DESIGN.md — Taiho Ventures, LLC

Per-style brand authority for src/styles/data-dense-cvc/. Produced and maintained by columbus-design-md-builder. Read by columbus-design-author at scaffold time and by columbus-design-iterator on every refinement. Treat sections 1–7 as canonical truth.

1. Aesthetic Anchor

Primary family: Data-Dense Pro (ClickHouse / Sentry / PostHog lineage — tabular truth, mono digits, the product surface as the marketing surface, no decorative concession to "marketing") Secondary remix: Cinematic Dark (Runway / ElevenLabs lineage — moody graphite surfaces, restrained atmosphere, premium quiet) Reference brands: ClickHouse (data-dense composition, monospaced figures as hero) × Sentry (instrument-feel, measurement-as-product) × Runway (cinematic restraint, premium dark surface) Visual atmosphere: The page reads like a research instrument, not a CVC pitch deck. Pipeline and portfolio are surfaced as actual data — phase-trial timelines, syndicate co-investor tables, mono-digit fund metrics, status pills. Negative space is generous but not sparse; the eye lands on a number, a row, a phase bar — not a hero illustration. Says "technical, patient, serious" without ever using those words. Strong differentiator: almost no CVC firm presents itself this way, and that is the point.

2. Brand Voice

Adjectives: technical, patient, serious, precise, restrained Says:

"preclinical through proof of concept"
"strategic syndicate participant alongside ARCH, GV, and MPM"
"build-to-buy, spinout, and option-type investments"
"$400M deployed. 23 portfolio companies. 8 IPOs. 4 acquisitions." Avoids:
"Empower your team", "Unlock your potential", "Transform your X" (AI-center marketing voice)
"Get started", "Learn more", "Sign up", "Contact us today" (generic CTAs)
"Innovative", "cutting-edge", "world-class", "revolutionary", "disruptive" (claim-words; let the data make the claim)
"We're more than just capital" (the inverse — imply it through what the page surfaces, never state it) Sample sentences:

We invest from preclinical through proof of concept in oncology, immunology, and urology. If your program is outside those modalities, we are not your syndicate.

Capital alone is not what we bring. The cap-table presence of a global pharmaceutical partner — and the licensing, co-development, and acquisition pathways that follow — is.

3. Color Palette & Roles

Mode: dark (committed — light mode is not a consideration; the cinematic surface is part of the brand expression) Dominant: #0A0A0C (--data-dense-cvc-dominant) — page background; near-black graphite, fractionally warm to honor the Sepia parent Accent: #8A532C (--data-dense-cvc-accent) — Taiho Sepia, used as warm signature for headline emphasis, key data points, brand expression. Always on dark surface. Not co-equal with body type; punctuation only. Sharp accent: #FABE00 (--data-dense-cvc-sharp) — Taiho Yellow, used only for data highlights, chart marks, status indicators (active, lead), and single-token emphasis. Never as background. Status critical: #E31B13 (--data-dense-cvc-critical) — Taiho Red, reserved exclusively for portfolio status semantics (Acquired, IPO, Discontinued) and never for general accent or decoration. Surfaces: #14141A (--data-dense-cvc-surface), #1C1C24 (--data-dense-cvc-muted), #2A2A30 (--data-dense-cvc-border) Body type: #E8E5DD (--data-dense-cvc-body) — warm off-white, sepia-adjacent rather than pure cool grey, for textural continuity with the parent palette Muted type: #8A8A92 (--data-dense-cvc-text-muted) — table headers, captions, secondary labels Notes: No gradients. No glow. Color is set in flat blocks. The Taiho parent palette is preserved (Sepia / Yellow / Red) but reframed as accents on graphite, which is sanctioned by the brand book's reverse-on-black treatment.

4. Typography Rules

Headline + body font: General Sans (Fontshare) — https://api.fontshare.com/v2/css?f[]=general-sans@300,500,700&display=swap — weights 300, 500, 700. Söhne-adjacent geometric sans; restrained, serious, distinct from the Inter/Roboto AI-default. Tabular / data font: JetBrains Mono — https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=JetBrains+Mono:wght@400;700&display=swap — weights 400, 700. Used for all numerals, figures, status pills, table cells, code-like labels. The mono is the instrument expression — it is non-negotiable for any data display. Pairing principle: Geometric sans + technical monospace. The contrast is functional, not decorative — sans for prose, mono for evidence. Do not use the mono for headlines. Do not use the sans for table numerals. Weight extremes: 300 vs 700 within General Sans (not 400 vs 600). The thin weight carries the cinematic restraint; the bold is reserved for the single page anchor. Size scale: H1 3.25rem, H2 2rem, body 1rem, table/figure 0.8125rem. Mono-figure callouts in hero may go to 4rem-6rem (the only place size breaks the scale, intentionally — the number is the headline). Max font sizes per page: 3 Banned (do not use): Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, system stacks, Space Grotesk, Geist (too Vercel-house-style for this brand), DM Sans, Plus Jakarta Sans, IBM Plex Sans, any rounded sans, any humanist serif

5. Layout & Density

Grid: 12-column at >=1024px, with deliberate breaks for data tables and pipeline visualizations that span full container width. Body copy is constrained to 6–7 columns; tables and charts run wider. Container max-width: 1280px. Wider than editorial defaults; data-dense surfaces need the room. Section rhythm: Varied and committed — dense data sections (portfolio table, pipeline grid, fund metrics) sit next to airy editorial breaks (mandate paragraph, founder note, team credentials). The dense / airy alternation is the rhythm; never two airy sections in a row, never two dense sections in a row without a thin divider. Min container padding: 24px (mobile), 64px (desktop) Asymmetry / overlap commitments: Hero is type-led with a mono-figure callout (e.g., "$400M") set at oversized weight, deliberately misaligned with body grid to feel like a dashboard cell. Pipeline visualization breaks gutter on at least one side. Portfolio table runs full-bleed under a constrained heading.

6. Backgrounds & Depth

Hero treatment: Solid graphite (--dominant). No gradient. No image. The hero is type + a single mono-figure / data anchor (e.g., the fund size, an active-investments count, a phase-distribution sparkline). Atmosphere comes from typography weight contrast and the data figure, not from visual decoration. Atmospheric layers: Subtle 2–3% noise overlay on dark surfaces only — almost imperceptible, just enough to defeat the flat-CSS sterile feel that pure #0A0A0C produces. No grain on text. No halftone. No gridlines as decoration; gridlines exist only inside data charts where they carry meaning. Shadow style: None on cards. None on buttons. The dark surface and border (--border) handle elevation. Shadow is reserved for one place: the floating outreach intake panel, which gets a subtle long shadow to distinguish it as the page's primary action.

7. Do's and Don'ts

Do:

Surface real metrics in mono digits. The fund size, portfolio count, IPO count, M&A count, average ownership, lead/follow ratio, active-syndicate partners — all present, all monospaced, all unannounced.
Treat the portfolio as a filterable table, not a logo grid. Columns: Company, Therapeutic Area, Modality, Stage, Round, Co-Investors, Status, Year. Logos exist in a sidecar column at most.
Use sentence case for headings. Display caps are reserved for status pills and brand mark.
Pair every claim with a phase, a date, a partner name, or a number. If a sentence cannot be backed by data on the page, cut it.
Use the brand mark (TAIHO communication mark) per the brand book — reverse-on-dark is sanctioned. Lockup is in the corner, not large; the page identity is built from the data, not the logo.

Don't:

Use Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, system stacks, Geist, Space Grotesk, or any rounded humanist sans
Use purple gradients, blue-to-purple hero gradients, or any gradient on white
Use the three-up icon-card feature grid (the "Patient Capital / Pharma Infrastructure / Strategic Access" temptation — surface those as a data-dense block instead)
Use hamburger nav on mobile — use a bottom action bar or full-screen drawer
Write CTAs like "Get started", "Sign up", "Learn more", "Contact us today" — use first-person, scope-specific intake CTAs ("Submit a deal", "Open the intake form", "Reach the investment team")
Use stock biotech imagery (gloved hands, pipettes, abstract DNA helix, glowing molecules, lab benches) — no exceptions
Use animated background videos, parallax hero scenes, or scroll-triggered illustrations
Claim with adjectives ("world-class", "innovative", "premier") — claim with data (count, year, partner, outcome)
Center long body paragraphs — left-align body, like a research document

8. Agent Prompt Guide

For any agent reading this file:

Read this DESIGN.md in full before writing any code, copy, or styling for data-dense-cvc.
Treat sections 1–7 as canonical truth. Don't override them inline.
Reject any change that violates the Don'ts in section 7. Surface the conflict to the user rather than silently picking one side.
If the user is asking for something this DESIGN.md doesn't cover, propose an addition to this file rather than introducing the decision in component code.
If the user is asking to change something in this file, route the request to columbus-design-md-builder rather than editing the file inline.
When sections conflict: section 7 (Don'ts) wins over everything; section 1 (Anchor) wins over sections 3–6; section 2 (Voice) is independent.
Particular load-bearing constraint: the Taiho parent brand colors (Sepia / Red / Yellow) are mandatory anchors but are reframed as accents on graphite. Do not introduce additional palette colors. Do not lighten the surface to a "light mode" variant — this brand is dark-mode committed.
The mono font carries the brand. Any tabular data, any numeral, any status indicator must be mono. Drift here collapses the entire aesthetic.

9. Notes & References

Created: 2026-04-28 Last updated: 2026-04-28 Source URL: https://www.taihoventures.com/ (legacy site, captured for content research only — visual direction is a deliberate departure) External references:

research/Taiho-ventures-basic-branding-v0.pdf — Taiho corporate brand book (mandatory color anchors, lockup)
research/TOI2601_TVL Site Brief_v3.docx — adpharm site brief (audience, mandate, business objectives, references)
research/legacy-web-copy/ — captured pages from the existing site
Direct CVC peers (for IA / mandate framing, not visual): astellasventure.com, onoventure.com, mrlv.com
Strategic / UX references: srone.com, mpmbioimpact.com, gv.com
Visual aesthetic anchors: clickhouse.com, sentry.io, runwayml.com
Distant biotech-VC references (use for IA only, discard their company-creation IA): 5amventures.com, thirdrockventures.com

Additions log:

2026-04-28: Initial DESIGN.md captured by columbus-design-md-builder. Brand identity locked: Data-Dense Pro × Cinematic Dark, dark-mode committed, Taiho parent palette reframed as accents, General Sans + JetBrains Mono.

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