The Forge

Why it looks this way.

Typography

Oswald Bold in capitals sets the headline at about 100 pixels. It is a tall, condensed face that looks like stamped metal. Source Sans 3 handles body text and is calm and legible beside the heavy headline.

• Oswald headlines
• Source Sans 3 body text

Color

The light theme uses warm grey (#EFEBE6) and charcoal (#1E1D1B), with rust orange (#A9501F) for buttons and moss green (#3F4B3C) as an accent. The dark theme is first, with near-black (#151413) and a brighter ember orange (#E08A55). The colours come from iron, brick and wood, and they feel earned rather than glossy.

• Page #EFEBE6
• Cards #FAF8F5
• Text #1E1D1B
• Brand #A9501F
• Accent #3F4B3C

Layout

A light bar has a round rust monogram, the name in condensed capitals, six links and a rust Give button. Below the hero a four-cell strip gives meeting times and place. Cards have thin outlines and square corners, in keeping with the hard-edged type.

Pages: Home, About, Visit, Crews, Talks, Events, Give, Contact

Hero

A full-bleed photo of two colleagues sharing a high five fills the screen under a dark overlay. 'BUILD SOMETHING THAT LASTS.' is set in white capitals across two lines. The eyebrow gives the time, 'Fridays at 6 AM. Show up.', which is both the schedule and the tone.

Calls to action

'Join a crew' is a solid rust button and 'Next meetup' is outlined. The language of crews fits the work-and-build identity. The chip below shows how soon the next Friday breakfast starts.

Photography

The photo is a bright office scene with warm light and a visible laugh. It shows friendship and humour rather than gloom. A real ministry should use its own men at work on a service project, with sleeves rolled up.

Accessibility

White text over the darkened photo stays clear, and rust buttons with white text measure about 5.4 to 1. Charcoal on warm grey is about 14 to 1. Uppercase headlines are short, which avoids the slow reading that long all-caps passages cause.