A HOUSE OF CULTURE

About Mezaj.

A house of culture, built around music and the people who keep it moving.

Our story, the word behind the name, the references behind our colors, and things to carry with you.

Explore the merch

01 / OUR STORY

Music lives through people.

A house for the people who make culture, the people who gather around it, and the people who keep it moving.

Find your next night out. Hear an artist from across the world. Make a gathering of your own happen.

Find an event Explore music

Mamar Kassey · Niger · From the Mezaj recording archive

Keep music moving.

Our mission is to support musicians and sustain music cultures through new work, exchange, and collaboration across borders.

That takes both an audience and the means to keep creating. Mezaj connects live events, recordings, practical tools, and shared funding.

Artists open the door.

Our artist-curated program began in 2020 with musicians in India. After performing, each group was invited to choose the next artists. Those artists invited others in turn.

That chain of invitations grew across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Musicians shape the program and introduce listeners to one another’s work.

Meet the music

Tools that fund new work.

Organizers use Mezaj to sell tickets, offer memberships, and stream events. Mezaj contributes 33% of the fees from its ticketing and membership tools to the Universal Creator Income Fund.

Together with direct support from patrons, the fund backs artist-curated Sessions, independent releases, and collaborative live and streamed events.

Explore the tools How the fund works

An act worth passing on.

This house is dedicated to a listener who heard two musicians playing in a New York subway station. He crossed to their platform, thanked them, and offered the change he had.

That act of generosity is the spirit behind Mezaj: people making it possible for other people to keep making music.

Read the founding story

Be part of what happens next.

Create an event Support the Fund

02 / THE NAME

What does
Mezaj mean?

مزاجমেজাজ

Mood · temperament · disposition

The character
you bring to life.

A word for your state of mind, your nature, your particular way of being. Sometimes good spirits. Sometimes a little fire.

For us, Mezaj is an invitation to bring that character into the room—and make room for someone else’s.

Follow the word

A voice from Bengal

মেজাজটাই তো আসল রাজা।
আমি রাজা নই।

Mejaj tai toh ashol raja. Ami raja noi.

“Mood is the true, original king.
I am not the king.”

In the song, swagger and extravagance meet questions about hunger and inequality.

Lines from Hazar Takar Jharbatita, in the film Stree. Lyrics by Gauriprasanna Mazumder; music by Nachiketa Ghosh; sung by Manna Dey and Hemanta Mukherjee. English rendering by Mezaj.

Watch the song

Languages in conversation

A long life.
Many homes.

The Silk Roads carried more than goods. Across land and sea, people exchanged ideas, sounds, and words. Mezaj belongs in that wider imagination of encounter.

The word’s Arabic origins are documented. So are the centuries of Persian influence on Bengal. Related forms also appear in Hebrew, Uzbek, and Malay, with meanings shaped by each language. Its exact journey between languages is less certain: this is a story of connections, rather than a single mapped route.

UNESCO · The Silk Roads

Arabic / the root

مِزَاج

mizāj

The root concerns mixing. Mizāj also names the bodily and psychological qualities that distinguish a person.

Cairo Arabic Language Academy ↗

Persian & Urdu / shared vocabulary

مزاج

mezāj / mizāj

In Persian and Urdu, the word carries senses of constitution, temperament, and disposition. Pronunciation and usage have their own local lives.

Dehkhoda ↗Rekhta ↗

Bengali / an everyday word

মেজাজ

mejaj

State of mind. Nature. Temper, too. Bengali gives the Arabic-origin word its own sound and a place in ordinary conversation.

Accessible Dictionary, Bangladesh ↗

Hebrew / the weather

מזג

mezeg / mezeg avir

In Hebrew, mezeg avir means weather—literally the temperament of the air. We like to think of it as the mood of the sky.

Learn Hebrew · Mezeg avir ↗

Uzbek / character

mijoz

Mijoz can mean temperament or character: a person’s particular nature. The word has a home in Uzbek too.

Uzbek educational corpus ↗

Malay / temperament

mizaj

Mizaj names temperament in traditional Malay thought. For us, it connects to what we call a vibe today—the feeling in “you’re killing my vibe.”

Malaysia · Department of Culture and Arts ↗

And Bengal? Persian was a language of administration and literary exchange for centuries. Its contact with Bengali left a lasting vocabulary. That history includes migration, scholarship, and maritime connections as well as overland travel.

Richard M. Eaton · Encyclopaedia Iranica ↗

In company & in verse

A word between us.

Expressions that make room for warmth, attention, and another person’s state of mind.

An Urdu expression

Khush-mizaj خوش مزاج

Cheerful. Of a pleasant disposition. The person whose good spirits are part of their character.

Meaning in Rekhta ↗

An Urdu expression

Mizaj-pursi مزاج پرسی

Asking after someone’s wellbeing. A word for the small, human act of finding out how another person is.

Meaning in Rekhta Dictionary ↗

A couplet / Urdu

آپ نے جو مزاج پرسی کی
آپ کی یہ بڑی عنایت ہے

“You asked after my wellbeing;
that was very kind of you.”

Maharaja Sir Kishan Parashad ‘Shad’ (1864–1940), Hyderabad.
One couplet from a ghazal. English rendering by Mezaj.

Read the full ghazal

What it means here

Come as you are.
Leave with a little
of someone else.

Our own words, inspired by the name.

Meet the music Find your people

03 / THE COLORS

Music, material,
and a flash of orange.

A bone flute, the pale center of mammoth ivory, and a Lee Krasner painting helped us find the palette.

Music before written history

The worn bone of the Divje Babe flute set the direction. The pale center of mammoth ivory gave us our Ivory cream. Together, these references connect the palette to the deep history of making music.

The Divje Babe bone flute, an early musical-instrument reference for the Mezaj cream palette, against black. — Divje Babe flute
The National Museum of Slovenia presents this cave-bear bone as the world’s oldest known musical instrument, about 60,000 years old.
Its interpretation as an instrument remains debated.
Photo: Petar Milošević · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph unchanged.

Ivory cream#F2EEE9

Ivory cream carries through light pages and the logo, text and icons on dark backgrounds.

Lee Krasner · Painting detail supplied as a palette reference. Title not recorded.

Cream, charcoal and vermilion

The cream passages, dark brushwork and vivid orange in Lee Krasner’s painting were the starting reference. Mezaj translates that relationship into a light ground, strong dark ink and a small amount of orange.

Charcoal became the reading color and dark-page ground. Ivory cream from the mammoth photograph became the final light ground. Vermilion carries the painting’s bright accent into small graphic details.

Charcoal#1D1C1AVermilion#EF4428

The supplied dark burgundy painting detail, showing fine cracks and red brush texture. — **Burgundy · #4B0513**Sampled from this supplied detail. Its deep red remains a secondary accent for details such as the funding total, candle vessels and hand-stitched thread. Vermilion marks the active navigation.

The main screen colors interpret the painting; burgundy comes from the selected detail. Orange control fills are darker versions of vermilion, adjusted for readable Ivory cream labels.

See the palette values

04 / MERCH

Made to be kept.

The identity on things we wear, use and bring into everyday life. Let the material shape the mark.

AI-generated merch concepts, not yet for sale. Colors, materials and finishes are directions to develop with makers.

Hand-stitched shawlsView full size

The signature, sewn by hand.

A few simple stitches follow the signature’s shape. Keep the lettering light and open, with small differences in the curves and stitch lengths.

Ivory creamBurgundy running stitches
CharcoalIvory hand stitching

Handmade candlesView full size

The signature, close to home.

Softly uneven ceramic vessels, simple paper labels and the Mezaj brush signature. Keep the material visible and the label quiet.

Ivory creamDark signature
CharcoalIvory signature
BurgundyIvory paper label

T-shirtsView full size

Three ways to wear it.

A small mark over the heart, or a larger centered signature. Just the logo, with room around it on the fabric.

Ivory creamSmall chest mark
CharcoalCentered ivory signature
VermilionSmall chest mark

Vinyl record · Xalam / Zep TepiView full size

Mezaj on the sleeve and label.

The artist’s Xalam / Zep Tepi cover, with a small Mezaj imprint at the bottom right of the outer sleeve and an Ivory cream center label. A concept for the label’s identity in print.

Ivory cream labelNear-black signature
Black vinylOriginal sleeve colors

The same signature, a different hand.

Printing uses the brush artwork. Hand stitching simplifies it into a fine line, following the letters’ shape and slant. Let each example vary a little in its curves, spacing and stitch lengths.

Show the object, then the detail.

For promotion, pair a whole-object photograph with a close view of the wax, weave, thread or record label. Give the logo room, preserve the artist’s artwork and credit the makers when the collection is developed.

05 / BRAND GUIDEThe identity in practice.Signature, color values, typography, and artwork to download.

SIGNATURE

Keep the hand
in the mark.

This logo trial uses the newly supplied hand-painted Mezaj signature. Keep its broad M, dry-brush entry, connected lettering, dot and full j.

Dark ink on Ivory cream

Ivory cream on charcoal

Preserve the drawing

For print and digital use, scale it uniformly. Don’t straighten the letters, crop the j, fill the brush openings or add a shadow.

Give it a clear field

Use a plain cream or charcoal background. Keep orange accents separate from the signature so the brushwork remains clear.

The home-page signature is 304px wide on desktop and 216px on phones. It scrolls away at full size; a small full signature stays at the top left from page load. For new uses, start at least 128px wide and leave roughly one fifth of the mark’s width clear around it. Check the real size before printing. Hand stitching has its own treatment in the Merch section above.

Use the full brush signature in the compact header and at the top left of event pages. Both return to the top of the homepage. Keep the M in the browser icon. Event headers use solid Ivory cream with dark ink, even above dark event artwork. The full signature appears in the navigation menu. The favicon is near-black on Ivory cream, so it stays clear in light and dark browser tabs. Preserve its textured entry stroke; don’t substitute a typed letter.

Mezaj Records

An artist-curated label supporting musicians and the communities behind their music.

Set RECORDS on a straight, horizontal baseline in small, widely spaced DM Sans capitals below the full brush signature, following the record-label reference. The letters are outlined artwork, so their spacing stays consistent while fonts load. Keep the original signature at the same size and position across Events and Music, and leave the mark unchanged on hover. On Music, use this lockup once in the masthead, beneath the primary navigation. The page opens with the large heading “Artist-curated, community funded music.” The small full signature stays in the top-left navigation from page load while the full signature scrolls away. Use charcoal on Ivory cream, and Ivory cream on charcoal.

COLOR

The working palette.

Color values and practical guidance for the website and business tools.

Palette values Business tools UI

The current palette

Ivory cream · #F2EEE9 is the adopted light color. See it in light and dark interfaces.

Ivory cream

Sampled from the pale center of the supplied mammoth ivory photograph.

Charcoal

Our main text, dark pages and quiet, high-contrast panels.

Vermilion

Our primary highlight. Active navigation uses deep vermilion on Ivory cream and a lighter tint on charcoal. Orange-filled controls use Ivory cream labels.

Burgundy

A secondary color from the supplied dark-red detail. Use selectively for supporting accents, such as the funding total, candle vessels and stitched thread.

Orange fills #B4442F

Warm stone surface #E5E0DA

Dark surface #2B2926

Ivory cream on orange #F2EEE9

Use combinations you can read.

Ivory cream on charcoal14.74:1 · Body text and actions

Deep vermilion on ivory cream5.69:1 · Active navigation

Vermilion tint on charcoal5.77:1 · Active navigation

Burgundy on ivory cream13.67:1 · Secondary accent text

Burgundy tint on charcoal5.91:1 · Secondary accent text

Ivory cream on orange4.77:1 · Labels, icons and map numbers

Search fields and dropdown highlights use warm stone surface #E5E0DA with Ivory cream. Browse selections use charcoal with Ivory cream, reversed in dark mode. Orange controls use Ivory cream #F2EEE9 for labels and icons in both themes. Their fill is #B4442F. Reserve bright vermilion for graphic accents.

Active navigation uses deep vermilion #A73622 on Ivory cream. On charcoal, use vermilion mixed with 25% Ivory cream (#F06F58). Logos, icons, inactive links and supporting copy use Ivory cream #F2EEE9. Burgundy is a secondary accent; its dark-page tint is #AF9193. Keep links underlined.

Working contrast targets: at least 4.5:1 for ordinary text and 3:1 for meaningful icons and control states. Ratios are calculated from solid sRGB colors, not a full accessibility audit. W3C text guidance · Control contrast

Business tools: clean back-office UI.

A practical workspace for the people running events. White surfaces, blue interaction cues and clear dark text help organizers manage events, guests, teams and reports.

Event details from the current Viewcy back office, with its original Averta font, icons and blue-and-white controls. Read-only reference. Open full-size example ↗

Business blue

Active tabs, selected controls, focus borders and action cues.

White

The main workspace, forms and data surfaces.

Soft gray

Quiet navigation and grouped controls.

Selected blue tint

A light background behind a blue selection border.

Keep the workspace clean

Use white for the working area, light gray for grouping and subtle borders around fields. Give forms and tables room to breathe.

Make blue useful

Blue shows where you are and what you can do. Pair selections with a border, underline or clear label. Keep reading text dark.

Respect familiar workflows

Keep established layouts, clear field labels and consistent controls across event editing, guests, teams and reports.

Reference colors from the supplied management screen. Business blue also appears in the existing product styles. This white workspace keeps its own palette when the surrounding brand guide changes theme or cream.

Event pages: preserve the product

Preserve the familiar event page, with the compact Mezaj M, DM Sans and an Ivory cream ground beneath its flyer colors.

In light mode, blend the colors drawn from each flyer over Mezaj Ivory cream #F2EEE9. Keep the native gradient and its intensity.
Keep the existing dark mode and its flyer tint.
Keep the familiar layout, artwork and ticket-buying flow. Use DM Sans, with regular control text for Log in / Sign up and Get tickets. The login link matches the home page’s underline.
Use the home page’s regular display weight for event titles. Keep the header free of a dividing line, with the M at left and search, Log in / Sign up and the shared hamburger menu at right.

The preview uses the original public event markup and styles, with the compact M at the left on desktop and mobile. Tickets continue through the existing checkout. Production Viewcy is unchanged.

Public Tools page & setup builder

The public Tools page introduces the products and uses Mezaj Ivory cream. These colors belong to that presentation layer. The back-office workspace uses the blue-and-white system above.

Public Tools page colors by role and theme
Role	Light	Dark
Page & fields	`#F2EEE9`	`#1D1C1A`
Text & icons	`#1D1C1A`	`#F2EEE9`
Inset surfaces	`#E5E0DA`	`#2B2926`
Supporting text	`#665C51`	`#C8BFB3`
Primary action	`#1D1C1A`	`#F2EEE9`
Primary action label	`#F2EEE9`	`#1D1C1A`
Orange fills	`#B4442F`	`#B4442F`
On orange	`#F2EEE9`	`#F2EEE9`

Showing Ivory cream #F2EEE9. Dividers use the text color at 20% opacity. Browse selections use charcoal with Ivory cream labels, reversed in dark mode. Selected navigation uses deep vermilion #A73622 on cream and its lighter tint #F06F58 on charcoal. Burgundy #4B0513 remains a secondary accent; supporting links use the page text color. Orange fills use Ivory cream for labels and icons.

Existing product previews

Embedded demonstrations retain the product colors below. These are reference colors for those screens.

Product checkout

White and plum reverse between light and dark. Validation messages use pink.

Light surface#FFFFFFDark surface / light ink#281D26Error on light#CD0D50Error on dark#FF8CB5

Seating checkout

Ivory cream pairs with plum. Actions are orange in light mode and pale blue in dark mode. Seat categories keep their labeled colors.

Plum#3D2635Light-mode action#B4442FDark-mode action#9BB3FF

Check-in & tap to pay

Native dark screens use white text and pink actions. Green and red accompany explicit result messages and icons.

Check-in surface#0B0B0CAction#D60B52Check-in success#6AD13ADuplicate ticket#D83A31Payment success#4CD964

Singularity screenshots and familiar phone interfaces retain their source colors. Preserve those captures and the artists’ imagery. View the public Tools page.

TYPOGRAPHY

One family.
Fixed content sizes.

DM Sans, loaded as “Mezaj Sans.” Regular 400 for reading; semibold 600 for names, titles and key amounts.

Participation
is patronage.

Mamar Kassey · Music from Niger

Every ticket funds music around the world.

Events · Music · Tools

Names & titles: 18px · 24px line height · Semibold 600.
Body & controls: 16px · 24px line height · Regular 400.
Supporting detail: 14px · 21px line height · Regular 400.
Small metadata: 13px · 18px line height · Regular 400. For timestamps and short passive details.

Mezaj shared a recording.

2 hours ago · Yesterday · 2 days ago

Apply these shared roles across Events discovery, Music and Tools.
Keep the same sizes on phones. Wrap text and keep controls at least 44px tall.
Check desktop, mobile, both light and dark themes.

Page-opening display headings use their established responsive style, separately from this fixed content scale. Supporting text and timestamps use a readable muted color. Preserve names and diacritics; use an appropriate script font where DM Sans does not cover the language.

INTERFACE

Quiet navigation.
Clear selections.

Navigation stays quiet enough for the work to lead. Controls should be easy to recognize, read and use.

Ivory cream · #F2EEE9

Participation is patronage.

Every ticket funds music around the world.

Explore the tools Meet the fund

Ivory cream is the shared light color. Light shows it as the page surface; Dark shows it in the logo, text, icons and selected controls. Burgundy labels and inward chevrons mark the current section.

Navigation

Vermilion text and inward chevrons mark the active Events, Music or Tools section. Use the text characters > and < in the same font, size and weight as the label. Use deep vermilion #A73622 on Ivory cream and a lighter vermilion tint #F06F58 on charcoal; keep inactive labels neutral. Burgundy remains a secondary accent. The header stays cream or charcoal, with the signature on a clear field.

Actions

List / Map and other pill selections use charcoal with Ivory cream labels in light mode, and cream with charcoal labels in dark mode. Music matches the Events search surface: a leading search icon, the same neutral fill, height, spacing and underlined dropdown. Choose Videos or Artists in that dropdown; on narrow screens, the query sits above it. Deep orange controls use Ivory cream for text and icons in both themes. In the main menu, Create an event uses bright vermilion #EF4428 with dark ink #100D0F for its label and arrow. Tools and Help headings use the same vermilion, and both groups start expanded on mobile. Main actions can use solid cream or charcoal. Use Ivory cream for the logo, search, menu and notification icons on charcoal. Unread notifications use an orange dot. Dropdowns share the Events search treatment: cream or charcoal menus, neutral hover highlights, a checkmark for the selected choice, and 16px regular labels. Use underlined choices in filter rows and outlined fields in forms, with the same arrow, focus outline and spacing.

Music geography

Dark orange markers with Ivory cream for numbers in both themes. Music uses the globe only, with no map switch. Selection and recent additions use rings as well as color.

Motion & focus

Keep transitions brief, honor reduced motion, and retain a visible keyboard focus indicator. Reserve space for selection markers so labels and the logo stay in place.

VOICE & IMAGERY

Name the people.
Show the work.

Be warm, direct and specific. The platform is the host; the artists and communities remain the authors.

Mamar Kassey · NigerHear the music

Keep the context

Preserve posters and performances in their original proportions. Show the artist, place and organizer where they matter. Don’t recolor someone’s work to match our palette.

Make the claim precise

“Participation is patronage.” invites people in. “Every ticket funds music around the world.” explains the connection. Funding figures must come from current data.

Write like a helpful person

“Create an event.” “Meet the fund.” “Show us your room, your program, your plans.” Use direct actions and concrete language. Prefer labels such as “Playlists.” Cut generic invitations and filler; let the work provide the evidence.

Keep the name consistent

Spell the name Mezaj, with a z, throughout page copy, navigation, accessibility labels and page titles. The Music heading pairs the Mezaj signature with RECORDS. Preserve artists’ names and original-language quotations.

ASSETS & STEWARDSHIP

Use the original.
Keep the guide current.

Mezaj signatureTransparent PNG · Current logo trial

Mezaj Records lockupSVG · Original signature with spaced sans-serif lettering

DM Sans licenseSIL Open Font License

The current logo is a prepared raster study using the supplied calligraphy, with AI-assisted background removal. It is not a finished vector master. Preserve this artwork; prepare a faithful vector master for fabrication rather than auto-redrawing it.

This edition consolidates the current prototype’s choices. New spacing, size and contrast guidance are working standards to test in use. Update the guide when a brand decision changes.

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