Benson Theatre — Brand Tokens

Pulled from the live theme stylesheet (https://bensontheatre.org/wp-content/themes/benson-theatre/style.css) and Adobe Typekit kit ppy8zvy on 2026-05-08. These are what the current Shape Society theme actually uses, distilled into a starting palette + type system for the rebuild.

Color palette

The theme defines the palette as HSL-based CSS custom properties:

Token	Hex	HSL	Where it shows up
`--color_1`	`#DEA42C`	`hsl(40, 73%, 52%)`	Primary brand gold/marigold — accents, button highlights, links, gradient stop
`--color_2`	`#687CFD`	`hsl(232, 97%, 70%)`	Decorative blue-purple gradient stop
`--color_3`	`#22D4FC`	`hsl(191, 97%, 56%)`	Decorative cyan gradient stop
`--color_l`	`#FFFFFF`	`hsl(0, 0%, 100%)`	Surface
`--color_d`	`#000000`	`hsl(0, 0%, 0%)`	Deep accent
(additional)	`#fff7e1`	—	Cream warmth (used as soft surface variant)
(additional)	`#424242`	—	Body text charcoal
(additional)	`#f1f1f1`, `#eaeaea`, `#dbdbdb`, `#cbcbcb`	—	Neutral grays

The theme also uses two named gradients:

--grad_1: linear-gradient(to right, var(--color_1), var(--color_2), var(--color_3));
--grad_2: linear-gradient(-45deg, var(--color_3), var(--color_2), var(--color_1));

So gold → blue-purple → cyan is the signature visual flow. Decide in the rebuild whether to keep that decorative sweep or simplify to a single-accent system.

Typography

Role	Family	Source	License notes
Primary sans (headings + body)	Bicyclette	Adobe Typekit kit `ppy8zvy`	Paid Adobe Fonts. Account holder unknown — likely Shape Society's. We don't have access.
Display / decorative serif	Enchanted	Same Typekit kit	Same license issue.
Fallback sans	Open Sans	Google Fonts `?family=Open+Sans`	Free, can keep
Icon font	`BT-Icons`	Theme-baked custom font	Custom, not portable — replace with Lucide / Font Awesome icons in rebuild

Type system for the rebuild — DECIDED 2026-05-08

Substituting both Adobe Typekit fonts with free Google Fonts equivalents. Keeps us off third-party kits and removes the Shape Society licensing dependency entirely.

Role	Replacement	Loaded from
Primary sans (was Bicyclette)	Manrope	Google Fonts
Display / script accent (was Enchanted)	Caveat	Google Fonts
Existing Open Sans	drop — Manrope covers the body sans role	—
Icon font (was theme-baked `BT-Icons`)	Lucide SVG icons OR Font Awesome	Per `/icons` skill

<link> tag for Google Fonts in the new theme:

<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Manrope:wght@400;500;600;700;800&family=Caveat:wght@400;500;600;700&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">

Tailwind config:

fontFamily: {
  sans: ['Manrope', 'system-ui', 'sans-serif'],
  display: ['Caveat', 'cursive'],
}

Other visual signals from the live theme

Background pattern SVG: wp-content/themes/benson-theatre/assets/img/pattern_block.svg — repeating geometric pattern used as a section divider
Logo SVGs: logo.svg (full wordmark) and icon_w.svg (white icon-only mark)
Theater poster aesthetic with cream / dark contrast and gold accents

Recommended starting palette for rebuild

A trimmed, more design-system-ready version of the above:

// tailwind.config.js excerpt (illustrative)
colors: {
  bt: {
    gold:   '#DEA42C',  // primary accent (was --color_1)
    cream:  '#FFF7E1',  // soft surface
    ink:    '#212121',  // body text (slightly warmer than #424242 for legibility)
    paper:  '#FFFFFF',
    deep:   '#0A0A0A',  // not pure black for less harsh contrast
    line:   '#EAEAEA',  // subtle borders
    line2:  '#DBDBDB',
  }
}

Drop the blue/cyan unless we're keeping the decorative gradient — they don't carry brand meaning and they fight the gold.