{
"style_name": "Paper Bloom Covers",
"style_slug": "faceted-profile-petal-cascade-cover",
"canvas": "4:5 portrait, oat paper field #F0E9DC with fine print grain and slight tonal mottling",
"color": {
"paper": "#F0E9DC",
"masthead_red": "#E4231B",
"ink": "near-black #1B1917",
"cascade_palette": ["scarlet #E23B2E", "coral #F2705A", "pink #EE5C7E", "orange #F2913A", "cobalt #2B5FC4", "navy #1D3070", "sky #7FA8DE"],
"skin": "warm ochre / tan / amber facets, always warm against the cool cascade",
"rule": "warm face, cool cascade, one red masthead, everything else black on paper"
},
"typography": {
"kicker": "one line of tiny widely letterspaced black caps above the masthead — a full sentence, the magazine's promise",
"masthead": "heavy display caps in red spanning full width at the top; the subject's head and hair crop 1–3 letters. Each title gets its own face (rounded slab / condensed slab-serif / geometric sans / stencil-cut) because they are four different magazines",
"issue_block": "oversized black condensed numeral top-left, headline in 2–3 lines of black slab beneath, then a subhead in letterspaced caps",
"body": "small typewriter/mono paragraphs, 3–4 lines each, separated by thin red hairlines or red dotted rules",
"badge": "a black spiked starburst lower right holding 2–3 lines of cream caps — a boast, never a description",
"script_note": "one handwritten line bottom-left, sometimes underlined, always a small aside in the writer's voice",
"footer": "a barcode strip plus one small framed glyph (rosette / compass rose / bolt / four-petal)"
},
"illustration": {
"portrait": "strict side profile facing LEFT, built from flat hard-edged polygonal facets — cut-paper logic, no soft shading, no outlines; hair rendered as angular shards or stacked curls",
"gesture": "one hand raised, holding a small object close to the eye — the subject is reading it, not showing it",
"cascade": "dozens of overlapping teardrop and petal forms flowing out of the shoulder and down the right side into the bottom edge; layered like paper cutouts, some filled with dot or hairline texture",
"vignette": "one small monochrome line-engraving of a relevant object sitting in the left column, occasionally with a tied specimen tag",
"micro_graphics": "a measurement scale, a dial, buoys, a moon, radio waves — one small diagram that names the discipline"
},
"design_rules": [
"the profile ALWAYS faces left — a right-facing cover breaks the set instantly",
"the cascade owns the right half; the type owns the left third; they never overlap",
"the masthead must be interrupted by the head — never fully clear",
"everything printed: paper grain, slight ink noise, no digital gloss anywhere"
],
"swap_variables": {
"obsession": "dessert design / ocean cartography / midnight radio / rare botany",
"masthead": "CRAVE / CURRENT / PULSE / INDEX",
"kicker": "IDEAS, INGREDIENTS & IMPOSSIBLE THINGS / CHART WHAT CAN'T BE SEEN / LATE NIGHTS. LOCAL VOICES. REAL FREQUENCIES. / A CATALOG OF SMALL THINGS THAT OUTLIVE US",
"held_object": "faceted candy / folded chart / field recorder / seed pod",
"badge": "ZERO BORING BITES / OFF THE CHART / LIVE · NO STATIC / 12 NEW SPECIES",
"glyph": "rosette / compass rose / bolt / four-petal"
}
}
