01
Who we are
Every rule in this guide serves one idea. Start there and the rest makes sense.
1.1 What Curio is
A home is not a container. It is an ecosystem of living beings, rhythms, memories, and matter.
Curio Studio Interiors is a residential interior design studio rooted in the Hudson Valley, led by principal designer Savannah Dodge. We design homes for the specific people and the specific place, with materials chosen for their story as much as their look. The tagline carries all three: Connecting People, Place & Planet.
People
The psyche, made spatial
Design, done well, is inquiry before intervention. I don't design for myself; I design for the people living within a specific home. We translate the inner world of your psyche into the outer world of your home: spaces that hold complexity, ritual, and real life. Refuge, not performance.
Place
Design belongs to its context
Our work is rooted in place: the light here, the landscape, the particular character of these Hudson Valley homes. A home should feel inevitable in its setting, not imported into it. Great design belongs to where it stands.
Planet
Regenerative by intention
A home is an ecosystem of living beings, rhythms, and matter, coexisting on behalf of one another. We design regeneratively: materials chosen for their story and their footprint, an ecological relationship honored rather than ignored.
The three pillars, word for word from the About page. Copy them exactly; never paraphrase them.
1.2 Five beliefs
Each belief is a test. If a piece of work, a sentence, or a photo breaks one, it goes back.
- 01A home is not a container. It is an ecosystem.Living beings, rhythms, memories, and matter, all coexisting on behalf of one another.
- 02Inquiry before intervention.Design, done well, asks before it acts. We learn how you actually live before we change a single thing.
- 03We reveal yours. We don't impose ours.It is not about a signature look. It is about revealing the one your life is already asking for.
- 04Materials carry a story.Where a thing came from, what it cost the earth, how long it will last: these are design decisions, not afterthoughts.
- 05Refuge, not performance.Spaces built to hold real life (complexity, emotion, ritual), not to be photographed and forgotten.
1.3 Three ideas behind the look
Merlot is the identity
A deep, grounded red that reads like wine, clay and old wood. It carries the logo, the headings, and the one primary action on a page.
Warm, never cool
Every color here sits on the warm side. Cool blues and greens fight merlot, so they stay out of the palette and out of the hero images.
Off-white, not white
The canvas is off-white, the color of unbleached linen and plaster. Pure white reads clinical, so it is saved for print on white paper.
1.4 Using this guide
It is written to be handed to three audiences and produce the same result from all three.
A designer or marketer
Take the files from chapter 02, the colors from 03, and check your copy against 05, and see it all applied in 08.
A developer
Paste the tokens from chapter 09, or use the Tailwind classes the site already ships. Never retype a hex by hand.
An AI assistant
Give it the whole page, not a summary. The hex values, ratios, and voice rules carry the weight, and a summary drops exactly those.
02
The logo
An interlaced CS monogram and a CURIO STUDIO wordmark set in ITC Eras Medium, both converted to outlines. Use the file. Never type it.
2.1 The mark
- The monogram is a C and an S drawn as one line. Two letters that curl into each other, the way a home, its people and its place do.
- The wordmark is ITC Eras Medium, outlined. The files render correctly on any machine, with or without the font installed.
- The letters are never retyped. Eras is licensed for the logo only and is not a web font on this site.
2.2 Lockups
Three arrangements and one tile. Each ships as an outlined SVG (the master) and a 300 dpi transparent PNG.
2.3 Colorways
Merlot on a light field, or off-white on merlot. That is the whole list.
2.4 Clear space and minimum size
- X is the cap height of the wordmark. Keep one X clear on all four sides. No type, rules, image edges, or other logos inside it.
- Horizontal lockup minimum: 160px wide on screen, 1.25 inches in print.
- Wordmark minimum: 120px wide on screen, 1 inch in print. Below that, use the monogram.
- Monogram minimum: 16px. That is the favicon, and it is as small as the mark goes.
- Scale proportionally. Hold shift. Every time.
2.5 What to avoid
03
Color
Nine colors, all of them warm. Every one has a job. If you are reaching for a tenth, the layout is wrong, not the palette.
3.1 The nine
Select any swatch to copy its hex.
3.2 Warm, never cool
- Merlot for identity. Copper for warmth. Charcoal for reading.
- Most of a page is Off-white and Butter. Merlot carries the dark bands and the one primary action. Copper, lime and mustard are the smallest share, a rule or a tag at a time.
- Lime is the one green, and it is an olive. It came from the original sheet and it stays a small accent.
3.3 Contrast
Measured, not eyeballed. AA needs 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text (24px, or 19px bold) and graphics.
| Pair | Ratio | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| AaMerlot on Off-white | 13.39:1 | Pass AA |
| AaCharcoal on Off-white | 12.36:1 | Pass AA |
| AaOff-white on Merlot | 13.39:1 | Pass AA |
| AaButter on Merlot | 11.13:1 | Pass AA |
| AaCharcoal on Butter | 10.27:1 | Pass AA |
| AaMustard on Merlot | 7.44:1 | Pass AA |
| AaWarm gray on Off-white | 4.67:1 | Pass AA |
| AaCopper deep on Off-white | 4.61:1 | Pass AA |
| AaOff-white on Copper deep | 4.61:1 | Pass AA |
| AaCopper on Off-white | 3.87:1 | Large only |
| AaOff-white on Copper | 3.87:1 | Large only |
| AaWarm gray on Butter | 3.88:1 | Large only |
| AaLime on Off-white | 1.93:1 | Never |
| AaMustard on Off-white | 1.80:1 | Never |
Do
- Merlot or Charcoal for anything people read.
- Copper deep when copper has to be small, or has to carry off-white type.
- Butter labels and butter buttons on merlot. 11.13:1.
- Off-white for the page. Butter for panels.
Never
- Copper text under 24px on off-white. It is 3.87:1 and it fails.
- Mustard, lime or butter as text on a light field.
- Pure white as a page background. The canvas is off-white.
- Any blue, teal or cool green, anywhere near the logo.
- Invent a tint or shade of a brand color for a new job.
04
Typography
Sans-serif, everywhere, always. Questrial leads, Arial carries the reading, Tenor Sans labels the nav. No serif, ever.
4.1 Families
Display and headings
AaQuestrial
Page titles, section heads, card titles, pull quotes, the tagline. A clean humanist sans that sits comfortably beside the Eras wordmark. One weight.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
abcdefghijklm 0123456789
Body and interface
AaArial
Every paragraph, list, caption, button, eyebrow and form field. Installed on every machine, so documents and email match the site.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
abcdefghijklm 0123456789
Navigation
AaTenor Sans
The top nav labels only. The closest free match to the Eras wordmark, so the header reads as one piece with the logo.
Services · Projects · Studio · Journal
4.2 The scale
Six sizes for the web. There is no seventh. If a line does not fit, cut words; do not invent a half size.
A home that looks like the people in it
How a project unfolds
Materials that carry a story
Before we suggest a single change, we want to know how your mornings go, where the light lands, and which pieces you would never part with.
The Curio way
Photographed in the Berkshires, late October.
4.3 Try a style
Connecting People, Place & Planet
font: 400 56px/1.05 'Questrial'; color: #42041C;4.4 Pairing in use
Planet
Materials that carry a story
Where a thing came from, what it cost the earth, how long it will last: these are design decisions, not afterthoughts. We choose wool, wood and stone the way you would choose a friend, for the long run.
Questrial 56 display · Copper rule · Arial 16 body · Arial 11 eyebrow · Arial 13 micro
4.5 Getting the fonts
Questrial and Tenor Sans are free on Google Fonts. Arial ships with every computer. ITC Eras lives only inside the logo files.
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Questrial&family=Tenor+Sans&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">Do
- Questrial for every heading, pull quote and the tagline.
- Arial for anything people read for more than a line.
- Uppercase with wide tracking for eyebrows and buttons only.
Never
- A serif, anywhere. Cormorant Garamond is retired.
- Eras typed as live text. It is the logo, not a font we set.
- Bold Questrial. It has one weight, and faux bold smears it.
- Long paragraphs in uppercase.
05
Voice
Warm, curious, grounded. We ask before we tell, and we write about homes as places to live, never things to look at.
5.1 How we sound
A designer sitting with the people who will live in the home. Quiet confidence, plain words, and a real interest in how they live. Every line should sound like it came from someone who has been in the room.
Ask before you tell
Inquiry before intervention holds for copy too. Open with the person and how they live, then the design.
Reveal theirs, never impose ours
There is no Curio look. Describe the home the client is already asking for, never a style we sell.
Refuge, not performance
Homes are for living. Never sell a room on how it photographs or who it impresses.
5.2 The kitchen table test
Read the copy aloud as if you are sitting at a client's kitchen table on the first visit. If a line would sound like a sales pitch in that room, or treats their home as something to be seen rather than lived in, cut it. They invited us in to listen first.
5.3 Word list
One word per thing. When the same idea goes by three names across three pages, readers assume they are three different things.
| Say | Not | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| home | property, unit, square footage (in client copy) | Where people live. It is never an asset in our copy. |
| way in | package, bundle | One of the five service levels, from fully managed to lightly guided. |
| Custom-scoped | "starting at", price on request | How Full Service, Procurement and Spec Book are priced: by written proposal. |
| regenerative | eco-chic, green luxe | Materials chosen for their story, origin, footprint and durability. |
| refuge | showpiece, statement space | What a home is for. |
| Begin a conversation | Book now, Get a quote | The first step, on every call to action that starts a project. |
Never in Curio copy
- Instagrammable
- Instagram-worthy
- wow factor
- show-stopping
- elevate your space
- signature style
- eco-chic
- luxe
- limited spots
- act now
5.4 Mechanics
- No em dashes. Anywhere. Ever. Use a comma, a colon, a period, or rewrite the sentence. The site's tests fail on one.
- Names in full the first time. Curio Studio Interiors, then Curio Studio. Savannah Dodge, CEO and Principal Designer.
- Custom-scoped work never shows a number. Full Service, Procurement and Spec Book are priced by written proposal. Consulting ($150 an hour) and Guidebook (per room) are the only published prices.
- Page titles use a pipe. "About | Curio Studio Interiors".
- Digits for numbers. 3 bedrooms, 2 site visits, 6 weeks.
- No urgency theater. No fake scarcity, no countdowns, no "last chance".
5.5 Two voices, one studio
Curio Studio
The studio voice
"We". Calm, considered, specific. The site, proposals, service pages, the newsletter, every client email from the studio.
Savannah Dodge
The designer's voice
"I". Reflective, personal, occasionally poetic. Journal essays and Savannah's own notes, signed by her. Do not switch voices inside one paragraph.
06
Interface
For the site, the client portal and anything else on a screen. Same rules as print, because it is the same studio.
6.1 Buttons
Every button is a pill: Arial 14px, uppercase, 0.15em tracking. On merlot the button is butter with a merlot label (11.13:1). Off-white on copper is 3.87:1 and fails at this size.
6.2 Corners
Soft and round, like the monogram. The one square edge is a form field.
6.3 Fields, cards, and tables
Transparent fill, square Merlot hairline at 30%, Charcoal text, merlot focus ring. Select the field to see it.
| Room | Pieces | Lead time |
|---|---|---|
| Living room | 14 | 6 weeks |
| Primary bedroom | 9 | 10 weeks |
| Entry | 4 | 3 weeks |
Merlot header, Butter labels, hairline rows, tabular figures.
| Element | Spec |
|---|---|
| Links | Merlot #42041C, underlined in running text. On merlot, Butter. |
| Body text | Charcoal #2A2420 on Off-white. Warm gray #6B6558 for supporting copy and captions. |
| Cards | Off-white or Butter fill, 16px corners, a soft merlot-tinted shadow on hover only. |
| Hairlines | The text color at 15%: Merlot on light, Off-white on merlot. |
| Section rules | Copper #9E653B, 1px, under an eyebrow or heading. |
| Glass | The nav bar only. Merlot glass over a dark hero, Butter glass everywhere else. |
| Focus | 2px Merlot ring (Butter on merlot), 2px offset, on every interactive element. Never removed. |
| Touch targets | 44px minimum. Text inputs at least 16px so phones do not zoom on focus. |
07
Imagery
Real homes, real light, real life. A room is photographed the way it is lived in, never staged for the camera.
7.1 Photography



Do
- Our own projects, with the client's permission.
- Warm light: golden hour, lamps on, wood, wool and stone.
- Signs of life. A book left open, a dog on the rug.
Never
- Stock interiors, or anyone else's work presented as ours.
- Cool, blue or green-dominant heroes. They fight merlot.
- Color tints over photos. Keep the photo true; a soft shadow under type is the most it gets.
7.2 Warm light for heroes

For a Hudson Valley scene that keeps both the place and the palette, shoot autumn at golden hour: reds, oranges and golds, not summer green or water.
08
In use
The brand on the things it is printed on and posted to. Everything here uses the real logo files, the nine colors and the brand type.








Digital



Before we talk about a single change, we would love to hear how your home works on an ordinary Tuesday.
Thursday, October 9 · 10:00 am · At your homeView your project


Connecting People, Place & Planet
Residential interior design · Hudson Valley, the Berkshires and New England
Connecting People, Place & Planet
Residential interior design · Hudson Valley, the Berkshires and New EnglandHomes, materials and the questions we ask before we change a thing, from a residential studio in the Hudson Valley.
Warmly,
Savannah


Curio Studio Interiors · Kerhonkson, NY · Unsubscribe

Print pieces are photographs with the real logo files composited in; the rest is drawn from the logo files and palette. The Hale family, Birch Hill Farmhouse, episode titles and the YouTube handle are samples. The website and proposal are live screenshots.
09
Tokens and files
Paste these. Do not retype a hex by hand.
Everything in one file
The Curio logo kit
Horizontal lockup, wordmark and monogram in merlot and off-white, the monogram tile, and the favicon set. Outlined SVG and 300 dpi PNG.
9.1 CSS custom properties
:root {
--curio-merlot: #42041C;
--curio-off-white: #EDE7D1;
--curio-butter: #DBD5A7;
--curio-copper: #9E653B;
--curio-copper-deep: #8F5A34;
--curio-charcoal: #2A2420;
--curio-lime: #A1AD7E;
--curio-mustard: #CCAA4C;
--curio-warm-gray: #6B6558;
--font-display: 'Questrial', Arial, sans-serif;
--font-nav: 'Tenor Sans', Arial, sans-serif;
--font-body: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
--radius-pill: 999px;
--radius-panel: 28px;
--radius-card: 16px;
}9.2 Tailwind v4
These are the names the site already uses (bg-merlot, text-copper-deep, font-questrial). In this repo they come from @curio/brand/tokens.css.
@theme {
--color-merlot: #42041c;
--color-off-white: #ede7d1;
--color-butter: #dbd5a7;
--color-copper: #9e653b;
--color-copper-deep: #8f5a34;
--color-lime: #a1ad7e;
--color-mustard: #ccaa4c;
--color-warm-gray: #6b6558;
--color-charcoal: #2a2420;
--font-questrial: 'Questrial', Arial, sans-serif;
--font-tenor: 'Tenor Sans', Arial, sans-serif;
--font-arial: Arial, sans-serif;
}9.3 Print values
| Color | Hex | RGB | CMYK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merlot | #42041C | 66, 4, 28 | 0, 94, 58, 74 |
| Off-white | #EDE7D1 | 237, 231, 209 | 0, 3, 12, 7 |
| Butter | #DBD5A7 | 219, 213, 167 | 0, 3, 24, 14 |
| Copper | #9E653B | 158, 101, 59 | 0, 36, 63, 38 |
| Copper deep | #8F5A34 | 143, 90, 52 | 0, 37, 64, 44 |
| Charcoal | #2A2420 | 42, 36, 32 | 0, 14, 24, 84 |
| Lime | #A1AD7E | 161, 173, 126 | 7, 0, 27, 32 |
| Mustard | #CCAA4C | 204, 170, 76 | 0, 17, 63, 20 |
| Warm gray | #6B6558 | 107, 101, 88 | 0, 6, 18, 58 |
CMYK is a conversion, not a spec. Pull a proof before anything that matters goes to press. Merlot and copper shift the most.
9.4 Versions
- v1.1 · September 2026An editorial hero in the About page style, the In use chapter (stationery, Spec Book, sample box, tote, guides, website, proposal, email, social, YouTube, banners, newsletter), a downloadable PDF edition, and a simpler contents row on smaller screens. Photos stay untinted: no color overlays, only a soft shadow under type where it has to read.
- v1.0 · September 2026First web edition, at curiostudiointeriors.com/brand-guide. Traced SVG logo kit, Copper deep for small copper type, measured contrast rules, and the voice.
- 2026The site goes sans-serif only. Questrial replaces Cormorant Garamond for every heading.
- The original sheetThe CS monogram, the Eras Medium wordmark, and six colors: Off-white, Butter and Merlot as the main colors; Lime, Copper and Mustard as accents.
Questions about using the brand: savannah@curiostudiointeriors.com.


