Investigate: Docusaurus Branding and Visual Identity

IMPLEMENTATION RULES: Before implementing this plan, read and follow:

• WORKFLOW.md - The implementation process
• PLANS.md - Plan structure and best practices

Status: Backlog

Goal: Add proper branding, logo, colors, and homepage design to the dev-templates Docusaurus site, following the UIS visual identity.

Priority: Medium

Last Updated: 2026-03-31

Related:

• helpers-no/urbalurba-infrastructure (UIS) — has complete branding with logos, color scheme, hero section, and brand scripts. Use as reference.

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Current State (tmp.sovereignsky.no)

The site uses Docusaurus defaults with no custom branding:

• No logo — just text "Dev Templates" in the navbar
• No favicon — uses Docusaurus default
• No social card — no Open Graph image for link previews
• Default colors — Docusaurus green, not SovereignSky brand colors
• Generic homepage — placeholder feature cards ("Easy to Use", "Powered by React", "Built-in Search") from the Docusaurus starter
• Minimal footer — just copyright and basic links
• No hero section — no compelling visual or tagline

What UIS Has (uis.sovereignsky.no)

• Custom logo — green SovereignSky logo in navbar (uis-logo-green.svg)
• Custom favicon — branded favicon.ico
• Social card — Open Graph image for link previews (social-card.jpg)
• SovereignSky color scheme — primary green #3a8f5e, teal #25c2a0, navy #1e3a5f
• Hero section — "Complete datacenter on your laptop" tagline + Get Started / Explore Services buttons
• Category cards on homepage — visual overview of what's available
• Rich footer — documentation links, external resources (GitHub, SovereignSky)
• Brand scripts — publish-logo.sh, publish-favicon.sh, publish-social-card.sh, create-social-card.sh for generating/converting brand assets

UIS Brand File Structure

website/static/img/
├── brand/
│   ├── uis-logo-green.svg       # Main logo
│   ├── uis-logo-teal.svg        # Alternate logo
│   ├── uis-text-green.svg       # Text-only logo
│   ├── create-social-card.sh    # Script to generate social card
│   ├── publish-favicon.sh       # Script to convert logo to favicon
│   ├── publish-logo.sh          # Script to prepare logo
│   ├── publish-social-card.sh   # Script to publish social card
│   └── tmp/                     # Working files
├── favicon.ico                  # Browser tab icon
├── logo.svg                     # Docusaurus navbar logo
└── social-card.jpg              # Open Graph image

UIS Color Scheme

--ifm-color-primary: #3a8f5e;        /* SovereignSky green */
--ifm-color-primary-dark: #348053;
--ifm-color-primary-darker: #31794f;
--ifm-color-primary-darkest: #286441;
--ifm-color-primary-light: #409e69;
--ifm-color-primary-lighter: #43a56d;
--ifm-color-primary-lightest: #52b87c;

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What We Need

Must Have

Item	Description	Source
Logo SVG	Dev Templates logo for the navbar	Done — website/static/img/brand/dev-templates-logo.svg + website/static/img/logo.svg. Stacked plates with </> code symbols in SovereignSky green (#3a8f5e). Configured in navbar.
Favicon	Browser tab icon	Done — website/static/img/favicon.ico generated via publish-favicon.sh (requires dev-imagetools in devcontainer).
Social card	Open Graph image for link previews	Done — Gemini-generated tiles cityscape on navy. Scripts: create-social-card.sh, publish-social-card.sh. Published as social-card.jpg.
Color scheme	SovereignSky brand colors in custom.css	Done — primary #3a8f5e (light), #25c2a0 (dark). Matches DCT and UIS.
Homepage redesign	Replace placeholder content	Done — DCT-style hero (animation left, logo+title+tagline+buttons right), CategoryGrid + TemplateGrid below.
Footer links	GitHub repo, SovereignSky website, documentation links	Done — three columns: Documentation, Community (GitHub, DCT, UIS), More (Blog, SovereignSky). Copyright: SovereignSky.

Also Done

Item	Status
Brand scripts	Done — publish-favicon.sh created. Brand README.md documents workflow.
GitHub link in navbar	Done — GitHub link on the right side of the navbar, matching UIS.
Brand README	Done — website/static/img/brand/README.md documents assets, scripts, and workflow.
Contributors reference	Done — Brand scripts documented in contributors/scripts-reference.md.
Homepage hero	Done — DCT-style layout (animation left, logo+title+tagline+buttons right). Navy gradient background.
Homepage content	Done — CategoryGrid + TemplateGrid below the hero.
Tagline	Done — "Instant-start templates / for any service, any language" (two lines).
Navbar cleanup	Done — Removed Contributors from top nav (still in sidebar and footer).
Hero SVG illustration	Done — Clean SVG with multiple isometric stacked plates at different heights, </> and {} symbols, subtle floating animation. Can be refined later.
Dark mode logo	Done — teal variant at website/static/img/logo-dark.svg, configured via srcDark in navbar.
Homepage hero layout	Done — DCT style: animation left, logo+title+tagline+buttons right.

Note for UIS contributor

The hero layout follows DCT style (animation left, text right). The UIS site should be updated to match this pattern for consistency across all three sites (DCT, dev-templates, UIS).

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Status

All branding items are complete. The investigation can be marked as completed.

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Questions — All Answered

1. Logo — User provided logo file. Processed to SovereignSky green with solid </> fills.
2. Tagline — "Instant-start templates for any service, any language"
3. Homepage — CategoryGrid + TemplateGrid, matching /templates page.
4. Brand scripts — Copied and adapted from UIS.