01
subconscious.ai Doctrine · Nº 01 · Type, as a loud voice Vol. I · set 26.04 · four voices, one argument
Type is not a neutral substrate. It is the argument.

said & did.

✱Exposure is the voice of the company — calm, light, declarative. Redaction is the voice of the lie — grey, italic, quotable, crossed out. Söhne Mono is the voice of proof — the footnote, the confidence interval, the source. And a single emphatic italic marks anything the customer said. Four voices. One argument. Your customers don't tell you the truth. We do.

four voices · each with one and only one job
01 / 04
The company voice
Predict the choice.
Exposure Light · 200 Display & body · all claims we make in our own name
72–280 px · letter-spacing -0.065em
Never bold · never all-caps · never italic
02 / 04
The quoted lie
"Faster horses."
Redaction · 400 Italic Every word a customer ever said out loud
22–96 px · stated-preference language only
Always struck through in signal red
03 / 04
The running argument
Behavior is expensive, and therefore causal.
Exposure Light · 300 Body copy · essays · pull quotes · email & page
16–28 px · line-height 1.35–1.55
Max 62 characters per line · never less than 48
04 / 04
The proof
93% [91, 94.5]
Söhne Mono · 400 Numbers · confidence intervals · source · method · status
9–88 px · tabular nums always · uppercase for labels
Every number carries its interval · no bare stats

The scale — built for violence.

N = 9 steps · middle weight intentionally killed
--t-hero
280 / 0.82
Masthead declaration.
One per document.
say›do
--t-display
160 / 0.92
Deck cover.
Pitch-slide opener.
Predict the choice.
--t-h1
96 / 1.0
Section opener.
First line of essay.
Revealed preference.
--t-h2
56 / 1.1
Slide title.
Chart title.
Four steps, under five minutes.
--t-h3
36 / 1.2
✕ middle-weight.
use only when forced.
A subhead we probably don't need.
--t-body
18 / 1.45
Body · essay · one-pager.
48–62ch line length.
Language models predict the next word. We predict the next choice. That is the brand, the product, and the company — folded into one paragraph.
--t-meta
13 / 1.5
Sub-label, caption, byline.
A short caption under a chart. Rarely needed, never decorative.
--t-proof
11 / 1.8 · mono
Source · method · status.
Every number carries one.
Source · replication, N=350
Method · held-out behavioral match
--t-micro
9 / 1.9 · mono
Filing code. Masthead.
Uncomfortably small.
Doctrine · Nº 01 · 26.04 · for internal use · do not forward

Eight pairs. Eight refusals.

§1 Do pair Exposure Light against Redaction Italic. A second sans-serif never enters the room.
§2 Do use italic only to mark what a customer said, or to whisper an aside. Italic is never decorative. Never "emphasis."
§3 Do treat every number as a measurement, with a CI in Sohne Mono 11pt. No bare percentages. No "1.3M users" unstamped.
§4 Do let one element per page be violently large, one uncomfortably small. The safe middle — 36px "subheads" — is a design smell.
§5 Do set line length between 48 and 62 characters. Prose that runs the full page width is an AI fingerprint.
§6 Do use a red strike-through to mark a stated preference as a lie. Red is never accent. Red is only and always the lie.
§7 Do use filing codes (Nº 01, §3, [91, 94.5]) as typographic furniture. The "kicker · small · uppercase · letter-spaced" tic is banned from first position.
§8 Do let type do the layout. An editorial page is a stack of headlines and proofs. Cards, borders, 12px radii, drop-shadows — none of it is here.

Italic is a tool.

two uses · zero exceptions
Use 01 — The quoted lie
The average American asked for "a dark robust blend." He bought the caramel macchiato.
Redaction Italic · greyed · struck in signal red
Use 02 — The whispered aside
We predict the next choice. Not the next word — that's a different company.
Redaction Italic · greyed · never struck

Every number is a measurement.

CI in brackets · source in mono · no bare stats
93%[91.0, 94.5] · 95% CI
Held-out behavioral match across 350 replicated academic studies. Stated baselines clear 62%.
Source · internal replication, Q1 26
Method · choice-level AUC
Status · pre-print
$499[499, 499] · list · per study
A research study priced like software. Down from $80K–$8M.
Source · public pricing
Method · net of discount
Status · current
4min[3.2, 5.1] · median · p50
Question to causal answer, at population scale. Legacy vendors quote 6–8 weeks.
Source · platform telemetry
Method · end-to-end
Status · last 30d
SetExposure · 100 / 200 / 300 / 400
Redaction 35 · 400 Italic
Söhne Mono · 400
LicensedExposure · custom
Redaction · Titling / Forest Swords (free)
Söhne Mono · Klim Type Foundry
NeverInter · Roboto · Fraunces
System fonts · Open Sans
Any second sans-serif
UseOpen the type book before
the deck. If four voices aren't
doing their job, the page is lazy.