Every page in this system assumes these terms. Read this once and the rest of the system reads the same way everywhere.
An edition of a series, published as a format, to a channel, made of assets that meet the format's regulations and the series' standards.
One sentence, every core noun. Two axes meet at the moment of publication: the distribution axis (channel → format), which can be rented, and the editorial axis (series → edition), which is always ours.
The terms
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A
Asset
An asset is the file itself, the thing you store, name and version.
The Reel is the format; the .mp4 we upload is the asset. An edition is made of assets.
Versions belong to the asset: logo-v2.svg is a new version of the same asset, not a new asset.
C
Channel
A channel is any place where the brand meets an audience directly.
Directly is the test: a publication that writes about us reaches an audience, but it is their channel, not ours. Every channel is owned or rented, and that is the first question to ask about a new one.
Component
A component is the reusable part a format is assembled from, scoped to its medium.
A component has rules; an asset is a file. The button on the website and the button in a deck are different components, because the medium is different. The web set lives in the Website section.
E
Edition
An edition is a single instance of a series, one issue or one episode.
Episode, issue and post are everyday names for editions: an episode is an edition of a podcast series, an issue is an edition of a newsletter.
One edition can be published to several channels; it is still one edition. A one-off is an edition too: its series simply has one edition so far.
Engine
The engine is everything that stays identical for every brand running on it.
Nobody edits the engine for one brand. A change to a regulation or a schema lands for every brand at once.
F
Format
A format is the unit a channel accepts; regulations are scoped here.
The format declares the medium; the channel inherits it. A PDF published on the website is presentation-medium even though the channel is otherwise website-medium.
A format's regulations live on its channel's page, in Social or Channels.
I
Instance
An instance is one brand running on the engine, with its own values.
You are reading By Default's instance. An instance brings its own values, tokens and brand content; regulations and code come from the engine.
M
Media
Media is the name of the field, as in a media company.
Reserve it for the field. Say assets for files, channel for where something publishes, format for what a platform accepts.
Medium
A medium is how something is rendered and viewed; tokens and components are scoped here.
There are four media: website, social, presentation and email. The list is closed; a new channel joins an existing medium.
Not the channel
A channel is where the audience is; a medium is how the thing renders: fluid browser viewport or fixed frame, thumb distance or desk distance. Several channels share one medium: Instagram, LinkedIn, X and TikTok all render fixed-frame feed content, so one set of social tokens serves all four.
The Website case
The worked example is the word Website. The Website section of this system is the medium, where web components and tokens live. The website is also a channel, one of the places the brand meets an audience. Same word at two altitudes, not two meanings: the website channel renders in the website medium.
O
Owned / Rented
Owned or rented describes whether the audience comes with us if we leave.
The test
The test is audience portability: does the relationship come with us? An email list does, so it is owned. An Instagram following does not, so it is rented. Paid placement is rented: the publisher keeps the audience when the campaign ends.
The cascade
Owned or rented cascades from channel to format: if the channel is rented, its formats are rented too; Instagram invented the Reel, not us. The cascade stops at the editorial axis. We rent the channel. We rent the format. We never rent the series. When a platform dies we lose a distribution surface, not the franchise.
R
Regulation
A regulation is what the platform or technology requires; it makes us legal.
Regulations attach to formats, not channels. There is no "Instagram's ratios"; there is Reel: 9:16, ≤90s and carousel: 1:1 or 4:5, ≤10 slides. Owned channels have regulations too; they come from the technology rather than a platform owner: HTML email rendering, the RSS spec, PDF. A regulation is a constraint you don't set. It is always engine, always universal.
When a platform changes a spec, the format's page is what gets updated.
S
Series
A series is a named recurring line of ours, the franchise; it is always owned.
Every series has three things attached to it: a cadence, a named owner, and a template.
Standard
A standard is what we require of our own work; it makes us recognisable.
Standards attach to the series, with brand standards cascading over everything.
Where a standard and a regulation collide, the regulation wins: work that breaks a regulation does not publish.
T
Token
A token is a named design decision; primitives are universal, semantics are per medium.
Never write a hex code; use the token name. --green is a primitive, --text-primary is a semantic, and only semantics go in a layout. The web set lives in Tokens.
Touchpoint
A touchpoint is any surface where someone meets the brand.
For anything we publish to, channel superseded it: if we publish to it, call it a channel. The word stays for the surfaces we don't publish to.