# Kalo

> Kalo reads macros from a photo of a plate. Snap, read, eat. A quiet, data-forward nutrition app that positions itself as the calm, premium alternative in a loud category. Brand system v0.1.

Kalo is a live iOS app. The core loop is: photograph a plate, receive macros. The brand is the reason someone picks Kalo over Cal AI, SnapCalorie, or MyFitnessPal Meal Scan. Quiet premium vs. loud UGC farm is the positioning lever.

References: ALO, Whoop, Elo Health. Live at kalo.one.

## 01 · Positioning

A quiet brand, in a loud category.

Most nutrition apps treat macro tracking as diet theatre: red rings, loud UGC, shame triggers. Kalo treats it as body intelligence, quietly. The scan is the feature. Accuracy is the proof. Editorial restraint is the differentiator.

Competitive frame:
- MyFitnessPal, Lose It: transactional utility, no voice.
- Cal AI: loud UGC farm, macro-counting-as-diet framing.
- MacroFactor, Noom: spreadsheet or behavioural-coaching respectively.
- Whoop, Elo Health: the tone we study (data as editorial, product visible without theatre).

## 02 · Pillars

Four words the brand must earn.

1. Effortless. The product should feel like one step, not a form.
2. Elevated. Magazine spread, not receipt.
3. Earned. Numbers must be verifiable. No hype.
4. Expansive. The tracker is the front door to a hub (rx, fuel, intel).

## 03 · Voice

Say less. Imply more.

Principles:
- Say less, imply more. Short sentences. No preamble.
- Data is prose. Numbers are the content. Decoration is not.
- No shame triggers. Never weight-loss, never before/afters, never red rings.
- No theatrics. Confidence does not need exclamation marks.

Tone by surface:
- Capture: one verb. "Snap." "Log." "Save."
- Dashboard: numbers plus a short label.
- AI chat: calm, specific, sourced.
- Empty states: a sentence, not an illustration.
- Errors: name the cause, offer the fix.
- Sharing: proof, not proclamation.

Do / Don't:
- Do: "612 kcal. 43 g protein."
- Don't: "Crushing it! You smashed 612 kcal!"

## 04 · Palette

Four themes. Each theme has a base, a darker contrast, and an accent. Users pick one; the choice persists in localStorage under `kalo-brand-theme`.

Pink (base palette):
- #f4dfd7 soft pink
- #e9c1b7 warm pink
- #c96f52 terracotta
- #192830 deep ink

Green (default):
- #0f2214 deep forest
- #2d7a3e green
- #8fd9a1 soft green
- #eaf3ea wash green

Orange:
- #d97a3f ochre
- #c94e20 burnt
- #ffd9ad cream
- #2a140a espresso

White:
- #f6f3ee paper
- #192830 ink

Rules: one accent per surface. Numbers in ink. Backgrounds in wash. Never gradient. Never red.

## 05 · Typography

Aeonik across the system. One typeface. Weights: 400, 500.

Scale:
- Display: 72 / 82, tracking -4.9%
- Heading: 28 / 34, tracking -3.7%
- Body: 16 / 25, tracking -1.1%
- Caption: 13 / 20
- Data (mono): 24 / 32
- Eyebrow: 12 / 18, uppercase

Rules: numerals in mono (tabular). Prose in sans. No italics except for emphasis inside quotes. No bold except for weight 500.

## 06 · Logo

Lowercase. Confident. Quiet.

- Wordmark: `kalo` set in Aeonik 500. Lowercase always.
- Monogram: `k`. Used only when the full wordmark will not fit.
- Clear space: 1x the cap height on all sides.
- Minimum size: 16 px digital, 8 mm print.
- Never: capitalise, stretch, recolour outside the palette, set on a gradient, set over a busy image.
- Sub-labels: `kalo rx`, `kalo fuel`, `kalo intel`. Space between. Never hyphenated.

## 07 · Share cards

The highest-leverage surface we own.

Share cards are the only brand asset users broadcast to non-users. The Strava vector. Magazine spread, not receipt.

Rules:
- Numbers in mono. Prose in sans. No decoration.
- One accent per card. Wordmark bottom-left. Timestamp bottom-right.
- Formats: 4:5 for IG, 9:16 for Stories, 1:1 for grid.

## 08 · Architecture

The tracker is the front door.

Design for the hub now, even if it ships later. The master brand must hold three sub-surfaces without rewrites.

- kalo (master brand)
  - kalo rx: GLP-1 partners, clinical programs. Walled behind eligibility.
  - kalo fuel: protein, supplements, food partners. Editorial grid, not shop grid.
  - kalo intel: AI coaching, insights, pro tier. The brain behind the plan.

## 09 · Content

Show the plate. Show the number. Show the honest miss.

The content strategy is the scan, not the lifestyle around it. Every post proves the feature, educates the portion, or admits a miss.

North-star metric: sends per reach > 1%. Watch-completion > 65% on Reels. Save rate > 3% on Carousels.

Study / Avoid:
- Study: @ouraring (calm, data-forward), @whoop (data as editorial), @arc (product-first, the feature is the story).
- Avoid: @cal_ai (loud UGC), @myfitnesspal (transactional, no voice), @alo (celebrity wallpaper, wrong anchor).

Mix (by post):
- 50% Lifestyle. Plate aesthetics, rituals, scan-ready meals in real light.
- 30% Educational. Accuracy theatre, portion literacy, how to shoot a plate.
- 20% Product. The scan in action. Honest limits. Updates.

Formats (monthly cadence):
- Reels: 8 (follower acquisition)
- Carousels: 5 (authority, saves)
- Stills: 7 (grid aesthetic)
- Stories: daily (ambient presence)

Five pillars (rooted in the product):
1. Evidence. Photo-to-macro accuracy data. Kalo vs. label, vs. chef, vs. manual log.
2. Rituals. The daily scan. Real meals, real light, no restaging.
3. Protocols. How to shoot a plate so Kalo reads it well.
4. Notes. One food, what Kalo sees when it sees it.
5. Brand. Quiet founder essays. No face-to-camera.

Five motifs (what we film, photograph, write):
1. Feature-as-hero. "Snap. Read. Eat." A 10-second loop. The core feature on camera.
2. Accuracy theatre. Kalo vs. a known-answer label, manual log, or chef. Side-by-side, one frame.
3. Hard plates. Honest failures. Smoothies, soups, mixed bowls. A public bug log.
4. Portion literacy. "A fist of rice is ~45 g carbs." No app in-frame.
5. User-in-wild. Founder's plates, beta users' plates (with consent, no faces).

Pipeline: Ideate (Claude Projects) → Copy (Claude Sonnet) → Visual (FLUX stills, Midjourney carousels, Veo 3 reels) → Assemble (Figma, Placid, CapCut) → Publish (Buffer / Metricool) → Track.

Guardrails (never):
- No before/afters, no weight-loss framing, no numeric weight promises.
- No calorie-focused hooks. No banned hashtags (`#weightloss`, `#thinspo`, `#fitspo`).
- No TikTok watermarks, no AI faces, no unlabelled AI content.
- No follow/unfollow automation, no reposts of others' content.
- Never fake accuracy numbers. Every on-screen number is verifiable in-app.
- Never hide misses. Hard plates are the motif. If a scan is off, state by how much.
- Never post a scan we have not verified. Accuracy theatre requires re-shooting, not inferring.
- Never show calorie targets. Kalo reads food. It does not prescribe.

## Links

- Site: https://kalo.one
- Brand guidelines: kalo.one (this document summarises the full site)