Ninety Letters

Why it looks this way.

Typography

Courier Prime carries every headline because the typewriter is still the voice of prison paperwork: request slips, chaplain's memos, the notice that comes back when a letter is rejected. Literata, a book serif drawn for long reading on screens, sets the body at 18px so the longer explanations feel like a letter rather than a form. Homemade Apple appears in exactly one place, Marjorie's signature, because a handwritten name is the point of the whole ministry.

• Courier Prime headlines
• Literata body text
• Homemade Apple labels

Color

The palette is an airmail envelope: ballpoint blue for links and actions, the red of the striped border for small accents, and a cool onionskin gray for the page. We kept the paper cool on purpose so it never drifts into the cream-and-brown of a heritage brand. At night the page becomes a desk under a lamp, deep navy with the blue lifted so links stay above 4.5:1.

• Page #EDF0F1
• Cards #FAFBFB
• Text #1A2130
• Brand #21408C
• Accent #C0392E

Layout

The contents column on the right lists every section of the page you are on, the way a writer's guide would. People who come here are usually deciding something careful (am I allowed to send photos, will they know my address) and the column lets them jump to the answer without hunting. The writing-night action stays in that column on every page.

Pages: Start, Write a letter, Mail-room rules, From the inside, Writing nights, Stamps & paper

Hero

The home page opens with a letter from Marjorie Telfair, the director, because that is how the ministry itself started: one page about tomato plants sent to a stranger in 2009. A letter from a real person says more about what we ask of volunteers than any headline could, and it sets the tone for writing plainly.

Calls to action

The main action is "Write your first letter", because the hardest step is the first page. Secondary actions are equally concrete: come to a writing night, read the mail-room rules, pay for a book of stamps. We avoided the word donate on the giving page and talk about stamps, envelopes and paper, which is what the money actually buys.

Photography

There are very few photographs, and none of incarcerated people. We do not show faces from inside without consent, so the images are hands, paper, Bibles passed across a table and the fence line, used sparingly. Portraits are of volunteers and staff who agreed to be pictured.

Accessibility

Body text is 18px with generous line spacing for the many older volunteers who write with us. The typewriter face is used only for headings and never for long paragraphs. Every form field has a visible label, the contents list is a real ordered list, and colors pass contrast in both light and dark themes.