Walking tours of Washington that read the Masonic grid, the hidden symbolism in L'Enfant's plan, and the stories most guides walk past. Now live: a neoclassical-editorial brand, a custom booking platform, and the site Hamza was looking for since the company started.
"Scholar. Guide. Diplomat of ideas. Authority worn lightly; revelation earned." That's lifted from the brief document — and it's the single line that locked the visual register. The category default is templated booking-site veneers; the work itself is an argument about a city most people think they already understand.
The mandate: build the site that treats the argument seriously — depth as trust, neoclassical authority earned by the architecture being named, and a booking platform that doesn't outsource the only commercial moment.
Cinzel's letterforms trace directly from classical Roman inscriptions — the typographic choice is substantiated by the architecture it's naming. Inter holds the body without pulling focus. Gold isn't a single accent; it's an eight-stop system covering shadow, midtone, highlight, hover state, and CTA. Restraint at the top, range underneath.
Eight stops from #735323 shadow to #F8E494 highlight. Borders, taglines, CTAs, and hover states each get a distinct value.
Cinzel for display in uppercase with wide tracking. Inter at 300 for body. The contrast is "engraved stone vs whispered footnote."
Multi-page architecture — home, about, tours index, tour detail, FAQ, private tours, contact, 404 — and an admin dashboard for the tour operator. Single-page wouldn't have read as a real institution.
For most studios, "we considered other directions" is a sales claim. For DC Unveiled, three concept directions were built end-to-end before production locked — each a fully designed argument about what the brand could be. The chosen direction is presented alongside its alternatives so the case-study reader can see what the choice cost as well as what it bought.
The brief document itself (b.html / c.html) functions as a standalone design-decision artifact — readable to a future maintainer, a future hire, or a future investor.
Home with the cinematic hero, About, Tours index, Tour detail pages, FAQ, Private tours, Contact — every route running on dcunveiled.com.
Browse tours → pick a date → check out → confirmation, all on the brand. No Calendly. No Acuity. The only commercial moment lives on Hamza's domain, in his typography.
Tour management, dates, capacity, cancellation, waitlist, and reminder flows — all under Hamza's control. He runs the operation; the studio doesn't gatekeep edits.
Cinematic, Scholar's Archive, and the Sacred Grid variant — three end-to-end designs delivered together so Hamza chose with eyes open. Production runs on Scholar's Archive with the cinematic hero folded in.
| Layer | State |
|---|---|
| Live multi-page site on dcunveiled.com | running |
| Three concept directions, all shipped as artifacts | live |
| Custom booking flow · Stripe-backed | booking |
| Admin dashboard | in use |
| Cancellation / waitlist / reminder flows | live |
| Tour catalog | published · 5 tours |
Most tour-company sites look like trip booking. The site Patrick built looks like a small museum — which is the right register for what we actually do. People show up to tours having already read the page.
— Hamza · Founding partner, DC Unveiled