taste:
id: cream-serif-2
name: Cream Serif
summary: >-
A warm, editorial storefront emphasizing high-density lifestyle imagery, delicate uniform-light
typography, and flat-bordered cream surfaces.
app_type: WEBSITE
project_types:
- ecommerce
styles:
- editorial
- warm
- premium
industry: retail-consumer
aesthetics:
- editorial
- warm
- premium
tags:
- editorial
- warm
- premium
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: Measured neutral anchor for muted text and subtle borders
brand:
'500': '#22211F'
description: Measured brand dark for high-contrast primary actions
danger:
'500': '#991B1B'
warning:
'500': '#D97706'
success:
'500': '#166534'
info:
'500': '#1E40AF'
colors:
background:
light: '#F5F2EE'
dark: '#0A0A0A'
foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: '#F5F2EE'
card:
light: '#F5F2EE'
dark: '#0A0A0A'
card-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: '#F5F2EE'
popover:
light: '#FFFFFF'
dark: neutral/900
popover-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: neutral/100
primary:
light: '#22211F'
dark: '#F5F2EE'
primary-foreground:
light: '#F5F2EE'
dark: '#22211F'
secondary:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/800
secondary-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: neutral/100
muted:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/800
muted-foreground:
light: '#6D6B6A'
dark: neutral/400
accent:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/800
accent-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: neutral/100
destructive:
light: danger/600
dark: danger/500
destructive-foreground:
light: danger/100
dark: '#0A0A0A'
border:
light: neutral/300
dark: neutral/700
input:
light: neutral/300
dark: neutral/700
ring:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/300
chart-1:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/300
chart-2:
light: neutral/500
dark: neutral/400
chart-3:
light: neutral/700
dark: neutral/200
chart-4:
light: neutral/300
dark: neutral/600
chart-5:
light: brand/700
dark: brand/100
sidebar:
light: '#F5F2EE'
dark: '#0A0A0A'
sidebar-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: '#F5F2EE'
sidebar-primary:
light: '#22211F'
dark: '#F5F2EE'
sidebar-primary-foreground:
light: '#F5F2EE'
dark: '#22211F'
sidebar-accent:
light: neutral/200
dark: neutral/800
sidebar-accent-foreground:
light: '#0A0A0A'
dark: neutral/100
sidebar-border:
light: neutral/300
dark: neutral/700
sidebar-ring:
light: brand/500
dark: brand/300
radius:
base:
value: 0.625rem
description: Base 10px radius derived from measured lg corners
shadows:
xs:
value: none
sm:
value: none
md:
value: none
lg:
value: none
xl:
value: none
gradients: {}
fonts:
sans:
family: DM Sans
description: UI body and controls
display:
family: Bricolage Grotesque
description: Headings and hero
mono:
family: JetBrains Mono
description: Code and metrics
typography:
hero:
font: display
size_px: 42
line_height_px: 51
weight: 300
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
title:
font: display
size_px: 32
line_height_px: 40
weight: 300
letter_spacing_em: -0.01
transform: none
heading:
font: display
size_px: 20
line_height_px: 24
weight: 300
letter_spacing_em: -0.024
transform: none
body:
font: sans
size_px: 14
line_height_px: 20
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
caption:
font: sans
size_px: 12
line_height_px: 16
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
label:
font: sans
size_px: 14
line_height_px: 20
weight: 400
letter_spacing_em: 0
transform: none
overline:
font: sans
size_px: 12
line_height_px: 16
weight: 600
letter_spacing_em: 0.08
transform: uppercase
style_guidelines:
visual_direction:
title: Visual Direction
recommendations:
- >-
Establish an editorial lifestyle atmosphere using flat-bordered surfaces, generous cream
margins, and delicate uniform-light typography.
- >-
Rely on dense, immersive photography rather than complex UI elements to carry the brand's
emotional weight.
- >-
Use dark, high-contrast primary action fills against the warm cream canvas to ground the
layout and drive conversion.
hierarchy:
title: Hierarchy
recommendations:
- >-
Lead with the measured 42px lightweight display type on the first screen to set an
immediate premium editorial tone.
- >-
Prioritize social proof and image credibility in the page flow, letting high-quality
photography dominate the visual hierarchy.
- >-
Keep secondary information muted and small to maintain a clean, uncluttered retail
browsing experience.
layout:
title: Layout
recommendations:
- >-
Structure content across a 4-column grid spanning up to a 1375px maximum width to maintain
elegant proportions.
- >-
Apply generous section gaps (60px) and page padding (35px) to give product photography
breathing room.
- >-
Avoid alternating section background colors unless absolutely necessary to tell the brand
story, favoring a continuous cream flow.
components:
title: Components
recommendations:
- >-
Implement fully rounded pill-shaped buttons (100px radius) for primary calls to action to
contrast with the flat-bordered cards.
- >-
Define interactive surfaces with thin 1px flat borders rather than shadows, preserving the
strictly flat design system.
- >-
Maintain specific image slot densities, reproducing the rich 39+ thumbnail environment of
the reference product.
typography:
title: Typography
recommendations:
- >-
Deploy the display font exclusively in lightweight (300) variations to capture the brand's
distinctive delicate voice.
- >-
Ensure the transition from dramatic large headings down to standard 14px body copy feels
intentional and uncrowded.
- >-
Never inflate font weights for emphasis; rely on size scaling and placement to draw the
reader's eye.
color_and_effects:
title: Color & Effects
recommendations:
- Use the exact measured hex
- >-
Strictly prohibit drop shadows or glow effects; depth is created purely through flat
borders and photography.
- >-
Reserve pure white only for elevated popovers or deliberate contrast moments, letting the
cream surface act as the true neutral.
quality_bar:
title: Quality Bar
checks:
- id: hero-promise-clarity
label: Hero Promise Clarity
recommendation: >-
The hero must feature a text-on-image scrim or split layout that clearly articulates the
lifestyle promise using the 42px lightweight display font.
- id: cta-contrast-check
label: CTA Contrast & Shape
recommendation: >-
Primary buttons must clearly stand out against the cream background using the deep brand
dark (#22211F) and strictly adhere to the 100px pill radius.
- id: section-rhythm-spacing
label: Section Rhythm & Padding
recommendation: >-
Whitespace between distinct sections must honor the generous 60px measured gap, avoiding
cramped vertical flows.
- id: image-density-credibility
label: Image Density & Credibility
recommendation: >-
The layout must support dense, high-quality photographic grids rather than sparse
single-image columns, mimicking a rich editorial catalog.
- id: flat-border-consistency
label: Flat Border Consistency
recommendation: >-
All separated surfaces and cards must rely exclusively on thin 1px borders and 10px radii
without any shadow artifacts.
- id: typography-weight-discipline
label: Typography Weight Discipline
recommendation: >-
Headings must universally retain their delicate 300 weight, ensuring the brand's
typographic voice is never overridden by generic bolding.
active_remix:
mode: light
brand: '#22211F'
display_font: Bricolage Grotesque
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).
