dark · structured · sans · crypto · defi · purple
DESIGN.md inspired by dYdX
Pure-black canvas, Satoshi-compressed display, and one signature indigo-purple #7774ff CTA — a pro-trader perps terminal as a brand.
By webdesignhot · dydx.exchange ↗
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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. 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. Anthropic Editorial broadsheet for AI safety — cream canvas, Anthropic Serif body, terracotta clay accent, magazine geometry. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Duolingo Owl-green confidence and DIN-Round buttons that lift like candy — the gamified language app distilled to four colors and one mascot. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Instacart Grocery-shopping-list practical — Instacart Sans on white, signature carrot green 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. Signal Privacy-first messaging in `#3a76f0` Signal blue with Inter sans — minimal, ad-free, end-to-end-encrypted by default. 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. 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. 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. 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 — 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. tldraw Casual whiteboard sketchy — hand-drawn UI primitives, dotted-grid canvas, and a soft pastel palette that wears its toy-like energy with confidence. 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. 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. 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". 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. 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. 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. 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. 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
#000000 - bg-elev-1
#0a0a0a - bg-elev-2
#131316 - bg-elev-3
#1c1c20 - surface
#0a0a0a - surface-strong
#131316 - text AAA · 20.2
#fafafd - text-body
#c8c8d2 - text-muted
#8a8a96 - text-subtle
#5a5a64 - brand AA · 5.7
#7774ff - brand-hover
#8e8bff - brand-active
#605df0 - brand-soft
#7774ff1a - brand-glow
rgba(119,116,255,0.40) - on-brand
#ffffff - border — · 1.3
#1f1f24 - border-soft
#131316 - border-strong — · 1.7
#33333c - border-brand
#7774ff - semantic-up
#26c486 - semantic-up-soft
#26c4861a - semantic-down
#ff5a5a - semantic-down-soft
#ff5a5a1a - semantic-warning
#f5b945 - semantic-info
#7774ff - focus-ring
rgba(119,116,255,0.55) - scrim
rgba(0,0,0,0.80) - link
#7774ff - link-hover
#8e8bff
Ship faster than ever.
display-hero "Satoshi" 60px w400 -0.03em
Ship faster than ever.
display-lg "Satoshi" 48px w400 -0.025em
Ship faster than ever.
h1 "Satoshi" 40px w500 -0.02em
Built for teams that ship.
h2 "Satoshi" 32px w500 -0.014em
A complete kit
h3 "Satoshi" 24px w500 -0.008em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
h4 "Satoshi" 20px w600 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-lg "Satoshi" 18px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body "Satoshi" 16px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-sm "Satoshi" 14px w400 0
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
price-mono ui-monospace 14px w500 0
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
label "Satoshi" 13px w500 0.01em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
table-header "Satoshi" 12px w500 0.04em
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
caption "Satoshi" 12px w500 0.02em
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
eyebrow "Satoshi" 11px w600 0.08em
- 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
- micro
2px - sm
4px - md
8px - lg
12px - xl
16px - pill
9999px
Text link →
Card preview
A complete kit — everything your product needs.
Hero, pricing, FAQ, dashboard, docs — every layout your product needs.
New
Stable
v1.0
Design roles 5/8 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 → bg
- foreground → text
- primary → brand
- primary-foreground → on-brand
- accent → —
- muted → —
- border → border
- ring → —
dYdX descends from professional trading terminals crossed with the modern dark-SaaS aesthetic. The pure-black canvas, dense tabular data, monospace numerals, and information-first layout inherit from desktop trading software, while the Satoshi geometric-grotesque type, 12px-radius composed surfaces, and disciplined single-accent system come from contemporary developer-tool brands like Linear and Vercel. The clearest contemporary move is one saturated voltage on black reserved for the primary action — dYdX picks indigo-purple #7774ff where Linear leans violet and Vercel leans monochrome; the family resemblance is the discipline, not the hue. It rejects consumer-fintech warmth (Coinbase navy, Robinhood green) and hype-maximalist crypto loudness, staying sober, technical, and assuming a sophisticated user.
- Single near-black surface plus one disciplined accent; geometric type register
- Monochrome-on-black product design; restraint as polish; single high-contrast CTA
- Dense market tables, monospace numerals, dark trading-surface conventions
- Brutalist pure-black trader counterpart; dYdX shares the black canvas and single-voltage discipline but softens to 12px radius and a humanist-grotesque sans
- Display and body typeface; compressed geometric-grotesque with technical character
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: dYdX
tagline: 'Pure-black canvas, Satoshi-compressed display, and one signature indigo-purple #7774ff CTA — a pro-trader perps terminal as a brand.'
updated_at: 2026-05-28T23:13:57.213Z
published_at: 2026-05-28T23:13:57.213Z
author: webdesignhot
source_url: https://dydx.exchange
spec: webdesignhot/0.1
quality: curated
featured: false
categories: [saas]
tags: [dark, structured, sans, crypto, defi, purple]
preview_swatch: ['#000000', '#7774ff', '#fafafd']
related: [blur-io, coinbase, kraken]
description: 'dYdX dresses a decentralized perpetuals exchange in the visual language of a professional trading desk. The canvas is **pure black** `#000000` — not navy-tinted, not warmed, just black — with near-white text at `#fafafd` (a faintly cool off-white, rgb 250,250,253) carrying every glyph. A single signature **indigo-purple** `#7774ff` (rgb 119,116,255) flags the primary action: the "Get Started" CTA renders white-on-purple at a `12px` corner radius, the one place curves and saturated colour exist in the otherwise monochrome surface. Type runs on **Satoshi (compressed)** for both display and body — a geometric-grotesque with tight, technical letterforms; the marketing h1 lands at a confident 60px while body holds 18px, both at weight 400 so the headline reads through scale and tracking rather than heaviness. Where Blur commits to brutalist 0px-everything and neon orange, dYdX softens just enough — a 12px radius on the brand CTA, a near-white instead of pure-white ink — while keeping the same pure-black, dense, information-first register. The purple-on-black is the identity: every other surface is greyscale, and the indigo voltage is reserved for the one moment that converts a visitor into a trader.'
# Canonical 8-role aliases (bg / text / brand / border / accent / muted / surface / danger).
# Maps role names to this entry's actual token names so role-aware
# downstream tools resolve `theme.background` → entry's `bg`, etc.
# Auto-generated by scripts/add-aliases.mjs — do not edit manually;
# regenerate after changing color token names.
aliases:
background: bg
foreground: text
primary: brand
primary-foreground: on-brand
border: border
colors:
bg: '#000000' # canvas — pure black, never navy
bg-elev-1: '#0a0a0a' # surface-soft — secondary panel, card bg
bg-elev-2: '#131316' # surface-strong — hover, dropdown, modal
bg-elev-3: '#1c1c20' # surface-elevated — popover, tooltip
surface: '#0a0a0a' # default card surface
surface-strong: '#131316' # hovered surface / row
text: '#fafafd' # ink — primary, faintly cool off-white
text-body: '#c8c8d2' # body running copy
text-muted: '#8a8a96' # captions, column headers, secondary
text-subtle: '#5a5a64' # disabled, placeholder
brand: '#7774ff' # dYdX indigo-purple — the signature voltage
brand-hover: '#8e8bff' # primary-hover — lighter indigo
brand-active: '#605df0' # pressed — slightly deeper
brand-soft: '#7774ff1a' # 10% indigo tint — selected rows, ghost hover
brand-glow: 'rgba(119,116,255,0.40)'
on-brand: '#ffffff' # white text on the indigo CTA (live token)
border: '#1f1f24' # default 1px hairline
border-soft: '#131316' # softer divider on dense lists
border-strong: '#33333c' # focused / hover row border
border-brand: '#7774ff' # indigo border on active/focus state
semantic-up: '#26c486' # long / price-up green
semantic-up-soft: '#26c4861a'
semantic-down: '#ff5a5a' # short / price-down red
semantic-down-soft: '#ff5a5a1a'
semantic-warning: '#f5b945' # liquidation / margin warning amber
semantic-info: '#7774ff' # info reuses brand indigo
focus-ring: 'rgba(119,116,255,0.55)'
scrim: 'rgba(0,0,0,0.80)'
link: '#7774ff'
link-hover: '#8e8bff'
typography:
display:
family: '"Satoshi", "Satoshi-compressed", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 500, 700]
body:
family: '"Satoshi", "Satoshi-compressed", system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif'
weights: [400, 500, 600]
mono:
family: 'ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospace'
weights: [400, 500]
scale:
display-hero: { size: 60, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.0, tracking: '-0.03em', family: display }
display-lg: { size: 48, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.05, tracking: '-0.025em', family: display }
h1: { size: 40, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.1, tracking: '-0.02em', family: display }
h2: { size: 32, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.18, tracking: '-0.014em', family: display }
h3: { size: 24, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.25, tracking: '-0.008em', family: display }
h4: { size: 20, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0', family: body }
body-lg: { size: 18, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body }
body: { size: 16, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body }
body-sm: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.5, tracking: '0', family: body }
label: { size: 13, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0.01em', family: body }
table-header: { size: 12, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0.04em', family: body }
price-mono: { size: 14, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0', family: mono }
caption: { size: 12, weight: 500, lineHeight: 1.4, tracking: '0.02em', family: body }
eyebrow: { size: 11, weight: 600, lineHeight: 1.3, tracking: '0.08em', family: body }
radius:
micro: 2
sm: 4
md: 8
lg: 12
xl: 16
pill: 9999
spacing:
base: 4
scale: [0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96]
layout:
page-width: 1280
prose-width: 720
header-height: 64
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'
breakpoints:
mobile: 640
tablet: 1024
desktop: 1280
wide: 1536
shadows:
ambient: 'none'
standard: '0 1px 0 0 #1f1f24'
elevated: '0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.6)'
modal: '0 16px 48px rgba(0,0,0,0.7)'
glow: '0 0 0 1px rgba(119,116,255,0.4), 0 0 24px rgba(119,116,255,0.25)'
ring: '0 0 0 3px rgba(119,116,255,0.55)'
components:
button-primary: { bg: brand, text: on-brand, padding: '12px 20px', radius: 12 }
button-secondary: { bg: bg-elev-2, text: text, border: border, padding: '12px 20px', radius: 12 }
button-ghost: { bg: transparent, text: text, border: border, padding: '12px 20px', radius: 12 }
button-link: { bg: transparent, text: brand, padding: '0', radius: 0 }
card: { bg: surface, border: border, radius: 12, padding: 24 }
input: { bg: bg-elev-1, border: border, text: text, radius: 8, padding: '10px 14px' }
badge: { bg: brand-soft, text: brand, radius: 9999, padding: '4px 10px' }
accessibility:
contrast-text-on-bg: 20.16
contrast-body-on-bg: 12.65
contrast-brand-on-bg: 5.73
contrast-on-brand: 3.67
focus-ring: '3px solid rgba(119,116,255,0.55)'
reduced-motion-honored: true
dark-mode: dark-only
lineage:
summary: 'dYdX descends from professional trading terminals crossed with the modern dark-SaaS aesthetic. The pure-black canvas, dense tabular data, monospace numerals, and information-first layout inherit from desktop trading software, while the Satoshi geometric-grotesque type, 12px-radius composed surfaces, and disciplined single-accent system come from contemporary developer-tool brands like Linear and Vercel. The clearest contemporary move is one saturated voltage on black reserved for the primary action — dYdX picks indigo-purple #7774ff where Linear leans violet and Vercel leans monochrome; the family resemblance is the discipline, not the hue. It rejects consumer-fintech warmth (Coinbase navy, Robinhood green) and hype-maximalist crypto loudness, staying sober, technical, and assuming a sophisticated user.'
influences:
- { name: Linear, role: 'Single near-black surface plus one disciplined accent; geometric type register', url: 'https://linear.app' }
- { name: Vercel, role: 'Monochrome-on-black product design; restraint as polish; single high-contrast CTA', url: 'https://vercel.com' }
- { name: TradingView, role: 'Dense market tables, monospace numerals, dark trading-surface conventions', url: 'https://www.tradingview.com' }
- { name: Blur, role: 'Brutalist pure-black trader counterpart; dYdX shares the black canvas and single-voltage discipline but softens to 12px radius and a humanist-grotesque sans', url: 'https://blur.io' }
- { name: Satoshi (Fontshare), role: 'Display and body typeface; compressed geometric-grotesque with technical character', url: 'https://www.fontshare.com/fonts/satoshi' }
---
## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
dYdX looks like a trading desk that decided it had a brand. The canvas is **pure black** `#000000` — not the navy-tinted near-black that softens consumer crypto products, not a warmed charcoal, just black. Over it, near-white ink at `#fafafd` (rgb 250,250,253 — a faintly cool off-white that pulls a half-degree away from clinical pure white) carries every glyph. The atmosphere is the one a professional perpetuals trader wants at 3 a.m.: high contrast, low decoration, nothing on the screen that does not carry information or convert intent.
The system commits to monochrome everywhere except one place. A single **indigo-purple** `#7774ff` (rgb 119,116,255) is the brand's entire chromatic vocabulary. It appears on the "Get Started" CTA — white text on the indigo fill at a `12px` corner radius — and on the active states, links, focus rings, and selected rows that echo it. The purple-on-black is the identity. Strip the indigo out and dYdX would read as a generic dark dashboard; the indigo voltage is what makes the surface unmistakably theirs, and the brand spends it sparingly precisely so that it lands.
Typography runs on **Satoshi**, specifically the compressed cut sampled in production (`Satoshi-compressed`). Satoshi is a geometric-grotesque sans with tight apertures and technical, slightly-condensed letterforms — it reads as engineered rather than friendly, which is exactly the register a derivatives exchange wants. The marketing h1 lands at a confident **60px** but holds **weight 400**, leaning on size, tight negative tracking, and the compressed proportions to carry authority rather than bolding its way there. Body sits at **18px / 400** — generous for a dense product, a deliberate signal that the marketing surface should breathe even while the trading surface packs density.
Where this system sits relative to its neighbours is instructive. **Blur** commits to brutalist 0px-on-everything and neon orange in JetBrains Mono; dYdX is the more composed cousin — it keeps the pure-black canvas and the single-voltage discipline, but softens with a 12px radius on the brand CTA, a near-white instead of pure-white ink, and a humanist-grotesque sans instead of a monospace. Coinbase warms to navy and rounds to friendliness; dYdX stays black and technical. The result is *pro-trader, not consumer-fintech* — sober, dense, and confident that its user already knows what a perp is.
Depth is restrained. There are no decorative gradients washing the hero, no glassmorphism, no illustrated mascots. Elevation is built from a tight greyscale surface ladder (`#000` → `#0a0a0a` → `#131316` → `#1c1c20`) and 1px hairlines at `#1f1f24`. Shadows exist but are quiet — a hairline divider here, a soft modal drop there — and the only luminous gesture in the entire system is the optional indigo glow on the primary CTA and the focus ring. The discipline is the point: when every surface is greyscale, the one indigo moment does all the persuading.
**Key Characteristics:**
- Pure black canvas `#000000` — no navy tint, no warming
- Single signature voltage: dYdX indigo-purple `#7774ff` on the primary CTA and active states
- Near-white ink `#fafafd` (rgb 250,250,253) — a faintly cool off-white, not pure `#fff`
- Satoshi (compressed) for display and body — geometric-grotesque, technical, tight
- Marketing h1 at 60px / weight 400 — authority through scale and tracking, not weight
- 12px corner radius on the brand CTA — the one softened, the one chromatic moment
- Greyscale surface ladder + 1px hairlines for elevation; shadows kept quiet
- Body at 18px / 400 — generous marketing breathing room over a dense product
- White-on-indigo CTA (per live token) — the singular saturated affordance
- Pro-trader register: dense, sober, information-first, assumes a sophisticated user
## 2. Color Palette & Roles
### Canvas
- **Canvas / bg** (`#000000`): Pure black — the brand's defining commitment, every page background.
- **Surface Soft** (`#0a0a0a`): Card and secondary-panel background; one step off black.
- **Surface Strong** (`#131316`): Row/card hover, dropdown menu, modal sheet background.
- **Surface Elevated** (`#1c1c20`): Popover, tooltip, the topmost floating layer.
### Text
- **Ink / text** (`#fafafd`): Primary text — headlines, key values. Faintly cool off-white (rgb 250,250,253).
- **Body** (`#c8c8d2`): Running paragraph copy and secondary labels.
- **Muted** (`#8a8a96`): Captions, table column headers, helper text.
- **Subtle** (`#5a5a64`): Disabled text, placeholders, decorative dividers.
### Brand
- **dYdX Indigo** (`#7774ff`): The singular voltage — primary CTA fill, active states, links, focus ring, selected-row tint. rgb 119,116,255.
- **Brand Hover** (`#8e8bff`): Lighter indigo on CTA hover.
- **Brand Active** (`#605df0`): Slightly deeper indigo on press.
- **Brand Soft** (`#7774ff1a`): 10% indigo tint — selected-row background, ghost-button hover, badge fill.
- **On-Brand** (`#ffffff`): White text on the indigo CTA — matches the live sampled token (`rgb 255,255,255`).
### Accent
None as a separate hue. dYdX is monochrome plus one voltage by design — the indigo carries every accent duty (links, info, selection, focus). Its scarcity is the system's persuasion budget; introducing a second decorative accent would dilute the one moment the brand spends to convert.
### Interactive
- **Link** = Brand `#7774ff`, no underline by default, underline (or `#8e8bff`) on hover.
- **Hover** — primary CTA lightens to `#8e8bff`; rows shift bg to `#131316` and border to `#33333c`.
- **Active / Pressed** — Brand Active `#605df0`.
- **Disabled** — `#5a5a64` text on `#0a0a0a` bg, `cursor: not-allowed`, no indigo.
- **Selected (row / filter)** — brand-soft `#7774ff1a` bg, `#7774ff` left-border or text.
### Neutral / Surface
`#000000` (Canvas) → `#0a0a0a` (Surface Soft) → `#131316` (Surface Strong / Hover) → `#1c1c20` (Surface Elevated) → `#1f1f24` (Border) → `#33333c` (Border Strong) → `#5a5a64` (Subtle) → `#8a8a96` (Muted) → `#c8c8d2` (Body) → `#fafafd` (Ink). A true neutral grey ramp from black to off-white, with the faintest cool drift at the top.
### Surface & Borders
- **Border** (`#1f1f24`): Default 1px hairline on cards, inputs, table rows.
- **Border Soft** (`#131316`): Inner-row dividers on dense lists — one step off canvas.
- **Border Strong** (`#33333c`): Focused/hovered border.
- **Border Brand** (`#7774ff`): Active and keyboard-focus border.
### Shadow Colors
- **Standard** (`0 1px 0 0 #1f1f24`): Hairline divider — the workhorse "shadow."
- **Elevated** (`0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.6)`): Dropdowns, popovers floating over content.
- **Modal** (`0 16px 48px rgba(0,0,0,0.7)`): Dialogs over the scrim.
- **Glow** (`0 0 0 1px rgba(119,116,255,0.4), 0 0 24px rgba(119,116,255,0.25)`): Optional indigo halo on the primary CTA — the only luminous effect.
### Semantic
- **Up / Long** (`#26c486`): Price-up green, long-position PnL, filled-buy. 9.32:1 on canvas (AAA).
- **Up Soft** (`#26c4861a`): Pill / row-flash background.
- **Down / Short** (`#ff5a5a`): Price-down red, short-position PnL, filled-sell. 6.86:1 on canvas (AA+).
- **Down Soft** (`#ff5a5a1a`): Pill / row-flash background.
- **Warning** (`#f5b945`): Liquidation-risk and margin-warning amber — rare, high-stakes only.
- **Info** (`#7774ff`): Reuses brand indigo; dYdX does not maintain a separate info-blue.
Green/red are the only chromatic tokens besides indigo, and they appear only where PnL and order-state demand them. The discipline is near-total.
## 3. Typography Rules
### Font Family
- **Display & Body** — `"Satoshi"`, production cut `"Satoshi-compressed"`, fallback `system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif`. The same family runs headlines and paragraphs; there is no separate body face.
- **Mono** — `ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospace` for prices, order sizes, wallet addresses, and any tabular numeric column where alignment matters.
- **Weights** — 400 (running body, hero headlines), 500 (labels, table values, emphasis), 600/700 (sub-heads, buttons, eyebrows). Hero leans on 400; the system rarely needs 700.
- **Substitutes** — Satoshi is by Indian Type Foundry / Fontshare. The nearest free alternatives are General Sans (same foundry, slightly wider) or Hanken Grotesk; Inter reads more humanist and less engineered. Avoid Helvetica/Arial — they lose the compressed geometric character.
### Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | Use |
|------|------|-----:|-------:|------------:|---------------:|-----|
| display-hero | Satoshi | 60 | 400 | 1.0 | -0.03em | Marketing hero headline (live h1) |
| display-lg | Satoshi | 48 | 400 | 1.05 | -0.025em | Section heros |
| h1 | Satoshi | 40 | 500 | 1.1 | -0.02em | Product page titles |
| h2 | Satoshi | 32 | 500 | 1.18 | -0.014em | Section headings |
| h3 | Satoshi | 24 | 500 | 1.25 | -0.008em | Sub-section headings |
| h4 | Satoshi | 20 | 600 | 1.3 | 0 | Card titles, panel headers |
| body-lg | Satoshi | 18 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | Marketing running copy (live body) |
| body | Satoshi | 16 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | Default product running text |
| body-sm | Satoshi | 14 | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | Secondary copy, dense panels |
| label | Satoshi | 13 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.01em | Form labels, inline labels |
| table-header | Satoshi | 12 | 500 | 1.3 | 0.04em | Market-table column headers |
| price-mono | Mono | 14 | 500 | 1.3 | 0 | Prices, sizes, PnL — tabular numerals |
| caption | Satoshi | 12 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.02em | Captions, helper text |
| eyebrow | Satoshi | 11 | 600 | 1.3 | 0.08em | Section eyebrows — often UPPERCASE |
| nav-link | Satoshi | 14 | 500 | 1.2 | 0.01em | Top-nav items |
| button | Satoshi | 15 | 600 | 1.2 | 0.01em | All CTAs |
### Principles
- **Hero authority through scale, not weight** — display-hero is 60px at weight 400. The compressed letterforms plus tight -0.03em tracking carry presence; bolding would read as shouty.
- **Negative tracking on display, neutral on body** — headlines tighten progressively (-0.03em down to -0.008em); body sits at 0; small labels and eyebrows take slight positive tracking (0.01–0.08em) for legibility at size.
- **Mono only for numbers** — unlike Blur (mono everywhere), dYdX reserves monospace strictly for prices, sizes, PnL, and addresses, so columns align. Everything else is Satoshi.
- **Three working weights** — 400 / 500 / 600. 700 exists but is rarely needed; the type does its work through size and the compressed cut.
- **Eyebrows uppercase with 0.08em tracking** — the one place dYdX uppercases. Section eyebrows ("PERPETUALS", "GOVERNANCE") read as kicker labels.
- **Tabular numerals always-on for price-mono** — enable `font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums` so flickering order books and PnL don't reflow.
- **Generous body line-height (1.55)** — marketing copy breathes; this is the system's clearest concession to a non-trader reader.
## 4. Component Stylings
### Buttons
**`button-primary`** — The signature CTA. Background indigo `#7774ff`, **white** text (`#ffffff`, per live token), 12 × 20 padding, **12px radius**, weight 600. Hover → `#8e8bff`; pressed → `#605df0`. Optional indigo glow (`glow` shadow) on the marketing hero CTA. This is the one chromatic, one curved element in the system — used for "Get Started", "Trade Now", "Connect Wallet".
**`button-secondary`** — Background surface-strong `#131316`, ink text `#fafafd`, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 12 × 20 padding, 12px radius. For "Learn More", "View Docs", non-primary actions adjacent to the primary CTA.
**`button-ghost`** — Transparent bg, ink text, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 12px radius. Hover → bg `#131316`, border `#33333c`. For tertiary actions and toolbar controls.
**`button-link`** — No fill, no padding, indigo `#7774ff` text, underline on hover. Inline navigation and "see all" affordances.
Destructive actions (Close Position, Cancel Order) use the same shapes with `semantic-down` `#ff5a5a` text on a ghost, escalating to a red fill only on final confirm.
### Cards
**`card`** — Surface-soft `#0a0a0a` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border, **12px radius**, 24px padding. Title in h4 (Satoshi 20/600), body in body-sm. Hover (when interactive) → bg `#131316`, border `#33333c` — colour-state, no lift by default; marketing feature cards may add a subtle 4px translateY.
**`market-row`** — Dense market-list row: `#000` bg, 1px `#131316` bottom divider, market name in label, mark price / 24h change / volume in price-mono columns (green/red for change). Hover → bg `#0a0a0a`. Selected → brand-soft `#7774ff1a` bg with a 2px `#7774ff` left border.
**`stat-card`** — Account-summary tile: surface-soft bg, 12px radius, 16px padding, caption label on top (muted), price-mono value below (ink, or green/red for PnL).
### Badges / Tags / Pills
**`badge`** — Status pill: brand-soft `#7774ff1a` bg, `#7774ff` text, **pill radius 9999**, 4 × 10 padding, caption type. The one place dYdX goes fully round.
**`badge-long`** — Position-side pill: `#26c4861a` bg, `#26c486` text, pill radius.
**`badge-short`** — Position-side pill: `#ff5a5a1a` bg, `#ff5a5a` text, pill radius.
**`tag-neutral`** — Metadata tag: surface-strong `#131316` bg, muted text, 6px radius, 2 × 8 padding — squarer than badges for inert metadata.
### Inputs / Forms
**`input`** — Surface-soft `#0a0a0a` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border, **8px radius** (tighter than buttons/cards), 10 × 14 padding, ink text, muted placeholder. Focus → border `#7774ff` + 3px `rgba(119,116,255,0.55)` ring. Caret colour `#7774ff`.
**`input-amount`** — Order-size / amount field: same shell, price-mono type, right-aligned numerals, an inline unit suffix ("USDC", "ETH") in muted, and quick-fill chips (25% / 50% / Max) as ghost buttons below.
**`select`** — Same surface and border as input; chevron in muted; open menu uses surface-strong `#131316` bg with elevated shadow, selected option in brand-soft.
**`slider`** — Leverage slider: track `#1f1f24`, filled portion `#7774ff`, thumb white with 1px indigo ring; tick labels in caption muted.
### Navigation
**`top-nav`** — 64px tall, `#000` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` bottom border. Wordmark left, primary tabs (Trade, Portfolio, Markets, Governance) in nav-link, right cluster ends in the indigo "Connect Wallet" primary CTA. Active tab: `#fafafd` text with a 2px `#7774ff` underline; inactive: muted.
**`side-rail`** (trading view) — Left market-selector / right order-form rails, `#000` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` separators, dense rows at price-mono type. The order-form rail anchors the indigo Buy/Long and red Sell/Short buttons at the bottom.
### Modals & Overlays
**`modal`** — Surface-strong `#131316` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 12px radius, 24px padding, `modal` drop shadow over a `rgba(0,0,0,0.80)` scrim. Header in h3, primary action is the indigo CTA bottom-right.
**`toast`** — Surface-elevated `#1c1c20` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border (or 1px `#7774ff` for primary), 8px radius, elevated shadow, 12 × 16 padding. Auto-dismiss ~4s; success uses a small `#26c486` dot, error a `#ff5a5a` dot.
### Footer
**`footer`** — `#000` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` top border, 48px vertical padding. Multi-column link list (Trade, Develop, Community, Legal), wordmark, social icons in muted grey. Restrained — no decorative wash, the indigo appears only on link-hover.
## 5. Layout Principles
### Spacing System
- **Base unit**: 4px.
- **Scale**: 0 / 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 48 / 64 / 96.
- **Section padding (vertical)**: 96px on marketing landing sections; 48px between product panels; 24px card interiors.
- **Dense trading surfaces**: market rows and order books drop to 8–12px row rhythm — the product breathes far less than the marketing site, by design.
### Grid & Container
- **Max content width**: 1280px on marketing pages, centred. The trading application goes full-bleed to the viewport (charts and order books want every pixel).
- **Marketing grid**: 12-column with 24px gutters; feature blocks alternate text/visual at desktop, stack at mobile.
- **Trading layout**: three-zone — market selector (left), chart + order book (centre), order form (right) — each an independently scrolling panel separated by 1px hairlines.
### Whitespace Philosophy
**Two registers, one brand.** Marketing pages are generous (96px sections, 18px body, 1.55 line-height) to court newcomers; the application is dense and information-first for working traders. Both stay pure-black, both reserve the indigo for the single converting action. The shift in density is intentional, not inconsistent.
### Section Cadence
The page stays pure black `#000` throughout — no light/dark band alternation. Rhythm comes from the surface ladder (cards step up to `#0a0a0a`/`#131316`) and 1px hairlines, with eyebrow → headline → body → CTA repeating down the page. The indigo CTA punctuates each major section exactly once.
## 6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Token | Value | Use |
|------|-------|------:|-----|
| Micro | `micro` | 2px | Inline chips, tiny indicators, checkbox corners |
| Standard | `sm` | 4px | Tags, small inline controls |
| Comfortable | `md` | 8px | Inputs, selects, dropdowns, tooltips |
| Relaxed | `lg` | 12px | **Buttons, cards, modals — the brand CTA radius (live token)** |
| Large | `xl` | 16px | Marketing feature cards, large media frames |
| Pill | `pill` | 9999px | Status/position badges, avatars, leverage-slider thumb |
The defining number is **12px** (`lg`): the live "Get Started" CTA radius, and the radius dYdX uses for buttons, cards, and modals alike. Inputs sit one step tighter at 8px to read as utilitarian. Unlike Blur's brutalist 0px, dYdX's 12px is the deliberate softening that separates "pro-trader composed" from "pro-trader brutalist" — present, but never so round it reads consumer-friendly.
## 7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|-------|-----------|-----|
| 0 Flat | No shadow, no border | Body sections on canvas |
| 1 Hairline | 1px `#1f1f24` (or `0 1px 0 0 #1f1f24`) | Default cards, inputs, table rows |
| 2 Surface step | `#000` → `#0a0a0a` | Cards, panels lifting off canvas |
| 3 Hover | `#0a0a0a` → `#131316`, border → `#33333c` | Card / row hover |
| 4 Floating | `0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.6)` on `#131316`/`#1c1c20` | Dropdowns, popovers, tooltips |
| 5 Modal | `0 16px 48px rgba(0,0,0,0.7)` over `rgba(0,0,0,0.80)` scrim | Dialogs |
| Glow | `0 0 0 1px rgba(119,116,255,0.4), 0 0 24px rgba(119,116,255,0.25)` | Optional indigo halo on hero CTA |
| Focus ring | `0 0 0 3px rgba(119,116,255,0.55)` | All keyboard focus |
**Shadow Philosophy**: Depth is built primarily from the greyscale surface ladder and 1px hairlines; drop-shadows appear only on genuinely floating layers (dropdowns, modals) and stay dark and soft so they read as separation, not ornament. The only luminous gesture in the system is indigo — the optional CTA glow and the focus ring. This keeps the surface sober: everything is matte greyscale until the one moment the brand wants you to act.
## 8. Interaction & Motion
- **Easing standard** — `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` for hover, colour, and most state changes.
- **Easing emphasized** — `cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)` for modal/sheet entrances and larger reveals.
- **Durations** — fast 150ms (hover, colour swaps), standard 240ms (dropdowns, focus, card hover), slow 320ms (modal/sheet enter, page section reveals).
- **Hover** — primary CTA lightens `#7774ff → #8e8bff` over 150ms; rows swap bg and border over 150ms; cards step surface tier (+ optional 4px translateY on marketing feature cards only).
- **Active / Press** — CTA deepens to `#605df0`; subtle 1px inset, no scale-down.
- **Price flash** — order-book and PnL values flash `#26c4861a` (up) or `#ff5a5a1a` (down) bg for ~400ms then ease back. Tabular numerals prevent reflow.
- **Focus** — 3px `rgba(119,116,255,0.55)` ring fades in over 150ms; never removed for mouse users (focus-visible scoped).
- **Modal / sheet** — enters with 320ms emphasized ease: fade + 8px rise, scrim fades simultaneously.
- **CTA glow** — hero CTA may pulse its indigo glow once on initial viewport entry (240ms in, settle) as the single attention gesture; disabled under reduced-motion.
- **Page transition** — none in the application (instant route swaps for trader speed); marketing pages allow gentle scroll-reveal fades.
- **Reduced motion** — `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` honoured: glow pulse, translateY, price-flash and scroll-reveals collapse to opacity-only or are disabled; colour-state changes remain.
## 9. Accessibility & A11y
- **Contrast (computed from live tokens)**:
- Ink `#fafafd` on canvas `#000000` = **20.16:1** — AAA at every size.
- Body `#c8c8d2` on canvas = **12.65:1** — AAA.
- Brand indigo `#7774ff` on canvas = **5.73:1** — AA for normal text, AAA for large; safe for links and icons on black.
- Muted `#8a8a96` on canvas = **6.16:1** — AA for normal text.
- White on-brand `#ffffff` on indigo `#7774ff` = **3.67:1** — passes AA for **large/bold text only** (≥18.66px bold / 24px regular). The live CTA label runs ~15–16px bold, sitting right at the large-bold threshold; keep CTA text ≥16px bold and **do not** drop white-on-indigo below that or it fails AA. (Ink `#fafafd` on indigo is 3.52:1 — same caveat.)
- Up green `#26c486` on canvas = **9.32:1** (AAA); Down red `#ff5a5a` on canvas = **6.86:1** (AA+).
- **Focus indicator**: 3px solid `rgba(119,116,255,0.55)` ring, highly visible on pure black; never suppressed for keyboard users.
- **ARIA patterns**: Market tables use `role="table"` with `aria-sort` on sortable headers. Order-side toggles use `role="radiogroup"`. Toasts use `role="status"` / `aria-live="polite"`; liquidation warnings escalate to `aria-live="assertive"`.
- **Keyboard nav**: Market rows focusable (Up/Down to move, Enter to select); order-form fields in logical tab order; quick-fill chips reachable by Tab + Space.
- **Screen reader hints**: PnL and price-change values carry visually-hidden "+N% up" / "-N% down" text so colour is never the sole carrier. Position side ("Long"/"Short") is spoken, not implied by colour alone.
- **Reduced motion**: Honoured — see §8.
- **Colour independence**: Green/red PnL always pairs with a sign (+/−) and a direction word in SR text, so red/green colour-blind users are not stranded.
## 10. Responsive Behavior
| Breakpoint | Width | Key Changes |
|------------|------:|-------------|
| Mobile | < 640 | Top nav → hamburger; trading view stacks chart over a tabbed order form; market table → card stack; hero h1 drops 60 → 36px |
| Tablet | 640–1024 | Two-zone trading layout (chart + collapsible order form); marketing feature blocks 1-up; nav condenses |
| Desktop | 1024–1280 | Full three-zone trading layout; marketing grid 2-up features; persistent nav |
| Wide | > 1280 | Content capped at 1280px on marketing; trading app goes full-bleed to use chart/order-book estate |
**Touch Targets**: Primary CTAs and order buttons render at minimum 44 × 44px on touch. Quick-fill chips and toggles expand to 44px tap height on mobile.
**Collapsing Strategy**: Top nav → hamburger sheet. Trading three-zone layout collapses to a single scroll with a sticky bottom Long/Short action bar on mobile. Market tables collapse to card stacks surfacing market / mark price / 24h change.
**Image / Chart Behavior**: Charts are canvas/WebGL and resize to container; marketing imagery uses `loading="lazy"` and `aspect-ratio` to prevent layout shift. The product carries no decorative imagery — only functional charts and token glyphs.
## 11. Content & Voice
- **Tone** — technical, confident, trader-direct. The product assumes the reader knows derivatives; marketing copy is plain and benefit-led ("Trade perpetuals with deep liquidity") without crypto-hype maximalism.
- **Microcopy** — imperative and compact in-app: "Connect Wallet", "Add Margin", "Close Position", "Cancel All". Labels favour the trader's noun ("Mark Price", "Funding", "Open Interest") over a softened explanation.
- **CTA verbs** — "Get Started" (entry), "Trade Now" / "Start Trading" (conversion), "Connect Wallet" (auth), "Long" / "Short" (order side), "Place Order" (commit).
- **Empty states** — brief and useful: "No open positions", "No order history yet" — paired with a single quiet CTA to start, no illustration, no apology.
- **Error messages** — direct and remediable: "Insufficient margin — add USDC", "Order size below minimum". Wallet/chain errors surface the provider message rather than masking it.
- **Number formatting** — tabular monospace; locale separators; sensible decimal precision per market; PnL always signed (+/−) and coloured. USD value shown alongside token amounts where helpful.
- **Voice prohibition** — no hype emoji, no "to the moon" maximalism, no fake urgency timers. The brand's authority comes from sobriety; it talks to professionals, not to a hype feed.
## 12. Dark Mode & Theming
dYdX is **dark-only**. The pure-black canvas is the brand and there is no light variant — a derivatives terminal lives on black both for the trader's eyes during long sessions and because the indigo voltage only reads as a signature against black. The near-white ink `#fafafd` and the single indigo `#7774ff` are tuned for this one surface.
If a hypothetical light variant ever shipped, the predicted token swap would be: `bg #ffffff`, `surface-soft #f7f7f9`, `surface-strong #efeff2`, `border #e4e4ea`, `text #0a0a0e`, `text-body #3a3a44`, with `#7774ff` carrying through unchanged (it holds 4.5:1+ on white as well). But the editorial position is that this surface should not exist: dYdX is a "trade in the dark" instrument by identity, and a light mode would dilute the purple-on-black that *is* the brand.
## 13. Lineage & Influences
dYdX's design language descends from **professional trading terminals** crossed with the modern dark-SaaS aesthetic. The pure-black canvas, dense tabular data, monospace numerals, and information-first layout are direct inheritances from desktop trading software (Bloomberg/TradingView lineage). But where pure terminals are utilitarian to the point of brutalism (see Blur), dYdX layers on a contemporary product-design polish: the Satoshi geometric-grotesque type, the 12px-radius composed surfaces, and the disciplined single-accent system that today's developer-tool brands (Linear, Vercel) popularised.
The single-voltage-on-black move is its clearest contemporary borrowing — one saturated brand colour reserved for the primary action, everything else greyscale. dYdX picks indigo-purple where Linear leans violet-on-near-black and Vercel leans monochrome; the family resemblance is the *discipline*, not the hue. What dYdX rejects is the consumer-fintech warmth (Coinbase's navy and rounding, Robinhood's friendly green) and the hype-maximalist crypto aesthetic (loud gradients, neon everything) — it stays sober, technical, and assumes a sophisticated user.
Influences:
- **Linear** — single near-black surface plus one disciplined accent; Satoshi-adjacent geometric type register. https://linear.app
- **Vercel** — monochrome-on-black product design, restraint as polish, single high-contrast CTA. https://vercel.com
- **TradingView** — dense market tables, monospace numerals, dark trading-surface conventions. https://www.tradingview.com
- **Blur** — the brutalist pure-black trader counterpart in NFT markets; dYdX shares the black canvas and single-voltage discipline but softens to 12px radius and a humanist-grotesque sans. https://blur.io
- **Satoshi (Fontshare / Indian Type Foundry)** — the display and body typeface; chosen for its compressed geometric-grotesque, technical character. https://www.fontshare.com/fonts/satoshi
## 14. Do's and Don'ts
### Do
- Keep the canvas pure `#000000` — no navy tint, no warming
- Use ink `#fafafd` (rgb 250,250,253) for primary text — a faint cool off-white, not pure `#fff`
- Reserve indigo `#7774ff` for the primary CTA and active/selected/link/focus states only
- Give the brand CTA a 12px radius and white text — match the live "Get Started" token
- Keep CTA label text ≥16px bold so white-on-indigo clears AA large-text (3.67:1)
- Build elevation from the greyscale surface ladder + 1px `#1f1f24` hairlines; keep shadows quiet
- Use Satoshi (compressed) for display and body; monospace only for prices, sizes, PnL, addresses
- Let the hero h1 land at 60px / weight 400 — authority through scale and tracking, not bold
- Use green `#26c486` / red `#ff5a5a` strictly for PnL and order state, always paired with a sign
- Enable tabular numerals on all numeric columns so order books don't reflow
### Don't
- Don't use navy-tinted black (`#0d1117`, `#04111d`) — pure `#000` is the commitment
- Don't introduce a second decorative accent — indigo is the only chromatic voltage
- Don't run white-on-indigo CTA text below ~16px bold — it drops under AA (3.67:1)
- Don't go 0px brutalist — the 12px radius is what separates dYdX from Blur; keep the softening
- Don't make headlines heavy — Satoshi at 400/500 carries the hero; 700 reads shouty here
- Don't use monospace for body copy — mono is numbers-only; Satoshi is the voice
- Don't add loud gradients, glassmorphism, or neon glows beyond the single indigo CTA halo
- Don't lift cards on hover in the application — colour-state swap; reserve translateY for marketing
- Don't use hype-crypto copy or emoji — the voice is sober, technical, professional
- Don't carry red/green as the only PnL signal — always add +/- sign and SR direction text
## 15. Agent Prompt Guide
### Quick Color Reference
- Brand (indigo-purple): `#7774ff`
- Brand hover: `#8e8bff`
- Brand pressed: `#605df0`
- On-brand (CTA text): `#ffffff`
- Canvas: `#000000`
- Surface soft: `#0a0a0a`
- Surface strong: `#131316`
- Ink text: `#fafafd`
- Body text: `#c8c8d2`
- Muted: `#8a8a96`
- Border: `#1f1f24`
- Up green: `#26c486`
- Down red: `#ff5a5a`
### Example Component Prompts
- "Create a dYdX hero band: pure `#000000` background, 60px Satoshi (compressed) weight 400 headline 'Trade perpetuals on-chain' with -0.03em tracking in `#fafafd`, an 11px uppercase eyebrow 'DEFI'S PRO TRADING PLATFORM' in `#8a8a96` above it, 18px Satoshi body in `#c8c8d2`, and a primary CTA 'Get Started' in white 16px bold on indigo `#7774ff`, 12px radius, 12 × 20 padding, with a soft indigo glow. Add a secondary 'View Docs' button: surface `#131316`, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 12px radius."
- "Design a market card: `#0a0a0a` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 12px radius, 24px padding. Header row: market 'ETH-USD' in Satoshi 20/600 `#fafafd` + a long badge ('LONG') as a pill, `#26c4861a` bg, `#26c486` text, 9999px radius. Body: mark price in monospace 14/500 `#fafafd`, 24h change '+2.41%' in `#26c486`. Hover: bg → `#131316`, border → `#33333c`, no lift."
- "Build a markets table row: `#000` bg, 1px `#131316` bottom divider. Columns: market name in Satoshi 13/500 `#fafafd`, mark price + index in monospace `#fafafd`, 24h change in `#26c486` (up) or `#ff5a5a` (down), volume in monospace `#8a8a96`. Hover → bg `#0a0a0a`; selected → `#7774ff1a` bg with a 2px `#7774ff` left border. Column headers: Satoshi 12/500 0.04em tracking `#8a8a96`."
- "Render an order-form panel: surface `#000`, right rail. A radiogroup Long/Short toggle (Long fills `#7774ff` white text, Short ghost). Amount input: `#0a0a0a` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` border, 8px radius, monospace right-aligned numerals with a muted 'USDC' suffix; quick-fill chips 25%/50%/Max as ghost buttons. A leverage slider with `#7774ff` filled track. Submit: full-width indigo `#7774ff` CTA 'Place Order', white 16px bold, 12px radius."
- "Compose a top nav: 64px tall, `#000` bg, 1px `#1f1f24` bottom border. Wordmark left; tabs 'Trade / Portfolio / Markets / Governance' in Satoshi 14/500 `#8a8a96`, active tab `#fafafd` with a 2px `#7774ff` underline; right side ends in a primary indigo CTA 'Connect Wallet', white 16px bold, 12px radius."
- "Create a stat dashboard: three stat-cards on `#000`, each surface `#0a0a0a`, 12px radius, 16px padding — caption label in `#8a8a96` 12px on top, monospace value below; PnL card shows '+$1,240.50' in `#26c486`, loss card '-$320.10' in `#ff5a5a`. Equal-width, 16px gap."
### Iteration Guide
1. Lock the canvas to pure `#000000` first — if it looks navy or warm, it isn't dYdX. Then set ink to `#fafafd`, not `#ffffff`.
2. Spend indigo `#7774ff` exactly once per section — on the primary CTA. If two indigo elements compete, demote one to greyscale.
3. Put a 12px radius on buttons, cards, and modals; 8px on inputs; 9999px only on badges/avatars. Never 0px (that's Blur).
4. Keep the hero at weight 400–500 and large (≈60px). If it reads shouty, you've over-weighted it; lean on size and -0.03em tracking.
5. Use Satoshi for everything except numbers; switch prices, sizes, and PnL to monospace with tabular numerals so columns align.
6. Confirm CTA text is white and ≥16px bold — below that, white-on-indigo (3.67:1) fails AA. Bump size before changing the colour.
7. Build depth with the surface ladder (`#000`→`#0a0a0a`→`#131316`) and 1px `#1f1f24` hairlines; add a real shadow only on floating layers.
8. Add green/red only where PnL or order state demands it, always with a +/- sign — never as decoration.
1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
dYdX looks like a trading desk that decided it had a brand. The canvas is pure black #000000 — not the navy-tinted near-black that softens consumer crypto products, not a warmed charcoal, just black. Over it, near-white ink at #fafafd (rgb 250,250,253 — a faintly cool off-white that pulls a half-degree away from clinical pure white) carries every glyph. The atmosphere is the one a professional perpetuals trader wants at 3 a.m.: high contrast, low decoration, nothing on the screen that does not carry information or convert intent.
The system commits to monochrome everywhere except one place. A single indigo-purple #7774ff (rgb 119,116,255) is the brand’s entire chromatic vocabulary. It appears on the “Get Started” CTA — white text on the indigo fill at a 12px corner radius — and on the active states, links, focus rings, and selected rows that echo it. The purple-on-black is the identity. Strip the indigo out and dYdX would read as a generic dark dashboard; the indigo voltage is what makes the surface unmistakably theirs, and the brand spends it sparingly precisely so that it lands.
Typography runs on Satoshi, specifically the compressed cut sampled in production (Satoshi-compressed). Satoshi is a geometric-grotesque sans with tight apertures and technical, slightly-condensed letterforms — it reads as engineered rather than friendly, which is exactly the register a derivatives exchange wants. The marketing h1 lands at a confident 60px but holds weight 400, leaning on size, tight negative tracking, and the compressed proportions to carry authority rather than bolding its way there. Body sits at 18px / 400 — generous for a dense product, a deliberate signal that the marketing surface should breathe even while the trading surface packs density.
Where this system sits relative to its neighbours is instructive. Blur commits to brutalist 0px-on-everything and neon orange in JetBrains Mono; dYdX is the more composed cousin — it keeps the pure-black canvas and the single-voltage discipline, but softens with a 12px radius on the brand CTA, a near-white instead of pure-white ink, and a humanist-grotesque sans instead of a monospace. Coinbase warms to navy and rounds to friendliness; dYdX stays black and technical. The result is pro-trader, not consumer-fintech — sober, dense, and confident that its user already knows what a perp is.
Depth is restrained. There are no decorative gradients washing the hero, no glassmorphism, no illustrated mascots. Elevation is built from a tight greyscale surface ladder (#000 → #0a0a0a → #131316 → #1c1c20) and 1px hairlines at #1f1f24. Shadows exist but are quiet — a hairline divider here, a soft modal drop there — and the only luminous gesture in the entire system is the optional indigo glow on the primary CTA and the focus ring. The discipline is the point: when every surface is greyscale, the one indigo moment does all the persuading.
Key Characteristics:
- Pure black canvas
#000000— no navy tint, no warming - Single signature voltage: dYdX indigo-purple
#7774ffon the primary CTA and active states - Near-white ink
#fafafd(rgb 250,250,253) — a faintly cool off-white, not pure#fff - Satoshi (compressed) for display and body — geometric-grotesque, technical, tight
- Marketing h1 at 60px / weight 400 — authority through scale and tracking, not weight
- 12px corner radius on the brand CTA — the one softened, the one chromatic moment
- Greyscale surface ladder + 1px hairlines for elevation; shadows kept quiet
- Body at 18px / 400 — generous marketing breathing room over a dense product
- White-on-indigo CTA (per live token) — the singular saturated affordance
- Pro-trader register: dense, sober, information-first, assumes a sophisticated user
2. Color Palette & Roles
Canvas
- Canvas / bg (
#000000): Pure black — the brand’s defining commitment, every page background. - Surface Soft (
#0a0a0a): Card and secondary-panel background; one step off black. - Surface Strong (
#131316): Row/card hover, dropdown menu, modal sheet background. - Surface Elevated (
#1c1c20): Popover, tooltip, the topmost floating layer.
Text
- Ink / text (
#fafafd): Primary text — headlines, key values. Faintly cool off-white (rgb 250,250,253). - Body (
#c8c8d2): Running paragraph copy and secondary labels. - Muted (
#8a8a96): Captions, table column headers, helper text. - Subtle (
#5a5a64): Disabled text, placeholders, decorative dividers.
Brand
- dYdX Indigo (
#7774ff): The singular voltage — primary CTA fill, active states, links, focus ring, selected-row tint. rgb 119,116,255. - Brand Hover (
#8e8bff): Lighter indigo on CTA hover. - Brand Active (
#605df0): Slightly deeper indigo on press. - Brand Soft (
#7774ff1a): 10% indigo tint — selected-row background, ghost-button hover, badge fill. - On-Brand (
#ffffff): White text on the indigo CTA — matches the live sampled token (rgb 255,255,255).
Accent
None as a separate hue. dYdX is monochrome plus one voltage by design — the indigo carries every accent duty (links, info, selection, focus). Its scarcity is the system’s persuasion budget; introducing a second decorative accent would dilute the one moment the brand spends to convert.
Interactive
- Link = Brand
#7774ff, no underline by default, underline (or#8e8bff) on hover. - Hover — primary CTA lightens to
#8e8bff; rows shift bg to#131316and border to#33333c. - Active / Pressed — Brand Active
#605df0. - Disabled —
#5a5a64text on#0a0a0abg,cursor: not-allowed, no indigo. - Selected (row / filter) — brand-soft
#7774ff1abg,#7774ffleft-border or text.
Neutral / Surface
#000000 (Canvas) → #0a0a0a (Surface Soft) → #131316 (Surface Strong / Hover) → #1c1c20 (Surface Elevated) → #1f1f24 (Border) → #33333c (Border Strong) → #5a5a64 (Subtle) → #8a8a96 (Muted) → #c8c8d2 (Body) → #fafafd (Ink). A true neutral grey ramp from black to off-white, with the faintest cool drift at the top.
Surface & Borders
- Border (
#1f1f24): Default 1px hairline on cards, inputs, table rows. - Border Soft (
#131316): Inner-row dividers on dense lists — one step off canvas. - Border Strong (
#33333c): Focused/hovered border. - Border Brand (
#7774ff): Active and keyboard-focus border.
Shadow Colors
- Standard (
0 1px 0 0 #1f1f24): Hairline divider — the workhorse “shadow.” - Elevated (
0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.6)): Dropdowns, popovers floating over content. - Modal (
0 16px 48px rgba(0,0,0,0.7)): Dialogs over the scrim. - Glow (
0 0 0 1px rgba(119,116,255,0.4), 0 0 24px rgba(119,116,255,0.25)): Optional indigo halo on the primary CTA — the only luminous effect.
Semantic
- Up / Long (
#26c486): Price-up green, long-position PnL, filled-buy. 9.32:1 on canvas (AAA). - Up Soft (
#26c4861a): Pill / row-flash background. - Down / Short (
#ff5a5a): Price-down red, short-position PnL, filled-sell. 6.86:1 on canvas (AA+). - Down Soft (
#ff5a5a1a): Pill / row-flash background. - Warning (
#f5b945): Liquidation-risk and margin-warning amber — rare, high-stakes only. - Info (
#7774ff): Reuses brand indigo; dYdX does not maintain a separate info-blue.
Green/red are the only chromatic tokens besides indigo, and they appear only where PnL and order-state demand them. The discipline is near-total.
3. Typography Rules
Font Family
- Display & Body —
"Satoshi", production cut"Satoshi-compressed", fallbacksystem-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif. The same family runs headlines and paragraphs; there is no separate body face. - Mono —
ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, "SF Mono", Menlo, monospacefor prices, order sizes, wallet addresses, and any tabular numeric column where alignment matters. - Weights — 400 (running body, hero headlines), 500 (labels, table values, emphasis), 600/700 (sub-heads, buttons, eyebrows). Hero leans on 400; the system rarely needs 700.
- Substitutes — Satoshi is by Indian Type Foundry / Fontshare. The nearest free alternatives are General Sans (same foundry, slightly wider) or Hanken Grotesk; Inter reads more humanist and less engineered. Avoid Helvetica/Arial — they lose the compressed geometric character.
Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| display-hero | Satoshi | 60 | 400 | 1.0 | -0.03em | Marketing hero headline (live h1) |
| display-lg | Satoshi | 48 | 400 | 1.05 | -0.025em | Section heros |
| h1 | Satoshi | 40 | 500 | 1.1 | -0.02em | Product page titles |
| h2 | Satoshi | 32 | 500 | 1.18 | -0.014em | Section headings |
| h3 | Satoshi | 24 | 500 | 1.25 | -0.008em | Sub-section headings |
| h4 | Satoshi | 20 | 600 | 1.3 | 0 | Card titles, panel headers |
| body-lg | Satoshi | 18 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | Marketing running copy (live body) |
| body | Satoshi | 16 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | Default product running text |
| body-sm | Satoshi | 14 | 400 | 1.5 | 0 | Secondary copy, dense panels |
| label | Satoshi | 13 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.01em | Form labels, inline labels |
| table-header | Satoshi | 12 | 500 | 1.3 | 0.04em | Market-table column headers |
| price-mono | Mono | 14 | 500 | 1.3 | 0 | Prices, sizes, PnL — tabular numerals |
| caption | Satoshi | 12 | 500 | 1.4 | 0.02em | Captions, helper text |
| eyebrow | Satoshi | 11 | 600 | 1.3 | 0.08em | Section eyebrows — often UPPERCASE |
| nav-link | Satoshi | 14 | 500 | 1.2 | 0.01em | Top-nav items |
| button | Satoshi | 15 | 600 | 1.2 | 0.01em | All CTAs |
Principles
- Hero authority through scale, not weight — display-hero is 60px at weight 400. The compressed letterforms plus tight -0.03em tracking carry presence; bolding would read as shouty.
- Negative tracking on display, neutral on body — headlines tighten progressively (-0.03em down to -0.008em); body sits at 0; small labels and eyebrows take slight positive tracking (0.01–0.08em) for legibility at size.
- Mono only for numbers — unlike Blur (mono everywhere), dYdX reserves monospace strictly for prices, sizes, PnL, and addresses, so columns align. Everything else is Satoshi.
- Three working weights — 400 / 500 / 600. 700 exists but is rarely needed; the type does its work through size and the compressed cut.
- Eyebrows uppercase with 0.08em tracking — the one place dYdX uppercases. Section eyebrows (“PERPETUALS”, “GOVERNANCE”) read as kicker labels.
- Tabular numerals always-on for price-mono — enable
font-variant-numeric: tabular-numsso flickering order books and PnL don’t reflow. - Generous body line-height (1.55) — marketing copy breathes; this is the system’s clearest concession to a non-trader reader.
4. Component Stylings
Buttons
button-primary — The signature CTA. Background indigo #7774ff, white text (#ffffff, per live token), 12 × 20 padding, 12px radius, weight 600. Hover → #8e8bff; pressed → #605df0. Optional indigo glow (glow shadow) on the marketing hero CTA. This is the one chromatic, one curved element in the system — used for “Get Started”, “Trade Now”, “Connect Wallet”.
button-secondary — Background surface-strong #131316, ink text #fafafd, 1px #1f1f24 border, 12 × 20 padding, 12px radius. For “Learn More”, “View Docs”, non-primary actions adjacent to the primary CTA.
button-ghost — Transparent bg, ink text, 1px #1f1f24 border, 12px radius. Hover → bg #131316, border #33333c. For tertiary actions and toolbar controls.
button-link — No fill, no padding, indigo #7774ff text, underline on hover. Inline navigation and “see all” affordances.
Destructive actions (Close Position, Cancel Order) use the same shapes with semantic-down #ff5a5a text on a ghost, escalating to a red fill only on final confirm.
Cards
card — Surface-soft #0a0a0a bg, 1px #1f1f24 border, 12px radius, 24px padding. Title in h4 (Satoshi 20/600), body in body-sm. Hover (when interactive) → bg #131316, border #33333c — colour-state, no lift by default; marketing feature cards may add a subtle 4px translateY.
market-row — Dense market-list row: #000 bg, 1px #131316 bottom divider, market name in label, mark price / 24h change / volume in price-mono columns (green/red for change). Hover → bg #0a0a0a. Selected → brand-soft #7774ff1a bg with a 2px #7774ff left border.
stat-card — Account-summary tile: surface-soft bg, 12px radius, 16px padding, caption label on top (muted), price-mono value below (ink, or green/red for PnL).
Badges / Tags / Pills
badge — Status pill: brand-soft #7774ff1a bg, #7774ff text, pill radius 9999, 4 × 10 padding, caption type. The one place dYdX goes fully round.
badge-long — Position-side pill: #26c4861a bg, #26c486 text, pill radius.
badge-short — Position-side pill: #ff5a5a1a bg, #ff5a5a text, pill radius.
tag-neutral — Metadata tag: surface-strong #131316 bg, muted text, 6px radius, 2 × 8 padding — squarer than badges for inert metadata.
Inputs / Forms
input — Surface-soft #0a0a0a bg, 1px #1f1f24 border, 8px radius (tighter than buttons/cards), 10 × 14 padding, ink text, muted placeholder. Focus → border #7774ff + 3px rgba(119,116,255,0.55) ring. Caret colour #7774ff.
input-amount — Order-size / amount field: same shell, price-mono type, right-aligned numerals, an inline unit suffix (“USDC”, “ETH”) in muted, and quick-fill chips (25% / 50% / Max) as ghost buttons below.
select — Same surface and border as input; chevron in muted; open menu uses surface-strong #131316 bg with elevated shadow, selected option in brand-soft.
slider — Leverage slider: track #1f1f24, filled portion #7774ff, thumb white with 1px indigo ring; tick labels in caption muted.
Navigation
top-nav — 64px tall, #000 bg, 1px #1f1f24 bottom border. Wordmark left, primary tabs (Trade, Portfolio, Markets, Governance) in nav-link, right cluster ends in the indigo “Connect Wallet” primary CTA. Active tab: #fafafd text with a 2px #7774ff underline; inactive: muted.
side-rail (trading view) — Left market-selector / right order-form rails, #000 bg, 1px #1f1f24 separators, dense rows at price-mono type. The order-form rail anchors the indigo Buy/Long and red Sell/Short buttons at the bottom.
Modals & Overlays
modal — Surface-strong #131316 bg, 1px #1f1f24 border, 12px radius, 24px padding, modal drop shadow over a rgba(0,0,0,0.80) scrim. Header in h3, primary action is the indigo CTA bottom-right.
toast — Surface-elevated #1c1c20 bg, 1px #1f1f24 border (or 1px #7774ff for primary), 8px radius, elevated shadow, 12 × 16 padding. Auto-dismiss ~4s; success uses a small #26c486 dot, error a #ff5a5a dot.
Footer
footer — #000 bg, 1px #1f1f24 top border, 48px vertical padding. Multi-column link list (Trade, Develop, Community, Legal), wordmark, social icons in muted grey. Restrained — no decorative wash, the indigo appears only on link-hover.
5. Layout Principles
Spacing System
- Base unit: 4px.
- Scale: 0 / 4 / 8 / 12 / 16 / 24 / 32 / 48 / 64 / 96.
- Section padding (vertical): 96px on marketing landing sections; 48px between product panels; 24px card interiors.
- Dense trading surfaces: market rows and order books drop to 8–12px row rhythm — the product breathes far less than the marketing site, by design.
Grid & Container
- Max content width: 1280px on marketing pages, centred. The trading application goes full-bleed to the viewport (charts and order books want every pixel).
- Marketing grid: 12-column with 24px gutters; feature blocks alternate text/visual at desktop, stack at mobile.
- Trading layout: three-zone — market selector (left), chart + order book (centre), order form (right) — each an independently scrolling panel separated by 1px hairlines.
Whitespace Philosophy
Two registers, one brand. Marketing pages are generous (96px sections, 18px body, 1.55 line-height) to court newcomers; the application is dense and information-first for working traders. Both stay pure-black, both reserve the indigo for the single converting action. The shift in density is intentional, not inconsistent.
Section Cadence
The page stays pure black #000 throughout — no light/dark band alternation. Rhythm comes from the surface ladder (cards step up to #0a0a0a/#131316) and 1px hairlines, with eyebrow → headline → body → CTA repeating down the page. The indigo CTA punctuates each major section exactly once.
6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Token | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | micro | 2px | Inline chips, tiny indicators, checkbox corners |
| Standard | sm | 4px | Tags, small inline controls |
| Comfortable | md | 8px | Inputs, selects, dropdowns, tooltips |
| Relaxed | lg | 12px | Buttons, cards, modals — the brand CTA radius (live token) |
| Large | xl | 16px | Marketing feature cards, large media frames |
| Pill | pill | 9999px | Status/position badges, avatars, leverage-slider thumb |
The defining number is 12px (lg): the live “Get Started” CTA radius, and the radius dYdX uses for buttons, cards, and modals alike. Inputs sit one step tighter at 8px to read as utilitarian. Unlike Blur’s brutalist 0px, dYdX’s 12px is the deliberate softening that separates “pro-trader composed” from “pro-trader brutalist” — present, but never so round it reads consumer-friendly.
7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 Flat | No shadow, no border | Body sections on canvas |
| 1 Hairline | 1px #1f1f24 (or 0 1px 0 0 #1f1f24) | Default cards, inputs, table rows |
| 2 Surface step | #000 → #0a0a0a | Cards, panels lifting off canvas |
| 3 Hover | #0a0a0a → #131316, border → #33333c | Card / row hover |
| 4 Floating | 0 8px 24px rgba(0,0,0,0.6) on #131316/#1c1c20 | Dropdowns, popovers, tooltips |
| 5 Modal | 0 16px 48px rgba(0,0,0,0.7) over rgba(0,0,0,0.80) scrim | Dialogs |
| Glow | 0 0 0 1px rgba(119,116,255,0.4), 0 0 24px rgba(119,116,255,0.25) | Optional indigo halo on hero CTA |
| Focus ring | 0 0 0 3px rgba(119,116,255,0.55) | All keyboard focus |
Shadow Philosophy: Depth is built primarily from the greyscale surface ladder and 1px hairlines; drop-shadows appear only on genuinely floating layers (dropdowns, modals) and stay dark and soft so they read as separation, not ornament. The only luminous gesture in the system is indigo — the optional CTA glow and the focus ring. This keeps the surface sober: everything is matte greyscale until the one moment the brand wants you to act.
8. Interaction & Motion
- Easing standard —
cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)for hover, colour, and most state changes. - Easing emphasized —
cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)for modal/sheet entrances and larger reveals. - Durations — fast 150ms (hover, colour swaps), standard 240ms (dropdowns, focus, card hover), slow 320ms (modal/sheet enter, page section reveals).
- Hover — primary CTA lightens
#7774ff → #8e8bffover 150ms; rows swap bg and border over 150ms; cards step surface tier (+ optional 4px translateY on marketing feature cards only). - Active / Press — CTA deepens to
#605df0; subtle 1px inset, no scale-down. - Price flash — order-book and PnL values flash
#26c4861a(up) or#ff5a5a1a(down) bg for ~400ms then ease back. Tabular numerals prevent reflow. - Focus — 3px
rgba(119,116,255,0.55)ring fades in over 150ms; never removed for mouse users (focus-visible scoped). - Modal / sheet — enters with 320ms emphasized ease: fade + 8px rise, scrim fades simultaneously.
- CTA glow — hero CTA may pulse its indigo glow once on initial viewport entry (240ms in, settle) as the single attention gesture; disabled under reduced-motion.
- Page transition — none in the application (instant route swaps for trader speed); marketing pages allow gentle scroll-reveal fades.
- Reduced motion —
prefers-reduced-motion: reducehonoured: glow pulse, translateY, price-flash and scroll-reveals collapse to opacity-only or are disabled; colour-state changes remain.
9. Accessibility & A11y
- Contrast (computed from live tokens):
- Ink
#fafafdon canvas#000000= 20.16:1 — AAA at every size. - Body
#c8c8d2on canvas = 12.65:1 — AAA. - Brand indigo
#7774ffon canvas = 5.73:1 — AA for normal text, AAA for large; safe for links and icons on black. - Muted
#8a8a96on canvas = 6.16:1 — AA for normal text. - White on-brand
#ffffffon indigo#7774ff= 3.67:1 — passes AA for large/bold text only (≥18.66px bold / 24px regular). The live CTA label runs ~15–16px bold, sitting right at the large-bold threshold; keep CTA text ≥16px bold and do not drop white-on-indigo below that or it fails AA. (Ink#fafafdon indigo is 3.52:1 — same caveat.) - Up green
#26c486on canvas = 9.32:1 (AAA); Down red#ff5a5aon canvas = 6.86:1 (AA+).
- Ink
- Focus indicator: 3px solid
rgba(119,116,255,0.55)ring, highly visible on pure black; never suppressed for keyboard users. - ARIA patterns: Market tables use
role="table"witharia-sorton sortable headers. Order-side toggles userole="radiogroup". Toasts userole="status"/aria-live="polite"; liquidation warnings escalate toaria-live="assertive". - Keyboard nav: Market rows focusable (Up/Down to move, Enter to select); order-form fields in logical tab order; quick-fill chips reachable by Tab + Space.
- Screen reader hints: PnL and price-change values carry visually-hidden “+N% up” / “-N% down” text so colour is never the sole carrier. Position side (“Long”/“Short”) is spoken, not implied by colour alone.
- Reduced motion: Honoured — see §8.
- Colour independence: Green/red PnL always pairs with a sign (+/−) and a direction word in SR text, so red/green colour-blind users are not stranded.
10. Responsive Behavior
| Breakpoint | Width | Key Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | < 640 | Top nav → hamburger; trading view stacks chart over a tabbed order form; market table → card stack; hero h1 drops 60 → 36px |
| Tablet | 640–1024 | Two-zone trading layout (chart + collapsible order form); marketing feature blocks 1-up; nav condenses |
| Desktop | 1024–1280 | Full three-zone trading layout; marketing grid 2-up features; persistent nav |
| Wide | > 1280 | Content capped at 1280px on marketing; trading app goes full-bleed to use chart/order-book estate |
Touch Targets: Primary CTAs and order buttons render at minimum 44 × 44px on touch. Quick-fill chips and toggles expand to 44px tap height on mobile.
Collapsing Strategy: Top nav → hamburger sheet. Trading three-zone layout collapses to a single scroll with a sticky bottom Long/Short action bar on mobile. Market tables collapse to card stacks surfacing market / mark price / 24h change.
Image / Chart Behavior: Charts are canvas/WebGL and resize to container; marketing imagery uses loading="lazy" and aspect-ratio to prevent layout shift. The product carries no decorative imagery — only functional charts and token glyphs.
11. Content & Voice
- Tone — technical, confident, trader-direct. The product assumes the reader knows derivatives; marketing copy is plain and benefit-led (“Trade perpetuals with deep liquidity”) without crypto-hype maximalism.
- Microcopy — imperative and compact in-app: “Connect Wallet”, “Add Margin”, “Close Position”, “Cancel All”. Labels favour the trader’s noun (“Mark Price”, “Funding”, “Open Interest”) over a softened explanation.
- CTA verbs — “Get Started” (entry), “Trade Now” / “Start Trading” (conversion), “Connect Wallet” (auth), “Long” / “Short” (order side), “Place Order” (commit).
- Empty states — brief and useful: “No open positions”, “No order history yet” — paired with a single quiet CTA to start, no illustration, no apology.
- Error messages — direct and remediable: “Insufficient margin — add USDC”, “Order size below minimum”. Wallet/chain errors surface the provider message rather than masking it.
- Number formatting — tabular monospace; locale separators; sensible decimal precision per market; PnL always signed (+/−) and coloured. USD value shown alongside token amounts where helpful.
- Voice prohibition — no hype emoji, no “to the moon” maximalism, no fake urgency timers. The brand’s authority comes from sobriety; it talks to professionals, not to a hype feed.
12. Dark Mode & Theming
dYdX is dark-only. The pure-black canvas is the brand and there is no light variant — a derivatives terminal lives on black both for the trader’s eyes during long sessions and because the indigo voltage only reads as a signature against black. The near-white ink #fafafd and the single indigo #7774ff are tuned for this one surface.
If a hypothetical light variant ever shipped, the predicted token swap would be: bg #ffffff, surface-soft #f7f7f9, surface-strong #efeff2, border #e4e4ea, text #0a0a0e, text-body #3a3a44, with #7774ff carrying through unchanged (it holds 4.5:1+ on white as well). But the editorial position is that this surface should not exist: dYdX is a “trade in the dark” instrument by identity, and a light mode would dilute the purple-on-black that is the brand.
13. Lineage & Influences
dYdX’s design language descends from professional trading terminals crossed with the modern dark-SaaS aesthetic. The pure-black canvas, dense tabular data, monospace numerals, and information-first layout are direct inheritances from desktop trading software (Bloomberg/TradingView lineage). But where pure terminals are utilitarian to the point of brutalism (see Blur), dYdX layers on a contemporary product-design polish: the Satoshi geometric-grotesque type, the 12px-radius composed surfaces, and the disciplined single-accent system that today’s developer-tool brands (Linear, Vercel) popularised.
The single-voltage-on-black move is its clearest contemporary borrowing — one saturated brand colour reserved for the primary action, everything else greyscale. dYdX picks indigo-purple where Linear leans violet-on-near-black and Vercel leans monochrome; the family resemblance is the discipline, not the hue. What dYdX rejects is the consumer-fintech warmth (Coinbase’s navy and rounding, Robinhood’s friendly green) and the hype-maximalist crypto aesthetic (loud gradients, neon everything) — it stays sober, technical, and assumes a sophisticated user.
Influences:
- Linear — single near-black surface plus one disciplined accent; Satoshi-adjacent geometric type register. https://linear.app
- Vercel — monochrome-on-black product design, restraint as polish, single high-contrast CTA. https://vercel.com
- TradingView — dense market tables, monospace numerals, dark trading-surface conventions. https://www.tradingview.com
- Blur — the brutalist pure-black trader counterpart in NFT markets; dYdX shares the black canvas and single-voltage discipline but softens to 12px radius and a humanist-grotesque sans. https://blur.io
- Satoshi (Fontshare / Indian Type Foundry) — the display and body typeface; chosen for its compressed geometric-grotesque, technical character. https://www.fontshare.com/fonts/satoshi
14. Do’s and Don’ts
Do
- Keep the canvas pure
#000000— no navy tint, no warming - Use ink
#fafafd(rgb 250,250,253) for primary text — a faint cool off-white, not pure#fff - Reserve indigo
#7774fffor the primary CTA and active/selected/link/focus states only - Give the brand CTA a 12px radius and white text — match the live “Get Started” token
- Keep CTA label text ≥16px bold so white-on-indigo clears AA large-text (3.67:1)
- Build elevation from the greyscale surface ladder + 1px
#1f1f24hairlines; keep shadows quiet - Use Satoshi (compressed) for display and body; monospace only for prices, sizes, PnL, addresses
- Let the hero h1 land at 60px / weight 400 — authority through scale and tracking, not bold
- Use green
#26c486/ red#ff5a5astrictly for PnL and order state, always paired with a sign - Enable tabular numerals on all numeric columns so order books don’t reflow
Don’t
- Don’t use navy-tinted black (
#0d1117,#04111d) — pure#000is the commitment - Don’t introduce a second decorative accent — indigo is the only chromatic voltage
- Don’t run white-on-indigo CTA text below ~16px bold — it drops under AA (3.67:1)
- Don’t go 0px brutalist — the 12px radius is what separates dYdX from Blur; keep the softening
- Don’t make headlines heavy — Satoshi at 400/500 carries the hero; 700 reads shouty here
- Don’t use monospace for body copy — mono is numbers-only; Satoshi is the voice
- Don’t add loud gradients, glassmorphism, or neon glows beyond the single indigo CTA halo
- Don’t lift cards on hover in the application — colour-state swap; reserve translateY for marketing
- Don’t use hype-crypto copy or emoji — the voice is sober, technical, professional
- Don’t carry red/green as the only PnL signal — always add +/- sign and SR direction text
15. Agent Prompt Guide
Quick Color Reference
- Brand (indigo-purple):
#7774ff - Brand hover:
#8e8bff - Brand pressed:
#605df0 - On-brand (CTA text):
#ffffff - Canvas:
#000000 - Surface soft:
#0a0a0a - Surface strong:
#131316 - Ink text:
#fafafd - Body text:
#c8c8d2 - Muted:
#8a8a96 - Border:
#1f1f24 - Up green:
#26c486 - Down red:
#ff5a5a
Example Component Prompts
- “Create a dYdX hero band: pure
#000000background, 60px Satoshi (compressed) weight 400 headline ‘Trade perpetuals on-chain’ with -0.03em tracking in#fafafd, an 11px uppercase eyebrow ‘DEFI’S PRO TRADING PLATFORM’ in#8a8a96above it, 18px Satoshi body in#c8c8d2, and a primary CTA ‘Get Started’ in white 16px bold on indigo#7774ff, 12px radius, 12 × 20 padding, with a soft indigo glow. Add a secondary ‘View Docs’ button: surface#131316, 1px#1f1f24border, 12px radius.” - “Design a market card:
#0a0a0abg, 1px#1f1f24border, 12px radius, 24px padding. Header row: market ‘ETH-USD’ in Satoshi 20/600#fafafd+ a long badge (‘LONG’) as a pill,#26c4861abg,#26c486text, 9999px radius. Body: mark price in monospace 14/500#fafafd, 24h change ‘+2.41%’ in#26c486. Hover: bg →#131316, border →#33333c, no lift.” - “Build a markets table row:
#000bg, 1px#131316bottom divider. Columns: market name in Satoshi 13/500#fafafd, mark price + index in monospace#fafafd, 24h change in#26c486(up) or#ff5a5a(down), volume in monospace#8a8a96. Hover → bg#0a0a0a; selected →#7774ff1abg with a 2px#7774ffleft border. Column headers: Satoshi 12/500 0.04em tracking#8a8a96.” - “Render an order-form panel: surface
#000, right rail. A radiogroup Long/Short toggle (Long fills#7774ffwhite text, Short ghost). Amount input:#0a0a0abg, 1px#1f1f24border, 8px radius, monospace right-aligned numerals with a muted ‘USDC’ suffix; quick-fill chips 25%/50%/Max as ghost buttons. A leverage slider with#7774fffilled track. Submit: full-width indigo#7774ffCTA ‘Place Order’, white 16px bold, 12px radius.” - “Compose a top nav: 64px tall,
#000bg, 1px#1f1f24bottom border. Wordmark left; tabs ‘Trade / Portfolio / Markets / Governance’ in Satoshi 14/500#8a8a96, active tab#fafafdwith a 2px#7774ffunderline; right side ends in a primary indigo CTA ‘Connect Wallet’, white 16px bold, 12px radius.” - “Create a stat dashboard: three stat-cards on
#000, each surface#0a0a0a, 12px radius, 16px padding — caption label in#8a8a9612px on top, monospace value below; PnL card shows ’+$1,240.50’ in#26c486, loss card ’-$320.10’ in#ff5a5a. Equal-width, 16px gap.”
Iteration Guide
- Lock the canvas to pure
#000000first — if it looks navy or warm, it isn’t dYdX. Then set ink to#fafafd, not#ffffff. - Spend indigo
#7774ffexactly once per section — on the primary CTA. If two indigo elements compete, demote one to greyscale. - Put a 12px radius on buttons, cards, and modals; 8px on inputs; 9999px only on badges/avatars. Never 0px (that’s Blur).
- Keep the hero at weight 400–500 and large (≈60px). If it reads shouty, you’ve over-weighted it; lean on size and -0.03em tracking.
- Use Satoshi for everything except numbers; switch prices, sizes, and PnL to monospace with tabular numerals so columns align.
- Confirm CTA text is white and ≥16px bold — below that, white-on-indigo (3.67:1) fails AA. Bump size before changing the colour.
- Build depth with the surface ladder (
#000→#0a0a0a→#131316) and 1px#1f1f24hairlines; add a real shadow only on floating layers. - Add green/red only where PnL or order state demands it, always with a +/- sign — never as decoration.
Drop dydx into your project, then ship the actual sections in an afternoon.
1 · install design
npx @webdesignhot/design-md add dydx 2 · ship landing page
npx agentkit init --design dydx