--- title: Essentials — Asset Manifest V2 (PURGED OF STOCK) date: 2026-04-27 supersedes: asset-manifest V1 (Pexels-driven) status: V3-aligned. Stock photography is dead. The site has ONE image — Alan, when he's shot. Until then, a designed placeholder. --- # Asset manifest — Essentials website V2 V1 of this manifest pulled 18 Pexels candidates across hero / pillar / portrait / kit slots. **All of that is dead.** V3 of the design brief commits to ZERO stock photography. The site has ONE image and one only — Alan, in a private-bank-founder portrait, when the shoot happens. Until then, a designed Bone-rectangle placeholder. This file documents what the build phase pulls in. Nothing else gets added without an updated brief. --- ## A. The portrait — the only photograph on the site ### A1. Placeholder (ships to staging immediately) **What it is.** A 4:5 vertical rectangle, fill `#F2F1ED` (Bone), centred at the optical centre of Section 01. Border: 1px Charge blue `#1F40FF`. Interior fill includes a faint architectural drafting pattern — diagonal hairlines at 45°, 12px spacing, in `rgba(31, 64, 255, 0.06)`. Beneath the rectangle, two-line caption in JetBrains Mono: ``` ALAN PORTRAIT TO BE COMMISSIONED · BRISBANE · 2026 ``` 11px uppercase, 0.18em tracking, Chalk colour. The placeholder reads as design-pending, not asset-missing. It positions the brand even before the real photo lands. ### A2. Real photograph (replaces A1 before public launch — HARD requirement) **Brief for the photographer (Brisbane, single half-day shoot):** - **Plate:** 4:5 vertical, mid-portrait (chest up). Alan looking just past the camera, mid-distance. Frame slightly off-centre. - **Light:** Single soft side-light, sharp falloff, no fill. Shadows allowed deep. Shot in a controlled studio or location with full light control — NOT natural light, NOT overcast outdoor. - **Background:** Gradient from Ash2 `#0F1014` to Ash `#050507` — cinematic dark studio background. Out of focus. - **Wardrobe:** Dark wool blazer or black collared shirt. No logo, no texture, no print. **NO barber apron. NO holding tools. NO shop in the background.** - **Expression:** Composed. Not smiling. Not stern. The expression of a senior figure photographed for a private-bank dossier, not a salon advertising shoot. - **Treatment:** Final delivered as desaturated colour (90% saturation reduction, near-monochrome). One Charge blue `#1F40FF` 1px hairline added in post around the framed crop edge — matches the placeholder's border treatment so the live photo replaces seamlessly. - **Reject conditions:** Any frame with Alan smiling at camera, holding scissors, in front of a barber pole or shop signage, in barber apron, with branded clothing, in colour-saturated lighting, with crowd / second person / equipment visible. **Photographer recommendation needed.** Brisbane editorial / fashion / portrait specialist, NOT a barber-of-the-year specialist. Shortlist a separate brief — half-day rate target $1.5k-3k AUD. --- ## B. Type assets (unchanged from V3 brief) All four faces are Google Fonts OFL, free for commercial use, self-hostable as WOFF2. | Face | Source | Self-host path | |---|---|---| | **Big Shoulders Display** (weight 900) | fonts.google.com/specimen/Big+Shoulders+Display | `/site/public/fonts/BigShoulders-900.woff2` | | **Saira Condensed** (weight 800) | fonts.google.com/specimen/Saira+Condensed | `/site/public/fonts/SairaCondensed-800.woff2` | | **Inter Tight** (weights 400 / 500 / 600) | fonts.google.com/specimen/Inter+Tight | `/site/public/fonts/InterTight-{400,500,600}.woff2` | | **JetBrains Mono** (weight 400) | fonts.google.com/specimen/JetBrains+Mono | `/site/public/fonts/JetBrainsMono-400.woff2` | No external CDN. Fonts ship in `/public/fonts/` and load via `@font-face` with `font-display: swap`. Total font payload: ~110KB across all four faces in WOFF2. --- ## C. Code-rendered marks (no external assets) | Asset | Format | Size | |---|---|---| | Brand wordmark "ESSENTIALS" | Type-set in Big Shoulders 900 — no SVG needed | n/a | | Section number markers (· 01 · / · 02 · etc) | Type-set in JetBrains Mono | n/a | | Constellation hairlines (5 lines from portrait edge to pillar dots) | Inline SVG, 5 paths, animated via GSAP DrawSVG | ~1KB total | | Constellation dots (5 Charge blue 4px circles) | Inline SVG `` elements | <0.5KB | | Hero hairline (full viewport width, draws on load) | Inline SVG, 1 path | <0.5KB | | Form field hairlines (5 input underlines in Section 05) | CSS `border-bottom` on inputs | n/a | | Portrait placeholder drafting pattern | CSS `repeating-linear-gradient` | n/a | Total non-photographic visual assets: under 4KB. No icons, no logos, no decorative SVG. --- ## D. What's not on the site — explicit refusals This list exists to prevent regression. The build phase will not add any of these without an updated brief. - **No Pexels, Unsplash, Pixabay, Adobe Stock, Getty, Shutterstock, or any other stock library.** Dead. - **No barber pole.** Anywhere. Banned. - **No barbershop interior photography.** Alan is mobile. - **No haircutting-in-progress photos.** Wrong category. - **No striped-chair, vintage-clipper, scissor-and-comb still life.** Wrong category. - **No before-and-after shots.** Wrong category. - **No client-in-chair photos.** Wrong category. - **No "as featured in" press logo strip.** No inventory to claim. - **No testimonials block.** No inventory to claim. - **No Instagram embed grid.** Wrong register. - **No icon set (Lucide / Feather / Heroicons / Material).** The brand has no icons. - **No brand pattern / motif backgrounds.** The drafting pattern in the portrait placeholder is the only patterned surface on the site. - **No favicons or app-icon variants.** A single 32px Charge blue dot favicon ships in Phase 4 — that's it. - **No AI-generated imagery on the site.** Real photo or designed placeholder. No middle ground. --- ## E. Replacement schedule | Asset | At launch | Replacement requirement | |---|---|---| | A1 Portrait placeholder | Bone rectangle + drafting pattern + mono caption | Replace with A2 real photo BEFORE public launch. Hard requirement. | | Type | All four self-hosted | None — locked from brand kit. | | Code-rendered marks | Built in Phase 4 | None. | The site can soft-launch and be shared privately with the placeholder in place — that's intentional. Public launch (announcement to corporate prospects) is gated on the real portrait being in. --- ## F. What was killed from V1 of this manifest - 18 Pexels photo candidates across hero / pillars / portrait placeholders / kit gallery - The kit gallery section as a concept (no kit photography exists, no stock allowed) - Any reference to the Pexels shortlist HTML deck (now historical, removed from review bundle) - The barber pole hand-rolled SVG/CSS spec (V2 concept, dead in V3) --- *V2 — 2026-04-27. Aligned with DESIGN-BRIEF-V3.md. Source-of-truth for what enters the build phase.*