Built on your picks: carbon base, ember accent, cool paper-grey for light surfaces, one sanctioned gradient, accent held to ~15% of any surface. Where you said "decide for me": one primary accent (ember) plus one cool counterpoint (teal — for links, data, and info states, so ember stays special), and a small functional set because Dynamics dashboards and invoices will need it.
Ember deep → ember → amber. One hue family, so it can never read as Meta. Reserved for the logo ring and at most one CTA per surface; never a background.
Links, chart series, info states. Same lightness discipline as ember, opposite temperature — and a quiet nod to the Microsoft world without borrowing its blue.
Amber doubles as warning so the set stays small. Info = Tide. Chart order: Ember, Tide, Amber, Steel, Tide Deep.
Neutrals carry the brand; ember is jewelry capped at ~15% of any composition; tide appears only where function demands it.
In print, gradients resolve to solid Ember Deep (#C05A1E) — richer on paper than bright ember.
The shortlist: 2a Three Sixty Five, 2b The Perfect O, 2c The Seal, 2f The Dot, and 2g Triad. Everything else has been removed. No mark carries a line off the circle. All five now wear the Carbon & Ember palette defined above.
Heavier ring, tighter overshoot. The extra arc rides the circle's own curvature — orbit, not spoke. Ember→amber gradient in digital; solid ember in print.
Stroke weight matches the type's stem width exactly, so the circle sits in the word as a letter — until you look closely and see it's geometrically perfect. The lone ring is the favicon.
Thin ring, large numerals — less badge, more hallmark. Best on proposals, certificates, and report covers; now rendered in ember on carbon per the defined palette.
The quietest and boldest lead: a filled circle sitting after the name like a system-status indicator — operations, live, 365 days. The ember dot alone becomes the app icon and can pulse in digital contexts.
The circle broken into three equal arcs — a continuous operational cycle. The segments animate naturally (a rotating loader in product UI) and each phase can label a service line in collateral.