00Brand directions, Rev 2 · Rick Underwood · 2026-10-07

I See You.

Brand Directions
Ten ideas across cover, interior, merch and the way readers stay connected.
Now clickable. Tap any cover, flip any tee, pick what you would buy, then cast your vote at the end.
The Human Need to Be Seen
Rick Underwood
Rev 2
2026-10-07
36 screens
arrow keys to move
01The brief

You asked for three things.
Branding. Merch. Ways for people to keep connecting.

The lens, in Rick's words

To be seen is to be alive. To be unseen is to be dead. Everyone human on planet earth shares one need. The need is to be seen and understood.

This book looks at the world through that lens. When the need is met, and when it goes unmet. It is the engine that runs our entire system.

The three ideas every direction has to carry

The wave. Seeing is energy. It does not divide, it multiplies. If equal waves meet exactly in step, the combined amplitude doubles.

The 5% ask. If we all tried just 5% more to see one another, what could that do? The ask is the wave. It is never "we already have 95% of what we need." That line is a separate point about abundance and it is never fused with this one.

Two truths. You can be a good person and have done a bad thing. Your truth does not cancel another person's.

Anchor comp and the shelf

Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. A wisdom book forged in near-death, one human drive, authority through restraint.

For readers of Brené Brown and Glennon Doyle, with the narrative pull of Greenlights. On the shelf: Frankl's quiet grounds and one small element; Greenlights' real photograph; Untamed's handmade texture; Atlas of the Heart's single illustrated idea. The 2026 line: typography as the image, one confident symbol, visible hand. A flat blue field with a glowing core sits on the wrong side of it.

The ask is not to be perfect. The ask is to accept that we are human and flawed, and to try.

02What already exists, and what we built on

The March guide set the palette and the type.
It also left six questions open.

White #FFFFFF · Light Gray #F3F4F6 · Blue #2563EB · Orange #F97316 · Black #111111
Space Grotesk display · Inter body · White and gray 60%, black 20%, blue 12%, orange 8%
Which blue

#2563EB shown. Brighter, deeper, electric?

Which orange

#F97316 shown. More coral, more amber?

The mark

Open Aperture, two arcs, two colours. Geometric, organic, or hand-drawn?

White or black

Clean and modern, or cinematic weight.

Gradient or dual

Fusion, or tension. The October 6 orange rule reopens this.

The subtitle

On the cover, or does the title stand alone?

I See You Tagline System sheet, v1, 2026-10-06
The Tagline System sheet (v1, 2026-10-06). Three lines, three jobs, and the orange rule that reshaped the cover problem.
The connection path we articulated today
Print
Book

Two QR pages, specified in the art map.

Built
Quiz

How seen do you feel?

Built
Letter

You are seen. Personalised, gated.

Proposed
Practice

Go see somebody.

Proposed
Token

Merch as the token of the practice.

03The tagline system

Three lines, all Rick's own words.
Each with one job.

01 / Thesis
The Power of One

The argument line. Chapter 6 names the three handles; Chapter 13 and Part Four carry this title. Black and blue only.

02 / Invitation
I See You.

The mark. The thing you say to a person. The title in blue; the single orange period is the only accent it ever gets.

03 / Send-off
Sawubona. Now go see somebody else.

The practice, the call to action. Final line of the book. Sawubona is a Zulu greeting, credited as cultural; the closing imperative is Rick's, and it is the only place orange is allowed.

The rule that changed on October 6. Orange belongs to the call to action only: the send-off and the 5% ask. All six March covers put orange on the word YOU or in the aperture core. That is now off-brand. Nine of the ten directions here respect the rule. One breaks it on purpose, and says so.
04How to read the ten

Every direction takes the same four tests.

1"
The shelf at one inch

Does it survive a 96 px thumbnail and the 160 px Amazon grid? That is where most covers are first seen.

p.
The interior page

What art language does the cover imply inside, and does it hold the one-shape, one-hand system?

tee
The garment

Does it make someone see someone else, or signal you are available to be seen? The back always carries the send-off.

→
The connection mechanic

Book, quiz, letter, practice. Each direction gets the mechanic that fits it, grounded in something already built where one exists.

The ten covers at one inch and at Amazon grid size

The shelf test, all ten. Top row at one inch (96 px), bottom row at the Amazon grid (160 px). Cover 08 is shown here as rendered this morning on cream; the direction screens carry today's pure-white recomposite.

Order. The ten are presented in the brief's rank order, not by concept number, so the deck reads as a case. Each keeps its concept number so it matches the files. The render logs rank the finished pieces differently in places; both ranks are shown.

05Direction 1 of 10 · Concept 01
01

The Period

The title and its orange period, nothing else. The smallest mark on the cover carries the biggest weight.

Carries

The title as invitation, and the Power of One. The period is the one.

Ground WhiteOrange The period only
#1
Brief rank
#3
Render rank
Cover direction The Period
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
05Across everything · The Period
Interior
15d. Sawubona, the typographic end page
15d. Sawubona, the typographic end page

This direction foregrounds the ten typographic pages. The book's sentences set alone on a page, Space Grotesk, one colour, and the end page where the title's period becomes the last mark the reader sees. The iris chapter-mark system rides underneath it unchanged.

Merch
01-the-period-tee-white-front01-the-period-tee-white-back01-the-period-wristband

Left-chest three-line lockup, blue with the period at 115%. The wristband carries THE POWER OF ONE along the curve. The render log calls it the brand sheet on cotton.

Connection

The letter arrives as one line and a period.

The quiz already writes each reader a personalised letter. In this direction the letter opens on a single line, I see you., and the period is orange. Everything else on the page is quiet. The reader gets the title said to them before they read a word of explanation.

Built on: the How Seen Do You Feel quiz and its letter engine (local prototype, three tiers).

Where it fails

Everything rides on type craft. One point too loose and it is a startup homepage. It is also the quietest of the white covers at thumbnail, and the one-line title variant is still unrendered.

06Direction 2 of 10 · Concept 03
03

Constructive Interference

Two waves meet in step and the amplitude doubles. The book's own physics, drawn once by hand.

Carries

The wave. Chapter 15: if equal waves meet exactly in step, the combined amplitude doubles.

Ground WhiteOrange The period only
#2
Brief rank
#8
Render rank
Cover direction Constructive Interference
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
06Across everything · Constructive Interference
Interior
4a. Amplification waves, the first appearance of the rings
4a. Amplification waves, the first appearance of the rings

This direction is the Wave handle made visible. Amplification waves in Chapter 4 (the one person under the water), the same drawing pulled back in Chapter 11 with dozens of dots, and the blue rings with three degrees of nodes in Chapter 15. One line weight, charcoal then blue.

Merch
03-constructive-interference-tee-white-front03-constructive-interference-tote

The wave cropped from the retry art runs across the chest at 58% width, title above. The tote carries the same crop at 52%.

Connection

The wave, drawn from reader responses.

Every quiz result is a point. Plotted together they make the wave the cover promises, and the reader sees their own line inside it. Near term it is an aggregate from the quiz. Long term it is the archive of reader letters, organised by cohort, that the Living Book proposes.

Built on: the quiz results today; the Living Book community archive blueprint (deferred to 2027).

Where it fails

Scale, not line quality. After the retry the hand-drawn feel is there and the physics reads, but the thin line nearly drops out at one inch. A heavier brush or a taller wave band would solve it.

07Direction 3 of 10 · Concept 02
02

Railing

The Nashville pedestrian bridge at night, shot from the railing, looking along it. The place the book opens.

Carries

The bridge. The Prologue.

Ground Near-black, photographicOrange None on the front
#3
Brief rank
#6
Render rank
Cover direction Railing
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
07Across everything · Railing
Interior
P1. The bridge, the Prologue plate
P1. The bridge, the Prologue plate

The scene plates lead here. The bridge plate opens the book and the vignette from the railing returns in Chapter 12, after the reveal, never inside the telling of that night. Ink on toothy paper, one illustrator's hand, the river as the only colour.

Merch
02-railing-tee-black-front02-railing-tee-black-back

The photo cannot go on a shirt, so the merch is the white-on-black lockup with the two-arc mark at the hem. Honest, and the log admits it is indistinguishable from Shiboka without the slit.

Connection

The bridge as a place and a practice.

The first letter in the Letters to the Unseen collection was written for the person on that railing. In this direction the QR page is the bridge: the reader scans it, reads Rick's letter, and is invited to leave one for someone they know is standing there.

Built on: the Letters to the Unseen QR collection (one letter authored, safe-messaging read pending).

Where it fails

Without the Prologue it is a travel photo. The type still sits partly on the railing and the title is the smallest of the ten at one inch. Dark covers print muddy on KDP matte. And a bridge railing can read as the thing it is: that has to be a choice Rick makes, not one that happens to him.

08Direction 4 of 10 · Concept 05
05

Two Arcs

The actual brand mark, two open arcs with a gap between them, painted by hand and made the whole cover.

Carries

Seeing. The seer, the seen, and the threshold between them.

Ground Off-whiteOrange The period only (variant with a blue and an orange arc unrendered)
#4
Brief rank
#1
Render rank
Cover direction Two Arcs
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
08Across everything · Two Arcs
Interior
2a. The aperture: the pinhole opening one stop at a time
2a. The aperture: the pinhole opening one stop at a time

The one-shape system. Every diagram in the book is a circle that means something different depending on where the reader is: the iris, the wound-loop, the ripple, the halved duality. The cover's open circle teaches the grammar before the reader meets a single figure.

Merch
05-two-arcs-tee-white-front05-two-arcs-tote

The brush circle keyed from the cover art with the title centred on its ink centroid. The merch log's strongest piece: a finished tee and tote as-is.

Connection

The mark becomes the thing people send each other.

The quiz letter ships as a PDF. In this direction the letter carries the open circle at the top and a share card at the bottom, so sending the mark to someone is the same gesture as saying the title to them. The favicon, the avatar, the spine and the share card are one object.

Built on: the quiz letter PDF template in the prototype; the Letters to the Unseen page.

Where it fails

Enso covers are a crowded lane, and one clean stroke too many makes it a yoga studio logo. The gap and the two-stroke structure are what make it ours. The blue plus orange arc variant needs Rick's ruling.

09Direction 5 of 10 · Concept 07
07

Three Degrees

A row of paper-cut silhouettes, all facing forward, except one who has turned to face the person beside them.

Carries

The wave and the Power of One. One person sees another, three degrees.

Ground WhiteOrange The period only
#5
Brief rank
#7
Render rank
Cover direction Three Degrees
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
09Across everything · Three Degrees
Interior
11a. Shared grief, two paths: the one turn that changes the curve
11a. Shared grief, two paths: the one turn that changes the curve

The human figures. This direction leans on the plates where one person is doing the walking (the bridge, the bench), and on the Chapter 13 curve that turns because of one dot. The figures are always from behind or at distance, never a face.

Merch
07-three-degrees-tee-white-front07-three-degrees-tote

The silhouette row at 56% width with the title above. The merch log: the only piece that tells the book's story without a word, and it carries to the tote.

Connection

Name one person you saw this week.

The newsletter closes every issue with one question: who did you see this week? Readers reply with a name or a line. Nothing is scored. The point is the turn, repeated until it is a habit.

Built on: the planned Kit newsletter (direct-to-reader plan in the KB).

Where it fails

The airport-signage failure mode is real. The rendered silhouettes are cleaner than cut paper and hair silhouettes crept in. Not clip art, the log says, but not Saul Bass either. Needs an illustrator's hand.

10Direction 6 of 10 · Concept 06
06

Shiboka

Black cover. A door opened half an inch. Light coming through.

Carries

The pinhole. Chapter 15: the door that opened half an inch in that chair kept opening. Shiboka: because you see me, I am here.

Ground BlackOrange The period only
#6
Brief rank
#2
Render rank
Cover direction Shiboka
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
10Across everything · Shiboka
Interior
The chapter-mark iris: closed at the Prologue, open by Chapter 15
The chapter-mark iris: closed at the Prologue, open by Chapter 15

The iris that opens one stop per chapter is this cover's interior. A reader who notices finds the book's arc in the margins. The Epilogue carries the open iris solid blue; the end page carries it in white outline on blue.

Merch
06-shiboka-tee-black-front06-shiboka-tee-black-back

The slit of light cropped from the art, faded top and bottom, with the three-line title to its right. The back carries the send-off like every tee.

Connection

Letters to the Unseen.

Because you see me, I am here. The QR page at the end of Part Three opens the collection: Rick's letters that are not in the print book, and a place for the reader's own. This is the direction where that page is the whole connection layer, and the design of it is already specified.

Built on: the Letters to the Unseen QR collection and the Part Three QR page in the art map.

Where it fails

One wrong lighting move and it is a thriller. Rich black on KDP matte needs a built black, not 100K, or it goes grey. The merch has no art of its own beyond the slit.

11Direction 7 of 10 · Concept 10
10

The Mirror

The cover is a mirror. The reader picks it up and is seen.

Carries

Seeing and the title as invitation. I See You said to the person holding the book.

Ground Black, mirror panelOrange The period only
#7
Brief rank
#5
Render rank
Cover direction The Mirror
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
11Across everything · The Mirror
Interior
6c. Old operating system, new operating system
6c. Old operating system, new operating system

Chapter 10 has the figure this cover wants: the mirror that gets bigger, the screen as a mirror that reflects more of you back each time. Next to it, the operating-system spread: the closed loop against the open line. Both are the reader looking at themselves.

Merch
10-the-mirror-tee-black-front10-the-mirror-tee-black-back

The foil ring keyed on luminance at 40% width, title above. The merch log: it looks like a real metallic print and is the most premium object on the sheet.

Connection

A result you hold up.

The quiz ends with a letter, not a score. In this direction the letter is designed to be held up: a single page with the open circle and one sentence about how seen the reader is right now, written to be photographed and sent. No chart is ever printed; the map already bans that.

Built on: the quiz and its letter engine; the back-matter assessment QR page.

Where it fails

Production. Mirror board and foil stamping are not available on print-on-demand. This is an offset run or a special edition, with scuffing and fingerprints. The digital version is a photograph of a cover. Hold it for the hardcover.

12Direction 8 of 10 · Concept 04
04

Both True

The title printed twice, slightly misregistered, blue and orange, like an anaglyph. You need both layers to see it in depth.

Carries

Duality. Chapter 3, two truths at once.

Ground WhiteOrange Shares the title (breaks the rule on purpose); compliant variant shown
#8
Brief rank
#9
Render rank
Cover direction Both True
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
Both True, the duality impression
Duality variant
12Across everything · Both True
Interior
5a. The ratio: hope and shame, seen and unseen
5a. The ratio: hope and shame, seen and unseen

The halved circle is this cover's interior. Its home is the ratio in Chapter 5, where the halves are unequal and the proportion flips with seeing. It returns at the Epilogue with two equal regions held in one ring: the book's picture of what the evolution looks like.

Merch
04-both-true-tee-white-front04-both-true-tee-white-back

Two impressions, blue then black, the compliant variant, with the period printed once. Works at full size; vibrates at contact-sheet scale, same as the cover.

Connection

A two-truths prompt card.

One card, one question: what else could be true? The four words are already a recurring device in the book, set the same way every time. The card rides in the newsletter and in the store order, and the reader fills in both truths and keeps it.

Built on: the four-word micro-device in the art map; the planned newsletter and store.

Where it fails

At one inch the misregistration looks like a mistake or a blurry JPEG, and the I reads as two bars. The compliant blue and charcoal variant is more legible, and the log would show that one first.

13Direction 9 of 10 · Concept 09
09

Now Go

The cover is the call to action. A full orange field with the send-off line on the front.

Carries

Sawubona, the send-off. The only place orange is allowed.

Ground OrangeOrange The whole field (the sanctioned exception)
#9
Brief rank
#4
Render rank
Cover direction Now Go
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
13Across everything · Now Go
Interior
15d. Sawubona, the end page: orange arrives only on the imperative
15d. Sawubona, the end page: orange arrives only on the imperative

Orange appears five times in the whole interior: the 5% numeral at 06:127, two typographic pages, the Part Four opener ring, and the phrase Five percent better. This direction makes the cover the sixth. Everything inside stays exactly as rationed.

Merch
09-now-go-tee-white-front09-now-go-mug

The send-off IS the front print. No orange tee was generated; the orange field stays on the cover and the merch carries the words. The log: the piece people would actually buy at a talk.

Connection

The 5% challenge.

One ask, one week: try 5% more to see one person. The newsletter opens it, the mug and the tee are the reminder, and the reply is one line about who it was. It never becomes a score, and the copy never says we already have 95% of what we need.

Built on: the planned Kit newsletter and store; the 5% ask from Bible section 3.

Where it fails

It spends the brand's one reserved colour on the front, so if orange ever appears anywhere else on the package the rule is dead. Orange is also the worst colour on press: no clean CMYK match, it goes brick or mustard without a spot-colour conversation.

14Direction 10 of 10 · Concept 08
08

Five Percent

Frankl austerity. A field 95% empty and a blue band that is exactly 5% of the cover.

Carries

The 5% ask. Try 5% more. Never the 95/5 inventory, which is a different point and must never be fused with this.

Ground White (re-composited today; the render was cream)Orange The period only
#10
Brief rank
#10
Render rank
Cover direction Five Percent
160 px · Amazon grid
96 px · one inch
Five Percent as rendered this morning on cream
This morning, cream
14Across everything · Five Percent
Interior
15a. 95 and 5, charcoal and white by hard rule
15a. 95 and 5, charcoal and white by hard rule

The 95 and 5 figure in Chapter 15 is the closest interior relative, and it is deliberately never orange, because colour would fuse the material-abundance point with the ask. The band idea survives best on the part openers and the back cover.

Merch
08-five-percent-tee-white-front08-five-percent-wristband

A tiny tracked title and a hem band read as a plain tee with a stripe. The 5% wristband is the better carrier.

Connection

The wristband and the ask.

The 5% band is the practice made wearable. It goes out with the book order, and the only copy near it ever says 5% more. The newsletter's first issue explains the band, so it is never just a stripe.

Built on: the tagline sheet's wristband placement; the planned store.

Where it fails

It vanishes at one inch and reads as a university press monograph. Handicapped by the missing Light weight. The provenance trap is real: any copy near it says 5% more, never 95/5.

14Build your own cover

Ten art layers, three grounds, three title settings.
Compose the one you would pick up, then save it to your vote.

This screen is interactive and needs JavaScript. The ten directions above read without it.

15The interior art program as a whole

A serious literary book that happens to think in pictures a handful of times.

Ink on paper: one illustrator's hand in charcoal and brush for seven scene plates, one line weight for every diagram, so the whole book reads as one voice the way Rick's prose does. Blue means one thing only, the seeing, and appears only where seeing is present in the text. Orange appears in exactly five places in the whole book. Every diagram is built from one shape, a circle, which is the iris, the wound-loop, the ripple and the duality halves depending on where the reader is. The reader learns the grammar without being told.

The three handles, one circle in three states
Power of One, The Wave, Duality as three states of one circle
The ten heroes, rendered today
Contact sheet of the ten interior heroes
Four paid generations (the bridge three times, the bench once). Every figure is code. Hero 04, the ratio, re-rendered today with #111111 in place of the warm charcoal that read brown.
The chapter-mark iris: closed at the Prologue, one stop per chapter, solid at the Epilogue
The iris chapter-mark system from closed to open
15The interior art program · all 31 pieces
31
Placed pieces
7 plates
13 figures · 10 type pages · 1 archival
10
Heroes rendered today
5
Homes for orange in the whole book
#WherePieceType
P1PrologueThe bridge HeroPlate
1aCh 1Three groups in one housePlate
1bCh 1Four folded apology notesArchival
2aCh 2The aperture HeroFigure
3aCh 3One signal, two filtersFigure
3bCh 3You don't have to disappear for me to be real.Type page
4aCh 4Amplification waves HeroFigure
4bCh 4Grief isn't just death.Type page
5aCh 5The ratio HeroFigure
5bCh 5The floor and the narrow bandFigure
6aCh 6The human cranePlate
6bCh 6The trust equation (resolves the 06:71 placeholder)Type page
6cCh 6Old operating system / new operating system HeroFigure
7aCh 7The 1%Figure
7bCh 7You're not defending an opinion.Type page
8aCh 8The exception clause HeroFigure
#WherePieceType
8bCh 8Moral superiority is how the unseen become unseen to each other.Type page
9aCh 9The people we call heroes.Type page
10aCh 10The mirror that gets biggerFigure
10bCh 10Does this send me back into the world?Type page
11aCh 11Shared grief, two paths HeroFigure
11bCh 11The cavalry isn't coming. (orange)Type page
12aCh 12The letter setting and Rick's handwritten R.Plate
12bCh 12The bridge, from the railingPlate
13aCh 13The curve that turnsFigure
14aCh 14The bench under the oak HeroPlate
14bCh 14Three hours: 2:32 and 5:16Figure
15aCh 1595 and 5 HeroFigure
15bCh 15Just five percent. That's the ask. (orange)Type page
15cEpilogueCooper's head in the lapPlate
15dEpilogueSawubona (end page) HeroType page
Finding for the editor

The manuscript still prints a bracketed placeholder at 06:71, [FIGURE: equation of being-seen vs. blinding-others, to be designed]. Piece 6b resolves it with the trust equation the next four paragraphs walk through, credited to Maister, Green and Galford. Until then the compile gate should fail on it.

16Merch as a line

Merch makes someone see someone else.
Or it signals you are available to be seen.

Blank garments were generated once; every mark and every word was rendered in code or cropped from the direction's own cover art. The back of every tee carries the send-off: Sawubona. in the title colour, the imperative in orange, the only orange on any back. The warm charcoal from the covers was not used on fabric; it reads brown. Black #111111 instead.

Strongest

Two Arcs, a finished tee and tote as-is. The Mirror, a foil ring that reads as a real metallic print. Three Degrees, the only piece that tells the story without a word. The Period and Now Go are the quiet, wearable ones.

Fell flat

Five Percent reads as a plain tee with a stripe; the wristband is the better carrier. Both True vibrates at sheet scale. Railing has no art that can go on a shirt.

26 pieces across the ten directions. Full sheet: assets/merch/contact-sheet.png
05 Two Arcs
05 Two ArcsStrongest
10 The Mirror
10 The MirrorStrongest
07 Three Degrees
07 Three DegreesStrongest
01 The Period
01 The PeriodWearable
09 Now Go
09 Now GoWearable
03 Interference
03 Interference
06 Shiboka
06 Shiboka
01 Wristband
01 Wristband
08 Five Percent
08 Five PercentFlat
04 Both True
04 Both TrueFlat
02 Railing
02 RailingFlat
Every back
Every backSend-off
17The connection layer

Book, quiz, letter, practice.
The merch is the token of the practice.

Print
Book

Two QR pages are specified in the art map: Letters to the Unseen closes Part Three; the assessment page is the last printed page. Pure black codes, hairline boxes, a redirect Rick controls.

Built
Quiz

How Seen Do You Feel. Local prototype, three tiers (adult, teen, preteen), one JSON contract driving the questions, the message and the analysis.

Built
Letter

Each reader gets a personalised letter through a gate, with a PDF template. Letters to the Unseen holds Rick's authored letters behind the QR code; one is written, its safe-messaging read pending.

Proposed
Practice

A Kit newsletter and a direct-to-reader store. Each issue closes with the practice: go see somebody. The 5% ask lives here, never as a score.

2027
Archive

The Living Book: the manuscript, the audio, the letters, and an anonymised archive of reader letters by cohort. Blueprint written, deferred.

How each direction plugs in
The Period

The letter arrives as one line and a period.

Constructive Interference

The wave, drawn from reader responses.

Railing

The bridge as a place and a practice.

Two Arcs

The mark becomes the thing people send each other.

Three Degrees

Name one person you saw this week.

Shiboka

Letters to the Unseen.

The Mirror

A result you hold up.

Both True

A two-truths prompt card.

Now Go

The 5% challenge.

Five Percent

The wristband and the ask.

18Our recommendation

Take three to the next round.

The Period

1 The Period

The brief's first choice and the brand sheet made into a cover. Correct at every size and on every surface without a compromise. Next pass: the one-line title variant, a real paper stock, a printed proof.

Two Arcs

2 Two Arcs

The brief ranked it fourth on the crowded-lane worry. The render argues it up to first: single sumi-e strokes, gaps top and bottom, the title inside the opening, the most recognisable of the ten at one inch, and the strongest merch on the sheet. It locks the mark, the cover and the garment into one object.

Railing

3 Railing

The only cover with narrative pull, a real photograph of the real place the book opens. The Greenlights move. The type still fights the railing and it is the smallest title at one inch; a two-line setting would fix both. It needs your explicit yes first.

Held, not dropped. Constructive Interference stays the brief's number two on the idea and drops only on scale: the line nearly vanishes at one inch. A heavier brush or a taller wave band and it is back in. Shiboka is the black-ground alternate if Railing does not get the yes. The Mirror waits for a hardcover.

The trade-off. The quiet literary covers (Period, Two Arcs, Interference, Shiboka) buy the Frankl register and keep the orange rule intact. The movement cover (Now Go) is the loudest thing on the shelf and the right use of orange, but it spends the brand's one reserved colour on the front. Our read: keep the front quiet and let the send-off be loud on everything the reader wears and carries. The movement lives on the back of the tee and the mug, not the jacket.

19Decisions for Rick, and what we did today

Seven things need your gut, not ours.

The mark

Open Aperture, dual colour, recommended in March. Geometric, organic, or hand-drawn? Two Arcs puts the hand-painted answer on the table.

White or black

No concept uses a flat blue field on purpose. The white covers (Period, Two Arcs, Interference) versus the black ones (Railing, Shiboka, Mirror).

Orange on the front

The October 6 rule (orange is the call to action only) versus the March mark (blue arc plus orange arc). Both True, Two Arcs and Now Go need the ruling.

Subtitle on or off

Period, Five Percent and Now Go work better without it. Railing, Interference and Three Degrees want it.

Trim

All ten are set at 6 x 9. At 5.5 x 8.5 the proportions hold but the type and the 5% band rescale.

The railing

Railing is the only cover with narrative pull, and a bridge railing can read as the thing it is. It needs your explicit yes, not a default.

Which blue, which orange

The March guide's first two questions are still open. Every render here uses #2563EB and #F97316 as shown; CMYK soft proofs come before any print approval.

What we did today

10
Cover art generations
9 base + 1 retry
4
Interior plates
bridge x3, bench x1
7
Merch blanks
0 retries

21 paid generations in total, every one through OpenAI GPT Image 2.5 on the Creative Studio route released 2026-10-01, high quality, no text generated by any model. Every word and mark on every cover, figure and garment was composited in code with Space Grotesk and Inter. Figures and the iris system are pure code. Two fixes made in code today: cover 08 recomposited on pure white, and hero 04 re-rendered with #111111.

The proof-of-pipeline cover from this morning The smoke test: bridge at night

The two proof-of-pipeline renders from this morning, before any direction was briefed: the compositor test and the smoke test.

Not done, by design: CMYK soft proofs of the two brand colours, printed proofs at trim, and the QUOTE-LEDGER row for any manuscript line that lands on a cover surface. All three precede print, none precede this review.

20Combinations

Mix them.
A cover from one, an interior from another, the merch from a third.

The ten were built to be judged whole, but the parts travel. Build up to three combinations; name them if you like. Your picks come first in each row, the rest stay open.

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21Cast your vote

Everything you picked, in one place.

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You can pick as many as you want. Submitting again replaces your earlier vote from this device. Nothing here is shared beyond Rick and the people helping him choose.

22What everyone picked

The room, so far.

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Sawubona.
I see you. All of you.
Now go see somebody else.
I See You: The Human Need to Be Seen · Rick UnderwoodBrand Directions Rev 2 · 2026-10-07