---
type: plan
title: "Design direction"
status: active
updated: 2026-09-02
---

# Design direction

The anchor every design artifact is checked against before the client sees it. Read this
before opening a design tool. Scope and contract detail live in `.logs/planning/scope.md`;
page inventory, nav and URLs in `.logs/planning/site-architecture.md`; CTA and form
mechanics in `.logs/planning/tracking-conversion.md`; the audit evidence in
`notes/site-audit-2026-07.md`; the client thread in `notes/client-correspondence.md`.
Front-end build rules are the server's (`/srv/projects/standards/frontend.md`), not
restated here.

Naming in this file: the lead-capture tool is "the Business Legal Health Assessment (name
to be confirmed)" on first mention and "the assessment" after. States are Washington
first, Oregon secondary, Colorado retained; DC and VA removed (client decision 2026-08-27).
The team is 9 bios (8 live plus Nicole Farahdel). No amounts, figures or commercial terms
of any kind appear in this file or in any design artifact.

## What was sold

Two things, both from the proposal sent 2026-07-30 and accepted 2026-08-13 by Alicia
Wimmer:

1. **Base scope, "Website Design":** "a faithful rebuild with a real design uplift. We work
   from your existing brand and rebuild it properly in the new framework, applying our own
   judgement on layout, hierarchy, typography, spacing, and calls to action. A clear step
   up, without asking you to relearn your own website." This is a design uplift on the
   client's existing brand. It is NOT a new brand: no new logo design, no new palette
   invented from scratch, no renaming. The brand assets come from the client's Brand Kit
   (see Brand inputs); our judgement applies to layout, hierarchy, typography, spacing and
   CTAs.
2. **The Design Mockup and Review Round add-on (accepted 2026-08-13):** "a designed concept
   for the key pages with one comprehensive round of feedback, delivered before we start
   building." One round, not unlimited revisions; further rounds are a scope change
   (proposal, "Additional Terms", "Scope Changes").

Timing commitment: Rian's email of 2026-08-24 promised "an initial mockup within a week" of
receiving the design inputs, followed by a call to review it. The inputs arrived 2026-08-27
(Alicia Wimmer's onboarding email), which puts the mockup due on or about 2026-09-03.
Nothing has been mocked up as of 2026-09-02. The mockup is the next deliverable on the
project and is due 2026-09-03.

The client's own framing of the uplift, from the same 2026-08-27 email: the current site is
"visually busy and somewhat dated"; they want "a more elevated, simplified look and feel".
That sentence is the brief. The proposal's "faithful rebuild" now leans toward the uplift.

## The client's written requirements (2026-08-27, Alicia Wimmer)

Quoted verbatim from Alicia Wimmer's email of 2026-08-27 (the client's onboarding answers,
sent the same day as the kickoff call). These are binding.

1. > "Remove all mentions of Twitter and Facebook"

   Implication: no Twitter or Facebook icons, links, share buttons or footer mentions
   anywhere in the mockup or the build. LinkedIn and YouTube remain (the live site's
   `linkedin.com/company/equinox-business-law-group-pllc` and
   `youtube.com/channel/UCTEE4EFZH16GE-1zkiEvFUg`).

2. > "Remove inks [sic] to EO Portland and Women in Finance"

   Implication: the footer "Community Involvement" list drops from seven to five: EO
   Seattle, Women's Presidents Organization, Seattle U Family Business Exchange, Bellevue
   LifeSpring, CFO Leadership Council. Design the footer for five logos or names, not seven.

3. > "Remove any mention of serving businesses in DC and VA"

   Implication: no DC or VA in any strapline, header line, footer, contact copy or map
   labelling. Colorado stays: the firm's email signature changed from "WA, OR, CO, DC, and
   VA" to "WA, OR and CO" by 2026-08-27. If a state list appears at all it reads
   Washington, Oregon, Colorado in that order; Washington leads every location signal.
   Whether the header keeps a state list at all is an open input (see Open inputs).

4. > "Replace Equinox logo, it is no longer our 20th anniversary"

   Implication: the live logo is a 20th-anniversary variant and is retired. Every
   placement (header, footer, favicon, social-share image, schema logo) uses the logo from
   the Brand Kit. Never pull the logo from the live site's media library.

5. > "Team webpage - remove Mandy Bowen, add Nicole Farahdel, Corporate Paralegal, no headshot or bio yet, can a placeholder be used?"

   Implication: the team index and bio template are designed for 9 people: the 8 on the
   live site (Michelle Bomberger, CEO & Managing Attorney; Laura Doehle, COO & Integrator;
   Danica Paddock, Corporate Counsel; Dominique Zett, Director of Operations & Project
   Manager; Devon Maxwell, Corporate Paralegal; Leaf E'kaika, Operations Administrator;
   Alicia Wimmer, Sales & Marketing Operations Coordinator; Pamela Franklin, Sales &
   Customer Experience Officer) plus Nicole Farahdel, Corporate Paralegal. Nicole gets a
   labelled placeholder headshot (not a stock person) and labelled placeholder bio text.
   Mandy Bowen appears nowhere (already absent from the live sitemap on 2026-09-02).

6. > "Overall, we find our current website visually busy and somewhat dated. We're looking for a more elevated, simplified look and feel."

   Implication: the mockup must read as a visible step away from the live site: fewer
   competing elements per screen, one dominant element per section, more whitespace, a
   tighter type hierarchy, a restrained palette drawn from the Brand Kit. A tidied replica
   of the current layout fails this requirement.

7. > "Regarding images, we'd like to remove the team photos from our homepage, if that works from a design standpoint. We're comfortable keeping one or two team photos overall across the entire website, however keeping them current is cumbersome, we'd like to remove them from other pages as well wherever it makes design sense. Stock images are fine, just please no stock photos of people"

   Implication: the full imagery policy in the next-but-one section. In short: no team
   photography on the home page; at most two team photos site-wide; stock imagery of
   objects, places, abstracts and textures only; never a stock human.

## Brand inputs

**The Brand Kit arrived 2026-09-03** and is filed at `notes/source/brand-kit/`, with the 2026
Brand Photo Shoot at `notes/source/photos/`. Read
**`notes/source/brand-kit/README.md`** before any design work: it holds the palette with the
brand's own colour names, the Montserrat scale, the logo file map, the gradient and swirl
devices, the tagline, and the one place where the guide is overridden by the client. The working
set both directions render from is `notes/mockups/shared-v1/design-system.md`.

| Input | Status as of 2026-09-03 | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| **Brand Kit** | **Received.** A real 76-slide brand guide (2022-06-24) plus a 92-slide 2023 build and an 8-slide short version; palette, typography and logo are identical across all three (verified 2026-09-03), so the system is settled and not in flux. | `notes/source/brand-kit/`. Logo files also go to the staging media library at build time. |
| **2026 Brand Photo Shoot** | **Received**, about 100 images. | `notes/source/photos/`. Only the one or two photographs the client allows go to the staging media library. Do not bulk-import the shoot into `wp-content/uploads`. |
| **The new logo** | **In hand.** Wordmark EQUINOX with the swirl as the O, in NIGHT `#003B53`; tagline lockups read "STRATEGIC LEGAL COUNSEL FOR ALL". Reverse and gradient-ground variants exist. All files are raster at about 3300px. | Header, footer, favicon (the swirl), schema logo (`.logs/planning/schema-entity-plan.md`). **Request vector files (SVG/EPS/AI) from the client before launch**; a wordmark should not ship as a bitmap, and redrawing it is out of scope. |
| **Palette** | **Confirmed:** NIGHT `#003B53`, BUSINESS `#027CA1`, FREEDOM `#93BCCD`, CONFIDENCE `#FFD457`, DAY `#D98D00`, LAW `#FFFAEB`. Note the live site's most-used dark `#004963` is **not** a brand colour — it is drift, and anything built against it must be swapped. Gold `#FFD457` was already correct. | The Kadence global design system. |
| **Typography** | **Confirmed: Montserrat**, with the guide's scale (H1 Bold 700 sentence case; H2 ExtraBold 800 caps; H3 Light 300 caps; H4 SemiBold 600; body Regular 400). The live site's Black 900 headings are not brand. Open licence, self-hostable. | The Kadence global type settings. One open question: a companion face for long-form body — see the imagery and type notes below. |
| **Brand devices** | **Gradients** (blue and yellow radial, near-white centre to colour at the edges) and the **swirl mark** are named brand elements. They are the on-brand way to give a screen warmth without a photograph. | Rebuilt in CSS, not served as the kit's flat PNGs. |
| **The live site's palette and typography** | **Superseded.** Reference only, and no longer needed for colour or type. | Nothing. Kit values replace the 2026-09-03 provisional extraction wholesale. |
| **Tone** (AISV brand story and strategy deck, plus the brand guide) | In `notes/source/`. | Bold, plainspoken, entrepreneur-first. The brand guide names the **Sage and Rebel** archetypes ("the truth will set you free", "rules are made to be broken"); AISV positions the firm as "proactive and modern, not 'old guys in suits'". Design for a modern advisor to founders, not a traditional law firm. |
| **Examples of sites the client likes** | Asked by Rian 2026-08-24; not answered in the 2026-08-27 reply. | Ask again; do not block the mockup on it. |

**Brand lines in circulation.** "Go boldly (and legally)" is the firm's own line. **The spelling
is settled: "boldly".** The brand guide uses "go boldly into the unknown" throughout, so the
email signature's "Go Boldy" and the live URL `/go-boldy-with-equinox/` are typos, and the URL is
a redirect question for `.logs/planning/site-architecture.md` rather than a copy decision. Nothing
we produce reproduces the typo. **The tagline is "Strategic Legal Counsel for All"** (the
letterhead and the 2026 deck); an older guide slide says "for Entrepreneurs" and is superseded. "Know what you don't know" is what the deck calls "the
brand's own line" and anchors AISV's Creative Concept 01; the live blog has
`/blog/know-what-you-dont-know/`. Both are candidates for a footer line, a section
kicker, or an About page pull-quote; neither replaces the brand-story hero copy.

**Design copy candidates.** Verbatim from the AISV brand story (also in the deck). Use these
for real headings in the mockup instead of lorem ipsum. Final wording is the client's with
AISV's guidance (proposal, "Content"); label anything not already assigned a section as
draft.

Ten headlines:

1. Grow Your Business Without Growing Your Legal Anxiety
2. Experienced Legal Counsel Without the Full-Time Legal Department
3. Make Legal Support a Normal Part of Your Business
4. Protect What You've Built Before a Legal Problem Threatens It
5. Proactive Legal Guidance. Predictable Monthly Costs.
6. Stop Waiting for the Next Legal Surprise
7. The Legal Team Growing Businesses Can Lean On
8. Get the Legal Protection Your Business Has Grown Into
9. Legal Support That Keeps Pace With Your Business
10. Build Your Business With Greater Confidence and Fewer Surprises

Ten taglines:

1. Legal confidence for growing businesses.
2. Proactive protection. Predictable costs.
3. Your legal team for what comes next.
4. Grow confidently. We'll help protect the path.
5. Experienced legal counsel within reach.
6. Legal support that feels like part of the team.
7. Protect today. Prepare for tomorrow.
8. A stronger legal foundation for growth.
9. Fewer legal surprises. Greater peace of mind.
10. Practical legal guidance for ambitious entrepreneurs.

Already assigned by the brand story: headline 1 is the home hero; headline 2 is the value
proposition heading; tagline 2 plus "Greater Peace of Mind." is the footer message
("Proactive Protection. Predictable Costs. Greater Peace of Mind." / "Experienced legal
counsel for growing businesses."). Headline 6 is a near-variant of the title of AISV's
Creative Concept 01, "Stop Waiting for Your Next Legal Surprise" (the deck says "Your", the
brand story says "the"); use the brand-story wording for the site and confirm with AISV
before setting either in type.

## Photography and imagery policy

Derived from requirement 7 above and `.memory/client-decisions-2026-08-27.md`. Applies to the mockup as much
as to the build: the mockup is the client's first look at whether we heard them.

**The brand guide asks for the opposite, and the client wins.** The 2022 guide makes people
photography one of its five brand bricks and specifies three categories of it, all stock,
"diverse people in their place of business". Alicia Wimmer's 2026-08-27 instruction rules that
out for this site. Her instruction is newer, specific to this build, and binding, so the
people-photography brick is retired here and its job passes to the brand's **gradients and the
swirl mark**, which are equally brand, carry a screen without text, and cost nothing to keep
current — which was the client's stated reason for the limit. Reopening it is a client decision,
not a design one. Full note in `notes/source/brand-kit/README.md`.

- **No team photos on the home page.** The hero and every home section use no team
  photography: typography-led, or brand-kit graphics, or non-people stock. The brand
  story's Guide section is the one place a team photo would be natural; it is still off the
  home page unless the client reverses this at mockup review.
- **At most one or two team photos across the whole site.** Likely homes: About Us and one
  other. Source them from the 2026 Brand Photo Shoot. Choose photos that will age well (no
  event-specific or dated context), because "keeping them current is cumbersome" is the
  stated reason for the limit.
- **Team photos elsewhere only where the design genuinely needs them.** Default is none.
- **Stock imagery is allowed, but never stock photos of people.** Objects, places,
  abstracts, textures, illustration and iconography are fine. This includes placeholder
  imagery in the mockup: a stock person in a placeholder slot breaks the rule on the first
  page the client sees.
- **Headshots on bios only.** The 9 bio pages carry individual headshots (a headshot is the
  bio, not a "team photo"); the team index may show the same headshots as a grid of 9.
  Confirm at mockup review that the client counts the index that way. No headshots in
  author boxes on posts unless the client agrees at review (the author box can carry name,
  title and a link to the bio instead).
- **Nicole Farahdel gets a labelled placeholder** (initials or the swirl mark, not a stock
  person) and labelled placeholder bio text until her headshot and bio arrive (to be
  supplied by Alicia Wimmer).
- **A gradient or the swirl is the default when a section needs visual relief**, not a stock
  photograph. One gradient ground per screen at most: two competing radial grounds read as busy,
  which is the exact word the client used about the current site.
- **Every placeholder is labelled as such when shown to the client**: placeholder photos,
  the contact address and map (the firm's street address is not on the live site and is to
  be confirmed by the client), the assessment name, any draft copy.
- **Image optimisation** is in scope for the build; the mockup only needs to show sizes
  and crops, not final assets.

## Home page structure

The home page is built to the full landing-page structure in the AISV brand story
(proposal, "Standard Page Creation"). Headings are verbatim from the brand story. The full
copy for every section is the brand story in `notes/source/` (the only complete source);
`.logs/planning/site-architecture.md` carries the one-row disposition for Home. Twelve
sections plus the footer line, in this order:

| # | Section | Heading (verbatim) | CTA(s) | Pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hero | "Grow Your Business Without Growing Your Legal Anxiety" | Book a Consultation (primary); Take the Business Legal Health Assessment (secondary); supporting line beneath | Hero, no team photo |
| 2 | The Problem | "Your Business Has Grown. Has Your Legal Protection Grown With It?" | "Find Out Where Your Business Is Exposed" (links to the assessment) | Question list (seven questions) plus one button |
| 3 | The Stakes | "Legal Problems Are Easier to Prevent Than Repair" | none | Six-item failure list, closing statement |
| 4 | The Guide | "You Do Not Need to Navigate This Alone" | none | Text with optional non-people image |
| 5 | Value Proposition | "Experienced Legal Counsel Without the Full-Time Legal Department" | none | **Grouped value proposition**: four cards (Contracts and Commercial Agreements; Employment and HR Legal Support; Business Risk and Compliance; Ongoing Strategic Legal Guidance), each with heading, one line, bullet list (7 / 7 / 7 / 3) |
| 6 | The Plan | "Protecting Your Business Starts With Three Simple Steps" | paired CTAs | **Three-step process**: 1. Assess, 2. Prioritize, 3. Protect and Grow |
| 7 | The Transformation | "Imagine Feeling Confident About the Legal Side of Your Business" | none | Eight-line list (six "Your ..." lines, then two "You ..." lines), closing line |
| 8 | Before and After | "Move From Legal Uncertainty to Legal Confidence" | none | **Before/after comparison**: two columns, "Without Proactive Legal Support" (7) and "With Equinox Business Law" (7) |
| 9 | Who It Is For | "Built for Entrepreneurs Leading Growing Companies" | none | Eight-item qualification checklist. The first criterion is a revenue threshold on which AISV's deck and brand story disagree; show it as a labelled placeholder "[revenue threshold: AISV to confirm]", never a figure |
| 10 | Objection Handling | No section heading in the copy; four question headings: "We Only Call a Lawyer When Something Comes Up."; "We Cannot Justify Hiring In-House Legal Counsel."; "We Are Worried About Unpredictable Legal Bills."; "Nothing Is Wrong Right Now." | none | **Objection-handling accordion**, built on the `bw-ai-schema-pro` FAQ block so `FAQPage` markup ships on launch day. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search on 2026-05-07; the FAQ content is for buyers and AI answer engines, not for rich snippets (proposal, Advanced AI Schema; see `.logs/planning/schema-entity-plan.md`). A section heading is to be confirmed with AISV |
| 11 | Assessment | "How Legally Healthy Is Your Business?" | Take the Business Legal Health Assessment | Eight-area checklist, one button, supporting line |
| 12 | Final CTA | "Protect What You Have Built and Prepare for What Comes Next" | paired CTAs | Full-width CTA band |
| 13 | Footer line | "Proactive Protection. Predictable Costs. Greater Peace of Mind." / "Experienced legal counsel for growing businesses." | none | Footer tagline area |

**The four pattern types the AISV copy calls for** (proposal, "Basic Template Creation")
are sections 6, 8, 10 and 5: the three-step Assess / Prioritize / Protect and Grow process,
the before-and-after comparison, the objection-handling accordion, and the grouped value
proposition. The mockup must show all four, because they are new design vocabulary for
this brand and they are built once as reusable Kadence patterns that AISV can drop on any
page later. Design them as a family (shared spacing, card treatment, numbering style), not
as four one-offs.

**Paired CTAs.** The brand story defines the pairing and the proposal builds to it:
**Book a Consultation** is the direct CTA; **Take the Business Legal Health Assessment
(name to be confirmed)** is the transitional CTA. Always both, always in that order,
visually distinct (primary and secondary button styles), on the hero, the plan, the final
CTA band, and at the end of every post; the persistent header carries both, Book a
Consultation as the primary button and the assessment as the secondary (the short form
"Take the Assessment" is allowed in the header and the mobile drawer only), per
`.logs/planning/tracking-conversion.md` and `.logs/planning/site-architecture.md`; both
sit in the mobile drawer. Decided for Step 1 on 2026-09-02. Do not argue for
assessment-first: AISV's brand story leads with booking while their deck calls the
assessment "the front door", and both are carried. No third CTA competes with the pair on
any screen. Whether "Book a Consultation" keeps the live site's Outlook booking link is
open (`.logs/planning/tracking-conversion.md`); the design does not depend on it.

**Length.** The live home page carries roughly 400 words of visible copy; this structure
is far longer. The "elevated, simplified" ask is met by design density (whitespace,
hierarchy, one idea per section), not by cutting sections. Any cut is AISV's call, not
the designer's. Expect the client to raise length at review and have this answer ready.

## Mockup sequencing: the home page first, two directions, nothing else

**Step 1 (now): two home-page mockups showing two distinct design directions. Home page
only.** Rian's instruction of 2026-09-02, and the first deliverable on the project. The
brief for this step is `.logs/planning/homepage-mockup-brief.md`; it is the contract for
the work and the scope fence. Nothing else is designed until a direction is chosen: no
inner pages, no General Counsel tiers, no Contact, no blog index or post, no team pages,
no pattern library, no Kadence build. The header and footer appear only as the home page
needs them. A designer who finds themselves opening a second page has left the step. Rian
chooses the direction (with the client, at his discretion) and records the choice and
date in `.logs/handoff.md`.

**Step 2 (only after a direction is chosen): the remaining key pages in that direction.**
This is the rest of the sold Design Mockup and Review Round. These are the pages, what
each must demonstrate, and what it must not show. Desktop and mobile for Home at minimum;
desktop for the rest with mobile where a pattern's behaviour is not obvious (the
accordion, the before/after columns and, only if the add-on is accepted, the tier
comparison). Do not start Step 2 on a guess about which direction wins.

| Page | Must demonstrate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **Home** | All 13 elements above in order; the four new patterns; the paired CTAs; the "elevated, simplified" feel; one `h1` (the hero heading). | No team photo. Revenue threshold as a labelled placeholder. Assessment name as "(name to be confirmed)" or the chosen name once decided; never a mix of the three names. |
| **General Counsel** | The rebuilt core page presenting the three existing tiers (Signature General Counsel, Legal Maintenance, Advisor) unpriced, with paired CTAs. | No tier figures: the live page shows none and the client supplies any. The Fractional General Counsel Landing Page with Tiered Pricing add-on (client "interested, discuss further" since 2026-08-13; not accepted) is a SEPARATE dedicated landing page with a tier comparison structure and a comparison block contrasting the client's fixed-fee and hourly-billing service models (structure only; the client supplies every number); this page stays either way. Do not design the add-on's comparison structure until it is accepted. |
| **Contact** | Real location content: address block, map, Washington-first service-area presentation (WA, OR, CO), the rebuilt contact form with light qualification, the attorney-client-privilege disclaimer, phone 425-250-0205 and contact@equinoxbusinesslaw.com. | The street address is not on the live site and is to be confirmed by the client: show a labelled placeholder address and map pin (Bellevue, WA area). No DC/VA. No licensing sentence (the Idaho/Colorado discrepancy is unresolved; Michelle Bomberger answers). |
| **Blog index** | Search and category filtering (the Search & Filter Pro deliverable) as a visible control set; post cards with title, date, category and author name; pagination that does not look like the live 57-page crawl. | 51 categories with posts exist on the live site (68 registered, 17 empty, as of 2026-09-02), with near-duplicates; the filter design must cope with a long list (dropdown or grouped, not a wall of chips). Category consolidation is AISV's decision. |
| **Single post** | The post template AI-drafted content lands into: reading width, heading scale, an author box (name, title, link to the bio; headshot optional per the imagery policy), categories, and the end-of-post paired CTA. | Show it with a real migrated post's structure (long classic HTML with subheadings and lists), because that is what 513 published posts (as of 2026-09-02) look like. |
| **Team bio** | The single repeatable template for 9 people: headshot, name, title, bio, LinkedIn link, paired CTA. Plus the team index of 9. | Include Nicole Farahdel with her labelled placeholder so the client sees how a missing headshot is handled. |
| **Header and footer** | Header: the Brand Kit logo, a navigation that surfaces services and the general counsel offer (the live nav has neither), the persistent header CTA. Footer: the five Community Involvement entries, LinkedIn and YouTube only, the footer line, policy links, a location line reading Washington, Oregon and Colorado (Washington first) and the address block as a labelled placeholder (street address to be confirmed by the client), copyright naming Equinox Business Law Group PLLC (canonical entity; to be confirmed by the client). | No Twitter/Facebook. If a strapline with states appears it reads "WA, OR and CO" with Washington first; whether it appears at all is an open input. |

Pages not in the mockup (About Us, Our Approach, Practice Areas, the assessment page,
A La Carte Solutions, Testimonials, Events, policy pages) inherit the design system;
they are built from the same patterns after approval. If the client wants to see one of
them, that is inside the one feedback round only if it costs no new pattern work;
otherwise it is a scope conversation with Rian.

## Process and gate

1. **Two home-page direction mockups (Step 1; Adi; internal first).** Built to
   `.logs/planning/homepage-mockup-brief.md`: both anchored on the client's 2026-08-27
   input and the brand-story structure, both complete home pages, differing in structure
   and feel rather than only in colour, neither a replica of the current site. Rian
   reviews them before anyone else and decides whether the client sees both or one. This
   step exists because the client gets exactly one feedback round: the direction must be
   right before the round is spent. File the exports (a design-tool link may accompany them, never replace them) under
   `notes/mockups/` and index them in `notes/README.md`; record the chosen direction and
   date in `.logs/handoff.md`. That entry is the evidence for checklist item 16.
2. **Mockup of the remaining key pages (Step 2), in the chosen direction only.** The
   pages in the table above, at a fidelity the client can react to (real headings from
   the brand story, real nav labels, the Brand Kit logo, labelled placeholders). File the
   shared export under `notes/mockups/` and index it in `notes/README.md`. Run the
   checklist below before anything leaves the building.
3. **Review call.** Rian's 2026-08-24 commitment: "We can then do a call to discuss the
   mockup and any other important issues relevant to the build." Use the call to also
   close the Fractional General Counsel landing page decision and the assessment name.
4. **One comprehensive feedback round.** The client's consolidated feedback, in writing,
   applied once. Consolidate verbal feedback from the call with anything emailed into one
   list before changing anything; do not iterate on partial feedback.
5. **Written approval.** An email from Alicia Wimmer (or Michelle Bomberger) approving the
   revised mockup. Record the date and the source email in `.logs/handoff.md` and as a
   `.memory/` fact. Approval starts the build (`.logs/planning/build-plan.md`); nothing is
   built before it. Phase 2 (design system and patterns) starts at gate G1, the approved
   mockup being its input.
6. **Build.** Every built page is checked against the approved mockup and this file.

**Approach pivots.** Any change of approach after the direction check (a different
navigation model, dropping a brand-story section, a photography-led hero, a new pattern
family, a second mockup round) is a two-line check-in with Rian before hours go in: what
you want to change, and why. Do not absorb a pivot silently.

**Design-detail choices stay with the designer.** Type pairing, exact spacing scale,
button radius, icon style, card treatment, illustration style, the mockup tool: the
designer's call, within the Brand Kit and this file. Rian is not consulted on details;
the client sees them once, in the round.

## Do not

- Busy or dated treatments: dense multi-column sections, decorative dividers, stacked
  boxed cards with drop shadows, gradient overlays on photos, more than one accent colour
  per screen. The client named "visually busy and somewhat dated" as the problem.
- Team-photo grids anywhere except the team index of headshots.
- Stock photos of people, including as placeholders.
- The 20th-anniversary logo, in any placement.
- Twitter or Facebook icons, links or share buttons.
- DC or VA in any strapline, footer, contact copy or map.
- More than the two CTAs competing on a screen; a third ask (newsletter, download,
  phone) is subordinate in position and style, never a third button in the pair.
- Full-bleed hero photography of people: it contradicts the photo policy (no team photos
  on the home page, no stock people). Full-bleed non-people imagery or a typographic
  hero is fine.
- Any figure of any kind: tier figures on the General Counsel page, a revenue threshold in
  "Who It Is For", or anything commercial. The client supplies tier figures if the add-on
  proceeds; AISV resolves the threshold.
- Mixed assessment names. One label everywhere; "(name to be confirmed)" until decided.
- Licensing language ("licensed to practice law in ...") in any mockup text; the live
  wording conflicts with the client's state list and is unresolved.
- A replica of the current layout with new colours. The direction check exists to catch
  this.
- Hand-placed schema, FAQ markup or tracking in a design comp; those are configured in the
  build (`.logs/planning/schema-entity-plan.md`, `.logs/planning/tracking-conversion.md`).

## Checklist (run before anything is shown to the client)

Answer every item yes. A single no means it does not go out.

1. The logo in every placement is the Brand Kit logo, not the 20th-anniversary variant.
2. The home page contains no team photograph.
3. Across every page in the set, team photographs (excluding individual bio headshots and
   the team index) number two or fewer.
4. No stock photograph of a person appears anywhere, including placeholders.
5. No Twitter or Facebook icon, link, mention or share button appears; LinkedIn and
   YouTube are the only social links.
6. DC and VA appear nowhere; any state list reads Washington, Oregon, Colorado in that
   order.
7. The footer Community Involvement list has exactly five entries and omits EO Portland
   and Women in Finance.
8. Every CTA placement (hero, plan, final band, end of post) shows the paired CTAs in
   order (Book a Consultation, then the assessment) with distinct primary and secondary
   styles, and no third button competes with them; the header shows both buttons (Book a
   Consultation primary, the assessment secondary) and both appear in the mobile drawer.
9. The home page shows all 12 brand-story sections in order plus the footer line, with
   the headings verbatim.
10. The four new patterns (three-step process, before/after comparison, objection-handling
    accordion, grouped value proposition) are all visible and read as one family.
11. The assessment is labelled with one name only, and that name is "(name to be
    confirmed)" or the name AISV and the client have chosen.
12. Every placeholder (Nicole Farahdel's headshot and bio, the contact address and map,
    the revenue threshold, any draft copy) is visibly labelled as a placeholder.
13. No figure of any kind appears: no tier figures, no revenue threshold, nothing
    commercial.
14. Each page has one `h1` and a heading hierarchy that reads correctly top to bottom.
15. The set includes a mobile view of the home page, and mobile behaviour is shown for the
    accordion, the before/after columns and, only if the add-on is accepted, the tier
    comparison.
16. Rian chose a direction from the two home-page concepts (Step 1) before any inner page
    was produced, the choice is recorded in `.logs/handoff.md`, and no mockup is a
    recoloured replica of the live site.

## Open inputs

| Input | Who provides it | Status 2026-09-03 | Effect on the mockup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examples of websites the client likes, and what they like about them | Alicia Wimmer / Michelle Bomberger | Asked 2026-08-24; not answered 2026-08-27 | Ask again before starting; do not block on it |
| Brand Kit | Received | **RESOLVED 2026-09-03** — filed at `notes/source/brand-kit/`; digest in its `README.md`; palette, type, logo and devices confirmed | No longer blocking. Provisional live-site values are superseded; anything drawn on `#004963` needs the swap to NIGHT `#003B53` |
| 2026 Brand Photo Shoot: which one or two team photographs may be used, and where | Client confirms at review; Rian carries it | Shoot received 2026-09-03 (`notes/source/photos/`); the selection is not made | Non-blocking for Step 1 — no photograph appears on the home page either way |
| The assessment's final name ("Legal Health Check" on the live site, "Business Health Assessment" / "BHA" in the AISV deck, "Business Legal Health Assessment" in the brand story) | AISV with the client | Unresolved | Mockup uses "(name to be confirmed)"; raise on the review call |
| Whether the header strapline keeps a state list at all (live: "WA, OR, CO, VA & DC"; signature now "WA, OR and CO"); the proposal's recommendation is to concentrate location signals on Washington | Rian recommends; client decides | Multi-state question raised in the proposal (2026-07-30); client answered 2026-08-27 (DC and VA removed, Colorado retained). Whether the header carries any state list at all has not been put to the client | No state list in the header in either Step 1 direction (decided 2026-09-02); the states appear on the Contact page and in the footer location line. Rian raises the header question with the client only if a strapline is wanted back |
| Nicole Farahdel's headshot and bio | Alicia Wimmer | Not supplied | Placeholder in the mockup and at launch until received |
| Firm street address for the Contact page and map | Client via Alicia Wimmer | Not on the live site; not supplied | Labelled placeholder |
| Fractional General Counsel Landing Page with Tiered Pricing add-on: go / no-go | Alicia Wimmer / Michelle Bomberger with Rian | "Interested, discuss further" since 2026-08-13 | Decides whether a separate landing page with the tier comparison structure is designed; the General Counsel page mockup is unaffected. Raise on the review call |
| Revenue threshold in "Who It Is For" (deck and brand story disagree) | AISV with Michelle Bomberger | Unresolved since the proposal (2026-07-30) | Labelled placeholder |
| "Go Boldy" versus "Go boldly" spelling | — | **RESOLVED 2026-09-03** by the brand guide: **boldly**. The live URL and email signature carry a typo | Never reproduce the typo; the live URL becomes a redirect question in `.logs/planning/site-architecture.md` |
| Vector logo files (SVG/EPS/AI) | Client via Alicia Wimmer; Rian asks | Not supplied — every kit logo is raster at about 3300px | Fine for a mockup; needed before launch. Never redraw or trace the mark |
| Whether a companion text face may carry long-form body, against the guide's Montserrat Regular | Client, on our recommendation at the review | Not raised | Both directions default to brand-compliant Montserrat body; Direction A's statement proposes the deviation with its reason |
| Canonical entity name for the footer copyright (working assumption: Equinox Business Law Group PLLC) | Client via Alicia Wimmer | Assumed, not confirmed | Use the assumption, labelled as such in the review notes |