Design System

A hybrid child of two design systems.

Cucinelli warmth. Critical-rationalist discipline.

conjecture.school descends from Conjecture Institute and Network School. The aesthetic borrows from Brunello Cucinelli: cream backgrounds, espresso ink, walnut accent, generous whitespace, no decoration that doesn’t earn its place.

ILineage

Two parents. One child.

Parent

Conjecture Institute

What we inherit

  • Editorial discipline. Type-led, no decoration.
  • Three-arm structure (University, Press, Studios).
  • Card-based people grids.
  • Geist Mono for data and citations.

Parent

Network School

What we inherit

  • Sans + editorial serif pairing.
  • Generous whitespace, single column.
  • Action-oriented, declarative voice.
  • Hairline borders, restrained CTAs.

The deliberate differentiation: warm cream palette over cold white, walnut accent for the lecture-series character, drop-cap moments inherited from Italian print culture.

IIPalette

Seven tokens. No eighth.

cream

#FAF7F2

Page background. Raw silk, warm.

eggshell

#FFFEFA

Elevated cards. Subtle layering.

espresso

#2B2622

Primary text. Warm near-black.

walnut

#5C5048

Secondary text. Body color.

taupe

#9A8F84

Meta, labels, tertiary.

linen

#E5DDD2

Hairline dividers.

accent

#8B5A3C

Single accent. Walnut/terracotta. Rationed.

IIITypography

Three faces. Three jobs.

Fraunces breathes. Inter snaps. Geist Mono counts. No bold weight on content. Weight contrast comes from face and size.

H1 / WordmarkFraunces · light · clamp(3rem, 8vw, 5.5rem)
Conjecture & Refutations
Hero SubtitleFraunces · italic · 1.5–1.875rem
Every lecture is a conjecture. Every conjecture is open to refutation.
Section HeadingFraunces · light · 1.875rem
How knowledge grows under criticism.
BodyInter · regular · 0.9375–1.0625rem · 1.7
An idea is adopted rationally when a person is persuaded that it is the best among all alternatives. By criticizing all of them and committing to whichever survives.
Section LabelInter · uppercase · 0.6875rem · 0.32em
III. Next Session
Data / MonoGeist Mono · regular · 0.75rem · used for tokens, counts, citations
episode.01 = "David Deutsch"
session.start = 2026-05-16T17:00+08:00
recordings.publish <= session.date + 24h

IVGlyphs

Three glyphs. No others.

∴

Therefore

The mark. Favicon, wordmark.

✦

Star

Section divider only. Never inline.

·

Interpunct

Inline lists, micro-bullets.

Download the mark as SVG: /icon.svg.

VVoice

Aphoristic. Sourced. Anti-marketing.

Allowed

  • Aphoristic, short sentences.
  • Specific nouns. Forest City. Episode 01.
  • Sourced claims. Modules from Conjecture Institute.
  • One ethos line at the top.

Banned

  • Em dashes. Use commas, colons, slashes, periods.
  • Marketing verbs: discover, unlock, transform, empower.
  • Generic adjectives: world-class, cutting-edge, premier.
  • We are excited to announce. We are working.

VIThe Five Rules

If everything else collapses, keep these.

  1. 01720px column, single, always.
  2. 02Three glyphs only: ∴ · ✦.
  3. 03No em dashes.
  4. 04Accent (walnut) is rationed. ~5 moments per viewport.
  5. 05Fraunces + Inter for content. Geist Mono for data only.