taste:
id: basil-cream
name: Basil Cream
summary: >-
A warm, high-contrast brand aesthetic defined by dense photography, flat dark borders, and
expressive serif typography on a comforting off-white canvas.
app_type: WEBSITE
project_types:
- consumer
styles:
- bold
- warm
industry: food-agriculture
aesthetics:
- bold
- warm
tags:
- bold
- warm
theme:
default_mode: LIGHT_MODE
palette_note: >-
Only the 500 anchor is provided per palette; the full 17-step ramp (100-900) is derived from
it by the system's heuristic shade tool.
palettes:
neutral:
'500': '#767676'
description: Derived from the measured neutral ramp to provide borders, muted text, and structure.
brand:
'500': '#1A5DB6'
description: Vivid cool primary brand anchor, used selectively for high-visibility highlights.
danger:
'500': '#B22535'
warning:
'500': '#FFE34D'
success:
'500': '#067A46'
info:
'500': '#1A5DB6'
accent:
'500': '#CE4500'
colors:
background:
light: '#FAF8F3'
dark: '#0A0A0A'
foreground:
light: '#242424'
dark: '#FAF8F3'
card:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: '#242424'
card-foreground:
light: '#242424'
dark: '#FAF8F3'
popover:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: neutral/900
popover-foreground:
light: '#242424'
dark: neutral/100
primary:
light: '#232323'
dark: neutral/100
primary-foreground:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: '#242424'
secondary:
light: neutral/150
dark: neutral/800
secondary-foreground:
light: neutral/900
dark: neutral/100
muted:
light: neutral/150
dark: neutral/850
muted-foreground:
light: neutral/600
dark: neutral/400
accent:
light: neutral/150
dark: neutral/800
accent-foreground:
light: neutral/900
dark: neutral/100
destructive:
light: danger/650
dark: danger/600
destructive-foreground:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: '#FFFFFF'
border:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/700
input:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/700
ring:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/500
chart-1:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/500
chart-2:
light: accent/500
dark: accent/500
chart-3:
light: success/500
dark: success/500
chart-4:
light: warning/500
dark: warning/500
chart-5:
light: danger/500
dark: danger/500
sidebar:
light: '#FAF8F3'
dark: '#0A0A0A'
sidebar-foreground:
light: '#242424'
dark: '#FAF8F3'
sidebar-primary:
light: '#232323'
dark: neutral/100
sidebar-primary-foreground:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: '#242424'
sidebar-accent:
light: neutral/150
dark: neutral/800
sidebar-accent-foreground:
light: neutral/900
dark: neutral/100
sidebar-border:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/700
sidebar-ring:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/500
radius:
base:
value: 0.5rem
description: Base radius of 8px matching the measured primary buttons and cards.
shadows:
xs:
value: inset 0 0 0 1px rgba(35, 35, 35, 0.1)
sm:
value: 'inset 0 0 0 1px #232323'
md:
value: 'inset 0 0 0 1px #232323'
lg:
value: 'inset 0 0 0 1px #232323, 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.05)'
xl:
value: 'inset 0 0 0 1px #232323, 0 8px 16px rgba(0,0,0,0.08)'
gradients:
edge_fade:
value: 'linear-gradient(90deg, #FAF8F3 0%, #FAF8F300 81%)'
fonts:
sans:
family: DM Sans
description: Highly legible workhorse for dense body copy and UI controls.
display:
family: DM Serif Display
description: Expressive, characterful serif for major headings and hero statements.
mono:
family: Roboto Mono
description: Reserved strictly for data points and metrics.
typography:
hero:
font: display
size_px: 56
line_height_px: 64
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
title:
font: display
size_px: 32
line_height_px: 40
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
heading:
font: sans
size_px: 20
line_height_px: 24
weight: 500
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
body:
font: sans
size_px: 16
line_height_px: 24
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
caption:
font: sans
size_px: 12
line_height_px: 16
weight: 700
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
label:
font: sans
size_px: 14
line_height_px: 20
weight: 500
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
overline:
font: sans
size_px: 12
line_height_px: 16
weight: 700
letter_spacing_em: 0.05
transform: uppercase
style_guidelines:
visual_direction:
title: Visual Direction
recommendations:
- >-
Establish identity through a grounding warm canvas punctuated by flat, stark dark borders
and vibrant cool photography.
- >-
Embrace a compact, tactile UI feel where elevated elements rely on crisp 1px borders
rather than soft dimensional drop shadows.
hierarchy:
title: Hierarchy
recommendations:
- >-
Anchor primary calls to action with solid #232323 fills, ensuring they snap visually
against the warm off-white background.
- >-
Use the DM Serif Display face deliberately for primary storytelling, while dense product
information settles comfortably into DM Sans.
layout:
title: Layout
recommendations:
- >-
Implement split-screen hero sections where clear typography rests beside vivid
photography, prioritizing credibility over text-on-image struggles.
- >-
Maintain a measured rhythm with generous 32px section gaps and 24px page padding to give
dense image grids ample room to breathe.
components:
title: Components
recommendations:
- >-
Ensure primary buttons strictly follow the 48px height, 8px radius, and solid dark fill to
reinforce a consistent interaction model.
- >-
Define card boundaries with solid inset flat borders (#232323) to uphold the brand's
graphic, print-inspired crispness.
typography:
title: Typography
recommendations:
- >-
Keep display sizing moderate (capping at 56px) so headings remain tightly composed and
legible alongside rich media.
- >-
Reserve bold weights (700) exclusively for caption and overline levels to create crisp,
high-contrast microcopy.
color_and_effects:
title: Color & Effects
recommendations:
- >-
Deploy the signature soft white fade gradient exclusively as an edge scrim for imagery or
section transitions, never as a standalone background.
- >-
Utilize the vivid brand blue and warm accent colors sparingly to highlight badges, icons,
and interactive states against the neutral foundation.
quality_bar:
title: Quality Bar
checks:
- id: split-screen-hero-clarity
label: Hero Composition
recommendation: >-
Ensure the hero uses a split-screen layout keeping text clearly separated from the
imagery, establishing immediate brand credibility.
- id: stark-cta-contrast
label: CTA Contrast
recommendation: >-
Verify that all primary calls to action use the dark #232323 fill and maintain striking
contrast against the #FAF8F3 background.
- id: flat-border-definition
label: Flat Surface Boundaries
recommendation: >-
Check that cards and elevated surfaces are defined by crisp 1px inset dark borders rather
than soft, blurred drop shadows.
- id: image-density-richness
label: Photography Presence
recommendation: >-
Confirm the page provides ample slots for dense, authentic photography to carry the
emotional and product narrative.
- id: typographic-moderation
label: Display Scale
recommendation: >-
Ensure DM Serif Display headings remain at a manageable, moderate scale (≤56px) to
preserve vertical rhythm and a compact feel.
active_remix:
mode: light
brand: '#1A5DB6'
display_font: DM Serif Display
shape: system
depth: system
spacing: system
spacing_value: null
craft: >
# Craft (universal core + conditional craft)
How to apply this design system well. These rules contain no brand look of their own — all
per-system character comes from the tokens and taste notes above; this section only governs
how they are composed. **Precedence:** the design system above is the authority on how things
look — where its own notes conflict with a rule here, the design system wins. And the user's
request is the authority on what the screen IS — notes above that describe the source
product's screens (workspaces, dashboards, panels) are its aesthetic heritage, not an
instruction to build that kind of screen.
## Universal — applies to every screen (screen-agnostic craft)
- **Surface definition.** Every container is visually separable from what it sits on — at least
one
honest edge cue: a hairline border, a ≥4% tonal step from its parent, or a real shadow. Never a card
whose fill matches its section with no border; never nested surfaces that dissolve together.
- **Accent discipline.** The brand/primary color is a scalpel, not paint: spend it on the primary
action, the active/selected/focused state, and at most **one** brand or data highlight per screen.
Everything else rides neutral background / card / muted / border tokens. A screen flooded with brand
color reads unfinished, not bold.
- **Restraint ledger.** Beauty is also what you don't do: at most one glow and two gradient
directions
screen-wide; decoration only where content doesn't reach; no ornament between a heading and its own
action. Every decorative element must answer "what does this make clearer or more felt?" — if the
answer is "nothing," remove it.
- **Type with intent.** The measured faces/scale are fixed; character comes from *usage*, and the
move
must fit the surface — a marketing page earns a dramatic display move; a working screen earns a
crisp, tight, legible hierarchy at UI scale (display-hero type on a dense tool is a smell). Chrome
and wayfinding are never display type; data numerals are tabular (mono or sans), never the
decorative face. Headings stay roman — italics live as emphasis inside running text, not as
display styling (unless the system's own type says otherwise).
- **Anti-default.** If the screen could pass for a generic template with the colors swapped, it is
not
done. Make the brand unmistakable through the accent's *use*, the type, the radius + density, and
**one** signature detail — never by importing another surface's clichés.
- **Honest content.** Never invent proof — no made-up adoption counts, growth percentages,
testimonials, client logos, or awards. Use the user's real content, a neutral placeholder, or
leave the element out and let the layout carry it. Never hand-draw fake browser bars, phone
frames, or editor chrome around content — show the content itself, or nothing.
- **Interaction integrity.** Buttons, links, tabs, and nav labels never wrap to two lines; display
headlines wrap cleanly, never clipping mid-word; nothing overflows horizontally at any width;
keyboard focus gets an instant, clearly visible ring.
- **Token fidelity.** Every design value comes from a token: colors, radii, shadows, and fonts
from
the system's variables — never a literal hex, a hand-picked shadow, or a substitute font. For a
translucent or composited value (a scrim, a glow, a hairline over a fill), derive it from a token
(an opacity modifier or color-mix), never a literal rgba. If the system specifies square corners and
a hard shadow, the screen shows square corners and that hard shadow — not a rounded, soft substitute.
## Conditional — apply ONLY the layer that matches the screen the user asked for
**First name the screen honestly from the user's prompt.** Then apply the matching guidance. Do
not
cross layers, and **do not add elements from a layer the screen doesn't call for** — a screen that
is
not a data view must not sprout KPI tiles, charts, filter bars, or data tables to satisfy a
template.
- **If it's a data / dashboard / admin / table view:** density done well (comfortable rows, tight
control clusters, one spacing rhythm); a populated working state (real rows/cards, not empty feature
boxes); tables with aligned tabular numerals, status as badges, row hover, one visible selected row,
and control states that agree with the data shown. KPI tiles, *if the screen has them*, are
value + label + delta. **At most one** chart, of a real metric for this domain, token-colored and
axis-labeled — never a decorative sine wave or filler sparkline. Exactly one unambiguous primary
action.
- **If it's a focused task / tool / player / capture / monitor / form / wizard (not a data
view):**
the screen's real job dominates the frame; chrome recedes. Honor the screen's own nature — a player
looks like a player, a monitor like a monitor, a form like a form — with the design system's color,
type, radius, and depth applied to *those* elements. **No dashboard furniture**: no KPI tiles, no
charts, no data tables, no filter chrome unless the task itself is about that data. Real-time or
safety-critical readouts get calm, unambiguous, high-legibility treatment over decoration.
- **If it's a marketing / landing surface:** editorial art direction belongs here — section rhythm
(modulate surface temperature, density, and scale; one oversized moment; at least one full-bleed
band) and considered visual treatments. Never put this on a working app screen.
- **Mobile:** follow the platform's native idioms for the screen's type (e.g. an app screen:
compact
top bar, one focused column, a bottom tab bar, ≥44px targets, safe areas) — the same conditional
rules above still decide what content belongs.
## Imagery (universal)
- **Imagery is content, not decoration** on working screens: images are data (covers, products,
avatars, places) in purposeful containers, one consistent treatment across siblings — never a lone
photo floating in a box, never marketing's decorative fades on a work screen. When a moment needs
atmosphere, build it from the token system (tinted panels, token gradients, geometry).
