The Knode brand identity

Status: accepted, 2026-10-19

Context

Knode needed an identity that feels native, calm and technical without being cold, and that a community can extend without breaking it.

Decision

• Logo: a K made of two blocks joined by a bridge, on a 10 × 25 half-cell grid with a square stem.
• One rule: shapes are built from square cells; every corner, convex or concave, is rounded with half a cell.
• Colour: three inks only: ink #0B0B14, paper #F3F2EE, indigo #818CF8.
• Type: two in-house grid typefaces, Knode Block and Knode Line, plus Geist and Geist Mono.
• Language: English first. Tagline: Connect your thoughts. Naturally. Domain: knode.md.
• Developers: a sub-brand, Knode Developers, writes the same identity in ASCII for developer surfaces.

Consequences

• Everything is generated from brand.json in knodemd/brand, so the system stays consistent.
• New shapes, icons or letters are valid if they follow the cell and radius rule.