Plate GS · Brand system · 2 September 2026

Type and colour. Locked.

Grotesk is the voice. Sans is the work. Electrum is the signal — never small on Paper. Apply this document before inventing another homepage. The mark stays. The editorial serif-on-serif does not.

01 · The rule

Grotesk is the voice. Sans is the work. Electrum is the signal — never small on Paper.

Voice

Space Grotesk

Page H1, section titles (H2–H3), buttons, nav. The working display — sentence case, never tracked caps.

Work

IBM Plex Sans

Body copy, supporting lines, forms, tables, captions. This is most of the type on a page.

Mark

Playfair Display

The GEOLAB wordmark only, locked with the caliper. Never body, never titles, never buttons, never nav.

Three families on a live surface. Never four. Newsreader, Fraunces and DM Sans are studio experiments only — they do not ship.

02 · Colour

Paper, Ink, Electrum. Everything else is a supporting tick.

The palette barely moved from the plate. What changed is permission: Electrum is a signal at a readable size, Charcoal is an interior, Phosphor never sits on Paper.

Paper

#F5F3EE

bg · ground

Default page ground. Marketing, reports, guidelines.

Do not cool it toward grey. Do not swap for white.

Panel

#ECEAE4

panel · ground

Recessed bands, footer, inset tables. One step off Paper.

Not a card fill with rounded corners used as elevation.

Rule

#D5D1C6

rule · ground

Hairlines, column joins, form borders. 1px, never 2px.

Not a fill. Not a text colour.

Ink

#161614

fg / ink · ink

Primary text, inverse bands, wordmark.

Do not use pure #000. Do not lighten for body.

Mute

#5C5A54

muted · ink

Supporting copy, idle nav, captions, form labels, legal.

Not body on long reads — too light. Not Electrum’s job.

Electrum

#E8B423

accent · signal

Primary buttons, prices, numerals, eyebrows. The highlight. 20px minimum as text on Paper.

Never as text smaller than 20px on Paper. Never a page fill. Never captions, table IDs, or tracked 10px labels.

Mark

#8A6410

mark / stamp · signal

The same gold, darkened, for any accent type that must sit below 16px on Paper.

Not a button fill. That is Electrum.

Charcoal

#121410

ink (inverse) · product

Closing band, live snapshot mock, Monitor, OS trackers. The black route, kept as the interior.

Not the marketing homepage ground.

Phosphor

#B7C9A4

phosphor · product

Product-interior accent on Charcoal. Live readings, tracker highlights.

Never on Paper. Never as a marketing accent — that is Electrum.

Amber

#C4A574

amber · product

Numeric alerts and ‘needs attention’ ticks inside product UI only.

Never on marketing. Never as a gold luxury signal.

Allowed pairings

Paper + Ink + ElectrumEvery marketing pagePaper and Ink do the reading. Electrum is the remaining signal — buttons, big numbers, prices, 18px eyebrows.
Electrum fill + Ink typePrimary button, fold CTAPrimary is Electrum, Ink type on the fill. Hover darkens toward Mark. Sentence case Grotesk, 16px.
Panel + InkFooter, packaging band, recessed chaptersSame type rules as Paper. Do not introduce a third text colour.
Charcoal + Phosphor + AmberProduct interior onlyThe black route. Workspace, snapshot, OS trackers. Not the homepage hero.

Marketing

GEOLAB

Paper / Ink / Electrum

Start

Inverse

GEOLAB

Ink / Paper

Start

Product

GEOLAB

Charcoal / Phosphor / Amber

Start

03 · Type

Grotesk for titles. Plex for reading. Playfair only in the wordmark.

Voice · --font-display

Space Grotesk

Jonas Hecksher / Google Fonts · 500

Make your brand the answer AI gives.

Page H1, section titles (H2–H3), buttons, nav. The working display — sentence case, never tracked caps.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Work · --font-sans

IBM Plex Sans

IBM / Bold Monday · 400, 400 italic, 500, 600

Buyers ask engines, not just Google.

Body copy, supporting lines, forms, tables, captions. This is most of the type on a page.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Mark · --font-wordmark

Playfair Display

Claus Eggers Sørensen · 500

GEOLAB

The GEOLAB wordmark only, locked with the caliper. Never body, never titles, never buttons, never nav.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Dropped from live surfaces

NewsreaderIt made every paragraph a magazine column. Two serifs on one page is the editorial problem.
FrauncesThe old live site. Soft, optical, too close to ‘nice agency cream’.
DM SansFriendly SaaS grotesque. Fights the lab’s metric DNA.
Playfair as displayThe wordmark is enough. Setting H1–H4 in Playfair was the overuse.

04 · Roles

Six jobs. If a line has no job, it does not ship.

Role	Face	Size	Weight	Track	Notes
Wordmark	Playfair Display	26–30px	500	−0.04em	Locked with the caliper. Do not redraw, do not set in Grotesk, do not set in a sentence.
Display	Space Grotesk	40–72px	500	−0.04em	Hero H1 and page H1. Nothing below 32px in this role.
Title	Space Grotesk	22–40px	500	−0.03em	H2 and H3. Work type, not a second serif. Never Playfair.
Body	IBM Plex Sans	16–18px	400	0	Leading 1.55. Mute colour for supporting copy. Italic 400 for emphasis.
Navigation	Space Grotesk	16px	500	−0.015em	Header links. Idle in Mute, current in Ink. Hover may go Electrum — size already holds.
Signal	Space Grotesk	20px and up	500	−0.02em	Electrum as text on Paper. Eyebrows 20px. Prices 20px+. Numerals 01–06 at 24–36px. Never below 20px on Paper.
Label	IBM Plex Sans	14px	500	0	Form labels, table heads, meta. Mute, never Electrum. 10px tracked caps are retired.

Display · H1

Make your brand the answer AI gives.

Body in IBM Plex Sans. Supporting copy sits in Mute. This is the only Playfair on the block — and it is the wordmark, not the headline.

Title · H2 / H3

Measure first. Then move the number.

Build the prompt set

Section titles are Space Grotesk 500. They used to be Playfair. That was the overuse.

05 · Navigation

Nav is a working label, not a sentence and not a stamp.

The previous header inherited the body serif, so the menu looked like a contents page. Nav is now Space Grotesk at 16px — the same family as titles, a working label rather than a stamp.

GEOLAB

What is GEOHow we workServicesAboutStart

Wordmark Playfair · links Space Grotesk 16/500 · CTA Electrum fill

FamilySpace Grotesk — same as titles, not a fourth face
Size / weight16px, weight 500. Body is 16px/400 Plex.
Tracking−0.015em. Tight, like the titles. Tracked caps are retired.
ColourMute at rest. Ink when current. Hover may go Electrum — the type is already 16px, so the size rule holds.
CTAElectrum fill, Ink type, Space Grotesk 16px sentence case. Never 10px tracked caps.

06 · Scale

A short ladder. Three sizes on a given screen is enough.

Token	Face	Size	LH	Use
display-xl	Space Grotesk 500	72 / 64 / 40	1.05	Home H1
display	Space Grotesk 500	56 / 40	1.08	Page H1
title-lg	Space Grotesk 500	40 / 30	1.15	Section H2
title	Space Grotesk 500	24 / 22	1.25	H3, product names
signal	Space Grotesk 500	18–36	1.1	Electrum type: eyebrows, prices, 01–06
body-lg	IBM Plex Sans 400	18	1.55	Lead paragraphs
body	IBM Plex Sans 400	16	1.55	Default copy
body-sm	IBM Plex Sans 400	14	1.5	Captions, form labels, table heads
nav	Space Grotesk 500	16	1	Header links

07 · Do / don’t

Permission, written down.

Type — do

Set titles, buttons and nav in Space Grotesk.
Keep Playfair for GEOLAB only.
Set body in IBM Plex Sans at 16–18px.
Set Electrum type at 18px and up on Paper. Numerals 24px+.
Set form labels and table heads in Plex Sans 14px Mute — not yellow, not tracked caps.
One Display sentence per hero. Then work type does the rest.

Type — don’t

Do not set Electrum as 10px tracked caps on Paper. It disappears.
Do not set body in a serif.
Do not set H2–H4 in Playfair.
Do not set navigation in Playfair, Newsreader, or Mono.
Do not italicise Grotesk to make it ‘more luxury’.
Do not restack GEOLAB as a masthead in the hero — the header already holds it.
Do not mix Newsreader, Fraunces or DM Sans onto a live surface.

Colour — do

Default to Paper. Ink for type. Electrum for buttons, prices and numerals.
Electrum as text on Paper is 16px and up — 18px for eyebrows. Below that, use Mark (#8A6410).
Primary CTA is Electrum fill with Ink type.
Secondary CTA is a Rule hairline, Ink label. Hover may go Electrum because the type is already 16px.
Hairlines in Rule at 1px. Join columns with a Rule gutter, not a shadow.

Colour — don’t

Do not set Electrum as 10px tracked caps on Paper. It disappears.
Do not fill a hero with Electrum.
Do not use Phosphor or Amber on Paper.
Do not introduce a cool grey — it fights the warm ground.
Do not use pure black or pure white.
Do not round cards and tint them Panel to fake elevation.
Do not gradient anything.

08 · Decisions

Why this, and not the last round.

Why Electrum cannot be small on Paper

Yellow on cream needs size. 01–03 at display size reads. 16px ‘What we do’ is the floor of acceptable. 10px tracked caps on /os did not read at all. The rule is hard and site-wide: Electrum as text is 16px and up (18px for kickers). Anything smaller uses Mark, the same gold, darkened — or Mute, if it is only a label.

Why the last homepage felt editorial

Playfair on the wordmark, Playfair on every heading, Newsreader on every paragraph, Newsreader in the nav. Four serif surfaces, no working type. It read as a journal, not a laboratory that measures.

Why we keep Playfair at all

The caliper lockup and GEOLAB in Playfair is the mark. It is the voice of the name. Used once, it is distinctive. Used everywhere, it is a magazine. Titles moved to Space Grotesk.

Why Space Grotesk, not another serif

Bench is the locked look. Grotesk titles in sentence case, Plex for reading, Electrum for the remaining signal. It is a product studio that still feels like a laboratory — not chambers, not a dashboard.

Why IBM Plex Sans — and why it is the black route, kept

Instrument already proved Plex as the face of measurement: metric, slightly condensed. Bringing it onto Paper keeps the lab’s intelligence without turning the public site into a night-vision dashboard.

Why colour barely moved

Paper, Ink and a single gold were already right. Electrum replaced the quieter greens as the marketing signal because it renders. The black route is not discarded — it is the interior. Marketing stays on Paper. Two surfaces, one brand.