A standards institution is recognized before it is read. These are the rules that make every CREI artifact — the website, a rating certificate, a methodology paper, a board presentation, an investor report — unmistakably one institution. The grammar is the product: measurement, calibration, governance, and architecture, expressed in type, space, and mark.
A single dark field and one accent. Navy carries permanence; champagne gold is the seal, never decoration. No second accent is ever introduced.
Fraunces speaks for the institution — editorial, permanent, used for every display line. Inter carries the record — labels, body, and all quantified data, set with tabular figures so columns register.
Every margin, gutter, and padding value is a multiple of eight. Rhythm is not eyeballed; it is registered. Sections breathe at 18 units; content holds to a 1200-pixel column.
CREI does not decorate. Its marks are instruments — the same vocabulary that defines the product defines the brand. Four motifs recur across every surface.
A registered tick scale frames the institution beneath every masthead. The mark of an instrument, not a banner.
Hairline corner marks seal every artifact, the convention of an official, controlled document.
Two hairlines hold the content column the full height of the page — visible structure, precise spacing.
Every label opens with a short rule — a structural cue that numbers and orders the institution's statements.
The grade scale is the institution's most reproduced object. Its letters, bands, and figures are fixed — identical on the website, a certificate, a report, or a board slide.
A letter from AAA to C. Always Fraunces, always the institution's voice.
A whole number 0–1000, written n / 1000, tabular figures.
Architecture · Consistency · Calibration, each 0.00–1.00 on a calibrated gauge.
DQR = P · C · K — a product, not an average. Set in monospace-tabular.
The canonical CREI document — issued to a board, not displayed on a dashboard. Every other layout (report cover, slide, investor summary) is a derivation of this object.
Few parts, used everywhere. Glass panels for artifacts, two button weights, the disclosure note, and the calibrated gauge — nothing more is required to compose any CREI surface.
The universal container — low-opacity fill, hairline border, 26px radius, soft elevation.
A confidence indicator with quartile reference ticks. Used for every 0–1 component score.
The honesty device — a champagne-ruled callout for independence and founding-stage statements.
The same foundations compose every CREI touchpoint. These are the standard layouts the grammar defines — specifications, established as the institution issues its first work.
Caslon-class display, 60–68ch measure, the notation block, registration marks on every page. The standard, published.
The canonical artifact above — issued per decision, sealed, controlled by reference number.
Editorial covers in Fraunces, calibration ruler masthead, tabular data tables, the disclosure footer.
One dominant statement per slide, the grade scale and gauges as the only chrome, dark field throughout.
The calibrated gauge and grade notation as the data language — instruments, never widgets.
Portfolio grades on one fixed scale, tabular figures, the independence note carried verbatim.
The standard, the notation, and the grammar are one system. Read the methodology, or put a decision on the standard.