# New Wave Typography — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **New Wave Typography**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions.
> 9 sources attached. 1 claim graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Stepped shapes, layered film collage, letterspaced and angled type, deliberate grid breaks

**Recognise it by:** Type set with conspicuous letterspacing and weight changes inside single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, and strata of transparent lithographic film with the coarse halftone dot left visible, so the texture comes from the material rather than from anything applied. The diagnostic condition is informed violation: the underlying grid remains inferable, and each departure is legible as a departure — which is why the work reads as argument rather than as noise. Swiss Style holds the grid; this attacks it from inside with full knowledge of it. Anti-Design breaks alignment without a system to break.

**Family:** Editorial & Typographic
**Era:** postmodern, 1980s
**Native medium:** print

**Scope:** New Wave is a 1970s Basel typographic approach that breaks the grid from inside. Register: uneven spacing, mixed weights within words, angled setting, film layering. Airbrush, gradients and imagery are our reading.

## What it is arguing

The Swiss grid is a set of rules, and rules can be investigated by violating them precisely. Someone who knows exactly what the system forbids can break it deliberately and produce something that still reads as typography rather than as accident.

**It refuses:** Refuses both the neutrality of the grid and the assumption that abandoning it means disorder.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Swiss Style
- Anti-Design

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): Graded by our research brief · No source attached · From our catalogue entry · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/new-wave-typography.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **imagery** — Imagery: layered photo-montage.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Imagery

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **typography** — Typography: deliberate_rule_violation; letterspacing, intra-word weight change.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography

### Our reading

- **hierarchy** — Rank by departure magnitude — the element furthest from where the grid would have put it reads as most important.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **motion** — Elements snapping to and away from grid positions, so the violation is shown as a violation.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion
- **layout** — Composition: working against the grid; type out of line and at non-right angles; layered film.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Layout
- **typography** — The violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure. Disorder that leaves no system to be departed from is a different Aesthetic.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Typography

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Color** — A museum-held canonical Weingart New Wave poster (Kunstkredit 76-77, 1977) is black and white, so colour is not a defining attribute of the approach.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-1` · Covers one canonical poster; the colour of other Weingart posters was not checked in an opened record.
- **Color** — Reference literature records more type sizes and more colours of type than the minimalist Swiss predecessor, without naming any palette.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-2` · Covers encyclopaedic, secondary.
- **Color** — In Weingart's Basel typeshop, letterpress was used to teach students principles of colour-mixing and printing quality.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-3` · Covers teaching practice, 1968-1985.
- **Surface** — Weingart's New Wave posters leave the photomechanical process visible through rough, fragmented, low-resolution dot screens, and he saw the halftone dot as a self-contained graphic element.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers Weingart's film-collage posters, mid-1970s onward; not documented for Greiman's digital work.
- **Surface** — The textured quality of the type comes from transparent film and collage, a material route, not from applied texture.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2`
- **Surface** — Weingart worked by hand so that the marks left by materials in printing would show.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-3` · Covers Weingart's own practice.
- **Surface** — Weingart and his students used the Xerox machine, with its sfumato quality, as a design tool.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-4` · Covers Weingart and his students.
- **Motion** — The 'kinetic energy' reference sources attribute to New Wave is a compositional quality of static printed work, not movement.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1`
- **Motion** — Even where Greiman used video, the documented use was digitising still frames for print.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Design Quarterly 133, 1986.
- **Technique** — Weingart's later posters depend on layering transparent lithographic film (film collages made with a repro camera, stacked in strata) and make full use of the lithographic process.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers Weingart and the Basel typeshop.
- **Technique** — Weingart worked with both lead type, with its fixed limitations, and film, with its boundless possibilities.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2`
- **Technique** — Type was also manipulated photographically, by over-exposure in the repro camera.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers Weingart.
- **Technique** — Greiman later used video and early digital imaging: an interface to digitise still frames from video, and the Quantel Paintbox.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-4` · Covers California New Wave, 1980s.
- **Form** — The evidenced work is flat print (posters, magazine covers, books). The depth it has is illusory, made by layering on the page.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1`

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Left open
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Motion** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in New Wave Typography: one inferable grid broken from inside, weight and spacing that change within a word, type set out of line and at angles, and layers of film with the halftone dot left showing.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/new-wave-typography.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#F2F0EA` | — | The ground. | Web translation |
| ink | `#111111` | 16.2:1 | Type and rules. With paper, a complete palette. | Web translation |
| magenta | `#E6007E` | 3.9:1 | A film layer and display type only. | Web translation |
| cyan | `#009BD1` | 2.8:1 | A film layer only; never text. | Web translation |
| yellow | `#FFD500` | — | A film layer and hover ground. | Web translation |
| deep | `#B8006A` | 5.7:1 | Small text in colour: labels, current page, focus. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-1` → Colour is not defining: a canonical Weingart poster is black and white, so ink on paper is a complete palette.
- **Web translation** — Add colour as flat layers of ink, magenta, cyan and yellow; never as a gradient. _Why:_ The palette is declared free and the literature records more colours of type than Swiss without naming any; flat layers match the film route. (`claim:freedom-color`, `claim:kcc:color-2`, `claim:kcc:technique-1`)

### Typography

Family: a grotesque with weight and width axes (ours: the record names no face). Stack: `"NW Archivo", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | 5.5rem | 900 | 0.86 | upper | 0.3em on one run, -0.03em elsewhere | — | Titles: weight and width change inside the word. |
| heading | 1.75rem | 900 | 1.1 | upper | 0.24em | — | Section heads, condensed, turned a few degrees. |
| body | 1.0625rem | 400 | 1.55 | not specified | not specified | 68ch | Reading text, level and normally spaced. |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry / Documented** · `token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:kcc:definition` → Change weight inside single words and let letterspacing be inconsistent.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:definition` → Set type out of line and at non-right angles.
- **Web translation** — Use one family with weight and width axes, so a word can change inside itself. _Why:_ The record names no face; changing weight and width within a word needs both axes on one family. (`token_rule:typography-4`)
- **Web translation** — Keep reading text level, untracked and uncovered. _Why:_ The violation must read as a departure; a sentence nobody can read is disorder, which the record rules out. (`claim:dcc:nw-r1`)

### Grid and layout

One six-column grid under everything, inferable at every departure; two columns under 861px.

| Viewport | Columns |
| --- | --- |
| 861px and up | 6 |
| under 861px | 2 |

Tokens: gutter `20px`

- **On the record · Our reading / Documented** · `claim:dcc:nw-r1`, `claim:kcc:definition` → Work against the grid, never without it: the grid stays inferable and each departure reads as a departure.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by departure magnitude: the element furthest from where the grid would put it reads as most important.
- **Web translation** — Give every block a seat and move it by whole columns. _Why:_ Whole-column moves keep departures measurable and keep reading text level. (`claim:dcc:nw-r1`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · step `8px` · rule-heavy `8px`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-1` → Keep everything flat: depth, where there is any, comes from layering on the page.
- **Web translation** — Draw the stepped shape as solid ink steps, each 8px lower than the last. _Why:_ The corrected card line names stepped shapes; the step size and weight are ours. (`claim:kcc:definition`)
- **Web translation** — Square corners throughout. _Why:_ The evidenced work is flat cut print; nothing in it is rounded. (`claim:kcc:form-1`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Build images as layered photo-montage.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-1` → Leave the halftone dot visible, coarse and fragmented; treat the dot as a graphic element.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-1` → Stack images and type as transparent film layers.
- **Web translation** — On screen, draw the screen as a coarse dot pattern (11–14px pitch) on a hard-cut sheet, blended multiply; never blur it. _Why:_ The texture comes from a material route, not an applied effect; the dot pattern is the screen’s form of the film. (`claim:kcc:surface-2`, `claim:kcc:surface-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not say which photographs to use. _Instead:_ Use none rather than stock; the montage can be carried by type and film alone.

### Informed violation

The grid is broken by someone who knows exactly what it forbids. Take the grid away and what is left is a different Aesthetic.

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:nw-r1` → The violation must be informed: the underlying grid stays inferable.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No random disorder.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-2` → No violation without an underlying grid.

### Film and process

The texture is the material: film over film, the dot left showing, type over-exposed in the repro camera.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-3` → Let the process show: the marks left by materials in printing are part of the work.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-3` → Manipulate type photographically, by over-exposure.
- **Web translation** — On screen, get the same thickening with weight axes, not with blur. _Why:_ Over-exposure fattens and softens the letter; a heavier weight on one run is the screen’s honest version. (`claim:kcc:technique-3`)

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A square ink-bordered box whose label is set condensed and tracked open, the letterspacing doing the work a fill would do elsewhere.

- Anatomy: 2px ink border, square corners; label in the condensed width, 700, tracked 0.1em; paper field
- Tokens: border `2px solid #111111` · radius `0` · field `#F2F0EA` · hover `#FFD500`
- State, default: Paper field, ink border, ink label.
- State, hover: Yellow field.
- State, focus: 3px deep magenta outline, offset 3px.
- State, active: Ink field, paper label: pressed reads as inverted.
- State, disabled: Label struck through; border kept.
- Accessibility: Ink on paper 16.2:1, on yellow 13.3:1.
- Accessibility: Pressed state also set as aria-pressed, never by colour alone.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Carry emphasis with letterspacing and width, not with a fill. _Why:_ The record makes inconsistent letterspacing and width change a primary device; a button can use the same device. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:kcc:definition`)
- **Web translation** — Keep the button level and on its seat. _Why:_ Violation must stay informed and legible; a control that moves when pressed would read as disorder. (`claim:dcc:nw-r1`)

#### Card

A block under a heavy 8px ink rule, set on the grid and displaced from its seat by whole columns or by one step down.

- Anatomy: 8px ink rule on top; heading condensed and tracked; body text level and normally spaced
- Tokens: rule `8px solid #111111` · radius `0` · step `30px`
- State, default: Displaced from its seat.
- State, hover: Heading changes weight inside the word.
- State, focus: 3px deep magenta outline.
- Accessibility: Only the heading turns or changes weight; the body sentence stays level and untracked.
- Accessibility: Reading order is source order, whatever the displacement.
- **Web translation** — Rank by departure: the card furthest from its seat reads as most important. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Displace cards by whole columns or by one step, never by a free offset. _Why:_ A departure is only legible against a grid the reader can still infer. (`claim:dcc:nw-r1`)

#### Input

A plain ink-bordered field with its label set above in the condensed width.

- Anatomy: 2px ink border; label above, condensed 700; entry text at body size, level, normally spaced
- Tokens: border `2px solid #111111` · radius `0` · font `"NW Archivo", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif`
- State, default: Ink border on paper.
- State, focus: 3px deep magenta outline.
- State, error: Message in deep magenta beneath, prefixed "Error:".
- State, disabled: Label struck through.
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: Deep magenta #B8006A is 5.7:1 on paper; the error says so in words.
- **Web translation** — Never break what the user types: the violation stays on display type. _Why:_ The record’s devices are typographic statements; entry text has to be read back exactly. (`claim:dcc:nw-r1`)

#### Navigation

A row of words, each changing weight partway through; the current page is the one set furthest from its seat.

- Anatomy: words in the display face; one run inside each word heavier and condensed; current item turned a few degrees
- Tokens: turn `-3deg` · current `#B8006A`
- State, default: Level, light, with a heavy run inside the word.
- State, hover: Yellow behind the word.
- State, focus: 3px deep magenta outline.
- State, current: Turned −3° and set in deep magenta, with aria-current.
- Accessibility: The whole word is the link text; the heavy run is styling only.
- Accessibility: aria-current marks the current page; the turn is not the only cue.
- **Web translation** — Vary the weight within a single word. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:typography-4`)
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page by departure: turn it and move it off the line. _Why:_ The record ranks by departure magnitude; the current item is the most important item in a menu. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: snap 500ms
- Easing: snap `steps(2, end)`
- Transforms: translate and rotate, display blocks only
- Entrance: none
- Hover: A colour swap or a weight change inside the word.
- Reduced motion: Blocks sit at their positions; the snap happens with no transition.
- **Web translation** — Treat energy as composition: the evidenced work is static print, and its movement is implied. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motion-1`)
- **Web translation** — Where anything moves, show the violation as a violation: blocks snap to and away from their seats. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **Web translation** — Snap in two steps; never ease. _Why:_ A stepped move reads as a jump between two positions, so the seat and the departure both stay legible. (`token_rule:motion-14`)

### Deliberately not added

- **A palette** (color): Colour is left open; a canonical poster is black and white.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The work is print. The four components are contemporary translations of its documented rules.
- **Which photographs** (imagery): The montage is in our research brief; the sources do not say what it shows.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Left open | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Density | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Imagery | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Not specified by the source: form · Specified: motif, surface, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | yes |

Unresearched: Colour, Motion. Where a rule appears for one of these it is Aesthetary's implementation recommendation, not a property of the language, and its Evidence line above says so.

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Form

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

14 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 7 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 0 with no recorded position. 2 further research dimensions produced no rule (Colour, Density). This rubric is silent on them. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: Type set with conspicuous letterspacing and weight changes inside single words, type set out of line and at non-right angles, and strata of transparent lithographic film with the coarse halftone dot left visible, so the texture comes from the material rather than from anything applied. The diagnostic condition is informed violation: the underlying grid remains inferable, and each departure is legible as a departure — which is why the work reads as argument rather than as noise. Swiss Style holds the grid; this attacks it from inside with full knowledge of it. Anti-Design breaks alignment without a system to break.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this? Imagery: layered photo-montage.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: deliberate_rule_violation; letterspacing, intra-word weight change.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank by departure magnitude — the element furthest from where the grid would have put it reads as most important.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Elements snapping to and away from grid positions, so the violation is shown as a violation.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing. No one has researched the dimension yet, and this is only what Aesthetary would do. Departing from it costs you nothing.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No random disorder.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No violation without an underlying grid.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No neutral setting.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No uniform weight within a word where the register calls for change.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Swiss Style: holding versus attacking the same grid. Against Anti-Design: informed violation versus breakage without a system. Anti-signature: remove the inferable grid and it becomes Anti-Design. Resolve the violations and it becomes Swiss.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: abandoning the underlying grid.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: resolving into neutrality..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Anti-Design? That language is: Friction is intentional; conversion is knowingly sacrificed
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Anti-Design than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[mechanical · recorded accessibility cost · Evidence: No grade recorded]** This Aesthetic accepts "Immediate legibility" as a cost. Your reader did not. Does your work carry that cost in the decorative layer only — display, demonstration, atmosphere — while every passage meant to be read holds a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1?
  - _If it fails:_ You have inherited a historical cost that the language never required you to pass on. The Aesthetic survives at AA on reading matter; reproducing the cost is a choice, not fidelity.

**Not covered at all:** Colour: Left open; Density: Not specified by the source. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `new-wave-typography` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/new-wave-typography.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/new-wave-typography.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

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