Preview · not yet shipped · v2 (facelift-aligned)
Tools sub-palette
Catches up the tools to the Instagram facelift: ink navy (#080818) replaces flat charcoal; cobalt blue (#1868F8) lands as the new hero accent. Cream stays the canvas. Status colours stay quiet (work-state encoding shouldn’t fight the brand). Semantic + source accents step up to match the cobalt’s energy.
Brand foundation
Ink replaces flat charcoal across body text, dark surfaces, and the brand mark. Cobalt joins as the new hero accent — used for active state, primary buttons, link hover, header rules. Cream + Neutral unchanged from the official guidelines.
How it lands in context
Chapter tools library.
Ink + cobalt + cream is the modern Chapter — same restraint, more energy. Sample header treatment showing the cobalt hero accent in italic.
Pipeline status (proposed)
Today's status colours are five near-identical pale tints — column dots are almost indistinguishable. Proposed: five clearly-readable hues that progress from sand to deep sage, mirroring 'idea → ship'.
Sample card
Owner · Due date
Sample card
Owner · Due date
Sample card
Owner · Due date
Sample card
Owner · Due date
Sample card
Owner · Due date
Semantic accents
Reserved exclusively for state. Forest for under-retainer success, claret for overdue, ochre for warning, slate-blue for info. Never decoration.
Source badges
One colour per sibling tool, so at a glance you can see which integration pushed a card. Used on the via-{source} pill in the card chip + filters.
Sample card pushed from Newsbeat
Neil · 28 May
Sample card pushed from Grid
Neil · 28 May
Sample card pushed from Newsroom
Neil · 28 May
Sample card pushed from Strategise
Neil · 28 May
Sample card pushed from Vision
Neil · 28 May
Combined in context
Three example cards with everything stacked — status colour on the left edge, source badge, client tag, overdue/today state.
Pitched Henry Mance: Syon allotment campaign
Laura · 28 May · In Progress
Client approval — May social batch
Neil · 26 May · In Approval
Strategise: Q3 PR campaign foundations
Neil · — · Planned
Verdict
If you like it, I roll this across all 6 tools (Actions, Newsroom, Grid, Tools, Vision, Strategise) in one disciplined push.
What ships if approved:
- Globals.css token additions in every Chapter tool (same names, same hexes everywhere)
- Status dots/cards updated to use the new pipeline family on the Actions board, retainer view, digest, Today hero
- Source badges replace the current grey “via <source>” tags
- Semantic banners replace the current mono-tone warning/error styling
- Public-facing collateral (Tools landing tile grid, emails, exports) stays cream + charcoal — sub-palette is for internal UI only