Style Guide
SHADOW
FLEETS
AIS Dark · Transponder Off · Ghost Frequency
● AIS TRANSPONDER — NO SIGNAL
Shadow Fleet Visual Direction / Digital Void
01 — Visual Concept
THE MOMENT THEY DISAPPEAR

Every shadow fleet ship has a moment where it stops existing on any screen. The AIS transponder goes dark. The dot on the tracking map blinks out. A 300,000-ton vessel carrying $56 million in crude oil simply vanishes from the digital world while still plowing through physical water.

This board lives in that gap — the space between signal and silence. CRT phosphor green. VHF radio static. Corrupted satellite feeds where the data degrades into noise. Sonar pings that return nothing. The aesthetic of systems failing, data decaying, tracks going cold.

Not sleek. Not polished. Degraded. The look of a monitoring station at 3 AM where half the screens show static and the operator hasn't noticed yet that a ship just disappeared.

Das Boot (1981) — Wolfgang PetersenSonar room tension, green phosphor screens
WarGames (1983) — John BadhamCRT terminal aesthetic, data as drama
The Conversation (1974) — CoppolaSurveillance degradation, analog signal loss
Gravity (2013) — ground control scenesScreen-lit faces, data overwhelm
All the President's Men — wiretap aestheticThe sound and look of listening to nothing
01b — Color Palette
PHOSPHOR + VOID
Void
#08090C
Screen Off
#0C0E10
Dark Signal
#1A2A1A
Phosphor
#4AFF7A
Radar Yellow
#DBCF20
Alert
#FF4444
Static
#3A5A3A
Scan Line
#7A8A7A
01c — Reference Imagery
DATA DEGRADATION
AIS tracking screen
AIS map — dot goes dark
VESSEL TRACK TERMINATED
Radar sweep
Radar sweep: contact lost
300,000 DWT — GONE
CRT static
CRT phosphor static
SIGNAL DEGRADATION
Corrupted satellite feed
Satellite feed — data corruption
LAST KNOWN POSITION
Monitoring station at night
Monitoring station, 3 AM shift
SCREEN-LIT FACES
Sonar display
Sonar: return signal absent
BEARING 247° — NOTHING
VHF radio frequencies
VHF radio — dead frequency
CH 16 MARITIME DISTRESS
Thermal imaging shipping lane
Thermal: heat signature fading
BOSPORUS STRAIT 04:17 UTC
Data terminal scrolling
Terminal scroll: vessel registry
FLAG: [REDACTED] OWNER: [DISSOLVED]
01d — Typography
TERMINAL + MONOSPACE
AIS TRANSPONDER: OFFLINE
Last known position: 41.0082° N, 28.9784° E. Vessel SEA MAJESTY, IMO 9341205, ceased transmitting at 04:17 UTC. 700,000 barrels of crude oil just vanished from every tracking system on Earth.
VT323 + JetBrains Mono / System failure
OWNER: ████████ LLC
Registered Marshall Islands. Incorporation date: 72 hours prior to departure. P&I coverage: none. When this ship goes down, the company dissolves before the oil reaches shore.
VT323 + JetBrains Mono / Redacted intelligence
Download Fonts
01e — Signal Status
TRACKING DASHBOARD
LIVE VESSEL TRACKING — SHADOW FLEET SUBSET
SEA MAJESTY
IMO 9341205
Last: Bosporus
AIS: 47 days dark
IRON STRINGS
IMO 9285114
Pos: 36.1°N 29.8°E
AIS: Intermittent
VOLGA SPIRIT
IMO 9178453
Last: Ceuta STS
AIS: 12 days dark
ARCTIC DAWN
IMO 9412876
Last: Great Belt
AIS: 31 days dark
01f — Stop Motion Direction
CAMERA & MOVEMENT
Screen Capture Aesthetic

Frame the stop-motion miniatures THROUGH screens. Shoot the physical tanker models reflected in a monitor. Layer the footage with scan lines, data overlays, timestamp HUDs. The physical world only reaches us through degraded digital systems.

LensMacro, shoot into actual CRT/LCD
LightScreen glow only, no practicals
MoveLocked off, data scrolls past
FeelVoyeuristic, surveillance, cold
Signal Degradation

Start with clean tracking data — ship positions clear, AIS active. Then progressively corrupt. Ships blink out one by one. Static creeps in. By the end of the sequence, half the fleet has vanished and the tracking screen is mostly noise.

LensWide establishing, then push in
LightGreen/amber phosphor, underexposed
MoveZoom drift, data glitch cuts
FeelAnxiety, helplessness, entropy
01g — Search Direction
GETTY / EDITORIAL KEYWORDS
radar screen maritime
AIS vessel tracking
CRT monitor green phosphor
satellite data corruption
shipping monitoring station
sonar display naval
VHF marine radio
thermal imaging ship
data terminal retro
signal interference static
maritime control room night
surveillance screen glitch
02 — Overlay Accent Colors
BROADCAST-SAFE ACCENTS

These three colors are tested to remain visible on top of busy, multi-color satellite imagery. Use these — not the palette colors — for any text or graphics that sit directly over footage.

SEA MAJESTY IMO 9341205 · AIS DARK
Phosphor Green
#4AFF7A
Active tracking, live data, vessel labels
$56,000,000 CARGO VALUE · UNINSURED
Radar Yellow
#DBCF20
Warnings, value callouts, caution data
SHADOW FLEETS TRANSPONDER OFFLINE · 47 DAYS
Alert Red
#FF4444
Critical alerts, signal loss, sanctions