Brand guide · v1.1 · September 2026

The Curio brand

Connecting People, Place & Planet

The single source of truth for the mark, the palette, the type, the voice, and the way we show a home. If it is not in here, it is not Curio.

Copy the tokens
The living room under the pitched wood ceiling of the Vermont A-frame
Vermont A-frame. Warm wood, soft light, a room made for gathering.
Logo
CS monogram + Eras wordmark
Palette
9 warm colors
Type
Questrial + Arial
Owner
Curio Studio Interiors

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.

  1. 01
    A home is not a container. It is an ecosystem.Living beings, rhythms, memories, and matter, all coexisting on behalf of one another.
  2. 02
    Inquiry before intervention.Design, done well, asks before it acts. We learn how you actually live before we change a single thing.
  3. 03
    We 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.
  4. 04
    Materials carry a story.Where a thing came from, what it cost the earth, how long it will last: these are design decisions, not afterthoughts.
  5. 05
    Refuge, 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.

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

#9E653B · #CCAA4CAutumn lightCopper, mustard and butter sit beside merlot like fall foliage at golden hour.
#3F6F7A · #5E8C6ARiver and summer greenCool blues and greens pull against merlot and make it read brown. Not ours.
  • 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.

PairRatioVerdict
AaMerlot on Off-white13.39:1 Pass AA
AaCharcoal on Off-white12.36:1 Pass AA
AaOff-white on Merlot13.39:1 Pass AA
AaButter on Merlot11.13:1 Pass AA
AaCharcoal on Butter10.27:1 Pass AA
AaMustard on Merlot7.44:1 Pass AA
AaWarm gray on Off-white4.67:1 Pass AA
AaCopper deep on Off-white4.61:1 Pass AA
AaOff-white on Copper deep4.61:1 Pass AA
AaCopper on Off-white3.87:1Large only
AaOff-white on Copper3.87:1Large only
AaWarm gray on Butter3.88:1Large only
AaLime on Off-white1.93:1 Never
AaMustard on Off-white1.80:1 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

Aa

Questrial

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

400

Body and interface

Aa

Arial

Every paragraph, list, caption, button, eyebrow and form field. Installed on every machine, so documents and email match the site.

ABCDEFGHIJKLM
abcdefghijklm 0123456789

400700

Navigation

Aa

Tenor 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

400

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.

DisplayQuestrial56px · 3.5rem · 1.05Page title, hero. One per page. Up to 80px on a full-bleed hero.

A home that looks like the people in it

H1Questrial40px · 2.5rem · 1.1Section head.

How a project unfolds

H2Questrial24px · 1.5rem · 1.3Subhead inside a section, card titles.

Materials that carry a story

BodyArial16px · 1rem · 1.8Paragraphs and lists. Charcoal, or Warm gray for supporting copy.

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.

EyebrowArial, uppercase11px · 0.6875rem · 1.4The label above a heading. 0.22em tracking, Warm gray.

The Curio way

MicroArial, Warm gray13px · 0.8125rem · 1.5Captions, notes, footers.

Photographed in the Berkshires, late October.

4.3 Try a style

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.

HTML, in the page head
<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.

Like thisBefore we suggest a single change, we want to know how your mornings actually go.
Not thisTransform your space with our signature style.

Reveal theirs, never impose ours

There is no Curio look. Describe the home the client is already asking for, never a style we sell.

Like thisThe goal is a home that looks like the people in it, not like our portfolio.
Not thisBring the Curio aesthetic into every room.

Refuge, not performance

Homes are for living. Never sell a room on how it photographs or who it impresses.

Like thisA living room built for slow Sundays, a dog on the sofa, and friends who stay late.
Not thisAn Instagram-worthy space your guests will rave about.

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.

SayNotMeaning
homeproperty, unit, square footage (in client copy)Where people live. It is never an asset in our copy.
way inpackage, bundleOne of the five service levels, from fully managed to lightly guided.
Custom-scoped"starting at", price on requestHow Full Service, Procurement and Spec Book are priced: by written proposal.
regenerativeeco-chic, green luxeMaterials chosen for their story, origin, footprint and durability.
refugeshowpiece, statement spaceWhat a home is for.
Begin a conversationBook now, Get a quoteThe 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

StyleDefaultHoverFocusDisabled
PrimaryThe one action on the screen
SecondaryEverything else
On merlotDark heroes and the footer

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.

Pill 999pxEvery button, chip and tag, and the nav bar.
Panel 28pxNav dropdowns and large glass panels.
Card 16pxCards, image tiles, callouts.
Field 0pxForm fields. A square hairline, nothing more.

6.3 Fields, cards, and tables

Transparent fill, square Merlot hairline at 30%, Charcoal text, merlot focus ring. Select the field to see it.

RoomPiecesLead time
Living room146 weeks
Primary bedroom910 weeks
Entry43 weeks

Merlot header, Butter labels, hairline rows, tabular figures.

ElementSpec
LinksMerlot #42041C, underlined in running text. On merlot, Butter.
Body textCharcoal #2A2420 on Off-white. Warm gray #6B6558 for supporting copy and captions.
CardsOff-white or Butter fill, 16px corners, a soft merlot-tinted shadow on hover only.
HairlinesThe text color at 15%: Merlot on light, Off-white on merlot.
Section rulesCopper #9E653B, 1px, under an eyebrow or heading.
GlassThe nav bar only. Merlot glass over a dark hero, Butter glass everywhere else.
Focus2px Merlot ring (Butter on merlot), 2px offset, on every interactive element. Never removed.
Touch targets44px 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

The living area of the Vermont A-frame, warm wood walls and a low sofa
Warm wood, low lamps, a room ready for the evening.
The Berkshire cottage dining room under a beamed ceiling
Natural light, honest material.
A bedroom in the Berkshire cottage with wood paneling and layered textiles
Lived in, not staged.

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

Sunset over the mountains in warm gold and amber light
Gold, amber and sunset. It sits beside merlot.
A blue river and summer green. It clashes with the logo.

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.

Print

Curio Studio letterhead with a letter from Savannah Dodge, an envelope and two business cards on an oak table
StationeryLetterhead, envelope and business cards · merlot ink on uncoated cream, the monogram on merlot
A merlot thank-you card with the off-white Curio monogram on a wooden mantel
Thank-you cardA2 folded, off-white on merlot · handwritten inside, at every install
A merlot linen-bound Spec Book for Birch Hill Farmhouse beside fabric and paint swatches
The Spec BookLinen cover, off-white foil · one per home, every selection inside
A merlot material sample box with fabric, walnut, travertine and brass samples
Material sample boxLinen-wrapped lid, off-white foil · sent before selections are final
A canvas tote printed with the Curio monogram, wordmark and tagline on a peg rail
Canvas toteUndyed canvas, merlot ink · the install-day gift
Your Custom Home Design Guide cover
The Cost of Interior Design in Upstate New York cover
A Designer's Guide to Tile cover
The guidesPrinted and PDF · one series, one cover system: number, Questrial title with the turn in butter, a portrait, the audience

Digital

The Curio Studio home page
The Curio Studio home page on a phone
Websitecuriostudiointeriors.com · desktop and phone, live screenshots
portal.curiostudiointeriors.com
A Curio client proposal page
Client proposalThe live proposal page (demo project) · full-color photo, no tint
Curio StudioYour kickoff is set

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
Client emailEvery client email · monogram, one callout, one button (8px corners in email)
Inside Curio StudioWhat I noticein every hotel
11:42
What a designer notices in every hotel she visitsSavannah Dodge · Curio Studio · Coming soon
Inside Curio StudioThe most honestroom in your home
8:15
Why the entryway is the most honest room in the houseSavannah Dodge · Curio Studio · Coming soon
Inside Curio StudioWhat designreally costs
14:03
The cost of interior design in Upstate New York, line by lineZack Petrocca · Curio Studio · Coming soon
YouTubeThumbnails 1280 x 720 · merlot, Savannah cut out, the hook in two lines, the turn on a butter tab
Curio Studio

Connecting People, Place & Planet

Residential interior design · Hudson Valley, the Berkshires and New England
Savannah DodgeCEO & Principal Designer, Curio Studio Interiors · Homes for the people in them, rooted in the Hudson Valley
LinkedIn banner1584 x 396 · the lockup over the tagline, centered · Savannah's profile
Curio Studio

Connecting People, Place & Planet

Residential interior design · Hudson Valley, the Berkshires and New England
Curio Studio@curiostudiointeriors · Inside Curio Studio

Homes, materials and the questions we ask before we change a thing, from a residential studio in the Hudson Valley.

Subscribe
YouTube channel banner2560 x 1440 · everything inside the center safe area, so it reads on phones and TVs
Profile imageAvatar, every platform · the tile is the default

Warmly,
Savannah

Savannah DodgeCEO & Principal DesignerCurio Studio Interiors · Kerhonkson, NY(413) 358-1580 · curiostudiointeriors.com
Email signatureSavannah's, in every reply · plain text links, no images but the headshot
The Curio Club · This weekWhy the entryway is the most honest room in the houseRead the letter

Curio Studio Interiors · Kerhonkson, NY · Unsubscribe

The Curio ClubThe weekly letter · 600 px, one photo, one ask
Savannah DodgeCEO & Principal Designer · Curio Studio
On-screen nameVideo and interviews · lower third on a merlot bar

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

CSS
: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.

Tailwind v4, in your main CSS file
@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

ColorHexRGBCMYK
Merlot#42041C66, 4, 280, 94, 58, 74
Off-white#EDE7D1237, 231, 2090, 3, 12, 7
Butter#DBD5A7219, 213, 1670, 3, 24, 14
Copper#9E653B158, 101, 590, 36, 63, 38
Copper deep#8F5A34143, 90, 520, 37, 64, 44
Charcoal#2A242042, 36, 320, 14, 24, 84
Lime#A1AD7E161, 173, 1267, 0, 27, 32
Mustard#CCAA4C204, 170, 760, 17, 63, 20
Warm gray#6B6558107, 101, 880, 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.