RUBRA

Design system 1.0

A Japanese maple, bare, on a mound of soil against cream paper

Line first, colour after.

Plate I. The line is traced from the photograph, grows from the root and lands on every branch. Flip the season and every leaf in the system fills.

Display, Italiana 400

What are you growing?

Text, Libre Franklin 400

Thirty-one designers, writers and developers in Lisbon and Melbourne, from the first sketch to the launch and into the second season.

Entries, Italiana over leaders

Lisbon: 09:00
Melbourne: 19:00
Replies: Two working days

Paper

#EEE6D8

Board

#E6DCCB

Ink

#221613

Sepia

#66554D

Vermilion

#E0321F

Carmine

#9C1421

Folded letter paper, a red envelope with a wax seal and a seal stamp, laid out on cream paper — SpecimenOne subject on continuous paper, lit from the side, with room to annotate.

Red glazed vases and bowls on a plaster plinth by a window — DaylightThe work in a real room: plaster, timber and window light, one red thing in frame.

A maple crown in full red leaf, seen from below — CanopyRed to every edge and no horizon. For blocks that bleed and pages that close.

Read the process

In progressDelivered

Buttons

Square, with a ring. Hover opens the ring and turns the leaf; pressing closes it onto the edge. The seal is the one primary action on a page.

Seal, large

Ruled

Leaf link

Read the process

Sizes: 44, 48 and 56 px

Icon only

Working, and a text link

Three of forty-two projects

Fields

Each field is a cell of a herbarium card: a ruled box, the entry written in Italiana. Focus warms the cell; an error says what to change.

Text

Your nameSo the designer who reads it knows who to reply to.

Select

Discipline

With a unit

Launch inweeksMost identities take fourteen weeks.

Error

EmailAdd the @ so we can reply, like ana@studio.com.

Given later

Specimen number

Long text

What are you growing?

The specimen card

A whole form as one card: numbered and dated, ruled rows, the seal at the foot. It validates on the page, sends nothing, and is stamped when it arrives. Try sending it empty.

Rubra Studio HerbariumNew specimen No. 00438 Oct 2026

Selection

A radio is a bud that swells when chosen. A tick is drawn, not stamped. The switch is a leaf that travels along its twig and fills.

Segmented

Project length

Six weeksA name and its voiceFourteen weeksIdentity and websiteTwenty-six weeksThe whole season, launch included

Checkboxes and switch

Print productionA launch film

Index and register

Tabs read like the index of a book, with their numbers set small. Arrow keys move between them. In the register, values that match across columns drop back to sepia.

Index tabs

Length: Fourteen weeks
Concepts shown: Three
Delivered as: Guidelines and master files

Register table

What each kind of project includes
Included	Identity	Website	Full season
Length	14 weeks	10 weeks	26 weeks
Workshops with your team	2	2	4
Concepts shown	3	3	3
Guidelines	Full	Web only	Full
Launch support	2 weeks	4 weeks	8 weeks

Status and growth

Status is a leaf: an outline is waiting, a red leaf is growing, an ink leaf is done, a fallen one is blocked. Progress grows along a branch.

Plates and sheets

Photographs are plates with a caption, never boxes. Services open into a band of bloom. A case is a whole sheet: a photograph and a block of colour.

NamingNames, taglines and a voice your whole team can write in.

WebsitesSites that load fast, read well and feel like you.

PrintBooks, packaging and stationery people keep.

Service band: hover or focus a name; click it to open it in place

Logos, type, colour and the rules that hold them together.
Logo animations, launch films and the motion rules behind them.

Case sheet, carmine

A woman in a red coat against a plaster wall

The Marlowe

Identity and season campaign, 2024

A 1920s theatre in Melbourne reopening after restoration. One red, one typeface and a poster system the in-house team now runs on its own.

Opening season sold out in nine days.

Dialogs and toasts

A dialog is a small sheet in a carmine frame and returns focus where it came from. A toast is a note on the card: its branch grows while it waits, and hovering holds it.

Try them

Toast

Brief received

Ana Ferreira, Osei Ceramics.

Stamp

Received8 Oct 2026, Lisbon

Dialog

Specimen No. 0043

Withdraw this request?

The card leaves our table and nobody will reply to it.

The bar's rule is a branch that grows with the page, with a leaf for each chapter. Below 860 px the links move into a full sheet in a carmine frame; switch the width to try it.

Bar with brand, index, studio clock and action

RUBRA

Lisbon 09:00

Start a project

Studio rows

Lisbon, Príncipe Real: 09:00
Melbourne, Fitzroy: 19:00
New projects: From January 2027
Typical length: Fourteen weeks