Direction 01 of 03 — Evolution of the current card

The Gilded Archive

وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا

Ninety-nine names, treated like a museum's rarest manuscript. Ink-black paper, a single line of gold, a serif that breathes. Luxury in the Aesop sense: restraint, not ornament. The card is the hero object; everything else — site, app, social, packaging — is built as if it were printed, foiled and boxed.

Codename · MaqāmMood · Reverent, precise, collectableReference · Aesop, Hermès, Tarot
ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ
The Most Gracious
Ar-Rahman
Names of Allah · No. 01
01 — Strategy

Position: the reference edition.

Every Muslim household has a poster of the 99 names. Almost none of them are beautiful. This direction claims the top of the market: the edition you gift, frame, and pass on. If the Qur'an app category has Quran.com as its utility, 99names becomes its Penguin Classics — the definitive, designed, collected version.


I

Reverence over decoration

No crescents, no lanterns, no mosque silhouettes. The names carry the meaning; the design gets out of the way. Gold is a line, never a fill.

II

Objects, not content

Every output — a reel, a push notification, a web page — is designed as a physical object first: a card, a plate, a bookmark. This keeps the brand coherent across print and screen.

III

Global, bilingual by default

Arabic and Latin always appear together, at equal dignity. Arabic is set in a true Naskh (Amiri), never a "Arabic-style" Latin font.

Brand voice

Quiet. Certain. Warm.

Short sentences. Second person. Never preachy, never salesy. We state the name and let the reader sit with it. Example: "As-Sabur. The Patient. He has never once rushed you."

Tagline system

"Know Him by name."

Primary. Supporting lines per channel: "One name a week." (app) · "Ninety-nine, beautifully." (print) · "The names, kept." (brand film).

03 — Colour

Ink, ivory, one line of gold.

Three core colours carry 90% of the brand. The three "mood" colours come directly from the existing card-colour toggle — they are used as full-bleed grounds for a single name, never mixed.

Ink#111111
Ivory#F4EFE3
Gold#C9A961
Emerald#2F6B4F · Mercy
Lapis#2F4F8F · Knowledge
Carmine#8F2F3A · Majesty
Ratio

Ink 70 · Ivory 20 · Gold 7 · Mood 3. Gold is reserved for rules, rings, Arabic, and italic emphasis. If a screen is more than ~10% gold, it is wrong.

Print

Gold = Pantone 871 C metallic or hot-foil. Ink = Pantone Black 6 C on 350gsm uncoated black board (Colorplan Ebony). Ivory = Colorplan Natural.

Accessibility

Ivory on Ink: 15.9:1. Gold on Ink: 8.1:1. Gold on Ivory fails — never set gold text on ivory; use Ink text with a gold rule instead.

04 — Typography

Cormorant · Inter · Amiri

Display · Cormorant Garamond 400/300i
The Infinitely Patient
Name · Cormorant caps, tracked +18%
As-Sabur · Al-Wadud · An-Nur
Arabic · Amiri 400 / Bold for the name
ٱلصَّبُورُ · ٱلْوَدُودُ · ٱلنُّورُ
Body · Inter 300, 17/1.6
In Islamic tradition, the ninety-nine names describe the divine attributes revealed throughout the Qur'an. Each name is a window. This edition is built to be read slowly.
Label · Inter 500, 11px, +28% tracking
Names of Allah · No. 99 · As-Sabur

Licensing: all three are open (SIL OFL) — usable in print, app and web with no fees. For the premium print edition consider upgrading Cormorant → Canela or GT Sectra, and Amiri → 29LT Ada or Lyon Arabic.

05 — The physical cards

The deck is the brand.

الأسماء الحسنى
99names
The Complete Edition · 99 Cards
Format

99 cards + 1 index card, 70 × 120mm (tarot proportion, same as the current design). Rounded 6mm corners. Black edge-painting, gold gilt on the premium edition.

Front / Back

Front = the card you already have (Arabic, glyph, meaning, transliteration, number). Back = a consistent pattern: the double-ring seal repeated as a subtle tone-on-tone emboss, so a spread of face-down cards reads as one object.

Range

Standard (ink, matte, $29) · Gilded (foil, gilt edges, rigid box, $79) · Mood editions (Emerald / Lapis / Carmine, 33 cards each, $19). The colour toggle on the site is literally the product line.

06 — App

One name. Seven days.

The app is a daily object, not a feed. It opens on today's card, full-bleed. Quiz, reminders and dhikr counter live underneath — never above — the name.

Ritual

Fajr push: the card, no copy. Isha push: one line of reflection. Friday: the quiz.

Progress

99 gold dots in a 9 × 11 grid, filling as names are memorised. No streaks-anxiety, no confetti.

Icon

The seal on ink. Gold rings, ivory "99". Reads at 29px.

Week 12Thu · 4 Rabīʿ I
Today's
name
ٱلصَّبُورُ
The Infinitely Patient
As-Sabur
Listen
Reflect
Quiz
Memorised
41 / 99
07 — Social system

Three tile types. Nothing else.

Your current Instagram posts already do this instinctively. Formalised: Card (the product), Line (one sentence, ghost numeral), Mood (full-bleed colour edition). Always 4:5, always the wordmark top-centre.

99namesNo. 99
ٱلصَّبُورُ
The Infinitely Patient
AS-SABUR
Card99names.net
99
99namesAs-Sabur
His patience is why you're still here.
Line99names.net
91
99namesEmerald edition
He allows hardship for reasons you'll understand later.
Mood · Ad-Darr99names.net
08 — Website

Less page, more object.

The current site explains itself in two columns of text before showing a single name. Flip it: the first screen is today's card, huge, with one line. The explanation lives further down, set like a book's introduction.

99names.net
9999names
NamesQuizCardsAppShop
Today · No. 99

The Infinitely Patient

ٱلصَّبُورُ

As-Sabur. He has never once rushed you. Sit with this name for a week; it will change how you wait.

ListenAll 99 names
ٱلصَّبُورُ
The Infinitely Patient
AS-SABUR
09 — Rules

Do / Don't

Do

Set Arabic in Amiri, vowelled (with tashkīl) on cards and hero moments.
Use one glyph per name — geometric, line-drawn, gold.
Let black space do the work. Pause before adding.
Photograph the physical cards on black stone, linen, brass.

Don't

No crescents, lanterns, domes or "Islamic pattern" backgrounds.
No gold gradients or bevels — gold is flat, always.
No yellow circle logo with a number in it (the current IG avatar).
Never drop the Arabic to "save space."