light · sans · serif · technical · minimal · monochrome
DESIGN.md inspired by Cognition
Research-lab monochrome — warm off-white, grotesk display, serif body, sharp 0px black.
By webdesignhot · cognition.ai ↗
$ npx @webdesignhot/design-md add cognition
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Aave Ghost-soft DeFi — lavender #978fff on white, custom Aave Repro sans, pastel gradients in a usually-brutalist lending space. Accenture Dark hero, white Graphik, and one electric purple — the `>` greater-than mark made into a whole consulting brand. '#a600ff' is always moving forward. Adidas Pure-black sport-utility, AdihausDIN/adidasFG uppercase, three-stripe geometry — the engineering canon for global sportswear. Adobe Creative-suite chrome — paper-white canvas, magenta-to-orange wordmark gradient, and Adobe Clean carrying every product grid. Aesop Monochrome-warm apothecary — ivory canvas, charcoal type, Suisse Int'l set small, 0px corners. Affirm Honest-money fintech in the dark — indigo #4a4af4 CTAs at near-pill 96px radius, light-weight white headlines, no fine print. AgentKit Three swappable themes for AI agent products — editorial dark, daylight bright, fintech cool-blue. Airbnb Pure-white marketplace canvas with one Rausch coral and Cereal — generous photography, soft pills, modest type. Airtable White-canvas editorial workflow software with full-bleed coral and forest signature cards punctuating a near-black pill-CTA system. Alibaba Electric orange `#ff6a00` + dense merchant grids — the global B2B wholesale floor as a website. Allbirds Oatmeal-canvas eco-minimalism — Geograph sans on warm Amazon Smile-orange CTA, Amazon Ember sans, dense product grids — the canonical everything-store interface. Amazon Web Services Squid-ink navy with Smile-orange CTAs — the densest tile-portal on the cloud-platform internet. American Express White-canvas premium-restraint membership UI — signature Amex Blue accent, near-black editorial type, concierge-tier hierarchy. Amplitude Light-canvas digital-analytics surface — IBM Plex Sans, grey #565656 body, black full-pill CTAs and a signature #1e61f0 blue. Anthropic Editorial broadsheet for AI safety — cream canvas, Anthropic Serif body, terracotta clay accent, magazine geometry. Anytype Pure-black canvas, white ink, and a multi-color 'any' palette — a local-first, encrypted knowledge base that turns privacy into a colorful object. Apple White-canvas product theatre — SF Pro Text, 980px pill CTAs, and a single-blue accent system. Apple Music Pink-red gradient hero with album-grid kinesthetics — SF Pro precision, signature `#fa233b` brand pink, glassy dark canvas. Apple TV+ Pure-black cinematic theatre with SF Pro and ruthless minimalism — content as the only voice. Arbitrum Arbitrum Blue on white — Layer 2 chain marketing with Inter sans, structured grids, sophisticated-restraint contrasted with Solana's cinematic. Arc Browser-as-personality marketing — buttery cream canvas, Marlin Soft display, hand-tooled blue-and-coral palette. Are.na Bare grey-and-orange minimalism — a single Helvetica-class sans, hairline borders, and a stubborn refusal to optimise for engagement. Asana Approachable work management in soft purple — Asana Sans at modest weights with a rainbow accent palette and warm sky-tinted whitespace. Astro Cosmos navy canvas with violet-to-orange brand gradient — Mona Sans display, Inter body, Astro''s star-chart MPA framework dressed as an observatory dashboard. ASUS Republic of Gamers red `#cd0000` on black with bold sans — Taiwan engineering meets esports brutalism. Atlassian Enterprise-blue corporate canvas — signature Atlassian Blue, Charlie display type, four-product mark. Audi Vorsprung durch Technik on near-black — Audi Type sans, four-rings precision, and a near-monochrome canvas with `#bb0a30` reserved for sport. Auth0 Twilight-blue dark canvas with TWK Lausanne 300 display + Aeonik body — the original identity-platform aesthetic. Away Editorial travel-luggage DTC — Graphik on white, photography-led, sharp 0px white CTAs over dark hero imagery. Axiom Deep-navy observability with a cyan electric accent — Inter for body, JetBrains Mono for every event label, and a structural grid that reads as logs at planet scale. Axios Smart-brevity in chromatic form — blocky white canvas, Tiempos-flavored Atiza serif, signature `Why it matters:` time-bars and bullet-first prose. Bandcamp Bandcamp Cyan + Helvetica — indie-music marketplace honesty, no streaming-platform polish, no algorithmic carousels. Base Coinbase-adjacent L2 minimalism — coinbaseSans on white, signature electric blue Baseten White canvas with Inter and a signature `#6c5ce7` purple — ML model deployment dressed in approachable workshop chrome. BBC News Signature BBC red (`#bb1919`), Reith Sans + Reith Serif, the global broadcaster authority typography of the world''s public-service news. Bear Off-white canvas, a custom bearsans display, a red bear icon, and tealish handwritten underlines — a Markdown notes app dressed as a Mac Pro magazine. beehiiv Aggressive black-on-yellow newsletter punch — heavy display sans, hyper-flat cards, and a `#ffd60a` highway-yellow that reads like a tabloid front page. Best Buy Yellow price-tag mark, electric blue trust, bold sans — big-box electronics design with Geek-Squad confidence. Binance Trading-floor near-black with a single high-voltage Binance Yellow doing all the brand work — BinanceNova for type, BinancePlex for numbers. Biome A white-canvas Rust toolchain page where one deep azure blue does all the work. Black Forest Labs Frontier-lab monochrome — stark white canvas, dark hero, near-black green-tint type, Instrument Sans at 500 throughout. Bloomberg Iconic black-orange financial broadsheet — BWHaasHead headlines, AvenirNextPForBBG chrome, terminal-grade data density. Bluesky Sky-blue `#0085ff` on bright white with Inter sans — the AT-Protocol social network rendered as airy, federated, open. Blur Pure-black canvas, neon `#ff8700` orange voltage, and JetBrains-Mono-default everywhere — brutalist NFT trader terminal as competitive instrument. BMW Corporate-blue calm — BMW Type Next on a cream-tinted white, dark navy hero bands, and the M-stripe triplet in reserve. BMW M Performance black on M-blue/M-violet/M-red — the motorsport variant that turns BMW corporate into track-day theatre. Bolt An electric-blue command line for the web — StackBlitz's AI builder on a near-black #1e1e21 canvas, Inter Display, builder's register. Booking.com Deep-blue commerce engine — Bookin Sans on white, yellow CTA voltage, dense booking-funnel maximalism. Booking.com Booking Blue + signal yellow — the deal-finder design language at maximum density, optimized for conversion not contemplation. Bose Pure black canvas, Helvetica restraint, and premium-audio confidence — sound presented as engineering art. Brex Cool grey-blue surfaces, magenta-to-purple-to-indigo gradient, Söhne 600 — fintech as fast, modern, slightly flashy. Brilliant STEM education with playful diagram-energy — warm coral CTA on near-black, custom Brilliant Sans, illustrated geometry as hero. Bugatti French-engineered austerity — pure black canvas, three Bugatti typefaces, and full-bleed photography as the only voltage. Bun Cream canvas with chunky pink accents and the wide-eyed mascot — a JS runtime dressed as a 1970s bakery sign. Buttondown Indie newsletter software in heavy 900-weight Auto Pro — electric `#0069ff` pill CTAs and soft-yellow highlights on a pure-white canvas. Cal.com Open-source calendly with one bold custom font — Cal Sans on a soft `#f4f4f4` paper canvas. Calm Signature `#0066ff` deep blue + Aktiv Grotesk + meditation-deep cool atmospheric calm. Calm Mindfulness in a serif — Calm Cream canvas, soft moonlit blue and forest green, Visby Round display, breathing-pace motion. Capacities Cream-yellow canvas, Inter at 700 with a Crimson Pro serif fallback, and a yellow underline as page ornament — a PKM that thinks like a sketchbook. Capital One Confident-accessible banking — navy authority, one red swoosh, 2px-sharp blue. Captions Near-white studio canvas, an Exposure display, and a violet brand keyed off a full crayon-box of CSS color vars. Caraway Wholesome non-toxic-cookware DTC — Suisse Works serif on warm off-white, deep teal-green pill CTAs, pastel colorway palette. Cartesia Bright clinical white with a single deep-blue action — voice-AI presented as scientific instrument rather than consumer product. Cash App Electric `#00d54b` green on near-black, Cash Sans monospace-flavoured geometry, and p2p-money youth aesthetic. Casper Cozy DTC sleep brand — Casper navy/indigo ink (`#1e306e`) on a pure-white canvas, deep-navy `#012169` pill CTAs at 32px radius, Calibre body under New Kansas friendly-serif display. Premium that tucks you in. Character.AI Cool zinc canvas, custom atHauss sans, and dark pill CTAs — a roleplay social product dressed in TikTok-grade neutrality. Chase Trust-institutional banking UI — white canvas, near-black ink, bright-blue primary + green secondary CTAs in Open Sans. Chevrolet Gold-cross American classic — Louis sans on white with a `#cd9834` bowtie, a `#003876` corporate blue, and Camaro/Corvette red drama in reserve. CircleCI Light-content CI/CD platform — near-black hero, Inter sans, navy chrome with a restrained CircleCI-green accent. ClassPass Wellness-marketplace energy — coral-pink CTA on warm white, GT America sans, photographed-class-as-hero pattern. Claude.ai Cream paper canvas, Anthropic Sans for body and Anthropic Serif for the headline — an AI assistant set in literary type. Clerk Geist + Suisse on near-black canvas with `#6c47ff` violet CTA — the drop-in-auth dev-tool aesthetic. ClickHouse Near-pure black canvas with electric yellow as the brand voltage — database performance dressed in voltmeter chrome. Cloudflare Infrastructure-grade calm — white canvas, dark hero band, FT Kunst Grotesk, signature Cloudflare orange, full-pill CTAs. Cloudinary Media-API technical infrastructure in confident blue — Inter at modest weights with a deep navy-blue brand and a single chromatic accent for media moments. Coda White-canvas productivity surface — Calibre display over Inter body, near-black UI with a single confident #0066ff blue and warm-cream callouts. CodeRabbit Near-black AI-review canvas — warm CodeRabbit orange accent, Plus Jakarta Sans, sharp 4px white CTAs. CodeSandbox Pale-lime electricity on a Cohere Stark white editorial canvas with deep green-black product bands and a CohereText/Unica77 type split. Coinbase Institutional-grade calm — pure white canvas, a single Coinbase Blue, and Coinbase Display set at weight 400 instead of 700. Composio Near-black canvas with deep-electric-blue voltage and a 2x2 terminal-mockup hero — agent infrastructure dressed as developer instrumentation. Convex Warm cream canvas, near-black ink, GT America — a reactive backend that dresses like a broadsheet. Corsair Yellow `#ffff00` lightning on black with Roboto — RGB-everything peripherals and PC components. Costco Warehouse blue + signature red, Helvetica utilitarian — bulk-buying signage translated to web. Coursera University-blue `#0056d2` on warm-white parchment with Source Sans — the canonical online-degree marketplace. Craft Warm-white canvas, an Untitled Serif display over Untitled Sans body, near-black ink, and full-pill CTAs — a notes app dressed as a fine-press editorial. Cursor Warm cream IDE-marketing — `#f7f7f4` canvas, `#26251e` ink, custom CursorGothic display, JetBrains Mono code, vivid orange accent. CVS Health CVS-red heart on a clean white canvas — custom CVS Sans, near-black ink, trustworthy healthcare clarity. Databricks Signature Databricks Red Datadog NationalWeb on white with the iconic `#632ca6` purple — observability dressed as an enterprise dashboard, structurally dense, chromatically restrained, multicolour where the data demands it. dbt Labs dbt orange Deel A warm dark canvas with electric coral and orange accents — global payroll dressed as a confident product portrait. DeepSeek Deep-blue Chinese-tech minimalism — a research lab dressed in `#4d6bfe` and stark white space. Deliveroo Deliveroo Teal on white — food-delivery design at maximum saturation, custom Roo Sans, kangaroo-mark mascot energy. Dell Pragmatic blue `#007db8` with custom Roboto-derivative — business-first PC commerce since the dorm room. Deloitte Big-4 gravitas — pure-white canvas, true-black ink, Open Sans at light 300, and the signature green dot. Delta Air Lines Whitney sans on near-white, Delta navy + signal red — the Hartsfield-Jackson aircraft livery translated to web typography. Deno Inkwell black on warm white with the dinosaur mascot — TypeScript runtime as Eric Carle children's book. Descript Cream-pink canvas, a custom Brett display serif, and a wine-dark CTA — an AI video editor that ships like a magazine. Discord Indigo-ground hangout — gg sans body, ABC Ginto Nord display, 12-16px tile radii, white pill CTAs. Disney+ Deep navy gradient streaming hall with custom Inspire display sans and the unmistakable Disney+ wordmark arc. DoorDash Signature red-orange CTA, custom DoorDash Sans, delivery-funnel commerce — the dominant on-demand local marketplace. Drizzle ORM Near-monochrome white canvas, dark #282b3b controls, and one signature lime-green serpent (#c5f74f) — a no-magic TypeScript ORM. Duolingo Owl-green confidence and DIN-Round buttons that lift like candy — the gamified language app distilled to four colors and one mascot. dYdX Pure-black canvas, Satoshi-compressed display, and one signature indigo-purple #7774ff CTA — a pro-trader perps terminal as a brand. Dyson Engineering-greyscale on white — Dyson Futura Light at 44px (weight `300`, never bold), body ink `#333` not pure black, zero-radius CTAs with a fluid-dynamics ripple hover, and a single magenta accent reserved for haircare. The web brand of an engineering company that refuses to look like a marketing site. ElevenLabs Near-black voice-tech ground with white voice-wave aesthetic — Inter at studio scale, pill CTAs, and a single saturated accent that reads as both wayfinding and brand. Emirates Custom-serif luxury — Emirates red on light grey, gold accents, Fly Better editorial calm. Epic Games Pure-black canvas with custom Brutal Type / Heading Now display — Fortnite-saturated marketing meets PC-storefront merchandising. Ethereum Off-white canvas, ethereum-blue `#1c64f2` voltage, and Inter + serif duet — community-owned protocol as open documentation. Etsy Burnt-orange CTA, Graphik humanist sans, handcrafted-warmth aesthetic — the marketplace for makers and small batch. Everlane Pure white canvas, Maison Neue Book, near-black ink — radical-transparency DTC minimalism. Excalidraw Literal hand-drawn whiteboard — wobbly SVG strokes, Virgil-style handwriting, and a deliberately primitive UI that turns digital sketching into nostalgia. Expedia Navy commerce + Mango yellow voltage — Expedia Sans, dense travel-funnel density with One Key loyalty colour-coding. fal Pure white canvas, focal display at 120px, and near-black #252527 CTAs — generative-AI inference at editorial scale. Fantastical White paper, Effra geometric sans, full-round blue pills, and a rainbow of app-icon glass squares — a calendar app marketed like Apple''s Pro Apps. Ferrari Cinematic editorial in near-black — Rosso Corsa restraint, FerrariSans 500, and full-bleed cavallino photography. Figma Bright multi-color section bands with figmaSans display and figmaMono eyebrows — a marketing site that designs in scenes. Financial Times Salmon-pink page (`#fff1e5`) — the world''s most recognizable newspaper background, paired with Financier display + MetricWeb sans for global markets coverage. Fireworks AI Light canvas with Inter sans and a signature `#6720ff` purple-amber-orange spark — fast-inference platform dressed in speed-of-light kinetic chrome. Fly.io Mackinac display + Fragment Mono on a violet-saturated canvas — a PaaS that dresses like a small-press magazine. Ford American-truck heritage in corporate blue — Antenna sans, oval-script wordmark, and a deep `#003478` voltage that has carried the brand since 1927. Fortnite Battle-royale design at maximum saturation — neon yellow + electric blue on near-black, Burbank Big condensed display, season-driven brand kaleidoscope. Framer Black-on-white maximalism with electric gradient floods — Inter Display at heroic sizes, motion as a first-class material. Frontegg PP Neue Machina display + Neue Montreal body — plug-and-play user-management with deep-blue gravitas. Gemini (Google) Blue-into-violet gradient, Google Sans, soft Material 3 surfaces — Google''s house style applied to a chat interface. Ghost Warm-cream content CMS aesthetic — Inter for chrome, a soft serif for the writing surface, and a single confident green for action. GitHub Dark-canvas developer-platform marketing — Mona Sans variable headings, lime-green accent, near-black ground. GitHub Copilot Pure-white canvas, pure-black inverted CTAs, Mona Sans display — GitHub's editorial confidence applied to AI tooling. GitLab Light DevOps-platform marketing — GitLab Sans, near-black ink, oversized 96px headlines, tanuki-orange accent. Gitpod Editorial dev-tool calm — light canvas, near-black navy text, ABC Diatype sans + Martina Plantijn serif, 8px radius. Glean White enterprise canvas, near-black indigo headlines, and one electric Glif Near-black Manrope on near-white, anchored by one confident green CTA — a playful creative-agent canvas. Glossier Post-pink austerity — white canvas, single-family Apercu, 0px radius rectangles. The brand that invented millennial-pink chrome in 2014 has retired pink to a footer wash and a single badge color. Grafana Dark observability canvas with the iconic `#f46800` orange — Inter for body, Roboto Mono everywhere a label hides, multi-colour chart palette ripped straight from a real dashboard. Granola White paper, a custom Quadrant book serif, and an olive-green CTA — an AI notepad that dresses like a stationery shop. Graphite Near-black developer canvas — Matter type, near-white ink, one clean blue, 8px CTAs. Graza Squeeze-bottle olive-oil DTC — quirky GT Alpina Typewriter on peachy-cream, olive type, chartreuse-lime CTAs at 32px. Groq Warm off-white canvas, light-weight Space Grotesk, and a single hot `#f43e01` orange — speed-obsessed AI inference. Grubhub Friendly red-orange CTA, Sentinel display + Avenir body, dense delivery-app commerce — the long-running incumbent. Gumroad Hot pink `#ff90e8` on cream, ABC Favorit at 96px, hard black borders and offset shadows — neo-brutalist creator commerce. Gymshark Pure white canvas, black ink, Montserrat bold display over Roboto body — every CTA a fully-rounded 56px pill. Harvey Counsel-grade dark — warm near-black canvas, custom serif display, ivory CTA, sharp 4px monochrome. HashiCorp Black canvas hosting a per-product color portfolio — Terraform purple, Vault yellow, Consul red, Waypoint cyan — multi-product identity made literal. Hashnode Developer publishing platform — deep navy canvas, electric blue brand, Inter sans + JetBrains Mono code chrome. HBO Max Deep purple-black premium streaming canvas with custom Sharp Grotesk and the unmistakable Max wordmark. Headspace Signature `#ffac1d` orange + custom round display + meditation-friendly playful warmth. Height AI-PM workspace dressed in chalk pastels — Inter at modest weights over a near-paper canvas, with a single confident accent and an AI-purple voltage moment. HEY Warm-white canvas, deep purple-ink, and a crayon-box of saturated pastels — opinionated email dressed as a friendly poster. HeyGen Clean white canvas, ABC Solar Display headlines, and an electric-cyan #00c3ff CTA with black text — consumer-AI video, friendly and bright. Hilton Hilton Blue on white — confident-contemporary hospitality with Söhne-adjacent sans, blue-on-white photography-led layouts. Honda Reliability-first restraint — HondaGlobalFont on white, signature red HP Cyan-blue `#0096d6` HP-circle on white with Forma DJR — the 84-year-old technology brand''s mainstream face. HubSpot Warm coral-orange (#FF7A59) on a near-white canvas, a humanist sans set generous and round, and a brand voice that turned inbound marketing into a methodology. Hugging Face AI community canvas — deep blue-black ground, Source Sans Pro headlines, pill auth + 8px tile cards. Hulu Near-black canvas anchored on Hulu Green `#1ce783` with Graphik sans — the bright, cable-meets-streaming UI. Hume AI Warm cream canvas, custom Fellix type, and near-black pill CTAs — voice-AI research presented with humanist calm rather than tech coldness. Hyperliquid Near-black IBM Carbon Design System made literal — pure-white canvas, IBM Plex Sans at light 300, square corners, and one assertive `#0f62fe` blue. Ideogram A bright white canvas with a single saturated violet cue — a typography-first AI image tool that lets the gallery do all the talking. IKEA Yellow `#ffdb00` on blue `#0058a3`, Noto IKEA sans, Swedish-democratic-design retail at planetary scale. Inngest Durable workflows on a near-black canvas — Whyte display, muted gold CTAs, sharp 0px edges. Instacart Grocery-shopping-list practical — Instacart Sans on white, signature carrot green Intercom Cream canvas, near-black Saans display, and electric-cobalt JetBlue JetBlue Blue on white — friendly aviation with a custom rounded sans, Mint cabin orange accent, lower-case microcopy. Jupiter Jupiter lime on near-black — Solana DeFi aggregator with Inter, a cat-in-space mascot, and playful pill-CTA energy. Kagi A premium search engine dressed in warm cream and Plex — the indie answer to ad-funded search. KAYAK Burnt-orange flight-search density — Open Sans on white, comparison-engine maximalism, price-graph data viz. Khan Academy Signature `#14bf96` mint green on white with Lato sans — free-for-everyone education in a warm, encouraging register. Kinde White canvas with Inter 72/500 display + dev-friendly pink-coral accent — the approachable auth-billing-access platform. Kit A cream newsletter canvas with a custom KitSans display, a Libre Franklin secondary, and a pastel-rainbow chip set — the editorial register reborn from ConvertKit. Klarna Klarna PINK `#ffa8cd` on white, near-black navy `#0b051d` ink, Klarna Title at billboard scale. Kraken Kraken Purple `#7132f5` on white — Kraken-Brand display + Kraken-Product UI for a calmer, less-bombastic crypto exchange. Krea A pure-black studio with Suisse Intl set quietly at 60px — a creative-AI gallery that lets the work and the cobalt CTA carry the colour. Lambda Near-black Lamborghini Cathedral of darkness — true black canvas, Lamborghini Gold accents, and LamboType angled-terminal display. LangChain Deep navy canvas with Inter precision and a quietly confident teal accent — agent orchestration dressed as engineering documentation. Ledger White canvas, Inter at rest, and one unmistakable Ledger Orange on full-pill CTAs — security made calm. Lego Lego Yellow + Red on white — primary-color toy theatre, custom Lego Sans, brick-as-hero photography. Lemon Squeezy A dark hero with white Circular display, signature lemon-yellow Leonardo.Ai A pure-black cinematic canvas where ufficioDisplay headlines and white full-pill CTAs frame generative imagery — a film studio's title card, Canva-owned. Linear Dark-canvas product surface — pure-black ground, indigo accent, custom Inter weights, pill CTAs. Liquid Death Black canvas, condensed all-caps Acumin Pro, stark black-and-white — heavy-metal brutalism for canned water. LiveKit Realtime audio-video infra — Public Sans 300 weight on near-black, signature cyan LlamaIndex White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1b9aff` blue — RAG infrastructure dressed as a clean technical reference card. Logitech Soft consumer-tech blue gradients with Brown sans — design for the way you work, play, and create. Loom White canvas, Charlie Display sans, and a confident Atlassian blue pill — async video that feels like a calm, friendly workspace. LottieFiles White-canvas animation studio — DM Sans display at 96px, Inter body, near-black text, one signature teal #019d91. Lovable Pink-into-violet gradient on white — vibe-coding dressed in playful, friendly chromatics. Lowe's Signature navy blue on white canvas — residential-DIY warmth rendered as big-box retail. lululemon Quiet-luxury athleisure — Saans variable on bone-off-white, off-black ink (`#140f0f`, not pure black), pill CTAs on square product cards, mixed-case sentence-cased headlines tracked −4px. The athletic brand that murmurs. Luma AI A cinematic black screening room that opens into a white studio — Graphik set tight, every CTA a full white pill. Magic Frontier-research minimalism — white canvas, Aeonik display, Suisse Intl body, near-black ink, one radix-blue accent. Magic Eden Mint-cream canvas, magenta-mint accent duet, and a custom Foundry display — Solana-native marketplace as boutique gallery. Mailchimp Cavendish-yellow chunkiness — a custom display serif (Cooper Light), the signature `#ffe01b` block, and a brand voice that hugs you while it ships campaigns. Marriott Luxury-hospitality restraint — Caudex serif for editorial moments, off-white canvas, gold-bronze CTA, photographed-resort hero. Mastercard Cream-canvas editorial fintech, circular-portrait orbits, MarkForMC at 450 weight — institutional-but-warm payments brand. MasterClass Pure-black cinema with custom display serif and editorial reverence — celebrity-instructor learning as a premium streaming product. Medium Editorial reading-first publishing — magazine-grade serif body, GT Super display, signature green-on-white pill CTAs. Mejuri Monochrome luxury — white canvas, near-black ink, Syndicat Grotesk small caps and a Simon Mono accent. The jewelry photography does all the color work. Mercedes-Benz Three-pointed-star authority — MBCorpo on near-black canvas, silver-blue Mercury A near-pure white canvas with a literary serif headline and a signature mercury-mint accent — banking dressed as a quiet magazine. Meta Optimistic blue (#0467df) on a white corporate canvas — Optimistic Display headlines, generous space, social-platform conglomerate at rest. MetaMask Foxy Orange on white — Ethereum wallet design with custom MM Sans, 8-bit fox mascot, friendly-utility voice. Microsoft Fluent surfaces — off-white canvas, Segoe UI Variable Display, and a Cortana-blue action color carrying every product. Midjourney A deep cosmic canvas where JetBrains Mono headlines float over a wide-gamut OKLCH rainbow — a research lab dressed as a chapel. MiniMax Stark monochrome canvas broken open by vibrant gradient product cards — coral, magenta, blue, purple as model identity. Mintlify Documentation-platform marketing — pure white canvas, mint-green accent, Inter at tight tracking, near-black pill CTAs. Miro Canary-yellow Mistral Butter-yellow canvas, Arial as a deliberate anti-tech statement, and zero-radius rectangles — French AI as a brutalist art-school manifesto. Modal Serverless GPU infra in lime-green — `#0c0c0c` canvas, electric `#7fee64` accent, custom Modal Mono on every chip and code block. Monday.com Project management in confident red-pink — Poppins display at bold weights with a colorful saturated palette and a playfully energetic visual rhythm. MongoDB Signature MongoDB green Monzo Hot Coral `#ff4f40` on bright white, MonzoSans humanist geometry, and a transparent challenger-bank warmth. Motion AI-calendar productivity in green-and-purple — Inter at modest weights with a green-to-purple voltage gradient signaling the AI scheduler, anchored by a clean white canvas. MSI Dragon-red `#ff0000` on jet black with bold display sans — the Taipei dragon-heritage gaming hardware brand. Mux Video API for developers — Aeonik on light-cream, Rotonto display, JetBrainsMono CTAs, sharp 0px corners. MyFitnessPal Fitness-tracking utility — MFP Blue on white, Inter sans, dense calorie-and-macro grids, conversion-first navigation. Neon Serverless Postgres dressed in late-night green — a near-black canvas with a single electric mint accent. Netflix Pure-black streaming theatre with signature `#e50914` red and Netflix Sans — the canonical media-tile grid. Netlify White canvas, dark hero, Figtree-heavy 800 display — electric-teal pill CTAs, indigo links. Nike Pure black, pure white, Helvetica Now — pill CTAs and full-bleed athletic photography on a single soft cloud gray. Nintendo Joyful red on paper-white — Nintendo's site is the toy-aisle of the web, illustration-rich and refusal-of-darkness intentional. Notion Off-white canvas with Lyon serif accents and a custom NotionInter — a workspace dressed as a literary magazine. Nubank Roxo #8d0de3 as the whole brand — white nuSansDisplay on dark purple, 999px pill CTAs, anti-bank warmth. Nuxt Forest-green `#00dc82` glow on a near-black canvas — Vue-flavored warmth dressed for the cosmos. NVIDIA Engineering-grade canvas — pure black hero / paper-white body / one violently saturated `#76b900` green that carries every CTA and corner square. Obsidian Near-black canvas, near-white text, a single electric-purple CTA and a crystal mark — a local-first knowledge base that looks like the editor it ships. Omnivore Open-source read-it-later — near-white reading canvas, focused emerald-on-paper brand, archival elegance after the Eleven Labs sunset. On Swiss-engineered monochrome — true-black ink on white, custom On sans, bold 700 heads and 40px full-pill CTAs. OpenAI Pure white canvas, OpenAI Sans set in calm 500-weight, and a single black pill for the only action that matters — try ChatGPT. OpenRouter Pure-black canvas with custom display typography and pragmatic mono — LLM-router infrastructure dressed as a terminal billing dashboard. OpenSea Pure-black canvas, electric `#2081e2` blue, and Inter at trader-pro density — the original NFT marketplace as financial terminal. Optimism Pure-white canvas, signature `#ff0420` red voltage, and Inter at confident L2 register — Ethereum rollup as bold optimistic infrastructure. Ory White canvas with Inter 48/400 display + signature deep-navy `#0f172a` CTA — open-source-first identity for technical teams. Our Place Warm-heritage cookware DTC — Cheltenham serif at light 300 on a cream canvas, terracotta SHOP NOW CTAs, Plaid body. Oura Pure-black canvas with Inter precision and gold-stamped scores — the premium-ring health-precision aesthetic. Paddle Merchant-of-record calm — condensed serif headlines on a near-black canvas with warm cream and sand CTAs. Paper Website A literal sheet-of-paper website — single literary serif, off-white sheet canvas, narrow reading columns, ink-blue links. Patagonia Outdoor-cooperative editorial — Futura sans on cream, ranger-station palette, photography-led story-first marketing. Patreon Patreon Coral on white — creator-economy patronage with Söhne sans, photographer-led marketing, mid-2024 brand refresh language. PayPal Dual-blue corporate trust — PayPal Sans Big over white, with a deep-navy ink and a sky-blue counterpoint. Peloton Signature `#cb1e4e` red on midnight ink, Inter display, instructor-led premium-fitness storefront. Penpot Open-source design-and-code platform — dark hero, Work Sans display, mint-green action surface on a white canvas. Perplexity Cream paper canvas, custom pplxSans, and the unmistakable Tropic-cyan accent — a reference-library answer engine dressed in warm tones. Phantom Phantom Purple on near-black — crypto wallet design that respects the user's intelligence with editorial restraint. Picoko Warm-white canvas, weight-900 Outfit, and one blazing pink — product photography reimagined in seconds. Pika A cream-canvas AI video studio in custom Telka type, with peach and black pill CTAs. Pinecone White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cb0d0` cyan — vector database technical-marketing dressed in clean blueprint chrome. Pinterest Masonry feed as product, restrained chrome around it — white canvas, near-black text, Pinterest red reserved for action. Pitch Enormous Mark Pro headlines on a black hero, then a clean white workspace — violet Plaid Pale blue trust on white, classical Stripe-adjacent type, and a Benjamin-Franklin-as-mascot moment of personality. Plain B2B support tool with a Dinamo grotesk and a single radioactive `#1ad379` action — Linear-restraint applied to support. PlanetScale Pure-black canvas, blood-red accent, mono-set numerals — a database brand styled like a financial terminal. PlayStation Sony's Cinema-Black canvas with PS Blue and a custom SST sans — gaming-as-cinema, premium hardware in editorial restraint. Polar Dev-tool obsidian — 8rem editorial display headlines, indigo accents, Louize serif moments. Polygon Deep purple `#8247e5` voltage, soft surface ladder, and Inter at enterprise calm — Ethereum L2 as institutional infrastructure. Porsche Engineering-purity black-on-white — Porsche Next at 96px regular, Rosso PostHog Cream-canvas analytics with mustard-yellow CTAs and IBM Plex — open-source craft, not SaaS gloss. Postmark Postal-yellow #ffde00 + warm-black #1c1d1f + paper-white canvas — the transactional email API designed like a friendly post office sign. Prime Video Amazon-blue streaming canvas with Ember sans and the dense, utility-first marketplace UI vocabulary. Prisma White-paper canvas, navy ink, a single confident teal — the type-safe data layer dressed as documentation. PropelAuth White canvas with SF Pro Rounded display 60/900 + deep-navy ink — B2B multi-tenant auth with Apple-tinted polish. Quizlet Study-buddy design — Quizlet purple-blue on white, custom Hurmes Geometric, flashcard-as-hero pattern. Qwik Electric purple-to-blue gradient on near-black — resumable execution dressed as a lightning bolt. Railway Ship software peacefully — IBM Plex Serif headlines on a deep eggplant canvas, with a single confident violet for action. Rainbow White canvas, SF Pro Rounded Black at 96px, and a pink-orange-blue-purple rainbow — the friendliest Ethereum wallet onchain. Raindrop.io White paper, system-ui sans, soft watercolor blob backgrounds, and a vivid `#0b7ed0` blue CTA — a bookmark manager that ships like a creative-tool sketch. Ramp Off-yellow `#fcfb70` and black-on-white editorial — finance ops dressed as a printed annual report. Rare Beauty Soft lavender on cream — Selena Gomez's beauty brand with mental-health-aware editorial restraint and serif-led product cards. Raycast Near-black canvas, glowing keycaps, monospaced shortcut chips — a marketing site that thinks like a launcher. Razer Neon `#44d62c` snake-green on jet black with Roboto — the For Gamers, By Gamers visual signature. Readwise Pastel-orange book-club warmth — soft cream canvas, friendly Tiempos serif accents, and a tangerine that signals 'this is your library.' Recraft A jet-black studio where ABC Gravity Condensed slams the headline at weight 900 and a single electric-lime CTA does all the shouting. Reddit Front-page-of-the-internet orange — community-card density, IBM Plex Sans display, and a confident Relume Monochrome editorial — warm off-white, near-black, and oversized regular-weight display for an AI website builder. Remix Signature `#3992ff` blue on pure white with Inter — a nested-routes web framework dressed as a manifesto poster. Render Lavender on white — a PaaS that swapped Heroku purple for a candy-bright #8a05ff and kept the airy whitespace. Replicate AI-API marketing — light page chrome, dark hero canvas, rb-Freigeist Neue display, JetBrains Mono code, sharp 0px corners. Replit Saturated turquoise on `#0e1525` ink — the cloud-IDE aesthetic with IBM Plex DNA and a JetBrains Mono soul. Resend Pure-black canvas with Domaine Display serif at 96px and Commit Mono code chips — email infra that thinks in italics. Retool Pragmatic blue #3a55fc + Inter + dense product mocks — the internal-tool platform that designed itself like a well-organised admin panel. Reuters Global newswire restraint — signature orange (`#ff8000`), Knowledge Medium custom sans, broadsheet rigor for the world''s oldest news agency. Revolut Dark Aeonik Pro hero, white Inter content, near-black `#191c1f` ink, fully-pill CTAs and gradient-accented fintech sleekness. Riot Games Crimson `#d13639` red on near-black with custom Riot Beam display — esports-tournament drama and competitive-MOBA editorial. Ritual Visible-supply-chain wellness — white lab canvas, Ritual Navy #142b6f everywhere, CircularXX, 25px rounded CTAs, warm yellow as the one accent. Rive Chunky animated display type and saturated playful colour — interactive graphics platform that wears its motion design on its sleeve. Robinhood Chartreuse `#CCFF00` lime on a black `#000` canvas, Martina Plantijn serif headlines paired with Capsule Sans Text — financial-editorial register, not tech-app sans. Roblox Bright `#ed1d24` red on white with Builder Sans — the youth-block-builder playground turned multi-billion-game social platform. RunPod Deep slate canvas with Inter and a signature `#673ab7` purple — accessible GPU cloud dressed in friendly developer chrome. Runway A near-black research canvas with ABC Normal headlines pulled tight at -2.5px — a film studio, an ML lab, and a brutalist gallery in one shell. Salesforce Cloud-trust dashboards — Salesforce Sans on a sky-blue ground, with Astro the bear standing guard over a dense CRM portal. SAP Enterprise-ERP precision in cobalt — SAP72 sans, signal-blue accents, and a calm white canvas built for trust. Scale AI White canvas, Aeonik at a colossal 116px, black 8px CTAs, and a signature deep-to-light purple gradient (#5933b2 → Segment Twilio Segment's customer-data-platform canvas — Whitney SSm humanist sans, navy-on-white, single confident `#1866ee` blue. Semafor Paper-cream canvas (`#f8f5d7`) with FeatureFlatHeadline serif and signature flag-style topic columns — global-news editorial built for the post-Twitter era. SendGrid Functional API-blue on white — the email-platform dashboard aesthetic, now folded under the Twilio umbrella. Sentry Deep-aubergine observability — Dammit Sans display, Rubik body, JetBrains Mono code, signature violet #7553ff and pill CTAs. shadcn/ui Copy-paste components in pure black-on-white — the most influential design system not actually shipped as a library. Shopify Dark-first commerce theatre — 96px NeueHaasGrotesk at weight 330, electric mint focus rings, and stacked multi-layer shadows. Shortwave A dark AI-email canvas with Poppins display weight and one electric blue — Inbox rebuilt by the people who built it. Sierra Calm enterprise-AI — light canvas, deep-green hero, GT America, full-pill CTAs. Signal Privacy-first messaging in `#3a76f0` Signal blue with Inter sans — minimal, ad-free, end-to-end-encrypted by default. SKIMS Nude-neutral minimal luxury — cream canvas, dark photographic hero, warm near-black #2d2a26, sharp 0px. Slack Aubergine workspace marketing — Salesforce-Avant-Garde headlines, all-caps 4px CTAs, white canvas with `#4a154b` accents. Snowflake Deeper cyan Solana Solana Gradient + Diatype on near-black — Layer 1 chain marketing as cinematic experiment, magenta-purple-cyan brand prism. SolidJS Deep navy with a blue-to-cyan brand gradient — reactive primitives dressed as a circuit diagram. Sonos Pure black canvas, Inter typography, and audio-system minimalism — speakers presented as gallery objects. SoundCloud Signature `#ff5500` orange on `#f2f2f2` paper with Interstate sans — waveform-first audio social UI. Sourcegraph Near-black code-intelligence canvas — PolySans display, coral-red accent, big quiet headlines. Southwest Airlines Heart-warm low-cost airline — Southwest Sans on light grey, yellow CTA voltage with navy ink, sharp 2px corners. SpaceX Pure-black cinematic photography, D-DIN aerospace stencil type, ghost-button minimalism — the interface disappears. Spline Pure-black 3D-design canvas with electric-blue CTAs and a playful multi-color accent set — the browser becomes the viewport. Spotify Electric `#1ed760` green on near-black canvas with Spotify Mix sans — the canonical streaming-audio tile grid. Square Pure black on pure white, Square Sans grids, and retail-POS minimalism — commerce as black-and-white geometry. Stability AI A near-black studio floor where Archivo headlines run light and a single lavender pill carries the only colour. StackBlitz Electric blue `#1574ef` on a graphite `#1c1f25` canvas — the in-browser IDE that built Bolt. Starbucks Forest-green storefront — SoDoSans, full-pill buttons, warm-cream canvas, and a floating Frap CTA the brand calls home. Steam Deep blue-gray `#1b2838` with Motiva Sans — the utilitarian PC-gaming library that runs the world's largest digital storefront. SteelSeries Esports orange `#ff6900` on near-black with Inter — Danish precision peripherals for competitive play. Storybook Open-source frontend workshop — white canvas, Nunito Sans, dark hero band, and the signature coral-pink brand mark. Strava Signature `#fc4c02` orange + Inter on white — endurance-athlete data-driven storefront with map-overlay heritage. Stripe Editorial fintech polish — light Söhne headlines at weight 300, navy-not-black text, signature `#533afd` purple CTAs. Stytch Paper-cream canvas with Booton display + Chivo Mono body — passwordless-modern auth, joined Twilio. Substack Magazine-on-the-internet — Spectral serif body at 19px, Cahuenga display, signature `#ff6719` orange CTAs. Suno A near-black booth with cream Neue Montreal and a hot-pink cue light — a music studio, a record sleeve, and a chat app fused into one canvas. Sunsama Thoughtful daily planning in warm cream and ink — Inter at modest weights over a paper-cream canvas with sage and rose accents and a calm, unhurried voice. Supabase Off-black canvas, signature emerald `#3ecf8e`, Circular as display, Postgres-grade type discipline. Superhuman White paper canvas, a custom Super Sans variable, and a single confident lavender — premium email dressed as a stationery brand. Supreme Box-logo red, Courier monospace, skate-deadpan minimalism — the most influential streetwear store on the web. Svelte Hot orange #ff3e00 against clean white with a confident sans — the framework that wears its flame as a wordmark. Synthesia A white enterprise canvas where Basier Square headlines run near-black navy and a single indigo-blue pill carries every action. T-Mobile T-Mobile magenta (#E20074) dominates a near-white canvas — Un-carrier loudness in TeleNeo display weight. Tailscale Warm-light approachable-technical — off-white canvas, near-black Inter, brick-red accent. Tailwind CSS The system applied to itself — Inter Variable on white canvas, signature cyan #06b6d4, every component built from Tailwind utilities. Tana Pure black canvas, a custom tanaClassic serif at 83px, and a pale-pistachio CTA — a knowledge graph dressed as a literary supplement. Target Bullseye red CTA, Helvetica Neue, photographic hero — friendly mass-market design with confident chromatic restraint. Telegram Cloud-blue messaging — Temporal Near-black engineering canvas, Aeonik at hairline-light 300, signature indigo CTA — durable-execution gravity for distributed-systems people. Tesla Cinematic showroom on white — one Electric Blue CTA, Universal Sans, and viewport-height car photography. The Atlantic Modern serif headlines on cream-paper, signature Atlantic orange `#fbb33b`, long-form magazine reading rendered for the web. The Economist Deep cinnabar red `#e3120b`, Milo serif body, Econ Sans labels — the global-affairs weekly rendered with cover-illustration discipline. The Guardian Guardian Egyptian slab serif, signature navy `#052962`, structured ruled hierarchy with bold section accents. The Home Depot Signature orange on white, Helvetica bold — hardware-aisle signage as a web storefront. The New York Times Cheltenham serif headlines on paper-white, signature breaking-news red, the canonical American broadsheet rendered for the web. The New Yorker Adobe Caslon Pro + Irvin headline cap — a century of editorial gravitas in cream paper, ink black, and signature cartoon line. The Washington Post Postoni serif blackletter masthead, "Democracy Dies in Darkness" tagline, sober ink-on-paper political broadsheet. Things Cool light-blue canvas, system-ui sans, vivid Things-blue accent — a task manager that ships like an Apple Pro Display. Threads Instagram-adjacent text-first social — pure-black canvas, system-sans clarity, and a quiet brand restraint built from the @ glyph alone. TikTok Electric cyan-magenta on pure black — vertical-video voltage with custom Proxima Nova display and a bold neon brand grammar. Tinybird Near-black developer canvas lit by one bright mint-green — managed ClickHouse with sharp, zero-radius CTAs. tldraw Casual whiteboard sketchy — hand-drawn UI primitives, dotted-grid canvas, and a soft pastel palette that wears its toy-like energy with confidence. Todoist Warm-white canvas, Graphik sans, signature Todoist-red CTA — a task manager that feels calm, friendly, and quietly productive. Together AI Deep navy on near-white with Inter sans — open-source LLM cloud rendered as developer-platform infrastructure. Toyota Japanese-reliability mainstream — `#eb0a1e` Toyota red on white, ToyotaType sans, and a calm-confident marketing surface for the world's most-sold automotive brand. Trigger.dev Background jobs in the dark — Satoshi on near-black, one electric lime for action. Turbo Vercel-grade pure-black canvas with a magenta-to-blue Turbo gradient — the build system that wears its speed as a sweep. Turso SQLite at the edge — a deep-teal canvas with a CRT-bright cyan accent (#00face) that reads as a glowing edge node. Twilio Signal-red `#f22f46` against clean white — communications APIs given the visual weight of a broadcast colour. Twitch Purple `#9146ff` on `#0e0e10` canvas with Inter — the live-streaming UI built around chat, raids, and gaming density. Uber Eats Pure-black ground, Uber Move custom sans, Uber-app continuity — the operating system of food delivery. Udemy Signature `#a435f0` purple on white with Sailec sans — the open course-marketplace bazaar made approachable. Udio A pitch-black stage with near-white Innovator display type and a single magenta-pink spotlight — a recording console reimagined as a creative canvas. Uniqlo Signature red `#ff0000`, Helvetica Neue system stack, japanese-utility-functional grid — the LifeWear engine. Uniswap Uniswap Pink on white — DEX design with Basel sans, unicorn-mark whimsy, and rounded-card softness in a usually-brutalist DeFi space. Upstash Serverless data, daylight calm — a pale-grey canvas, deep green-black type, and one electric Upstash green. v0 A near-white prompt canvas with GeistSans and pure OKLCH grayscale — Vercel''s AI builder dressed as the calmest text editor on the internet. Valorant Tactical-shooter design language — Tungsten condensed all-caps, signal-red CTAs, and an off-white text the brand calls "ECE8E1". Vapi Near-black developer canvas lit by a signature lime and a playful multi-color set — Avantt display at 80px over Season Sans body, cream text, r12 CTAs. Venmo A single confident `#3d95ce` blue, Aktiv Grotesk geometry, and a social-feed informality — payments dressed as group chat. Vercel Brutalist developer-product polish — near-white canvas, near-pure black-on-near-white type, Geist sans + mono, conic-gradient accents. Visa Bright-blue + golden-yellow payment-rail confidence — saturated `#1434CB` primary, ceremonial `#FCC015` yellow on hero pill CTAs, pill geometry throughout, custom visa-font-latin in light/regular weights. Vite Electric purple #646cff + Manrope display + a literal lightning-bolt mark — the build tool that designed itself to feel as fast as it is. Vodafone Vodafone Red broadcast band, monumental 144px display, two-tier button system — corporate-newsroom telecom design. Volkswagen People's-car blue — the deep `#001e50` corporate hue, custom VW Sans, and a friendly-German marketing surface that sells everyday mobility with confidence. Vuori Coastal-California performance calm — Aktiv Grotesk on pure white, warm near-black `#333333` ink, restrained small type (28px h1), photography-led, sharp 0px corners. Premium-athletic that never raises its voice. Walmart Spark-yellow on big-box blue, Antonio Display + Bogle sans — everyday low prices made loud. Warby Parker Friendly-premium DTC eyewear — white canvas, bright blue + deep navy, fully pill CTAs. Warp Near-black canvas, neon-lime cursor, real terminal screenshots — a marketing site that boots like a shell. Wayfair Near-white canvas, ink-black type, photographic product cards — editorial-light home retail at marketplace scale. Weaviate White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cdb46` open-source green — modular vector database dressed in approachable engineering chrome. webdesignhot AI-era editorial dark — pure black with one acid-lime accent. Webflow Indigo-to-purple gradient discipline with a precise structural sans — the visual builder that markets itself like a design conference. WHOOP Lime `#a0d10b` voltage on jet-black, Inter precision, recovery-data athlete-grade aesthetic. Wikipedia System-default information design — Linux Libertine serif headings, Vector skin, deliberate non-branding for the encyclopedia of record. Windsurf Cream `#f6eede` canvas, dark heroes, Tomato Grotesk at light 300, sharp `#34e8bb` mint DOWNLOAD. WIRED Newsstand-density editorial grid, sharp-corner buttons, mono ALL-CAPS kickers — Conde Nast meets engineering lab. Wise A flexible bright-lime green on cream-white — money that travels in sans-serif and a single confident accent. Wispr Flow Pale lemon-cream paper, EB Garamond at 120px, and a lavender download pill — voice dictation that dresses like a literary journal. Workday HR-warm professional in tangerine — Adelle Sans humanist curves, signature `#f37721` orange, and a calm white people-first canvas. WorkOS Pure-white canvas with Untitled Sans 80/500 display + indigo-violet h2 — the B2B-enterprise gravitas aesthetic. X Pure-black canvas with Chirp display — algorithmic minimalism, single-letter wordmark, ruthless type discipline. xAI White canvas, Universal Sans, a stark near-black pill, and warm-grey terminal panels — frontier minimalism. Xbox Xbox Green on near-black, Microsoft's Segoe UI Display dialed to gamer-coded confidence — bold, energetic, Game Pass-first. Y Combinator Brutalist orange monolith — system-font sans on white canvas, signature `#f26625` orange-red blocks with hard 0px corners. You.com Crisp white developer-doc canvas, custom Lumen Sans, and the indigo `#5368EE` accent — a search API rebrand done as enterprise infrastructure. YouTube YouTube Sans + Roboto + signature `#ff0000` red — content-density at planetary scale. Zed Warm paper-light canvas, IBM Plex Serif headlines at light weight, one electric-blue download button — a code editor's site that reads like a typesetter's page. Zoom Zoom Blue `#0B5CFF` on white — geometric sans wordmark, Workplace-era AI Companion friendly-corporate register. Zora Cream-white canvas, electric purple-orange duet, and a custom display — onchain creator network as zine cover.
try on →
theme
mobile · 390 × 844
Tokens webdesignhot/0.1
- bg
#f7f6f5 - bg-secondary
#f0efed - surface
#ffffff - text AAA · 19.5
#000000 - text-soft
#3d3d3d - text-faint AA · 4.9
#6b6b6b - text-muted
#9a9a9a - brand AAA · 16.3
#191919 - brand-hover
#000000 - on-brand
#f7f6f5 - link
#000000 - link-hover
#191919 - selected-bg
#0000000d - disabled
#9a9a9a - border AAA · 19.5
#000000 - border-soft
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12) - border-subtle
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06) - input-bg
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.031) - input-bg-hover
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051) - success-text
#1f5130 - warning-text
#7a5e1f - danger-text
#8a2b2b - info-text
#26416b
Ship faster than ever.
display-hero "nbInternational" 72px w400 -0.02em
Ship faster than ever.
display-lg "nbInternational" 56px w400 -0.018em
Ship faster than ever.
h1 "nbInternational" 36px w400 -0.012em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
quote-pull "stkBureauSerif" 24px w400 0
Built for teams that ship.
h2 "nbInternational" 20px w400 -0.005em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
lede "stkBureauSerif" 20px w400 0
A complete kit
h3 "nbInternational" 18px w500 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-lg "stkBureauSerif" 18px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
h4 "nbInternational" 16px w600 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body "stkBureauSerif" 16px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-sm "stkBureauSerif" 14px w400 0
npx @webdesignhot/design-md add stripe
code ui-monospace 14px w400 0
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
label "nbInternational" 13px w500 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
eyebrow "nbInternational" 12px w500 0.06em
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
caption "nbInternational" 12px w500 0.02em
- step-0 0px
- step-1 4px
- step-2 8px
- step-3 12px
- step-4 16px
- step-5 24px
- step-6 32px
- step-7 48px
- step-8 64px
- step-9 96px
- step-10 128px
- micro
0px - sm
0px - md
0px - lg
0px - xl
0px - pill
0px
Text link →
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A complete kit — everything your product needs.
Hero, pricing, FAQ, dashboard, docs — every layout your product needs.
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Stable
v1.0
Design roles 0/8 mapped · webdesignhot/0.1
Maps the 8 canonical role names to this entry's actual tokens. Use these to plug the design into role-aware tools — shadcn/ui themes, role-aware Tailwind plugins, atelier-lint — without hard-coding token names.
- background → —
- foreground → —
- primary → —
- primary-foreground → —
- accent → —
- muted → —
- border → —
- ring → —
Export
4 formats · paste-ready
Tailwind
theme.extend block for tailwind.config.js
CSS variables
:root { --bg, --text, --brand, … } you can paste anywhere
DTCG JSON
W3C Design Tokens Community Group format
Figma Variables
Importable into Figma → Variables → Import
---
name: Cognition
tagline: 'Research-lab monochrome — warm off-white, grotesk display, serif body, sharp 0px black.'
updated_at: 2026-05-29T21:43:35.496Z
published_at: 2026-05-29T21:43:35.496Z
author: webdesignhot
source_url: https://cognition.ai
spec: webdesignhot/0.1
quality: curated
featured: false
categories: [ai, dev-tools]
tags: [light, sans, serif, technical, minimal, monochrome]
preview_swatch: ['#f7f6f5', '#191919', '#000000']
related: []
description: 'Cognition — the lab behind Devin, the AI software engineer — runs a near-perfect monochrome system: a warm off-white `#f7f6f5` canvas, pure-black `#000` ink, and a single near-black `#191919` CTA. The whole identity is black-on-warm-white with zero rounding (`0px` everywhere) and an editorial type pairing that pulls against the genre — a tight grotesk display (`nbInternational`, h1 at 36px / 400) over a serif body (`stkBureauSerif` at 16px). No gradients, no accent colour, no chrome. Where most AI labs reach for purple meshes or chrome-on-black, Cognition reads like a printed research bulletin: restrained, serious-engineering, and confident enough to ship a landing page with exactly one non-black value on it.'
colors:
# Primary
bg: '#f7f6f5' # warm off-white canvas — the defining ground
bg-secondary: '#f0efed' # faint warm panel, one step down from canvas
surface: '#ffffff' # rare pure-white card lift on warm ground
text: '#000000' # pure black ink — body and headings
text-soft: '#3d3d3d' # secondary copy, captions
text-faint: '#6b6b6b' # eyebrows, helper text, footer
text-muted: '#9a9a9a' # disabled, microcopy
# Brand
brand: '#191919' # near-black CTA fill ('Explore roles')
brand-hover: '#000000' # CTA deepens to pure black on hover
on-brand: '#f7f6f5' # warm off-white label on the near-black CTA
# Interactive
link: '#000000' # links are black with underline
link-hover: '#191919' # near-black on hover
selected-bg: '#0000000d' # ~5% black wash for selected state
disabled: '#9a9a9a'
# Borders
border: '#000000' # hairline rules are pure black (1px)
border-soft: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12)' # quieter division
border-subtle: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)' # faintest separation
# Inputs (from production --form-input-* vars)
input-bg: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.031)' # --form-input-bg #00000008
input-bg-hover: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)' # --form-input-bg-hover #0000000d
# Semantic (kept monochrome-adjacent — the brand barely uses colour)
success-text: '#1f5130'
warning-text: '#7a5e1f'
danger-text: '#8a2b2b'
info-text: '#26416b'
typography:
display:
family: '"nbInternational", "Neue Haas Grotesk", "Helvetica Neue", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600, 700]
opentype-features: ['liga', 'kern']
note: 'grotesk display set LIGHT — h1 lands at 36px / 400, not bold'
body:
family: '"stkBureauSerif", "Tiempos Text", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600]
opentype-features: ['liga', 'kern', 'onum']
note: 'body is SERIF — the editorial counterweight to the grotesk display'
mono:
family: 'ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospace'
weights: [400, 500]
opentype-features: ['tnum', 'zero']
scale:
display-hero: { size: 72, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.02, tracking: '-0.02em', family: display }
display-lg: { size: 56, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.05, tracking: '-0.018em', family: display }
h1: { size: 36, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.1, tracking: '-0.012em', family: display }
h2: { size: 20, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.25, tracking: '-0.005em', family: display }
h3: { size: 18, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0', family: display }
h4: { size: 16, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.35, tracking: '0', family: display }
eyebrow: { size: 12, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0.06em', family: display, transform: uppercase }
body-lg: { size: 18, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.6, tracking: '0', family: body }
body: { size: 16, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.6, tracking: '0', family: body }
body-sm: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body }
lede: { size: 20, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, tracking: '0', family: body }
quote-pull: { size: 24, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0', family: body, style: italic }
label: { size: 13, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0', family: display }
caption: { size: 12, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0.02em', family: display }
code: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: mono, opentype: 'tnum zero' }
radius:
micro: 0
sm: 0
md: 0
lg: 0
xl: 0
pill: 0
spacing:
base: 4
scale: [0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128]
layout:
page-width: 1280
prose-width: 720
site-gutter: 'clamp(20px, 5vw, 64px)'
header-height: 64
grid-columns: 12
section-rhythm: '64-128px'
components:
button-primary:
background: '#191919'
text: '#f7f6f5'
padding: '10px 16px'
radius: 0
border: '1px solid #191919'
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 15px'
hover-bg: '#000000'
use: 'Primary action — near-black on warm off-white (Explore roles, Read more)'
button-ghost:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#000000'
padding: '10px 16px'
radius: 0
border: '1px solid #000000'
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 15px'
hover-bg: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)'
use: 'Outlined twin — sharp black hairline, no fill'
button-text:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#000000'
padding: '10px 4px'
radius: 0
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 15px'
hover-decoration: 'underline'
use: 'Quiet inline action — black text, underline on hover'
button-inverse:
background: '#f7f6f5'
text: '#000000'
padding: '10px 16px'
radius: 0
border: '1px solid #f7f6f5'
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 15px'
hover-bg: '#ffffff'
use: 'For use on black sections — off-white fill, black label'
card:
background: '#ffffff'
border: '1px solid #000000'
radius: 0
padding: '24px'
use: 'Bordered tile — sharp black 1px rule on warm canvas, no shadow'
input:
background: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.031)'
border: '1px solid #000000'
text: '#000000'
radius: 0
padding: '8px 12px'
font: 'stkBureauSerif 400 / 16px'
placeholder-color: '#6b6b6b'
hover-bg: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)'
use: 'Form fields — faint black-wash fill, sharp black border'
badge:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#000000'
padding: '2px 8px'
radius: 0
border: '1px solid #000000'
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em'
use: 'Sharp-cornered label chip — outlined, no fill'
nav-link:
background: 'transparent'
text: '#000000'
padding: '8px 12px'
radius: 0
font: 'nbInternational 500 / 15px'
hover-decoration: 'underline'
use: 'Header nav — black grotesk, underline on hover, no colour shift'
motion:
ease-standard: 'cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)'
ease-emphasized: 'cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)'
duration-fast: 150
duration-standard: 240
duration-slow: 320
reduced-motion: 'respects prefers-reduced-motion: reduce — transitions become opacity-only, durations halved'
breakpoints:
mobile: 640
tablet: 1024
desktop: 1280
wide: 1536
shadows:
none: 'none'
hairline: '0 0 0 1px #000000'
ambient: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05) 0 1px 2px'
standard: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08) 0 4px 12px'
overlay: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12) 0 12px 32px -8px'
accessibility:
contrast-text-on-bg: 20.1 # #000 on #f7f6f5 — far past AAA
contrast-on-brand: 16.8 # #f7f6f5 on #191919 — AAA
contrast-text-soft-on-bg: 10.3 # #3d3d3d on #f7f6f5 — AAA
focus-ring: '2px solid #000000 with 2px offset'
reduced-motion-honored: true
keyboard-nav: 'visible focus on every interactive surface; tab order matches visual'
prose-line-length: 'capped near 720px for editorial readability'
dark-mode: null # marketing surface is light-only; the warm off-white ground is the identity
---
## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Cognition's site is what happens when a research lab refuses to decorate. Open `cognition.ai` — the home of Devin, the AI software engineer — and you land on a warm off-white `#f7f6f5` canvas with pure-black `#000` type and exactly one non-black value anywhere near the fold: the near-black `#191919` fill on the *Explore roles* call-to-action. There is no gradient, no accent hue, no glassmorphism, no chrome. The page reads like a printed bulletin from an engineering department — confident, quiet, and almost aggressively unembellished.
The typographic pairing is the move that keeps the monochrome from feeling sterile. The display face is **nbInternational**, a tight neo-grotesk in the Neue-Haas / Helvetica lineage, and Cognition runs it *light* — the h1 lands at 36px at weight 400, not the 700-weight shout most landing pages reach for. The body underneath it is set in **stkBureauSerif**, a serif text face at 16px. Grotesk headline over serif body is an editorial inversion of the usual SaaS default (sans everything), and it gives the page the cadence of a journal article rather than a product tour. The warmth of the off-white ground softens the pure-black ink just enough that long-form reading never feels like staring at a terminal.
Everything is sharp. The radius scale is `0px` top to bottom — buttons, cards, inputs, chips all share hard 90-degree corners. Borders are pure-black 1px hairlines, not the polite light-grey dividers of most modern UI. This is a deliberate severity: square corners and black rules read as *precise* and *unsoftened*, which is exactly the register a company building autonomous software engineers wants to project. Nothing here is trying to be friendly; it's trying to be correct.
The colour discipline is near-total. Cognition does not own a brand colour in the conventional sense — its brand is *the absence of one*. The `#191919` CTA is so close to black that on a thumbnail the whole identity collapses to two values: warm paper and black. That restraint is the signal. It says the work is the product; the marketing site is just a clean window onto it.
Atmospheric vocabulary that captures the feeling: *research-bulletin, monochrome, hard-edged, grotesk-over-serif, black-on-warm-paper, unembellished, precision-engineering, journal-quiet, zero-radius, single-CTA, serious.*
**Key Characteristics**
- Warm off-white `#f7f6f5` canvas — never pure white, never grey
- Pure-black `#000` ink for body and headings — uncompromising contrast
- A single near-black `#191919` CTA — the only non-black value on the page
- Grotesk display (`nbInternational`) run *light* — h1 at 36px / 400, never bold-shout
- Serif body (`stkBureauSerif`) — the editorial counterweight that warms the page
- Zero radius everywhere — `0px` on buttons, cards, inputs, chips
- Pure-black 1px hairline borders, not soft grey dividers
- No gradients, no accent colour, no shadows on default surfaces
- Restraint as identity — the absence of a brand colour *is* the brand
- Reads as a printed research bulletin, not a SaaS landing page
## 2. Color Palette & Roles
### Primary
- **bg** (`#f7f6f5`) [→ body background]: the warm off-white canvas; the defining ground, never substituted for `#ffffff`.
- **text** (`#000000`) [→ body color]: pure black ink for body copy and headings; maximum contrast on the warm ground.
- **bg-secondary** (`#f0efed`): a faint warm panel one step down from canvas, for lightly differentiated sections.
- **surface** (`#ffffff`): rare pure-white card lift used only when a tile must read as raised above the warm ground.
### Brand
- **brand** (`#191919`) [→ CTA fill]: the near-black call-to-action fill behind *Explore roles*; the single non-black value in the system.
- **brand-hover** (`#000000`): the CTA deepens to pure black on hover — a 6-value shift, deliberately subtle.
- **on-brand** (`#f7f6f5`) [→ CTA label]: warm off-white label on the near-black CTA; matches the canvas exactly so the button reads as inverted page.
### Accent
There is no accent colour. Cognition's system is monochrome by design — emphasis is carried by weight, size, border, and whitespace, never by hue. Treat any request for an "accent" as a request for either the `#191919` near-black or a black hairline rule.
### Interactive
- **link** (`#000000`): links are black with an underline; they do not introduce colour.
- **link-hover** (`#191919`): on hover, links shift to near-black; the underline persists.
- **selected-bg** (`rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)`): a ~5% black wash for selected rows and active states.
- **disabled** (`#9a9a9a`): mid-grey for disabled control text.
### Neutral Scale
- **text** (`#000000`): primary text and high-emphasis labels.
- **text-soft** (`#3d3d3d`): secondary copy and supporting paragraphs.
- **text-faint** (`#6b6b6b`): eyebrows, helper text, footer microcopy.
- **text-muted** (`#9a9a9a`): disabled states, quietest microcopy.
### Surface
- **surface-0 (page)** — `#f7f6f5` warm off-white.
- **surface-1 (panel)** — `#f0efed` faint warm step-down.
- **surface-2 (card)** — `#ffffff` rare pure-white lift.
- **input-bg** (`rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.031)`) [→ `--form-input-bg`]: faint black wash inside form fields.
- **input-bg-hover** (`rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)`) [→ `--form-input-bg-hover`]: input fill on hover/focus.
### Borders
- **border** (`#000000`): default hairline rules are pure black at 1px — the brand's signature division.
- **border-soft** (`rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12)`): quieter division for dense layouts.
- **border-subtle** (`rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)`): faintest separation, near-invisible.
### Shadow Colors
Cognition is essentially shadowless. Default surfaces lift by **border and value contrast alone** — a pure-black hairline does the separation work that a drop-shadow would do elsewhere. When a shadow is unavoidable (a floating menu, a modal), it is a low-opacity neutral black (`rgba(0,0,0,0.05)` to `0.12`), never tinted and never large. The page reads as paper and ink, and paper does not cast soft glows.
### Semantic
The system barely uses semantic colour — status is usually communicated in plain black text plus an icon. When colour is required for validation, keep it dark and desaturated so it does not break the monochrome:
- **success** — text `#1f5130` on a faint neutral or off-white field.
- **warning** — text `#7a5e1f`.
- **danger** — text `#8a2b2b`, paired with a black border on the field.
- **info** — text `#26416b`.
Note the unusual choice: Cognition would rather mark an error with a black border and dark-red label than tint a whole field. Colour is rationed to the point of near-absence.
## 3. Typography Rules
### Font Family
- **Display & UI**: `"nbInternational", "Neue Haas Grotesk", "Helvetica Neue", system-ui, sans-serif` — a tight neo-grotesk, run *light*. This is the headline and chrome voice.
- **Body & Editorial**: `"stkBureauSerif", "Tiempos Text", Georgia, serif` — a serif text face at weight 400/500. **The body in serif is the brand's defining typographic move.**
- **Mono**: `ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospace` — for code, data, and tabular figures.
- **OpenType features**: `liga` and `kern` always on; `onum` (old-style figures) in serif body so numbers sit with letters; `tnum` and `zero` in mono for aligned data and slashed zero.
### Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Hero | nbInternational | 72px | 400 | 1.02 | -0.02em | liga kern | Homepage hero ceiling — *light*, not bold |
| Display Large | nbInternational | 56px | 400 | 1.05 | -0.018em | liga | Section intro at scale |
| H1 | nbInternational | 36px | 400 | 1.10 | -0.012em | liga | Page title (live-sampled) |
| H2 | nbInternational | 20px | 400 | 1.25 | -0.005em | liga | Major section (live-sampled) |
| H3 | nbInternational | 18px | 500 | 1.30 | normal | — | Sub-section |
| H4 | nbInternational | 16px | 600 | 1.35 | normal | — | Card heading |
| Eyebrow | nbInternational | 12px | 500 | 1.40 | 0.06em | uppercase | Section pre-label |
| Lede | stkBureauSerif | 20px | 400 | 1.50 | normal | onum | Intro paragraph under hero |
| Body Large | stkBureauSerif | 18px | 400 | 1.60 | normal | onum | Spacious body |
| Body | stkBureauSerif | 16px | 400 | 1.60 | normal | onum | Default editorial body (live-sampled) |
| Body Small | stkBureauSerif | 14px | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Captions, sidebars |
| Pull Quote | stkBureauSerif | 24px | 400 | 1.40 | normal | italic | Editorial pull-quote |
| Label | nbInternational | 13px | 500 | 1.40 | normal | — | UI labels |
| Caption | nbInternational | 12px | 500 | 1.40 | 0.02em | — | Image captions, meta |
| Code | Mono | 14px | 400 | 1.55 | normal | tnum zero | Inline + block code |
### Principles
- **Grotesk headlines, serif body.** Display, nav, buttons, labels, and eyebrows use nbInternational; headlines, body copy, ledes, and pull-quotes use stkBureauSerif. The split is non-negotiable — collapsing both to sans erases the editorial register.
- **Run the display light.** The h1 ships at weight 400, not 700. Cognition lets size and tracking — not weight — carry the headline. Bold display would break the calm.
- **Negative tracking scales with size.** -0.02em at the 72px hero, tightening through -0.018em / -0.012em, reaching normal by 18px and below. The compression mirrors grotesk masthead typography.
- **Serif body sits warm and roomy.** 16px at 1.6 line-height with old-style figures — magazine metrics, not blog metrics — so the pure-black ink reads as comfortable long-form, not terminal output.
- **Pure black is the text colour.** Unlike warmer editorial brands that avoid `#000`, Cognition embraces it; the warm off-white ground is what keeps the contrast from feeling harsh.
- **Italics in body, never in display.** The serif italic carries quoted titles, gentle emphasis, and pull-quotes; the grotesk display never italicises.
- **Reading width capped near 720px** even on the 1280px page — a single editorial column.
- **Uppercase only for eyebrows and chips**, at 12px / 500 / 0.06em tracking. Body and headlines stay sentence-case.
## 4. Component Stylings
### Buttons
**Primary (Near-Black)**
- Background: `#191919` near-black.
- Text: `#f7f6f5` warm off-white, nbInternational 500 / 15px.
- Padding: `10px 16px`. Radius: `0` — sharp corners. Border: `1px solid #191919`.
- Hover: bg → `#000000` (pure black); transition `240ms ease-standard`.
- Use: Primary CTA — *Explore roles, Read the paper, Get Devin.*
**Ghost (Outlined)**
- Background: transparent. Text: `#000000`. Border: `1px solid #000000`.
- Same padding, radius `0`, font as primary.
- Hover: bg → `rgba(0,0,0,0.05)`.
- Use: Twin to primary — *Read more, View research.*
**Text (Quiet)**
- Background: transparent. Text: `#000000`. No border. Padding `10px 4px`.
- Hover: underline appears; no colour shift.
- Use: Quietest inline action — footer links, repeated CTAs.
**Inverse (On-Black)**
- Background: `#f7f6f5`. Text: `#000000`. Border: `1px solid #f7f6f5`.
- Same shape (`0` radius, 10×16 padding).
- Hover: bg → `#ffffff`.
- Use: For CTAs sitting on a black/near-black section — off-white fill, black label.
### Cards
**Bordered Tile**
- Background: `#ffffff` (or `#f7f6f5` for flush-on-canvas). Border: `1px solid #000000`. Radius: `0`. Padding: `24px`.
- Shadow: none — the black hairline does the separation work.
- Hover: border stays; an optional 1px inner offset or a faint `rgba(0,0,0,0.05)` wash signals interactivity.
- Use: Capability tile, research index entry, role listing.
**Flush Panel**
- Background: `#f0efed`. Border: top/bottom `1px solid #000000`, sides open. Radius: `0`. Padding: `32px 0`.
- Use: Full-bleed section divider — a banded panel separated by black rules rather than a boxed card.
### Badges, Tags, Pills
**Outlined Chip** — bg transparent, border `1px solid #000000`, radius `0`, padding `2px 8px`, nbInternational 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em tracking, colour `#000000`. Sharp-cornered, never a pill.
**Eyebrow Label** — no chrome, just type: nbInternational 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em, colour `#6b6b6b`. Sits above section headlines.
There are **no rounded pills** in this system — `pill: 0` is intentional. Any status marker is a sharp-cornered outlined chip.
### Inputs / Forms
- Background: `rgba(0,0,0,0.031)` (the production `--form-input-bg`). Border: `1px solid #000000`. Radius: `0`. Padding: `8px 12px`.
- Font: stkBureauSerif 400 / 16px. Placeholder: `#6b6b6b`.
- Hover / focus: bg → `rgba(0,0,0,0.051)` (`--form-input-bg-hover`); border stays pure black; add a 2px black focus ring with offset.
- Error: border stays black, label/helper turns `#8a2b2b`.
- Helper: caption 12px `#6b6b6b` below the field.
### Navigation
- Header height `64px`. Background `#f7f6f5` warm off-white (or transparent over a hero).
- Logo: Cognition wordmark in black, nbInternational.
- Nav links: nbInternational 500 / 15px, colour `#000000`, padding `8px 12px`. Hover → underline; no colour shift.
- Right-side CTA: a single near-black primary — *Explore roles* — `#191919` fill, off-white label, `0` radius.
- Mobile: full-screen sheet, links stack at 20px / nbInternational, black on off-white; a single black hairline separates the header from content.
### Optional Components
**Pull Quote** — stkBureauSerif 24px / 400 / italic, black text, with a 1px black left rule. No quotation glyphs.
**Code Block** — Mono 14px, bg `#f0efed`, radius `0`, padding `16px 20px`, border `1px solid #000000`. Inline code: same font, bg `rgba(0,0,0,0.05)`, padding `2px 6px`, radius `0`.
**Tooltip** — bg `#191919`, text `#f7f6f5`, radius `0`, padding `8px 12px`, font 13px / 500 nbInternational.
**Modal** — bg `#ffffff`, radius `0`, border `1px solid #000000`, shadow `rgba(0,0,0,0.12) 0 12px 32px -8px`, max-width `560px`. Off-white backdrop overlay at ~70% opacity.
## 5. Layout Principles
### Spacing System
- **Base unit**: 4px.
- **Scale**: 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128.
- **Density observation**: Cognition is moderately spacious — not as airy as a magazine spread, but never crowded. Section gaps run 64–128px; intra-section spacing uses 24–48px; component padding stays tight (10–24px) so the hard corners read as crisp rather than bloated.
### Grid & Container
- **Page max width**: `1280px` — a conventional engineering-grade container, not an oversized broadsheet.
- **Site gutter**: `clamp(20px, 5vw, 64px)` — generous on desktop, compact on mobile.
- **Grid**: 12 columns with 24px gutters. Hero spans full width; capability rails span 8 columns; sidebars span 4.
- **Hero treatment**: full-bleed warm off-white, 36–72px grotesk headline, serif lede confined to a ~720px column, single near-black CTA.
### Whitespace Philosophy
Whitespace here is structural, not decorative. The hard black hairlines and zero-radius corners would feel oppressive if crowded, so Cognition keeps generous breathing room around every block — but it spends that room precisely, never floating elements in vast empty fields the way a luxury brand would. The effect is *engineered calm*: every element sits exactly where a rule or a margin places it.
### Section Cadence
- Hero (warm off-white) → Capability Rail (bordered tiles on canvas) → Editorial Essay (warm off-white, ~720px column) → Banded Panel (`#f0efed` between black rules) → Footer (off-white with a black top rule).
- Sections are separated by **1px black hairlines** or by spacing alone — never by colour blocks or gradients.
- The page rarely uses more than two background values (off-white + faint panel); contrast comes from rules and type, not fields of colour.
## 6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 0px | Chips, dividers — sharp |
| Standard (sm) | 0px | Status markers, inline tags — sharp |
| Comfortable (md) | 0px | Buttons, inputs, dropdowns — sharp |
| Relaxed (lg) | 0px | Modals, code blocks — sharp |
| Featured (xl) | 0px | Cards, tiles — sharp |
| Pill | 0px | No pills — sharp |
Cognition's radius scale is **flat zero** at every tier. This is the single most distinctive geometric decision in the system: there is not one rounded corner on the page. Every button, card, input, chip, and modal shares a hard 90-degree edge. Combined with the pure-black 1px borders, the effect is precise and unsoftened — drafting-table geometry rather than friendly product UI. When adapting this brand, *never* introduce a radius; even a 2px round breaks the register.
## 7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Flat — no shadow | Default page surface, hero, body sections |
| 1 | 1px black border (`#000`) | Cards, tiles, inputs — separation by rule |
| 2 | `rgba(0,0,0,0.05) 0 1px 2px` | Sticky nav, dropdowns |
| 3 | `rgba(0,0,0,0.08) 0 4px 12px` | Hover-lifted floating menu |
| 4 | `rgba(0,0,0,0.12) 0 12px 32px -8px` | Modals, dialogs, popovers |
### Shadow Philosophy
Cognition's depth is carried by **borders, not shadows**. The default elevation primitive is a 1px pure-black hairline — a card "lifts" off the warm ground because it is *outlined*, not because it casts a glow. Explicit shadows appear only on genuinely floating layers (menus, modals), and they are small, neutral-black, and untinted — never large, soft, or coloured. The page reads as ink on paper, and paper separates by edge, not by elevation. Heavy or layered drop-shadows would immediately read as foreign to the brand.
## 8. Interaction & Motion
### Easing Curves
- `ease-standard`: `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` — default for hover, focus, and colour transitions.
- `ease-emphasized`: `cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)` — punchier exit; used on modal enter and reveals.
### Duration Buckets
- **Fast (150ms)** — colour transitions, focus rings, underline reveals.
- **Standard (240ms)** — button hover, card hover, dropdown reveal.
- **Slow (320ms)** — modal enter/exit, section fade-in.
### Per-Component Micro-States
- **Button hover**: `#191919` → `#000000` background shift only — no lift, no scale. `transition: background-color 240ms ease-standard`.
- **Link / nav hover**: underline fades in over 150ms; no colour change.
- **Card hover**: optional faint `rgba(0,0,0,0.05)` wash inside the bordered tile; border stays black.
- **Input focus**: 2px black ring with 2px offset over 150ms; fill deepens to `rgba(0,0,0,0.051)`.
- **No transforms by default**: the brand avoids scale/translate flourishes — motion is restrained to opacity and colour.
### Page Transitions
Section content fades in over 320ms with at most a small (12px) translate-up, triggered by `IntersectionObserver` at ~80% viewport. The hero is static or fades once on load. There are no parallax, scroll-jacking, or hero animation sequences — the brand projects steadiness, not spectacle.
### Reduced Motion
`@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)` — all transitions become opacity-only, durations halved; translate animations are disabled and scroll-linked reveals snap to their final state.
## 9. Accessibility & A11y
### Contrast Pairs
- **`#000000` text on `#f7f6f5` bg**: ~20.1:1 — far past AAA at every size.
- **`#3d3d3d` text on `#f7f6f5` bg**: ~10.3:1 — AAA.
- **`#6b6b6b` text on `#f7f6f5` bg**: ~5.0:1 — AA at all sizes, AAA at large.
- **`#f7f6f5` text on `#191919` brand**: ~16.8:1 — AAA; the CTA is exceptionally legible.
- **`#191919` link-hover on `#f7f6f5` bg**: ~17.6:1 — AAA.
- **`#9a9a9a` muted on `#f7f6f5` bg**: ~2.8:1 — decorative/disabled only, never body text.
This is one of the highest-contrast systems in the catalog — the monochrome discipline is also an accessibility asset.
### Focus Indicators
- Default focus ring: `2px solid #000000` with 2px offset on the warm ground.
- On near-black surfaces (CTA, tooltip): `2px solid #f7f6f5`.
- All interactive surfaces must have a visible focus state — no `outline: none` without a replacement ring.
### ARIA Patterns
- **Navigation**: `<nav aria-label="Main">` with a skip-link to main content.
- **Disclosure**: `<button aria-expanded aria-controls>` for collapsible sections.
- **Dialog**: `role="dialog" aria-modal="true" aria-labelledby` with focus trap and Esc-to-close.
- **Live regions**: `aria-live="polite"` for form validation messages.
### Keyboard Navigation
- Tab order matches visual flow: skip-link → nav → hero CTA → main content → footer.
- All buttons, links, inputs reachable via Tab; modals trap focus until dismissed.
- `Esc` closes modals and dropdowns; arrow keys navigate within listboxes.
### Screen Reader Hints
- Decorative rules and dividers carry `aria-hidden="true"`.
- Icon-only buttons have `aria-label`.
- The single CTA must have descriptive text, not just "Explore" — *"Explore open roles"* reads better aloud.
### Reduced Motion
Honoured via the global media query — translate/scale animations become opacity-only and durations halve.
## 10. Responsive Behavior
### Breakpoints
| Name | Width | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | < 640px | Single column, full-bleed sections |
| Tablet | 640–1024px | 2-column rails, narrower gutters |
| Desktop | 1024–1280px | Full 12-col grid, 720px prose |
| Wide | 1280–1536px | Site max width hits |
| Ultra | > 1536px | Page locks near 1280, gutters expand |
### Touch Targets
- Minimum tap target: 44×44px (WCAG AAA).
- Buttons: 44px minimum height on mobile (10px vertical padding × 2 + line-height); pad the tap area beyond the visible box if needed since the visible button is compact.
- Nav link tap area: 44×44px even when visual padding is smaller.
### Collapsing Strategy
- **Header**: full nav at ≥1024px; hamburger sheet below.
- **Hero**: 72px headline → 48px → 36px across desktop/tablet/mobile.
- **Capability grid**: 3-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — black rules between cells collapse to stacked top-borders.
- **Body width**: 720px → fluid 90vw at mobile.
- **Section spacing**: 128px → 96px → 64px across sizes.
### Image Behavior
- Imagery uses `aspect-ratio` to prevent layout shift; hero loads eager, below-fold lazy.
- Photography (when used) is treated documentary-style — desaturated or black-and-white sits most naturally with the monochrome system.
### Container Queries
Used inside capability cards to switch icon-left vs. icon-top layout when card width crosses ~320px.
## 11. Content & Voice
### Tone
**Precise, plainspoken, serious.** Cognition writes like an engineering team that respects your time — declarative sentences, technical specificity, no hype and no exclamation marks. Headlines state what the product does; subheads explain how. The brand sounds like a research note, not a sales deck.
### Microcopy Patterns
- **Button verbs**: "Explore roles," "Read more," "Read the paper," "Get Devin." Never "Sign up now!" or "Get started for free →".
- **Error messages**: "Couldn't reach the service. Try again." Specific, terse, blameless.
- **Success confirmations**: "Done." "We'll be in touch." Brief and flat.
- **Loading states**: "Working…" or "Running…" — engineering-register language.
### Empty States
What they say: state the condition and the next step. *"No runs yet. Start a task to see them here."*
What they don't say: "Oops!", "Whoops!", or any apologetic exclamation. Empty states are normal conditions, reported plainly.
### CTA Verb Conventions
- Primary: "Explore roles," "Get Devin," "Try it"
- Secondary: "Read the paper," "Read the announcement," "View research"
- Footer: "Read our research," "View open roles," "Read the docs"
The brand never trades in urgency or scarcity. The voice is confident and matter-of-fact — it assumes the reader is technical and treats them accordingly.
## 12. Dark Mode & Theming
**Light-only — no dark variant offered on the marketing surface.** A theme-toggle audit of the production site returned `score=0, signals=[none]`: there is no detectable dark-mode mechanism. The warm off-white `#f7f6f5` ground is the brand's defining choice, and a dark mode would invert the entire ink-on-paper concept that distinguishes Cognition from the chrome-on-black AI-lab default.
If a downstream surface ever needed a dark companion, the rule would be a clean inversion: swap the off-white ground for a warm near-black (`#141414`), keep type at off-white `#f7f6f5`, and keep the CTA logic — but lighten the CTA to off-white-on-dark rather than darkening it. This is not currently shipped; the marketing site is intentionally light across all viewports.
## 13. Lineage & Influences
Cognition's design DNA is **Swiss/International Typographic Style** filtered through a contemporary research-lab sensibility. The neo-grotesk display, the rigid 12-column grid, the hard 1px rules, and the near-total absence of colour quote Helvetica-era Swiss design and Massimo Vignelli's monochrome systems directly. The serif body underneath the grotesk display borrows the editorial cadence of a printed journal — grotesk masthead, serif text — giving the page the authority of an academic bulletin rather than a startup pitch.
What it inherits: International Style discipline (one grotesk, a single grid, no decoration), Vignelli's "few typefaces, lots of black, lots of white" ethos, and broadsheet typographic conventions (negative tracking on headlines, old-style figures in serif body). What it borrows from contemporaries: Linear's monochrome restraint and Vercel's hard-edged engineering register — but recast in *warm* off-white and a serif body rather than cool grey and sans. What it rejects, emphatically: gradient meshes, neon accents, glassmorphism, hero animation, rounded "friendly" corners, and the entire purple-on-black AI-lab visual cliché.
**Named influences:**
- **Swiss / International Typographic Style** — grotesk display, grid discipline, black-on-white restraint. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Typographic_Style*
- **Massimo Vignelli** — "few typefaces, lots of black and white" monochrome systems. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli*
- **Helvetica / Neue Haas Grotesk** — the neo-grotesk lineage of the nbInternational display face. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica*
- **Linear** — contemporary monochrome restraint and engineering-grade UI. *https://linear.app*
- **Vercel** — hard-edged, black-and-white developer-tool register. *https://vercel.com*
- **Klim Type Foundry (Tiempos)** — DNA reference for the serif text body. *https://klim.co.nz*
## 14. Do's and Don'ts
### Do
- **Do** ground the page on warm off-white `#f7f6f5` — never pure white, never grey.
- **Do** set body copy in **serif** (`stkBureauSerif` / Tiempos / Georgia fallback) at 16px / 1.6 line-height.
- **Do** run the grotesk display *light* — h1 at weight 400, not 700. Let size and tracking carry it.
- **Do** keep every corner sharp at `0px` radius — buttons, cards, inputs, chips, modals.
- **Do** use pure-black 1px hairlines for borders and dividers — separation by rule, not shadow.
- **Do** use pure black `#000` for text — the warm ground keeps the contrast comfortable.
- **Do** reserve the single near-black `#191919` for the primary CTA — it is the only non-black value.
- **Do** separate sections with black hairlines or spacing, not colour fields or gradients.
- **Do** keep motion restrained — colour and opacity shifts, no scale or parallax.
- **Do** write plainspoken, technical, exclamation-free copy.
### Don't
- **Don't** round any corner. A `0px` radius scale is the brand's geometric signature.
- **Don't** introduce an accent colour. There is no purple, blue, green, or any hue — emphasis is weight, size, and rule.
- **Don't** swap the serif body for sans without re-keying the whole system; grotesk-over-serif is the identity.
- **Don't** make the display bold. Weight-700 headlines break the calm research-lab register.
- **Don't** use soft grey dividers where a black hairline belongs.
- **Don't** add drop-shadows to default cards — they lift by border, not elevation.
- **Don't** use pure white `#ffffff` as the page ground; the warmth of `#f7f6f5` matters.
- **Don't** stack gradients, mesh backgrounds, glassmorphism, or hero animations.
- **Don't** ship marketing copy with exclamation marks or urgency ("Sign up now!").
- **Don't** soften the brand with rounded pills — status markers are sharp outlined chips.
## 15. Agent Prompt Guide
### Quick Color Reference
```
bg: #f7f6f5
bg-secondary: #f0efed
surface: #ffffff
text: #000000
text-soft: #3d3d3d
text-faint: #6b6b6b
brand (CTA): #191919
on-brand: #f7f6f5
border: #000000
input-bg: rgba(0,0,0,0.031)
```
### Example Component Prompts
1. **"Create a hero in Cognition style — warm off-white `#f7f6f5` canvas, 72px headline in nbInternational (Neue Haas Grotesk fallback) at weight 400 with -0.02em tracking, 20px serif lede in stkBureauSerif (Tiempos fallback), a single primary CTA filled `#191919` with off-white `#f7f6f5` label at `0px` radius, no gradient, no accent colour, reading column capped at 720px."**
2. **"Design a capability card — pure-white `#ffffff` background, `0px` radius, 1px solid `#000000` border, 24px interior padding, 16px nbInternational 600 heading, 16px stkBureauSerif 400 body, no shadow — the black hairline does the separation."**
3. **"Build a primary nav — 64px header height, warm off-white `#f7f6f5` background, black wordmark in nbInternational, links at 15px / 500 black with underline-on-hover (no colour shift), a single near-black `#191919` 'Explore roles' CTA on the right at `0px` radius."**
4. **"Compose a banded section — full-bleed `#f0efed` panel separated from the page by 1px black `#000000` top and bottom rules, 32px vertical padding, 20px nbInternational 400 heading in black, 16px serif body in `#3d3d3d`, single ghost CTA (transparent, black border, `0px` radius)."**
5. **"Render a form field — fill `rgba(0,0,0,0.031)`, 1px solid `#000000` border, `0px` radius, 8px×12px padding, 16px stkBureauSerif placeholder in `#6b6b6b`; on focus deepen fill to `rgba(0,0,0,0.051)` and add a 2px black focus ring with 2px offset."**
6. **"Make a pull-quote — stkBureauSerif 24px / 400 / italic, pure-black text, 1px black left rule, no quotation glyphs, 64px top/bottom margin, `0px` radius."**
### Iteration Guide
1. **Start warm, not white.** If the bg is `#ffffff`, shift it to warm off-white `#f7f6f5`. If it's grey, it's wrong too.
2. **Kill every radius.** Set all corners to `0px` — buttons, cards, inputs, chips. A single rounded corner breaks the brand.
3. **Switch body to serif.** If the body is sans, change it to stkBureauSerif (or Tiempos / Georgia fallback) at 16px / 1.6.
4. **Un-bold the headline.** If the display is 700, drop it to 400 and let size plus -0.012em tracking carry it.
5. **Delete the accent colour.** Any blue, purple, or green link/button is wrong — collapse it to black, with the single near-black `#191919` reserved for the primary CTA.
6. **Replace shadows with borders.** Swap every box-shadow for a 1px pure-black hairline.
7. **Strip the gradient.** Any mesh, conic, or radial gradient is foreign — replace with flat off-white or a faint `#f0efed` panel.
8. **Calm the verbs.** Replace "Sign up now!" with "Explore roles" or "Read more"; the voice is technical and exclamation-free.
---
*Theme-toggle audit: score=0, signals=[none]*
1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Cognition’s site is what happens when a research lab refuses to decorate. Open cognition.ai — the home of Devin, the AI software engineer — and you land on a warm off-white #f7f6f5 canvas with pure-black #000 type and exactly one non-black value anywhere near the fold: the near-black #191919 fill on the Explore roles call-to-action. There is no gradient, no accent hue, no glassmorphism, no chrome. The page reads like a printed bulletin from an engineering department — confident, quiet, and almost aggressively unembellished.
The typographic pairing is the move that keeps the monochrome from feeling sterile. The display face is nbInternational, a tight neo-grotesk in the Neue-Haas / Helvetica lineage, and Cognition runs it light — the h1 lands at 36px at weight 400, not the 700-weight shout most landing pages reach for. The body underneath it is set in stkBureauSerif, a serif text face at 16px. Grotesk headline over serif body is an editorial inversion of the usual SaaS default (sans everything), and it gives the page the cadence of a journal article rather than a product tour. The warmth of the off-white ground softens the pure-black ink just enough that long-form reading never feels like staring at a terminal.
Everything is sharp. The radius scale is 0px top to bottom — buttons, cards, inputs, chips all share hard 90-degree corners. Borders are pure-black 1px hairlines, not the polite light-grey dividers of most modern UI. This is a deliberate severity: square corners and black rules read as precise and unsoftened, which is exactly the register a company building autonomous software engineers wants to project. Nothing here is trying to be friendly; it’s trying to be correct.
The colour discipline is near-total. Cognition does not own a brand colour in the conventional sense — its brand is the absence of one. The #191919 CTA is so close to black that on a thumbnail the whole identity collapses to two values: warm paper and black. That restraint is the signal. It says the work is the product; the marketing site is just a clean window onto it.
Atmospheric vocabulary that captures the feeling: research-bulletin, monochrome, hard-edged, grotesk-over-serif, black-on-warm-paper, unembellished, precision-engineering, journal-quiet, zero-radius, single-CTA, serious.
Key Characteristics
- Warm off-white
#f7f6f5canvas — never pure white, never grey - Pure-black
#000ink for body and headings — uncompromising contrast - A single near-black
#191919CTA — the only non-black value on the page - Grotesk display (
nbInternational) run light — h1 at 36px / 400, never bold-shout - Serif body (
stkBureauSerif) — the editorial counterweight that warms the page - Zero radius everywhere —
0pxon buttons, cards, inputs, chips - Pure-black 1px hairline borders, not soft grey dividers
- No gradients, no accent colour, no shadows on default surfaces
- Restraint as identity — the absence of a brand colour is the brand
- Reads as a printed research bulletin, not a SaaS landing page
2. Color Palette & Roles
Primary
- bg (
#f7f6f5) [→ body background]: the warm off-white canvas; the defining ground, never substituted for#ffffff. - text (
#000000) [→ body color]: pure black ink for body copy and headings; maximum contrast on the warm ground. - bg-secondary (
#f0efed): a faint warm panel one step down from canvas, for lightly differentiated sections. - surface (
#ffffff): rare pure-white card lift used only when a tile must read as raised above the warm ground.
Brand
- brand (
#191919) [→ CTA fill]: the near-black call-to-action fill behind Explore roles; the single non-black value in the system. - brand-hover (
#000000): the CTA deepens to pure black on hover — a 6-value shift, deliberately subtle. - on-brand (
#f7f6f5) [→ CTA label]: warm off-white label on the near-black CTA; matches the canvas exactly so the button reads as inverted page.
Accent
There is no accent colour. Cognition’s system is monochrome by design — emphasis is carried by weight, size, border, and whitespace, never by hue. Treat any request for an “accent” as a request for either the #191919 near-black or a black hairline rule.
Interactive
- link (
#000000): links are black with an underline; they do not introduce colour. - link-hover (
#191919): on hover, links shift to near-black; the underline persists. - selected-bg (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)): a ~5% black wash for selected rows and active states. - disabled (
#9a9a9a): mid-grey for disabled control text.
Neutral Scale
- text (
#000000): primary text and high-emphasis labels. - text-soft (
#3d3d3d): secondary copy and supporting paragraphs. - text-faint (
#6b6b6b): eyebrows, helper text, footer microcopy. - text-muted (
#9a9a9a): disabled states, quietest microcopy.
Surface
- surface-0 (page) —
#f7f6f5warm off-white. - surface-1 (panel) —
#f0efedfaint warm step-down. - surface-2 (card) —
#ffffffrare pure-white lift. - input-bg (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.031)) [→--form-input-bg]: faint black wash inside form fields. - input-bg-hover (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.051)) [→--form-input-bg-hover]: input fill on hover/focus.
Borders
- border (
#000000): default hairline rules are pure black at 1px — the brand’s signature division. - border-soft (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.12)): quieter division for dense layouts. - border-subtle (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)): faintest separation, near-invisible.
Shadow Colors
Cognition is essentially shadowless. Default surfaces lift by border and value contrast alone — a pure-black hairline does the separation work that a drop-shadow would do elsewhere. When a shadow is unavoidable (a floating menu, a modal), it is a low-opacity neutral black (rgba(0,0,0,0.05) to 0.12), never tinted and never large. The page reads as paper and ink, and paper does not cast soft glows.
Semantic
The system barely uses semantic colour — status is usually communicated in plain black text plus an icon. When colour is required for validation, keep it dark and desaturated so it does not break the monochrome:
- success — text
#1f5130on a faint neutral or off-white field. - warning — text
#7a5e1f. - danger — text
#8a2b2b, paired with a black border on the field. - info — text
#26416b.
Note the unusual choice: Cognition would rather mark an error with a black border and dark-red label than tint a whole field. Colour is rationed to the point of near-absence.
3. Typography Rules
Font Family
- Display & UI:
"nbInternational", "Neue Haas Grotesk", "Helvetica Neue", system-ui, sans-serif— a tight neo-grotesk, run light. This is the headline and chrome voice. - Body & Editorial:
"stkBureauSerif", "Tiempos Text", Georgia, serif— a serif text face at weight 400/500. The body in serif is the brand’s defining typographic move. - Mono:
ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospace— for code, data, and tabular figures. - OpenType features:
ligaandkernalways on;onum(old-style figures) in serif body so numbers sit with letters;tnumandzeroin mono for aligned data and slashed zero.
Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display Hero | nbInternational | 72px | 400 | 1.02 | -0.02em | liga kern | Homepage hero ceiling — light, not bold |
| Display Large | nbInternational | 56px | 400 | 1.05 | -0.018em | liga | Section intro at scale |
| H1 | nbInternational | 36px | 400 | 1.10 | -0.012em | liga | Page title (live-sampled) |
| H2 | nbInternational | 20px | 400 | 1.25 | -0.005em | liga | Major section (live-sampled) |
| H3 | nbInternational | 18px | 500 | 1.30 | normal | — | Sub-section |
| H4 | nbInternational | 16px | 600 | 1.35 | normal | — | Card heading |
| Eyebrow | nbInternational | 12px | 500 | 1.40 | 0.06em | uppercase | Section pre-label |
| Lede | stkBureauSerif | 20px | 400 | 1.50 | normal | onum | Intro paragraph under hero |
| Body Large | stkBureauSerif | 18px | 400 | 1.60 | normal | onum | Spacious body |
| Body | stkBureauSerif | 16px | 400 | 1.60 | normal | onum | Default editorial body (live-sampled) |
| Body Small | stkBureauSerif | 14px | 400 | 1.55 | normal | onum | Captions, sidebars |
| Pull Quote | stkBureauSerif | 24px | 400 | 1.40 | normal | italic | Editorial pull-quote |
| Label | nbInternational | 13px | 500 | 1.40 | normal | — | UI labels |
| Caption | nbInternational | 12px | 500 | 1.40 | 0.02em | — | Image captions, meta |
| Code | Mono | 14px | 400 | 1.55 | normal | tnum zero | Inline + block code |
Principles
- Grotesk headlines, serif body. Display, nav, buttons, labels, and eyebrows use nbInternational; headlines, body copy, ledes, and pull-quotes use stkBureauSerif. The split is non-negotiable — collapsing both to sans erases the editorial register.
- Run the display light. The h1 ships at weight 400, not 700. Cognition lets size and tracking — not weight — carry the headline. Bold display would break the calm.
- Negative tracking scales with size. -0.02em at the 72px hero, tightening through -0.018em / -0.012em, reaching normal by 18px and below. The compression mirrors grotesk masthead typography.
- Serif body sits warm and roomy. 16px at 1.6 line-height with old-style figures — magazine metrics, not blog metrics — so the pure-black ink reads as comfortable long-form, not terminal output.
- Pure black is the text colour. Unlike warmer editorial brands that avoid
#000, Cognition embraces it; the warm off-white ground is what keeps the contrast from feeling harsh. - Italics in body, never in display. The serif italic carries quoted titles, gentle emphasis, and pull-quotes; the grotesk display never italicises.
- Reading width capped near 720px even on the 1280px page — a single editorial column.
- Uppercase only for eyebrows and chips, at 12px / 500 / 0.06em tracking. Body and headlines stay sentence-case.
4. Component Stylings
Buttons
Primary (Near-Black)
- Background:
#191919near-black. - Text:
#f7f6f5warm off-white, nbInternational 500 / 15px. - Padding:
10px 16px. Radius:0— sharp corners. Border:1px solid #191919. - Hover: bg →
#000000(pure black); transition240ms ease-standard. - Use: Primary CTA — Explore roles, Read the paper, Get Devin.
Ghost (Outlined)
- Background: transparent. Text:
#000000. Border:1px solid #000000. - Same padding, radius
0, font as primary. - Hover: bg →
rgba(0,0,0,0.05). - Use: Twin to primary — Read more, View research.
Text (Quiet)
- Background: transparent. Text:
#000000. No border. Padding10px 4px. - Hover: underline appears; no colour shift.
- Use: Quietest inline action — footer links, repeated CTAs.
Inverse (On-Black)
- Background:
#f7f6f5. Text:#000000. Border:1px solid #f7f6f5. - Same shape (
0radius, 10×16 padding). - Hover: bg →
#ffffff. - Use: For CTAs sitting on a black/near-black section — off-white fill, black label.
Cards
Bordered Tile
- Background:
#ffffff(or#f7f6f5for flush-on-canvas). Border:1px solid #000000. Radius:0. Padding:24px. - Shadow: none — the black hairline does the separation work.
- Hover: border stays; an optional 1px inner offset or a faint
rgba(0,0,0,0.05)wash signals interactivity. - Use: Capability tile, research index entry, role listing.
Flush Panel
- Background:
#f0efed. Border: top/bottom1px solid #000000, sides open. Radius:0. Padding:32px 0. - Use: Full-bleed section divider — a banded panel separated by black rules rather than a boxed card.
Badges, Tags, Pills
Outlined Chip — bg transparent, border 1px solid #000000, radius 0, padding 2px 8px, nbInternational 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em tracking, colour #000000. Sharp-cornered, never a pill.
Eyebrow Label — no chrome, just type: nbInternational 500 / 12px / uppercase / 0.06em, colour #6b6b6b. Sits above section headlines.
There are no rounded pills in this system — pill: 0 is intentional. Any status marker is a sharp-cornered outlined chip.
Inputs / Forms
- Background:
rgba(0,0,0,0.031)(the production--form-input-bg). Border:1px solid #000000. Radius:0. Padding:8px 12px. - Font: stkBureauSerif 400 / 16px. Placeholder:
#6b6b6b. - Hover / focus: bg →
rgba(0,0,0,0.051)(--form-input-bg-hover); border stays pure black; add a 2px black focus ring with offset. - Error: border stays black, label/helper turns
#8a2b2b. - Helper: caption 12px
#6b6b6bbelow the field.
Navigation
- Header height
64px. Background#f7f6f5warm off-white (or transparent over a hero). - Logo: Cognition wordmark in black, nbInternational.
- Nav links: nbInternational 500 / 15px, colour
#000000, padding8px 12px. Hover → underline; no colour shift. - Right-side CTA: a single near-black primary — Explore roles —
#191919fill, off-white label,0radius. - Mobile: full-screen sheet, links stack at 20px / nbInternational, black on off-white; a single black hairline separates the header from content.
Optional Components
Pull Quote — stkBureauSerif 24px / 400 / italic, black text, with a 1px black left rule. No quotation glyphs.
Code Block — Mono 14px, bg #f0efed, radius 0, padding 16px 20px, border 1px solid #000000. Inline code: same font, bg rgba(0,0,0,0.05), padding 2px 6px, radius 0.
Tooltip — bg #191919, text #f7f6f5, radius 0, padding 8px 12px, font 13px / 500 nbInternational.
Modal — bg #ffffff, radius 0, border 1px solid #000000, shadow rgba(0,0,0,0.12) 0 12px 32px -8px, max-width 560px. Off-white backdrop overlay at ~70% opacity.
5. Layout Principles
Spacing System
- Base unit: 4px.
- Scale: 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128.
- Density observation: Cognition is moderately spacious — not as airy as a magazine spread, but never crowded. Section gaps run 64–128px; intra-section spacing uses 24–48px; component padding stays tight (10–24px) so the hard corners read as crisp rather than bloated.
Grid & Container
- Page max width:
1280px— a conventional engineering-grade container, not an oversized broadsheet. - Site gutter:
clamp(20px, 5vw, 64px)— generous on desktop, compact on mobile. - Grid: 12 columns with 24px gutters. Hero spans full width; capability rails span 8 columns; sidebars span 4.
- Hero treatment: full-bleed warm off-white, 36–72px grotesk headline, serif lede confined to a ~720px column, single near-black CTA.
Whitespace Philosophy
Whitespace here is structural, not decorative. The hard black hairlines and zero-radius corners would feel oppressive if crowded, so Cognition keeps generous breathing room around every block — but it spends that room precisely, never floating elements in vast empty fields the way a luxury brand would. The effect is engineered calm: every element sits exactly where a rule or a margin places it.
Section Cadence
- Hero (warm off-white) → Capability Rail (bordered tiles on canvas) → Editorial Essay (warm off-white, ~720px column) → Banded Panel (
#f0efedbetween black rules) → Footer (off-white with a black top rule). - Sections are separated by 1px black hairlines or by spacing alone — never by colour blocks or gradients.
- The page rarely uses more than two background values (off-white + faint panel); contrast comes from rules and type, not fields of colour.
6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 0px | Chips, dividers — sharp |
| Standard (sm) | 0px | Status markers, inline tags — sharp |
| Comfortable (md) | 0px | Buttons, inputs, dropdowns — sharp |
| Relaxed (lg) | 0px | Modals, code blocks — sharp |
| Featured (xl) | 0px | Cards, tiles — sharp |
| Pill | 0px | No pills — sharp |
Cognition’s radius scale is flat zero at every tier. This is the single most distinctive geometric decision in the system: there is not one rounded corner on the page. Every button, card, input, chip, and modal shares a hard 90-degree edge. Combined with the pure-black 1px borders, the effect is precise and unsoftened — drafting-table geometry rather than friendly product UI. When adapting this brand, never introduce a radius; even a 2px round breaks the register.
7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Flat — no shadow | Default page surface, hero, body sections |
| 1 | 1px black border (#000) | Cards, tiles, inputs — separation by rule |
| 2 | rgba(0,0,0,0.05) 0 1px 2px | Sticky nav, dropdowns |
| 3 | rgba(0,0,0,0.08) 0 4px 12px | Hover-lifted floating menu |
| 4 | rgba(0,0,0,0.12) 0 12px 32px -8px | Modals, dialogs, popovers |
Shadow Philosophy
Cognition’s depth is carried by borders, not shadows. The default elevation primitive is a 1px pure-black hairline — a card “lifts” off the warm ground because it is outlined, not because it casts a glow. Explicit shadows appear only on genuinely floating layers (menus, modals), and they are small, neutral-black, and untinted — never large, soft, or coloured. The page reads as ink on paper, and paper separates by edge, not by elevation. Heavy or layered drop-shadows would immediately read as foreign to the brand.
8. Interaction & Motion
Easing Curves
ease-standard:cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)— default for hover, focus, and colour transitions.ease-emphasized:cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)— punchier exit; used on modal enter and reveals.
Duration Buckets
- Fast (150ms) — colour transitions, focus rings, underline reveals.
- Standard (240ms) — button hover, card hover, dropdown reveal.
- Slow (320ms) — modal enter/exit, section fade-in.
Per-Component Micro-States
- Button hover:
#191919→#000000background shift only — no lift, no scale.transition: background-color 240ms ease-standard. - Link / nav hover: underline fades in over 150ms; no colour change.
- Card hover: optional faint
rgba(0,0,0,0.05)wash inside the bordered tile; border stays black. - Input focus: 2px black ring with 2px offset over 150ms; fill deepens to
rgba(0,0,0,0.051). - No transforms by default: the brand avoids scale/translate flourishes — motion is restrained to opacity and colour.
Page Transitions
Section content fades in over 320ms with at most a small (12px) translate-up, triggered by IntersectionObserver at ~80% viewport. The hero is static or fades once on load. There are no parallax, scroll-jacking, or hero animation sequences — the brand projects steadiness, not spectacle.
Reduced Motion
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) — all transitions become opacity-only, durations halved; translate animations are disabled and scroll-linked reveals snap to their final state.
9. Accessibility & A11y
Contrast Pairs
#000000text on#f7f6f5bg: ~20.1:1 — far past AAA at every size.#3d3d3dtext on#f7f6f5bg: ~10.3:1 — AAA.#6b6b6btext on#f7f6f5bg: ~5.0:1 — AA at all sizes, AAA at large.#f7f6f5text on#191919brand: ~16.8:1 — AAA; the CTA is exceptionally legible.#191919link-hover on#f7f6f5bg: ~17.6:1 — AAA.#9a9a9amuted on#f7f6f5bg: ~2.8:1 — decorative/disabled only, never body text.
This is one of the highest-contrast systems in the catalog — the monochrome discipline is also an accessibility asset.
Focus Indicators
- Default focus ring:
2px solid #000000with 2px offset on the warm ground. - On near-black surfaces (CTA, tooltip):
2px solid #f7f6f5. - All interactive surfaces must have a visible focus state — no
outline: nonewithout a replacement ring.
ARIA Patterns
- Navigation:
<nav aria-label="Main">with a skip-link to main content. - Disclosure:
<button aria-expanded aria-controls>for collapsible sections. - Dialog:
role="dialog" aria-modal="true" aria-labelledbywith focus trap and Esc-to-close. - Live regions:
aria-live="polite"for form validation messages.
Keyboard Navigation
- Tab order matches visual flow: skip-link → nav → hero CTA → main content → footer.
- All buttons, links, inputs reachable via Tab; modals trap focus until dismissed.
Esccloses modals and dropdowns; arrow keys navigate within listboxes.
Screen Reader Hints
- Decorative rules and dividers carry
aria-hidden="true". - Icon-only buttons have
aria-label. - The single CTA must have descriptive text, not just “Explore” — “Explore open roles” reads better aloud.
Reduced Motion
Honoured via the global media query — translate/scale animations become opacity-only and durations halve.
10. Responsive Behavior
Breakpoints
| Name | Width | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | < 640px | Single column, full-bleed sections |
| Tablet | 640–1024px | 2-column rails, narrower gutters |
| Desktop | 1024–1280px | Full 12-col grid, 720px prose |
| Wide | 1280–1536px | Site max width hits |
| Ultra | > 1536px | Page locks near 1280, gutters expand |
Touch Targets
- Minimum tap target: 44×44px (WCAG AAA).
- Buttons: 44px minimum height on mobile (10px vertical padding × 2 + line-height); pad the tap area beyond the visible box if needed since the visible button is compact.
- Nav link tap area: 44×44px even when visual padding is smaller.
Collapsing Strategy
- Header: full nav at ≥1024px; hamburger sheet below.
- Hero: 72px headline → 48px → 36px across desktop/tablet/mobile.
- Capability grid: 3-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — black rules between cells collapse to stacked top-borders.
- Body width: 720px → fluid 90vw at mobile.
- Section spacing: 128px → 96px → 64px across sizes.
Image Behavior
- Imagery uses
aspect-ratioto prevent layout shift; hero loads eager, below-fold lazy. - Photography (when used) is treated documentary-style — desaturated or black-and-white sits most naturally with the monochrome system.
Container Queries
Used inside capability cards to switch icon-left vs. icon-top layout when card width crosses ~320px.
11. Content & Voice
Tone
Precise, plainspoken, serious. Cognition writes like an engineering team that respects your time — declarative sentences, technical specificity, no hype and no exclamation marks. Headlines state what the product does; subheads explain how. The brand sounds like a research note, not a sales deck.
Microcopy Patterns
- Button verbs: “Explore roles,” “Read more,” “Read the paper,” “Get Devin.” Never “Sign up now!” or “Get started for free →”.
- Error messages: “Couldn’t reach the service. Try again.” Specific, terse, blameless.
- Success confirmations: “Done.” “We’ll be in touch.” Brief and flat.
- Loading states: “Working…” or “Running…” — engineering-register language.
Empty States
What they say: state the condition and the next step. “No runs yet. Start a task to see them here.” What they don’t say: “Oops!”, “Whoops!”, or any apologetic exclamation. Empty states are normal conditions, reported plainly.
CTA Verb Conventions
- Primary: “Explore roles,” “Get Devin,” “Try it”
- Secondary: “Read the paper,” “Read the announcement,” “View research”
- Footer: “Read our research,” “View open roles,” “Read the docs”
The brand never trades in urgency or scarcity. The voice is confident and matter-of-fact — it assumes the reader is technical and treats them accordingly.
12. Dark Mode & Theming
Light-only — no dark variant offered on the marketing surface. A theme-toggle audit of the production site returned score=0, signals=[none]: there is no detectable dark-mode mechanism. The warm off-white #f7f6f5 ground is the brand’s defining choice, and a dark mode would invert the entire ink-on-paper concept that distinguishes Cognition from the chrome-on-black AI-lab default.
If a downstream surface ever needed a dark companion, the rule would be a clean inversion: swap the off-white ground for a warm near-black (#141414), keep type at off-white #f7f6f5, and keep the CTA logic — but lighten the CTA to off-white-on-dark rather than darkening it. This is not currently shipped; the marketing site is intentionally light across all viewports.
13. Lineage & Influences
Cognition’s design DNA is Swiss/International Typographic Style filtered through a contemporary research-lab sensibility. The neo-grotesk display, the rigid 12-column grid, the hard 1px rules, and the near-total absence of colour quote Helvetica-era Swiss design and Massimo Vignelli’s monochrome systems directly. The serif body underneath the grotesk display borrows the editorial cadence of a printed journal — grotesk masthead, serif text — giving the page the authority of an academic bulletin rather than a startup pitch.
What it inherits: International Style discipline (one grotesk, a single grid, no decoration), Vignelli’s “few typefaces, lots of black, lots of white” ethos, and broadsheet typographic conventions (negative tracking on headlines, old-style figures in serif body). What it borrows from contemporaries: Linear’s monochrome restraint and Vercel’s hard-edged engineering register — but recast in warm off-white and a serif body rather than cool grey and sans. What it rejects, emphatically: gradient meshes, neon accents, glassmorphism, hero animation, rounded “friendly” corners, and the entire purple-on-black AI-lab visual cliché.
Named influences:
- Swiss / International Typographic Style — grotesk display, grid discipline, black-on-white restraint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Typographic_Style
- Massimo Vignelli — “few typefaces, lots of black and white” monochrome systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Vignelli
- Helvetica / Neue Haas Grotesk — the neo-grotesk lineage of the nbInternational display face. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica
- Linear — contemporary monochrome restraint and engineering-grade UI. https://linear.app
- Vercel — hard-edged, black-and-white developer-tool register. https://vercel.com
- Klim Type Foundry (Tiempos) — DNA reference for the serif text body. https://klim.co.nz
14. Do’s and Don’ts
Do
- Do ground the page on warm off-white
#f7f6f5— never pure white, never grey. - Do set body copy in serif (
stkBureauSerif/ Tiempos / Georgia fallback) at 16px / 1.6 line-height. - Do run the grotesk display light — h1 at weight 400, not 700. Let size and tracking carry it.
- Do keep every corner sharp at
0pxradius — buttons, cards, inputs, chips, modals. - Do use pure-black 1px hairlines for borders and dividers — separation by rule, not shadow.
- Do use pure black
#000for text — the warm ground keeps the contrast comfortable. - Do reserve the single near-black
#191919for the primary CTA — it is the only non-black value. - Do separate sections with black hairlines or spacing, not colour fields or gradients.
- Do keep motion restrained — colour and opacity shifts, no scale or parallax.
- Do write plainspoken, technical, exclamation-free copy.
Don’t
- Don’t round any corner. A
0pxradius scale is the brand’s geometric signature. - Don’t introduce an accent colour. There is no purple, blue, green, or any hue — emphasis is weight, size, and rule.
- Don’t swap the serif body for sans without re-keying the whole system; grotesk-over-serif is the identity.
- Don’t make the display bold. Weight-700 headlines break the calm research-lab register.
- Don’t use soft grey dividers where a black hairline belongs.
- Don’t add drop-shadows to default cards — they lift by border, not elevation.
- Don’t use pure white
#ffffffas the page ground; the warmth of#f7f6f5matters. - Don’t stack gradients, mesh backgrounds, glassmorphism, or hero animations.
- Don’t ship marketing copy with exclamation marks or urgency (“Sign up now!”).
- Don’t soften the brand with rounded pills — status markers are sharp outlined chips.
15. Agent Prompt Guide
Quick Color Reference
bg: #f7f6f5
bg-secondary: #f0efed
surface: #ffffff
text: #000000
text-soft: #3d3d3d
text-faint: #6b6b6b
brand (CTA): #191919
on-brand: #f7f6f5
border: #000000
input-bg: rgba(0,0,0,0.031)Example Component Prompts
-
“Create a hero in Cognition style — warm off-white
#f7f6f5canvas, 72px headline in nbInternational (Neue Haas Grotesk fallback) at weight 400 with -0.02em tracking, 20px serif lede in stkBureauSerif (Tiempos fallback), a single primary CTA filled#191919with off-white#f7f6f5label at0pxradius, no gradient, no accent colour, reading column capped at 720px.” -
“Design a capability card — pure-white
#ffffffbackground,0pxradius, 1px solid#000000border, 24px interior padding, 16px nbInternational 600 heading, 16px stkBureauSerif 400 body, no shadow — the black hairline does the separation.” -
“Build a primary nav — 64px header height, warm off-white
#f7f6f5background, black wordmark in nbInternational, links at 15px / 500 black with underline-on-hover (no colour shift), a single near-black#191919‘Explore roles’ CTA on the right at0pxradius.” -
“Compose a banded section — full-bleed
#f0efedpanel separated from the page by 1px black#000000top and bottom rules, 32px vertical padding, 20px nbInternational 400 heading in black, 16px serif body in#3d3d3d, single ghost CTA (transparent, black border,0pxradius).” -
“Render a form field — fill
rgba(0,0,0,0.031), 1px solid#000000border,0pxradius, 8px×12px padding, 16px stkBureauSerif placeholder in#6b6b6b; on focus deepen fill torgba(0,0,0,0.051)and add a 2px black focus ring with 2px offset.” -
“Make a pull-quote — stkBureauSerif 24px / 400 / italic, pure-black text, 1px black left rule, no quotation glyphs, 64px top/bottom margin,
0pxradius.”
Iteration Guide
- Start warm, not white. If the bg is
#ffffff, shift it to warm off-white#f7f6f5. If it’s grey, it’s wrong too. - Kill every radius. Set all corners to
0px— buttons, cards, inputs, chips. A single rounded corner breaks the brand. - Switch body to serif. If the body is sans, change it to stkBureauSerif (or Tiempos / Georgia fallback) at 16px / 1.6.
- Un-bold the headline. If the display is 700, drop it to 400 and let size plus -0.012em tracking carry it.
- Delete the accent colour. Any blue, purple, or green link/button is wrong — collapse it to black, with the single near-black
#191919reserved for the primary CTA. - Replace shadows with borders. Swap every box-shadow for a 1px pure-black hairline.
- Strip the gradient. Any mesh, conic, or radial gradient is foreign — replace with flat off-white or a faint
#f0efedpanel. - Calm the verbs. Replace “Sign up now!” with “Explore roles” or “Read more”; the voice is technical and exclamation-free.
Theme-toggle audit: score=0, signals=[none]
Drop cognition into your project, then ship the actual sections in an afternoon.
1 · install design
npx @webdesignhot/design-md add cognition 2 · ship landing page
npx agentkit init --design cognition