Eclipse

Study 01-eclipse for Dreavo Studios. Created 2026-11-14.

Idea

The last sliver of light before totality: a thin eclipse crescent rides over the upper right of a large dark disc, and the name sits beneath it like a title card in the second before the film starts. The wordmark carries the reference's signature detail: the A has no crossbar, so it stands as an inverted V against the real V, and the pair reads as mirrored chevrons (Λ V). For Dreavo, the eclipse is the hush in the auditorium, a rare event people stop to watch.

Summary: A thin eclipse crescent hangs over the name like the last light before a film begins, with the A drawn as an inverted V mirrored against the V.

Why it fits

• Positioning: "the weight of a studio picture" is delivered through stillness and scale: one large implied circle, a lot of black, a small amount of light. It is the quietest way to say "epic".
• Personality: "Epic, not bombastic" (one thin crescent, no rays or flares); "Quiet, not anonymous" (the Λ V pair is a feature no stock font has).
• Principles leaned on hardest: 4 (one drawn feature: the mirrored Λ V) and 1 (the crescent must work as a flat one-color shape, with the glow only as enrichment in primary.svg). Principle 2 is the weak spot (see Risks).
• Landscape: this study deliberately follows convention 2 (light as the hero). It earns that by keeping the light flat and geometric in the logo files and putting the glow only in the ident and key visuals.

Logo type and track

• Type: combination, symbol above wordmark: the crescent over DREAVO, with STUDIOS beneath.
• Track: svg. Every part is geometric (two circles and a type-based wordmark with one custom glyph) and needs exact construction. An image model would add glow and garble the letters.
• Ground: dark. The reference is on near-black, and the idea is light against darkness; the primary home is the title card on black.
• Reference: references/eclipse-reference.jpg. Preserve, in this order: (1) the thin eclipse crescent on the upper right of a large circle, thickest around one to two o'clock and tapering to a point toward ten o'clock; (2) DREAVO in wide geometric sans caps, regular weight, warm off-white; (3) the crossbar-less A mirrored against the V; (4) STUDIOS small, very widely tracked, centered beneath; (5) the overall composition: the arc's circle is centered right of the wordmark's center, and the wordmark sits across the circle's lower half. Refine the execution; do not change the idea.

Form notes

Measured from the reference (480 px crop), with H = DREAVO cap height:

• Wordmark: width W ≈ 6.1 H. Stem ≈ 0.17 H (regular to medium weight). O is a near-perfect circle (width ≈ H); D ≈ 0.9 H wide with a round bowl; R has a straight diagonal leg from the bowl junction; E has three arms, the middle one slightly shorter. Flat terminals, sharp joins.
• Base face: set DREAVO with bun lf outline from Montserrat Regular or Medium caps (the closest Fontsource match to the reference's wide geometric caps). Compare Red Hat Display and Lexend Exa before committing. Expect to adjust the R leg and the E arm lengths toward the reference.
• Custom A: draw the A as the V rotated 180°: same stroke weight, same diagonal angle, no crossbar, pointed apex overshooting the cap height by about 1.5 % of H (the V's point overshoots the baseline by the same amount). The A's right leg and the V's left leg are parallel; set the gap between them to match the visual gap between the other letters, so Λ V reads as a pair without touching.
• STUDIOS: in the reference its cap height is ≈ 0.25 H, its width ≈ 0.63 W, and its baseline-to-cap gap below DREAVO ≈ 0.27 H. Its strokes (≈ 0.035 H) are too thin for a 160 px billing block, so raise STUDIOS to regular or medium weight and to about 0.28 H cap height, and keep the very wide tracking (about 0.6 em of its own size) so the width stays near 0.63 W.
• Crescent: build it as one circle minus a second circle of the same radius, offset toward seven-thirty, so the crescent is thickest at one-thirty and its tips fall at ten-thirty and four-thirty. Diameter ≈ 0.55 W (≈ 3.4 H); center ≈ 0.075 W right of the wordmark's center, at about the DREAVO cap line. Maximum thickness ≈ 0.08 H, never thinner than 6/96 of the mark at its thickest. Clip the crescent with a horizontal line at least 0.2 H above the cap line so it never touches the letters (the reference's arc grazes the V; the mono version cannot). The visible arc runs from the ten-thirty tip over the top to the clip on the right.
• Mark (mark.svg): candidate A is the crescent over the Λ V pair, which keeps both distinctive features and also reads as "AV". Candidate B is the crescent over a D. Choose at stage 4 by testing both at 32 px in a circle crop.
• Color direction: ground near-black (around #0B0A0A); wordmark warm off-white (around #EFE8DC); crescent in ember orange (around #D9652B) blending to warm white. In primary.svg the crescent may carry a linear gradient from warm white at one-thirty to ember orange toward the ten-thirty tip. No blur filters in any logo file; the soft halo is for key visuals and the motion ident. Mono files: crescent and letters in one flat color.
• Stage 4 decisions (2026-11-15). Concepts are in logo/concepts/ (compare-01.png, compare-02.png, compare-marks-01.png to -03.png). Chosen: c07, the faithful rebuild with a tighter clip, refined into the final files. Runner-up: c06, a larger, flatter circle centered below the baseline, which reads more like a horizon but drifts from the reference's dome. Rejected: a symmetric bow with two natural tips (c02, the arc-over-wordmark cliché), a small free-standing crescent (c10, reads as a night-mode moon icon), a full thin ring (c09, adds a second stroke weight), and a black disc emblem (c11, a badge that disappears on the dark ground).
• Measured corrections to the notes above. Fitting a circle to the reference's arc (pixels sampled along the bright edge) puts its center on the wordmark's horizontal center, 0.8 H below the cap line, with radius 2.26 H (diameter ≈ 0.73 W), not 0.55 W and 0.075 W right. The final files use the measured values. The clip sits 0.12 H above the cap line: 0.2 H left the arc floating, 0.12 H lets it set just above the V and O as in the reference and still keeps 3 px of air at 160 px wide.
• Final construction. DREAVO is outlined from Montserrat 500 and 600 and interpolated halfway (the two static instances share point structure), so the stem is 0.164 H, between the two weights and close to the reference's 0.17 H. D, R, E, and O keep Montserrat's outlines; Λ and V are drawn new as pointed chevrons (Montserrat's have flat apexes): equal width (1.01 H), apex overshoot 3.2 % of H, inner join thinned 15 % against clogging, and Λ is V rotated 180°, so the channel between them is parallel. Crescent: two circles of radius 2.26 H, the second offset by half a stem (0.084 H) toward about seven-forty, so the crescent is widest at about one-forty and its widest point is exactly half the letter stem (a fixed 1:2 ratio). STUDIOS is Montserrat 600, cap height 0.27 H, ink width 0.63 W, 0.34 H below the baseline.
• Mark. Candidate A (crescent over Λ V) won over candidate B (crescent over D): the D reads more cleanly at 16 px, but D plus an arc could belong to any company, while Λ V is the drawn feature. The mark is an optical cut for small sizes: the letters use the 600 instance, the Λ V channel is opened by 30 %, and the crescent's widest point equals one stem instead of half, because half a stem disappears below 32 px.
• Gradient. primary.svg runs Rust at the ten-thirty tip to Ember to Corona at the clip, so the light is brightest where the arc meets the name, as in the reference. mark.svg starts at Ember instead of Rust because Rust is too dark to read at 16 px on black.
• Typography (stage 6). Montserrat is on the craft docs' list of overused faces. It stays here on purpose: the reference's lettering is Montserrat-like, the wordmark is cut from it, and the job of the display face in this system is to make title cards and credits look like the logo, not to add a second voice. Distinctiveness is carried by the drawn Λ V and the crescent. Lexend Exa 300 was the runner-up for titles (more cinematic, but a second wide geometric sans beside the wordmark looked like a near-miss).
• Body face revised (2026-11-15, user feedback). The user rejected Newsreader ("not sexy"); bookish text serifs read as unsexy to them. Replaced by Geist 300/400/600 after a side-by-side specimen of Geist, Manrope, Hanken Grotesk, and Albert Sans next to the logo with copy from the applications (logo/concepts/body-candidates.png). Geist won: a narrow, precise grotesque that contrasts with Montserrat's wide round geometry and reads like a studio credit sheet, sleek at 300 for lead lines. Manrope was the runner-up (equally sleek, but its squarish rounds read as product UI and it has no italic). Albert Sans and Hanken Grotesk are geometric like Montserrat and blurred into it. The system drops italics; emphasis is weight or color.

Risks

• Stock eclipse and arc-over-type cliché. Design blogs call an arc over a wordmark overused, and stock sites carry thousands of sunrise and eclipse logo templates. Skydance used a sun and an arch of light. Guard: the crescent is constructed (two circles, defined offset), the Λ V carries recognition, and the arc never becomes a swoosh. If the mono version looks like a template at review, that is the verdict.
• Too close to Legendary's lettering. Legendary uses wide, widely tracked geometric caps. Guard: the custom Λ, the round D and O, and the crescent; compare side by side at stage 4.
• The A may not read as an A. "DREΛVO" can stumble at small sizes. Guard: test the wordmark at 160 px and 32 px height for readability with the name hidden; keep the Λ's apex sharp and its weight equal to the V.
• Small sizes. A thin crescent and widely tracked STUDIOS are the first things to vanish (principle 2). Guard: the minimum crescent thickness and the heavier STUDIOS above; the mark at 32 px must keep the crescent visible.
• Glow as the idea. The reference's beauty is largely its glow. Judge mono-white.svg first; if the idea dies without the glow, thicken the crescent rather than leaning on the gradient.
• Distinct from the other studies: the only study built on light and the only one with a thin geometric curve; the others use carved type (02), an organic solid mass (03), and a heavy cut slab (04).

Sign-off

Approved by the user on 2026-11-15. No changes requested.

Study 01-eclipse. Version 1, 2026-11-15.

Overview

The last sliver of light before totality: a thin eclipse crescent hangs over the name like the last light before a film begins, and the name sits beneath it like a title card in the second before the film starts. The A is drawn without a crossbar, as a V turned upside down, so A and V stand as mirrored chevrons (Λ V). The system is built faithfully from the user's reference image, references/eclipse-reference.jpg.

Personality: serious, not grim; epic, not bombastic; classic, not nostalgic; quiet, not anonymous.

The system answers the strategy's design principles like this:

1. Survives in one flat color. The crescent is a solid shape built from two circles; mono-black.svg and mono-white.svg carry the whole idea. The glow lives only in key visuals and the ident.
2. Holds in a billing block and a round avatar. The lockup is tested at 160 px wide in mono-white (applications/billing-block.png), and the mark in a round crop at 32 px (applications/social-avatar.png).
3. No stock cinema and no levity. No reels, lenses, stars, or chrome. One light source, flat.
4. One drawn feature you can name. "The mirrored A and V": a crossbar-less Λ against a V of the same weight and angle.
5. Two elements, one weight logic. Crescent plus name. The crescent at its widest is exactly half the letter stem.

This document is for anyone who places the logo: title designers and editors cutting the ident, poster and key-art studios setting billing blocks, deck and web designers, printers.

Logo

Versions

Contact sheet with every file on white, black, and Eclipse Black, and the small sizes:

Construction

Let X be the cap height of DREAVO. Every measurement below is a multiple of X.

• Wordmark. DREAVO is outlined from Montserrat 500 and 600, interpolated halfway (an in-between weight, about 550), so the stem is 0.164 X. D, R, E, and O are Montserrat's outlines. Λ and V are drawn: pointed chevrons of equal width (1.01 X), the points overshooting the cap line and the baseline by 0.032 X, the inner join thinned by 15 %. Λ is V rotated 180°, so Λ's right leg and V's left leg are parallel. Letter gaps at the ink: D–R 0.19 X, R–E 0.20 X, E–Λ 0.16 X, V–O 0.11 X; the Λ V channel is 0.24 X wide, measured horizontally at mid-height. The word is 6.06 X wide.
• STUDIOS. Montserrat 600, cap height 0.27 X, tracked so its ink width is 0.63 of DREAVO's, centered on DREAVO's ink. Its cap line sits 0.34 X below DREAVO's baseline.
• Crescent. One circle of radius 2.26 X, centered horizontally on DREAVO's ink and 0.8 X below its cap line, minus a second circle of the same radius offset by 0.084 X toward about seven-forty. The result is widest (0.084 X, half the letter stem) at about one-forty and tapers to a point at about ten-forty. A horizontal line 0.12 X above the cap line cuts the crescent where it meets the name, so the light sets just above the V and the O. Measured from the reference by fitting a circle to its arc.
• Mark. The crescent and the Λ V pair, redrawn as a small-size cut on a 96-unit square: letters from the Montserrat 600 instance (stem 7.95/96), the Λ V channel opened by 30 %, and the crescent widest at one full stem, because half a stem vanishes below 32 px.
• Color in the files. primary.svg carries a linear gradient along the crescent from Rust at the tip to Ember to Corona at the cut. Mono files are flat.

Clear space

Keep at least 1 X clear on every side of the lockup, measured from the top of the crescent, the left edge of the D, the right edge of the O, and the baseline of STUDIOS. On a 1920 px title card with the lockup at 30 % of the width, X is 92 px.

Keep at least 0.25 of the mark's width clear around mark.svg. In a round avatar, the mark sits inside the circle at 86 % of its diameter.

Intrusions: other logos, text, crop and image edges, folds, and the frame edge of a title card. The glow in key visuals may enter the clear space; type and other marks may not.

Minimum size

The finest detail in the lockup is the stem of STUDIOS: 7 units against a lockup 848 units wide.

Below 180 px, or 160 px in a billing block, use mark.svg. At 16 px the crescent survives as a warm line and the chevrons as a pair; it is a favicon, not a signature. Place the favicon on an Eclipse Black tile, because the Bone letters disappear in a light browser tab.

Misuse

• Do not add a crossbar to the Λ, and do not replace it with a typed A.
• Do not let the crescent touch the letters, and do not extend it down past its cut toward the V and the O.
• Do not add glow, blur, outer glow, lens flare, or shadow to the logo files. The glow is built in key visuals behind the logo, never applied to it.
• Do not thicken the crescent in the lockup, and do not swap the half-stem crescent for the mark's full-stem crescent.
• Do not move the crescent left of center, flip it, or rotate it. The light is always at the upper right.
• Do not place primary.svg on Vellum, Bone, or white; use primary-alt.svg.
• Do not recolor the crescent outside the palette. Never use the Corona end of the gradient on a light ground.
• Do not set STUDIOS in another face, weight, or tracking, and do not move it closer to DREAVO.
• Do not stretch, condense, skew, or retype DREAVO in Montserrat or any other face.
• Do not place the full-color logo over bright or busy parts of an image; darken the area to Eclipse Black first or use mono-white.svg.

Color

Proportion. Eclipse Black and Umbra 70 %, Bone 25 %, Ember, Corona, and Rust together under 5 %. On light documents: Vellum 75 %, Eclipse Black 22 %, Rust under 3 %. The light is always the smallest thing on the page.

Approved pairs.

Pairs not allowed.

• Ember on Bone (3.0:1) or Vellum (3.2:1): too weak for the crescent on light grounds and fails as text. Use Rust.
• Corona on Vellum (1.4:1) or Bone: invisible.
• Rust as text on Eclipse Black (3.3:1): fails for body text. Allowed only as the dim end of the crescent gradient.
• Eclipse Black on Umbra (1.1:1): no contrast; never set the light-ground logo on Umbra.

Typography

Montserrat is the face the wordmark is cut from. Titles in 300 look like the opening titles of a film; labels in 600 speak with the same voice as STUDIOS. Geist carries everything people read in sentences: a narrow, precise grotesque with tight apertures that contrasts with Montserrat's wide round geometry while sharing its cool, unornamented finish, so text reads like a studio's credit sheet rather than a book. There are no italics in the system; emphasis is weight (600) or color (Corona on dark, Rust on light). Never retype the wordmark in Montserrat: the Λ and V exist only in the logo files.

Rules:

• Body text is left-aligned, never justified, 55 to 75 characters per line.
• Titles of films and series are set in Montserrat 300 caps; in running text they are set in Geist 600, never in quotes.
• Dates are written out the way the credits read them: "12 March 2027", no ordinals, no slashes. Times are 24-hour.
• One label line in Ember per layout at most; everything else in Bone.

Imagery and key visuals

• Light. One source of light per image, low and warm, coming from the upper right where possible: dusk, firelight, practical lamps, the edge of an eclipse. Everything else falls to black.
• Grade. Blacks crushed toward Eclipse Black, highlights warmed toward Corona, a single Ember accent. No teal and orange split, no blue night.
• Subject. Wide shots with a lot of empty frame and a small human figure for scale; production stills that hold their breath. The scale comes from the frame, not from effects.
• Glow belongs here. The corona bloom, the soft halo behind the crescent, film grain, and haze are allowed in key visuals, idents, and social images, and only there. Build them behind the logo (blurred copies of the crescent's own circle, a radial mask centered at about one-thirty), then place the flat logo on top.
• Eclipse geometry. When an eclipse appears in imagery, it is drawn from the logo's construction: two equal circles, the light widest at about one-forty, tapering toward ten-forty and four-forty. If a photograph or generated plate contains another eclipse, replace it with this one, as in applications/key-visual.svg.
• The logo on images sits on the darkest region, at 10 to 25 % of the frame width, in primary.svg or mono-white.svg.
• Don't: light rays or flares, stock "cinema" props (reels, clapperboards, film strips, popcorn, projector beams), bright daylight skies, starfields, glossy 3D renders.

Voice

Dreavo writes like a title sequence: names, verbs, facts. Short declarative sentences in the present tense. No exclamation marks, no superlatives, no marketing filler, no emoji. It says "film", "series", "production", "slate", names, and dates. It never says "content", "creatives", "passionate", or "epic"; the work should be epic, the copy never says so.

Example lines in this direction:

• Headline (deck cover, key art): "NOW IN PRODUCTION" in Montserrat 300 caps, with "Films and series for cinema and streaming." in Geist 300, Corona, beneath.
• Button label: "View the slate"
• Social post: "Principal photography on The Long Winter wraps today. Fifty-two days, three countries. In cinemas 12 March."

Tone by context: social is the same voice with one fact per post; festival and market materials list names, running times, and screening slots and nothing else; contracts and legal stay plain and complete.

Applications

Key visual, one-sheet: the glow lives here, not in the logo. The eclipse is redrawn from the logo's two-circle construction over a desert plate, and the flat lockup sits in the billing position at 25 % of the width.

Production ident, 2.39:1: the end pose of the opening ident. Primary lockup at 30 % of frame width, corona bloom behind the crescent only, with DREAVO's cap-height midline 2 % below the middle of the frame so the crescent and the name together sit optically centered.

Ident in the cinema: the title card on a scope screen in a full auditorium, the logo's first home.

Social avatar: the reference composition rebuilt with the real lockup in a round crop for profiles of 160 px and up; below that, the mark in the same crop.

Poster billing block: mono-white.svg at 160 px wide under the credits, the absolute floor for the lockup. The crescent and STUDIOS still hold.

Business card: the front on Eclipse Black with primary.svg; the back on Vellum with primary-alt.svg (Eclipse Black letters, Rust crescent), name in Geist 600, role in Montserrat 600 caps in Rust, contact lines in Geist 400.