Provarium · Index
S1Iconography
An 8×8 system, 40 glyphs

Icons in the seal's grammar.

The icon library is drawn on the same 8×8 grid as the Provarium seal. Two weights, filled and outline. No decorative flourishes. Legible at 16px and at poster scale.

Roughly forty glyphs carry the full system. They cover the capital lifecycle — commit, collect, allocate, move, account — the institutional roles that sit around it, the product surfaces a client touches, and the system states an operator reads. Every glyph is drawn on-grid. The filled weight is used in dense operator surfaces where density matters; the outline weight is used in documents and prose where the glyph should read as punctuation rather than emphasis.

The icon library is not decorative. Each glyph is a referent, carried through the ledger with the same rigor as a term in the lexicon. An icon that does not stand for a lifecycle verb, a role, a surface, or a state is not an icon — it is ornament, and ornament has no place in the operator's field of view.

Grid · weight · scale

Grid
8 × 8
Weights
Filled / outline
Stroke
1.5 px at 24
Minimum
16 px
Coverage
40 glyphs
Format
Inline SVG
Commit
PROV-ICO-001
Collect
PROV-ICO-002
Allocate
PROV-ICO-003
Move
PROV-ICO-004
Account
PROV-ICO-005
Donor
PROV-ICO-010
Shareholder
PROV-ICO-011
Operator
PROV-ICO-012
Auditor
PROV-ICO-013
Regulator
PROV-ICO-014
Advisor
PROV-ICO-015
Console
PROV-ICO-020
Statement
PROV-ICO-021
Dashboard
PROV-ICO-022
Pending
PROV-ICO-030
Reconciled
PROV-ICO-031
Disbursed
PROV-ICO-032
Reported
PROV-ICO-033
The full library is maintained in the Provarium Brand Council's Figma file. Each glyph is drawn on-grid, exported as SVG, and referenced via its PROV-ICO-NNN code in the trust ledger. An icon without a code is not part of the system.
S2Illustration system
Abstract flows · no figurative drawing

Illustration as flow, not picture.

The book's illustration register is abstract lifecycle and flow diagrams only. Figurative illustration is prohibited — the figurative register is photography. Lifecycle diagrams share grammar with the iconography; flow diagrams share stroke and palette with the data-visualization system.

COMMIT COLLECT ALLOCATE MOVE ACCOUNT Donor commitment Shareholder outcome CAPITAL ↦ ↤ VISIBILITY
/ 01

One direction
per diagram.

Capital flows in one direction — commitment to outcome. Visibility flows in the other. A diagram that carries both without distinguishing them is not a lifecycle diagram; it is decoration.

/ 02

Named
inflection points.

Every node carries a lifecycle verb — commit, collect, allocate, move, account. No unnamed curves. If the flow changes shape, the change has a name.

/ 03

Shared
palette.

Copper for capital. Paper for data. Vault for surface. No other colors in illustration. The restraint is the point — the reader should recognize a Provarium flow diagram before reading its caption.

/ 04

Thin
strokes.

0.75 to 1.25 px stroke weight. No gradients, no shadows, no pictorial background. A flow diagram is a piece of typography — it is read, not looked at.

S3Data visualization
Where the book earns its keep

Charts for finance people.

A dedicated chapter covering chart styles, number formatting, and dashboard tokens. This is the chapter the Irena-persona reads. It doubles as the design-system brief for the Sonar dashboard family — the surface operators return to every day.

/ 01 · Chart styles

What to draw,
and when.

  • Line. Time series, one or two series max, thin strokes. Baseline at zero unless the caption states otherwise.
  • Bar. Categorical comparison, horizontal preferred. Labels inline with the bar, not in a legend.
  • Sankey. Capital-flow diagrams — commitment to fund to deployment. Copper for the active flow; slate for the inactive.
  • Waterfall. Fund composition and reconciliation gaps. Positive in vault, negative in copper-deep, subtotal in paper-warm.
  • Cohort matrix. Donor retention by vintage. Density-based shading, never diverging color.
  • Sparkline. Inline with a number, not standalone. Always paired with the current value it narrates.
/ 02 · Number formatting

How the
numbers read.

  • Currency. Always with symbol and 2 decimals in precision contexts ($1,234.56). Rounded with no decimals in scale contexts ($1.2M).
  • Thousands. Locale-specific — comma in en-US, space in en-ZA. Never mixed within a document.
  • Percentages. One decimal (12.3%). Never "about 12%". A rounded number is a fact; a hedged number is an opinion.
  • Rates & ratios. Consistent denominator per report. Disclose the denominator in the caption.
  • Dates. ISO for data (2026-04-23). Spelled month for prose (23 April 2026). Never a numeric month in English prose.
  • Negatives. Parenthesized in tables ($(1,234.00)). Minus-sign in charts.
/ 03 · Dashboard tokens

How the
surface feels.

  • Density. Three levels — compact (8 px row), default (12 px), comfortable (16 px). The operator chooses; the surface remembers.
  • Color. Never red/green alone. Color + shape + label. Copper for attention, paper for neutral, slate for muted. A reserved red is used — cautiously — for declined or failed.
  • Sparklines. 24 to 36 px wide, no axis, single stroke, labeled.
  • Time series. Defaults to last 12 months, month buckets, baseline at zero, copper accent for the current period.
  • Empty states. Italic Fraunces label + one-line instruction + nothing else. No illustrations.
  • Loading states. Thin copper indeterminate line. Never a spinner. The system does not ask the operator to wait on a wheel.
$1.2M
Total deployed · 12 mo Copper accent · current period
S4Photography & portraiture
Figurative register · dignified

People where they work.

Two distinct directions. Operator portraits — the people who run institutions, shot in their working environments; grounded, unstyled. Environmental photography — the places mission-driven capital is deployed, shot with dignity and specificity.

/ Direction 01 · Operator portraits

The people
who run the
institution.

Subject
A CFO at her desk. A CDO in a boardroom. An auditor reviewing a packet. The operator is the subject — not a stand-in, not a model.
Lighting
Natural daylight preferred. No studio gloss. If the room is fluorescent, the room is fluorescent.
Composition
Three-quarter, room visible. The person is clothed in the work, not posed against it.
Post
Minimal. Warm grade consistent with the book's palette. No heavy retouching, no skin smoothing, no manufactured warmth.
/ Direction 02 · Environmental

The places
capital
lands.

Subject
The place capital lands. A field office. A clinic. A rural cooperative. Shot wide, with specificity of place — not of demographic.
Ethics
Informed consent required. Names and context on file in the Trust Ledger. A photograph without a record is not usable.
Composition
The place does the work. No staged interaction. If the photograph would not exist without the photographer's instruction, it does not belong in the book.
Post
Warm, neutral, documentary. The book's grade is the place's grade — not the other way around.

Prohibited · non-negotiable

S5UI surfaces
Reference designs · for build teams

The surfaces clients touch.

Product-screen specimens. Each surface is shown in three states — empty, populated, edge. These are the reference designs Made By Many (the Dreams donor flow) and the StraTech frontend team (operator console, shareholder-facing surfaces) both build against. What the client sees and what the operator uses are not the same surface, and the distinction is enforced here.

PROV-UI-001
Operator console
Sonar dashboard family · Dreams + DAF-Tech

The primary operator surface. The view the CFO and the CDO share across the day — not a report, an instrument. Density is tunable; defaults favor the operator who has to answer a question in under thirty seconds.

  • PopulatedAUA delta by fund, disbursement queue, reconciliation status, sparkline per fund.
  • EmptyOnboarding checklist — four items, in sequence, with the next step already focused.
  • EdgeReconciliation gap flagged for resolution, with drill-down to the offending ledger entry.
PROV-UI-002
Donor statement
Dreams · shareholder-facing

The artifact a subscriber receives at cycle close. Not a thank-you note — a report on their own capital. The donor is named as a shareholder in the cycle's outcome, and the statement reads like one.

  • PopulatedNamed shareholder profile, cycle outcomes, cumulative commitment, outcome against intent.
  • EmptyWelcome letter — the first statement a subscriber ever receives.
  • EdgeCommitment paused, with reason and a plain-language resumption path.
PROV-UI-003
Impact update
Dreams · shareholder-facing

The per-cycle narrative sent to donors between statements. The field-office voice leads. Outcomes are specific, dated, and attributable. One open question is always included — the relationship is two-way, and the surface is designed around that fact.

  • PopulatedField-office voice, three outcomes, one open question back to the shareholder.
  • EmptyCycle in flight — status of each outcome, honestly rendered.
  • EdgeOutcome delayed, with an honest note. No rescue language, no reframing.
PROV-UI-004
DAF marketplace view
DAF-Tech · advisor-facing

Vetted-recipient surfacing for advisors. Marketplace exposure rendered as a filtered list, not a feed. The surface reads as a roster of matched counterparties, sequenced by AUA fit and payout velocity.

  • PopulatedFiltered list, AUA-matched recipients, payout velocity surfaced beside each.
  • EmptySaved searches and the last advised disbursement, ready to resume.
  • EdgeRecipient dropped from the vetted list — reason and an alternative counterparty surfaced in the same view.
PROV-UI-005
Disbursement confirmation
DAF-Tech + Dreams · operator

The moment-of-truth surface. One-click confirm is deliberate — the complexity of the transaction sits behind the button, not on top of it. Jurisdictional notes and the rails in use are disclosed before the click, not after.

  • PopulatedPayee, amount, rails, jurisdictional notes, one-click confirm.
  • EmptyPending approval — named approver and escalation clock.
  • EdgeCompliance hold, with a clear next step and the party who owns it.
PROV-UI-006
Reconciliation audit log
Platform · both products

Signed, timestamped entries at ledger level. The surface the auditor drives. No narrative, no decoration — a mono-spaced register that reads the way a reconciliation register should read.

  • PopulatedSigned entries, timestamped, filterable by fund, period, and counterparty.
  • EmptyClean period — the rarest and most valuable state in the system.
  • EdgeBreak detected, with drill-down to the source entries on both sides of the reconciliation.
Full specimens — empty, populated, and edge states, rendered at desktop, tablet, and mobile — live in the Figma library. Each surface is referenced in the Trust Ledger via its PROV-UI-NNN code. A surface in production without a code is a surface the platform has not adopted.
S6Stationery
Correspondence · the smallest surfaces

The paper system.

Specimens for every document Provarium sends. The distinction between internal JV correspondence and client-facing artifacts must be visible in the system — same voice, different register. A board memo and a grant letter share a vocabulary but do not share a surface.

PROV-STN-001
Letterhead
Client-facing
Provarium
1 Bishops Ave
Cape Town · ZA
prov.jv
Prov · Cape Town ◆ Proof mark

Light stock. Fraunces brand name top-left, Geist Mono address block top-right, generous margin. Proof mark at the footer.

PROV-STN-002
Board memo
Internal · JV
Prov · Board memo Q2 2026 · confidential
Reconciliation & anchor onboarding.
Decision ask · Q2 allocation

Dark header band with "PROV · BOARD MEMO" in mono. Fraunces title below, two-column body, decision-ask box at the foot.

PROV-STN-003
Grant letter
Client-facing
Grant letter
Cycle 2026 · Q1
Dear shareholder —
Certified ◆ Proof mark · TL-008

Shareholder-led framing, Fraunces salutation, Geist body. Provarium proof mark in the certification block at the footer, with a Trust Ledger reference.

PROV-STN-004
Audit-packet cover
Client-facing · auditor
Audit period · Q1 2026
Institution · Anchor · FTH
Packet ref · AP-2026-Q1-01
v.01
Audit packet.
Q1 2026 ◆ Proof mark

Geist Mono identifier header — audit period, institution, packet reference. Large Fraunces label below. Proof mark bottom-right.

PROV-STN-005
Invoice
Commercial
Invoice
INV-2026-0148
Due · 2026-05-07
TL-011 · ref. ◆ Proof mark

Standard invoice anatomy, but with the proof mark and Trust Ledger reference code carried at the foot. Commercial documents are still platform documents.

PROV-STN-006
Disbursement notice
Client-facing
Disbursement notice
PROV-DSB-2026-0039
To the field office —
Released · 2026-04-22 ◆ Proof mark

The letter a shareholder community or implementation partner receives when capital is deployed. Dignified, specific, accountable — the stewardship principles rendered as an operational artifact.