# Kills Boro — Email Template Handoff (Mailchimp) Brief for building an HTML email template that matches killsboro.com. This document is self-contained: everything needed is inline, no repo access required. Target: a reusable Mailchimp template (campaigns for beer releases, events and shop drops). --- ## 1. The brand in one paragraph Near-black ink and white paper with one gold accent. Condensed, uppercase, tightly-leaded display type over light neutral body text. Photography and can art sit on dark or cream tiles. Corners are 7px everywhere. Tone: confident, dry, a little wry ("Beer nerds welcome. So is everyone else."). Kills Boro Brewing Co. is a craft brewery at 814 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, sharing one room with Knead, its in-house restaurant. ## 2. Colors (use exactly) | Role | Hex | |---|---| | Ink / dark sections / footer | `#0f0f0f` | | Soft black (text on gold) | `#191919` | | Body text | `#404040` | | Muted text | `#767676` | | Light band background | `#f9f9f9` | | Borders / rules | `#e8e8e8` | | Gold (THE accent: buttons, eyebrows) | `#dbb635` | | Gold hover/deep | `#c9a52b` | | Gold that passes contrast ON WHITE (links, labels) | `#8f7415` | | Cream image tile | `#f4f2ec` | Rules: text on gold is always `#191919`, never white. Gold text on white must be `#8f7415`. On dark sections, body text is white at ~70% (use `#b5b5b5`-ish solid equivalents; no CSS opacity for Outlook). ## 3. Type (email-safe translation) The site uses licensed fonts (Tungsten condensed display, Gotham Rounded text) that CANNOT load in email. Use these stacks: - **Display/headlines**: `'Arial Narrow', 'Helvetica Neue Condensed', Impact, Arial, sans-serif` — ALL CAPS, bold, tight line-height (0.95–1.0), slight letter-spacing (~0.5px). Sizes: hero headline 40–54px, section heads 28–34px. - **Body**: `Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif` — 15–16px, line-height 1.6–1.7, color `#404040`, font-weight normal (the site body is light). - **Eyebrow labels**: 11px, bold, uppercase, letter-spacing 2px, color `#dbb635` on dark / `#8f7415` on light. The site pairs eyebrows with a short gold rule (34×2px) to the left — reproduce with a small table cell or border. - **Buttons**: 12px, bold, uppercase, letter-spacing 1.4px. For the masthead/logo, use images (section 6), never font lookalikes of the splatter wordmark. ## 4. Layout system - 600px max-width, table-based, single column; generous padding (32px sides, 40–56px vertical per section). - Sections alternate like the site: dark `#0f0f0f` band (header/hero and footer at minimum) → white → `#f9f9f9` → dark. Email body background outside the 600px: `#f9f9f9`. - Images: full-bleed photos inside sections get 7px rounded corners where supported (`border-radius:7px` — fine to let Outlook render square). Beer cans/product art sits on a `#f4f2ec` cream tile with padding, centered. - Buttons: padded-cell "bulletproof" style — `
CALL TO ACTION
` Primary = gold bg/ink text. Secondary on dark = transparent with 1px `#8f8f8f` border, white text. Secondary on light = 1px `#0f0f0f` border, ink text. - Divider accents: a 34px-wide, 2px-tall gold bar above section headings (the site's signature eyebrow rule). ## 5. Template structure (suggested editable regions) 1. Preheader text (`*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*`, hidden). 2. **Header band** (dark): white horizontal logo centered, ~200px wide, linked to https://killsboro.com. Optional thin gold border-bottom (1px `#dbb635` at 35% ≈ use `#5a4d1f`). 3. **Hero** (`mc:edit`): photo, gold eyebrow, big condensed headline, short lede, gold button. 4. **Flexible content blocks** (`mc:edit`, repeatable): text block, image+text split (stack on mobile), product/beer card (cream tile image, name, style line, button). 5. **Footer** (dark, required): white logo small, address block "814 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301", links row (Our Beer · Visit · Shop · Events), social icons or text links (Instagram @killsboro https://instagram.com/killsboro, TikTok @kills.boro, Untappd), then legal line: `© *|CURRENT_YEAR|* Kills Boro Brewing Co. · *|LIST:ADDRESSLINE|*` and `*|UNSUB|*` + `*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*` links in `#8f8f8f` 12px. CAN-SPAM requires the address and working unsubscribe — keep both. Mailchimp specifics: use `mc:edit="name"` on editable areas and `mc:repeatable` for the flexible blocks if building a true template; inline all CSS; include `role="presentation"` on layout tables; alt text on every image (dark-mode-safe: avoid pure-black text in PNGs). ## 6. Hosted brand assets (hotlink these exact URLs) - White horizontal logo (for dark bands): `https://killsboro.com/brand/kills-boro-logo-horizontal-white.png` (1080×222) - Black horizontal logo (light bands): `https://killsboro.com/brand/kills-boro-logo-horizontal-blk.png` - Round splatter badge (white, for dark): `https://killsboro.com/images/killsboro-round-logo-white@1080x.png` - Taproom photography: `https://killsboro.com/images/opt/T7405699.webp` (brewhouse), `https://killsboro.com/images/opt/T7401678.webp` (taproom), `https://killsboro.com/images/opt/kills-boro-pizza-taproom.webp` (pizza) — note these are WebP; for Outlook compatibility re-export as JPG or request JPGs before shipping. - Beer can art (transparent WebP, one per beer): `https://killsboro.com/beer-cans/.webp` e.g. `killsner`, `marzen`, `hopfensau`, `west-coast-at-bernies` — same WebP caveat. ## 7. Copy rules (client-mandated, apply to ALL email copy) - **No em or en dashes anywhere.** Rewrite around them. Hours use hyphens: "12-10 p.m." - AP time style ("7 p.m.", "12-10 p.m."), no Oxford comma. - "Knead" (never "Knead NYC"); it's a full restaurant: seafood-forward Italian and New American under Executive Chef Rafael Ortiz, brick-fire pizza and house-made pasta as anchors. - "Faßfest" keeps the ß; "stichfass" lowercase; cans are "16 oz". - Lead with the beer and technique (lagers, decoction, side-pull), not borough-underdog framing. - Never invent facts, prices, dates or availability — leave a clearly marked slot for the sender to fill. - Audience is 21+; keep an "Enjoy responsibly." line near the footer. ## 8. Standard links - Site: https://killsboro.com · Beer: /our-beer · Visit: /visit · Shop: /shop · Events: /events · Book an event: /private-events - Reservations (Toast): https://tables.toasttab.com/restaurants/2a8b97cf-e86d-498b-8d37-c4488a2e5474/reserve - Gift cards (Toast): https://order.toasttab.com/egiftcards/kills-boro-brewery-814-richmond-terrace ## 9. Acceptance checklist - Renders correctly at 600px and stacked on mobile; Outlook-safe (tables, inline styles, no background images behind text). - Dark header + footer present; gold used only as the accent. - All images have alt text; unsubscribe + physical address present. - No em/en dashes anywhere in copy; buttons uppercase 12px gold/ink. - Logo is an image from section 6, never typeset text. ## Template lineup (Sean's breakout, 2026-10-10) Six ready-to-import templates now live beside the master, all following the same skeleton (header, dark hero, white blocks, footer). Key graphic, limited text, one job per email: get the click on the CTA. Bracketed [text] is what you edit per send. Account (wholesale audience): - killsboro.com/email/kb-account-inventory.html — what's packaged now; CTA to the wholesale order form - killsboro.com/email/kb-account-presale.html — reserve cases on a new release before it ships - killsboro.com/email/kb-account-special.html — one announcement, one CTA DTC (consumer audience): - killsboro.com/email/kb-dtc-new-release.html — key image of the release plus what's in cans at the taproom - killsboro.com/email/kb-dtc-happenings.html — key graphic for the main event plus a calendar of upcoming events - killsboro.com/email/kb-dtc-special.html — one big graphic, one line, one CTA (Buy Now, RSVP Now, Reserve Your Spot) ### Sales emails, NY and NJ (added 2026-10-13) Modeled on the brewery's own weekly sales campaign. "New this week" always leads: can image, name, style, ABV, price lines and Order Now. Below it the cold box breaks out by style (Lagers, Pale Ales and IPAs), each beer with art, style, ABV and per-format pricing. Bracketed [$] amounts get filled per send and per territory. - killsboro.com/email/kb-sales-ny.html — New York accounts - killsboro.com/email/kb-sales-nj.html — New Jersey accounts ### Retargeting: past event hosts (added 2026-10-13) killsboro.com/email/kb-retarget-corporate.html targets people who booked a corporate or private party before (build the segment in Mailchimp from past booking contacts). Party crowd photo up top, "Run it back" framing, what's new since their last visit, CTA to /holiday-parties. Swap the hero and copy for the evergreen version outside the season. ## Editing the templates in Mailchimp (read this first) The templates use Mailchimp's classic editable regions. They are only editable in the CLASSIC builder, which you get by using saved templates, never by pasting code into a campaign: 1. Content > Email templates > Create template > Code your own > Import from URL > paste the template address > save it. 2. When you build a campaign, at the Design step pick SAVED TEMPLATES and choose it. The classic editor opens and every block shows an Edit pencil: click a region to change text, swap images and fill the [$] price slots. 3. If nothing is clickable, you are in the new builder's paste-in-code path. Back out and pick the saved template instead. If your account does not offer "Code your own" under Email templates at all, send the week's beers, prices and dates to Tomde instead; the hosted template gets updated at its killsboro.com URL and you re-import and send. ## Duplicating and removing blocks (updated 2026-10-14) Every list in every template is now built from repeatable cards. In the classic editor, hover a beer, event or announcement card and use the + control to duplicate it and the - control to remove it; the eye icon hides a block without deleting it. Optional sections (the order block, the feature card, "since your last visit") can be hidden the same way. Re-import the templates from their URLs or the zip to pick up this change; the old imports in Mailchimp stay as they were.