ursa.nz
ursa is a two(+)person creative collective making documentary, websites, essays, photos, apps and apparel in reciprocal relation across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Country and Māori whenua. This guide sets out the brand. It covers the colours, type, and voice, and how to use them mainly for inside the collective.
Slate neutrals do most of the work. Violet marks anything you can touch or click. The yellow star is the one bright point of warmth. Everything below shows where each piece might fit in a project.
Four things shape every choice in this guide. If a design feels like ursa, it usually comes back to these.
We start with a yarn. The work grows in good relation.
Films, essays, and other mahi are published in the open and shared under CC BY-NC-SA.
Made in reciprocal relation to Country and community. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
Restrained layouts with one clear point of warmth.
These are the ursa marks. Every one carries the star yellow and usually a hand-drawn line or three, and together they anchor the brand. The palette here gives each mark a neutral background to sit against. That is to say, this guide grew around the assets.
Yellow is the most recognisable part of the brand. Use it at full strength and keep it small. One star per screen is usually enough.
Use it for the marks, link underlines, highlighted phrases, focus rings, the dot beside the current page, and one clear invitation per screen.
Only ink may sit on the star. White on this yellow fails at 1.4:1. Ink passes at 11.8:1.
Against the dark background it reads brightest, at 13.4:1. That is where yellow belongs.
Violet is for anything a reader can touch, such as links, buttons, and active states.
Links, buttons, and active states. It sits opposite yellow on the colour wheel, so the two balance each other.
The deepest steps become the dark-mode background. Keep it a deep violet-black rather than pure black. The night sky has colour in it.
Violet 700 passes AAA for body text on paper at 10.9:1. Keep body copy at 700 and deeper. Steps 400 to 500 are for large text and decoration.
Slate does most of the work. It handles backgrounds, body text, borders, and the supporting interface parts. It carries a hint of the violet, so light and dark mode feel like one family. The near-blacks double as dark surfaces.
ursa keeps to five typefaces so its spaces feel related. The display face and monospace stay the same everywhere, the body font changes with the space, and the wordmark is set in Bricolage. Every face supports macrons, which matters for te reo Māori and language work.
The shared spine across every governed space. One variable file spans light captions to heavy display. Its macrons are drawn, not composited.
Labels, code, hex values and small print. Macrons stay clean at small sizes.
Geist for the digital spaces, the main site and software. Sorts Mill Goudy for the story-led apparel and essays. Both sit under Bricolage.
Aidan's own handwriting, kept as a rare affectation. Use it for signatures and personal notes only, never the wordmark or body text. Bricolage sets the ursa wordmark, and the asterisk carries the mark.
This system governs ursa.nz and its shared subsites, apparel, software and the manifesto. Personal spaces such as the blogs are free to differ, in type and in colour. The forge has moved to GitLab under the ursa lab logo, so it no longer sits in this family.
Colour tokens for the web, in light and dark mode. Names spell out what each colour is for. If you rebuild this in your own system, rename freely. Just keep the relationships.
| colour-background | page background | #F8F7FA | |
| colour-surface | cards and panels | #FFFFFF | |
| colour-text | body copy | #1B1824 | |
| colour-text-muted | secondary text | #5F5B73 | |
| colour-border | hairlines and dividers | #E0DEE8 | |
| colour-link | links and buttons | #3F2F66 | |
| colour-link-hover | hover and pressed | #2D2149 | |
| colour-highlight | the star, small and rare | #FFD500 | |
| colour-focus-ring | focus rings, 2px offset | #FFD500 |
| colour-background | the night sky | #120D20 | |
| colour-surface | cards and panels | #1E1632 | |
| colour-text | body copy in warm white | #F2EEE6 | |
| colour-text-muted | secondary text | #9E9AB0 | |
| colour-border | hairlines and dividers | #2D2149 | |
| colour-link | links | #BCAEDE | |
| colour-link-hover | hover and pressed | #DDD5EC | |
| colour-highlight | starlight, it glows here | #FFD500 | |
| colour-focus-ring | focus rings | #FFD500 |
Ratios computed from the hex values above. WCAG AA asks 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text and interface parts.
| body text | Ink on paper, the default read | 16.4:1 | AA ✓ |
| muted text | Secondary text on paper | 6.1:1 | AA ✓ |
| a link | Violet 700 on paper | 10.9:1 | AA ✓ |
| on the star | Ink on star, the only text allowed on yellow | 11.8:1 | AA ✓ |
| never this | White on star, shown so no one tries it | 1.4:1 | fails ✕ |
| starlight | Star on the night sky, its best setting | 13.4:1 | AA ✓ |
| body text | Warm white on the night sky | 16.4:1 | AA ✓ |
| a link | Violet 300 on the night sky | 9.3:1 | AA ✓ |
| yellow as text | Star 800, how yellow becomes text on light | 5.7:1 | AA ✓ |
The same page in light and dark mode.
ursa
documentary, essays, and other mahi made in reciprocal relation, across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Country and Māori whenua. published open, shared freely.
ursa
documentary, essays, and other mahi made in reciprocal relation, across Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Country and Māori whenua. published open, shared freely.
The example copy is in the lowercase register ursa uses for community pages. Documentation, including this guide, stays in standard case.
Let slate carry the page. Colour should read as an accent, not a background.
Use the star at full strength and at small scale. Underlines, markers, focus rings, one invitation per view.
Keep violet for things a reader can touch. Links, buttons, active states.
Keep the ink outline on yellow marks. It is what makes them yours.
In dark mode let the yellow glow. It is at its best against the night sky.
No white text on yellow. It fails contrast at 1.4:1.
No large yellow fields behind body copy. Yellow is an accent, not a background fill.
Do not tint the star down when it matters. Full strength or leave it out.
Do not use yellow for warnings or errors. It is the brand voice, not a status colour.
Do not reach for pure black or pure grey. The warmth is the point.
For collaborators, press, and anyone sharing ursa's work. Here is what you can do freely, and what to check with us first.
Share and quote our films, essays, and mahi. They are published under CC BY-NC-SA. Credit ursa, keep the same licence, and don't use them commercially.
Show the asterisk mark or wordmark to refer to us. It can go in an article, a credits list, or a link back. Don't alter them.
Use this palette and type as a reference when you are building something together with us.
Putting the ursa name, mark, or wordmark on your own product, event, or merchandise.
Anything that would make it look like ursa stands behind your work before we have agreed to it together.
Any commercial use of our work or the brand.
The wordmark and asterisk are ursa's identity. Do not recolour, redraw, stretch, or add effects to them, and keep the ink outline on the yellow mark. When you are not sure, say kia ora. Get in touch at ursa.nz.
The personal voice at length. This is the essay and apparel register, so the body is set in Sorts Mill Goudy and the heading in Bricolage. The star marks a highlight, footnotes hold citations and asides, and a content note is a set component rather than an ad-hoc line.
Werte.
In 2025 I had the words land back tattooed on my arm. I had it done on Arrernte Country. I was called there by ancestors, and I went with the support of my partner. The mark is on my skin so it stays with me (not a slogan to shout at others, at most a conversation starter if noticed).1
Country is not a resource, property, or abstract. It is a living constellation of relations that includes people, ancestors, animals, water, sky, story, and lore.
Why are you going to work?
1 as my Uncle often says, "if you can't connect, you can't collect."
Excerpt shared under CC BY-NC-SA. The full essay lives at Arlewatyerre.
The system on paper. A letterhead for correspondence and two report covers, one on paper and one on the night sky. The asterisk and the wordmark head each page, and a handwritten name signs the letter. Bricolage carries the titles, Geist and Sorts Mill Goudy carry the words.
ursa
Thank you for the yarn last week. It has stayed with us.
We would like to keep growing this together, slowly and in good relation. There is no rush, and no invoice at the door.
ursa
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