (in the dropped Claude set) — both warm-graphite + orange — but Dune: Spice has a sand undertone that Iron Foundry lacks.
C13Dune: Fremen
Source: Denis Villeneuve Dune films — people-of-Arrakis palette: same desert base + stillsuit / Bene Gesserit indigo
Same warm-cast desert spectrum as C12 Dune: Spice — but accent is the muted stillsuit blue / Bene Gesserit indigo instead of spice orange. Designed as a sister palette to C12 so the two can be compared with all other variables held constant. Reads "the people who survive the world." The blue accent against warm desert darks is the actual signature visual of the films — deeper than Sanford navy, more subdued than typical brand blues.
Reference (in dropdown)
Two reference palettes kept in the dropdown for comparison: Sanford as the structural reference, Tortu as Doug's existing brand origin.
N00Sanford
Source: kirstensanford.com (read directly from screenshot)
Deep navy spectrum + mustard/aged-gold accent. The structural reference for the entire audition. Closest neighbors: Honey Badger (C05), Single Malt (C09), Memphis Grizzlies (in dropped set).
T01Tortu
Source: Tortu Brand Guide v0.07 (Doug's existing brand)
Deepwater spectrum, Seafoam accent dialed back from #36c6bd to #5fb8b0, Arena cream as warm. Tightest match to existing brand identity.
Preserved — Out of Dropdown
All palettes from earlier rounds preserved here. None of the original work has been deleted — just moved out of the stakeholder review dropdown to reduce noise. Any of these can be promoted back to Contenders if a Contender doesn't survive feedback.
—Steller's Sea Eagle
Haliaeetus pelagicus — jet black + brilliant white shoulders + golden bill
Removed from Contenders because differentiation from Honey Badger (C05) was too narrow at muted-accent saturation level. Both are black-base + warm-yellow-gold accent. Kept here in case the brighter, slightly cooler Steller's gold reads better in person than Honey Badger's savanna gold.
K01-K10Claude Set (8 remaining)
Petroglyph (K01) · Iron Foundry (K02) · Old Map (K04) · Brutalist Concrete (K05) · Field Notes (K07) · Cinema Noir (K08) · Volcanic Glass (K09) · Coastal Fog (K10). Mariana Trench (K03) and Single Malt (K06) promoted to Contenders.
Eight Claude-generated palettes still available. Each was designed to occupy distinct visual space from the institutional sources. Most likely promotion candidates if Contenders shift: Cinema Noir (closest to Honey Badger family, slightly more saturated gold), Iron Foundry (industrial counterpart to Single Malt), Volcanic Glass (sharper red than the Burgundy Editorial cluster).
—All Original Brand & Sports Palettes
Deep Teal/Aqua family · Institutional Navy (NOAA, WHOI, Audubon, Northern Atlantic, Pacific Navy, Marine+Amber) · Forest Gravitas (TNC, Sierra, WCS, Panthera) · Pine+Signal · Olive+Cream · Direct Action · Burgundy Editorial · Cardinal Institutional · Institutional Purple · St. X Long Blue Line · NPS Arrowhead · SCUBA (PADI, SSI, Suunto, DAN, Scuba Diving / X-Ray Mag) · Wildlife (Amur Leopard, Mountain Lion, Wolverine, Giant Pacific Octopus, Grizzly) · NFL (Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks) · NBA (Memphis Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves) · NHL (San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche) · MLB (Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks)
Full library from v3 preserved. Every palette was developed under the 7-role schema and is wired into the audition CSS — they just don't appear in the dropdown. To re-promote any palette to the dropdown, copy its [data-p="..."] declaration into the active set and add an <option> entry in the ribbon select. See v3 index for full per-palette rationale on these.