Yolo School / BRAND KIT / EDITION 02 / SEPTEMBER 2026

Brand guide: https://brand.yolo.school

Yolo is being built for player-versus-player (PvP) learning, starting with
phonemes. AI opponents keep matches available while the player community grows.
The experience will look and feel the same when real players join: the same
game, photo cards, and friendly competition. Arithmetic (addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division) and reading are planned for later.

The core experience principle is "Just press Start." Yolo should choose the
opponent and the next lesson automatically, with no configuration, opponent
selection, or lesson browsing. Save the learner's attention for learning.
This is the intended direction; the current opponent-card specimen documents
the existing app while the Start-driven experience is developed.

Skill-based matchmaking is a core principle. Match each learner with an opponent
at the same or a closely matched Elo skill rating, targeting roughly 50-50 odds
of winning. Apply the same goal to AI and real opponents. The target concerns
the expected odds of an evenly matched game; individual results will vary.

For real players, the plan is to generate illustrated avatars from children's
photos. Opponents will see the avatar in match cards, while the source photo
stays out of the match. A personal likeness makes the experience feel real;
the illustration style, photo frames, and four expressive poses remain the
same for AI and real opponents. This describes the planned presentation,
not an implemented photo-upload or avatar-generation feature.

Name in copy: Yolo. Full name: Yolo School, always two words.
The logo stays all lowercase. Preserve title case in prose, headings, labels,
metadata, and accessible names, even when surrounding labels are uppercase.

Wordmark and monogram: original Alien Block outlines in SVG format.
Charcoal and cream versions included. Preserve the original shapes and proportions.
Use charcoal on cream as the everyday app signature; do not tilt the wordmark.

Fonts: Alien Block for the wordmark and monogram; Geist Pixel for all other type.
Both fonts include their original SIL Open Font License. Do not redistribute
font files without their licenses.

Palette: screen hex values in yolo-palette.json. Cream is the page; pure white
is the photo frame. Orange is used for actions and game question turns.

Native design values: yolo-native-tokens.json records type, layout, photo frames,
shadows, and motion from the Expo app as of 2026-09-20. Sizes use React Native
points; time values use milliseconds. Web layouts may scale responsively.

Characters: characters/ contains 640 x 640 WebP exports from the approved
coplayers-v2 pack, in four poses: base, bring-it-on, won-game, and lost-game.
The pack supplies more varied gestures, gaze, head direction, and camera distance.
41 reaction images are updated across the 15 active opponents. Priya's win/loss,
Mateo's challenge, and Tane's win remain the earlier images supplied in this pack.
Lauren is not in coplayers-v2; her four portraits come from the native app.
15 active opponents plus Lauren, the current player example. Names and sample
hometowns are in characters.json; the current opponent illustrations represent AI opponents
with placeholder hometowns. Sofia is not included because her native pose set is incomplete.
The full-resolution opponent PNG originals are in the supplied coplayers-v2 pack.

Keep each character's likeness, clothing, and background palette consistent.
Vary whole-body gestures, gaze, head direction, and crop within a square canvas.
Use square illustrated portraits in white frames, with the name underneath.
The current AI examples also have placeholder hometown captions. Real-player
match cards should show the generated avatar, keeping the source photo out
of the match.
Winner in front (+5 degrees), other player behind (-11 degrees). These angles
belong to the cards, not the logo. Preserve both players' dignity after a loss.
Geometric avatars remain a separate profile and fallback treatment in the app.

Motion: let cards land gently and float slowly. Respect reduced motion by
removing float, travel, and rotation changes, and using a short fade instead.
The browser animation is a specimen; native spring behavior is in the design values.
