The dots exist.
Relay draws the lines.
Everyone's work is already there: a chat on Monday, a spec on Tuesday, a review, a build, a teammate's agent in another time zone. None of it is missing. It just isn't connected. A dot-to-dot is the oldest way to show that: the picture was always on the page, and the line is what lets you see it. Codes are the numbers on the dots.
Watch it drawn, or tap the dots in order: 1, 2, 3 … The Codes are real-shaped and fictional.
Not a metaphor we borrowed. What the product already does.
Every naming field Relay explored in July was imported: relay races, batons, signals. This one isn't. The product connects dots. Every object is a point, and a line appears the first time two of them touch. A Code is the number on the dot that lets anyone pick up the line. EC's call on 2026-07-23 was to keep this as brand language and a visual system, not a name (the names in the field are taken; Constellation is fatal for a Canadian company). This concept builds that system out as a campaign.
It works in two registers at once. The childhood register: everyone has done a dot-to-dot, and everyone remembers the moment the picture appears. No explanation needed. The trust register: the dots are yours, the picture is yours, and Relay only draws the line. Stars are just points. You draw the constellation.
Source: Naming exploration · "The drawn line" in brand/BRIEF.name-alternatives.md · naming specimens (the first motif swatches).
Four marks. That's the whole visual system.
The dot
A moment of work: a chat, a session, a document, a person. An open ring on paper. It exists before Relay does.
The number
The order, and the Code beside it in mono on a teal tint. Codes are never a fixed length, and they're never the headline.
The line
Graphite while it's being drawn, teal once it lands. A hand's line: rounded joins, one pass, no ruler.
The picture
Never shown first. It's the reward, and it's always the owner's work (a plane, a bridge), never a picture of Relay. The mark appears only when the line draws it.
Paper is the house sheet (--rly-surface) with a dot grid at 9% ink. The line is --rly-accent-ui, the only teal on the sheet, which keeps the v3.5 rule: teal marks what acts. No black paper.
One per audience. The picture is theirs.
Where the line shows up.
The film
Four beats on one sheet, no cuts: the dots appear with their moments (nothing's connected), the numbers and Codes arrive, the pencil draws, and the picture lands with the line. Silent-first, captions burned in. The sign-off frame draws the mark from its own dots.
Built: 18 seconds, narrated. Play it in 16:9 or 9:16. The picture is a paper plane: when the line is done it comes free of the sheet and flies off, then the mark draws itself from nine dots.
Built on the paper studio for the explainer (marketing/explainer), where the pencil and sheet already exist. The frames below are drawn by the same code as the hero.
The carousel: "Can you see it yet?"
Slide one is the puzzle, numbered with no line. Slide two answers it. Slide three is the line. It's made for the swipe: the reward is literally on the next slide, and people who comment the answer before swiping are doing the campaign's work.
The activity sheet
A real, printable dot-to-dot for events, packs and the desk: the team bridge, numbered, with a Code beside every dot and no line drawn. People connect it with a pen. It's the one execution that's physical, so it's the one people keep.
A4 portrait. Pencil not included; that's the point.
Your week in dots (a product idea)
The campaign's line, made true in the product: a weekly card that draws what you connected. A dot for each relay, a line each time someone picked one up, and the week's picture at the end. It comes from the timeline the activity graph already reads. The card never names a person without their consent.
Drawn, not built Proposal only. It would sit beside the activity graph (activity & modules) and ship as an email and share card, never as a public profile by default.
Out of home
A billboard needs exactly one line. Six dots scattered across the board, one continuous line through them, and the headline. There's no picture here, deliberately: at 60 km/h, the line is the picture.
Relay draws the lines.
Copy bank.
The dots exist. Relay draws the lines.
Can you see it yet?
Every Code is a dot.
Your work is already there. It just isn't connected.
Stars are just points. You draw the constellation.
Your first Code is your first dot.
Nothing new to make. Just the lines between.
Start at 1.
What keeps it honest.
Do
- Show the dots before the line, and the line before the picture. The order is the idea.
- Make the picture the owner's work, never a picture of Relay (the mark sheet is the sign-off, not the pitch).
- Say "Code". Use "relay" as the verb.
- Keep dots generic (a chat, a spec, a review) in public work.
Don't
- Name the mechanism in public copy: no graphs, edges, nodes or "first contact". Sell the outcome.
- Use "Constellation", "Weave" or "Strand" as a product or feature name (all are closed; see the brief).
- Say PIN, Relay Code, handoff, memory, seamless or AI-powered (
_vocab/_VOCAB.md). - Draw people or likenesses on the dots; a dot is a moment, not a face.
| Gate | What it holds | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Stealth | Nothing public before the provisional is filed; the EU grace period is zero. Everything here is a draft on a noindexed page. | EC |
| Disclosure | Outcome-level only. The line is shown, never explained. | EC |
| Product truth | "Your week in dots" is drawn, not built. The campaign must not promise it until it ships. | Product |
| Consent | Any send of this campaign follows relay-marketing's consent gates. Agents draft; people send. | EC |
Concept v1 · 2026-09-27 · concepts/connecting-the-dots-v1.html · clean URL /concepts/dots. Built on EC's 2026-07-23 direction; proposal, not canon.