light · minimal · sans · spacious · soft · structured · premium
Superhuman
White paper canvas, a custom Super Sans variable, and a single confident lavender — premium email dressed as a stationery brand.
By webdesignhot · superhuman.com
$ npx design-md add superhuman
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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Binance Trading-floor near-black with a single high-voltage Binance Yellow doing all the brand work — BinanceNova for type, BinancePlex for numbers. 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. Booking.com Deep-blue commerce engine — Bookin Sans on white, yellow CTA voltage, dense booking-funnel maximalism. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Character.AI Cool zinc canvas, custom atHauss sans, and dark pill CTAs — a roleplay social product dressed in TikTok-grade neutrality. Chevrolet Gold-cross American classic — Louis sans on white with a `#cd9834` bowtie, a `#003876` corporate blue, and Camaro/Corvette red drama in reserve. 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. 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. 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. Dell Pragmatic blue `#007db8` with custom Roboto-derivative — business-first PC commerce since the dorm room. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Grubhub Friendly red-orange CTA, Sentinel display + Avenir body, dense delivery-app commerce — the long-running incumbent. 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. 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. 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. 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. Instacart Grocery-shopping-list practical — Instacart Sans on white, signature carrot green 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. 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. Notion Off-white canvas with Lyon serif accents and a custom NotionInter — a workspace dressed as a literary magazine. 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. Omnivore Open-source read-it-later — near-white reading canvas, focused emerald-on-paper brand, archival elegance after the Eleven Labs sunset. 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. Paper Website A literal sheet-of-paper website — single literary serif, off-white sheet canvas, narrow reading columns, ink-blue links. 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. Pinecone White canvas with Inter and a signature `#1cb0d0` cyan — vector database technical-marketing dressed in clean blueprint chrome. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.' 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. Riot Games Crimson `#d13639` red on near-black with custom Riot Beam display — esports-tournament drama and competitive-MOBA editorial. Rive Chunky animated display type and saturated playful colour — interactive graphics platform that wears its motion design on its sleeve. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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. Uniqlo Signature red `#ff0000`, Helvetica Neue system stack, japanese-utility-functional grid — the LifeWear engine. 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. 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. 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. Warp Near-black canvas, neon-lime cursor, real terminal screenshots — a marketing site that boots like a shell. 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. 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. 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. Zora Cream-white canvas, electric purple-orange duet, and a custom display — onchain creator network as zine cover.
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Tokens design.md/v1.5
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#f4f1ec - surface-elev
#ebe7df - text AAA · 14.7
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#a8a39a - text-on-hero
#ffffff - text-on-hero-muted
#cfc7d9 - brand AA · 6.2
#714cb6 - brand-soft
#d4c7ff - brand-softer
#ece6ff - brand-hover
#5b3da0 - brand-deep
#3d2467 - brand-glow
#9a7ce0 - on-brand
#ffffff - hero-gradient-start
#3d2467 - hero-gradient-end
#1a0f33 - accent-cream
#f4ebd9 - accent-paper
#f7f4ed - border
#0000001a - border-soft
#00000010 - border-strong
#0000002e - border-on-dark
#ffffff20 - shadow-card
rgba(23,22,15,0.04) - shadow-elev
rgba(23,22,15,0.08) - shadow-brand
rgba(113,76,182,0.18) - scrim
rgba(20,18,15,0.55) - success
#3a7b3a - success-soft
#eaf3ea - warning
#a35e0a - warning-soft
#fbf1de - danger
#a8362f - danger-soft
#f7e6e4 - info
#345897 - info-soft
#e6ecf5
Ship faster than ever.
display-hero "Super Sans VF" 64px w540 -0.01em
Ship faster than ever.
display-xl "Super Sans VF" 48px w460 -0.005em
Ship faster than ever.
display-lg "Super Sans VF" 40px w540 -0.01em
Ship faster than ever.
display-md "Super Sans VF" 32px w540 -0.005em
Ship faster than ever.
display-sm "Super Sans VF" 26px w460 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-lg "Super Sans VF" 22px w540 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-md "Super Sans VF" 18px w540 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-lg "Super Sans VF" 18px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
title-sm "Super Sans VF" 16px w540 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-md "Super Sans VF" 16px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
button-lg "Super Sans VF" 16px w540 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
body-sm "Super Sans VF" 14px w400 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
button-md "Super Sans VF" 14px w540 0
npx design-md add linear
code ui-monospace 14px w400 0
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
caption "Super Sans VF" 13px w460 0
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
overline "Super Sans VF" 12px w540 0.06em
npx design-md add linear
code-micro ui-monospace 12px w400 0
OUR DESIGN SYSTEM
label "Super Sans VF" 11px w540 0.04em
- step-0 2px
- step-1 4px
- step-2 8px
- step-3 12px
- step-4 16px
- step-5 24px
- step-6 32px
- step-7 48px
- step-8 64px
- step-9 96px
- step-10 128px
- micro
2px - sm
6px - md
8px - lg
12px - xl
20px - pill
9999px
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A complete kit — everything your product needs.
Hero, pricing, FAQ, dashboard, docs — every layout your product needs.
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v1.0
Export
4 formats · paste-ready
Tailwind
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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: Superhuman
tagline: White paper canvas, a custom Super Sans variable, and a single confident lavender — premium email dressed as a stationery brand.
author: webdesignhot
source_url: https://superhuman.com
spec: design.md/v1.5
quality: curated
featured: false
categories: [saas, dev-tools]
tags: [light, minimal, sans, spacious, soft, structured, premium]
preview_swatch: ['#ffffff', '#714cb6', '#292827']
related: [linear, notion, raycast]
description: 'Superhuman''s site reads like a stationery brand that learned to ship software. The canvas is paper-white (`#ffffff`), body text sits in a near-black `#292827` warmed with a hint of brown, and the typography is a single custom variable face — Super Sans VF — used at every level from 11px label to the 64px hero. The action layer is a confident lavender (`#714cb6`) softened by a paler `#d4c7ff` for secondary chips. The variable axis pinned at 540 — sub-bold, sub-medium — is the design fingerprint: it reads heavier than Inter Medium but lighter than Inter Semibold, giving the page the engraved-business-card weight that matches the product''s price tier.'
colors:
bg: '#ffffff' # paper-white canvas, the workspace-as-stationery metaphor
bg-soft: '#fafaf8' # warm-white panel base for grouped feature blocks
surface: '#f4f1ec' # cream feature card, leans warm not cool
surface-elev: '#ebe7df' # slightly deeper cream for nested cards
text: '#292827' # body copy, near-black with warmth
text-strong: '#15140f' # display copy on white — coffee-bean dark
text-body: '#3a3935' # secondary running-text inside long features
text-muted: '#8a857d' # captions, timestamps, byline metadata
text-soft: '#a8a39a' # disabled link text, sparingly used
text-on-hero: '#ffffff' # hero copy on dark gradient bands
text-on-hero-muted: '#cfc7d9' # secondary deck on dark hero bands
brand: '#714cb6' # primary lavender CTA — the singular voltage
brand-soft: '#d4c7ff' # secondary chip / nav "Sign up" pill
brand-softer: '#ece6ff' # hover-tint for soft-lavender chip
brand-hover: '#5b3da0' # pressed/hover state on primary
brand-deep: '#3d2467' # deep lavender used in hero gradient anchor
brand-glow: '#9a7ce0' # lighter lavender glow on dark gradient bands
on-brand: '#ffffff' # white text on primary lavender
hero-gradient-start: '#3d2467' # deep aubergine top of dark hero band
hero-gradient-end: '#1a0f33' # near-black bottom of hero gradient
accent-cream: '#f4ebd9' # feature illustration backdrop
accent-paper: '#f7f4ed' # softer cream for inset stationery panels
border: '#0000001a' # 10% black hairline — never solid grey
border-soft: '#00000010' # 6% black for very subtle dividers
border-strong: '#0000002e' # 18% black for focused inputs
border-on-dark: '#ffffff20' # 12% white hairline on dark hero bands
shadow-card: 'rgba(23,22,15,0.04)' # subtle ambient on white cards
shadow-elev: 'rgba(23,22,15,0.08)' # heavier hover lift
shadow-brand: 'rgba(113,76,182,0.18)' # lavender-tinted glow on primary CTA hover
scrim: 'rgba(20,18,15,0.55)' # modal backdrop, warm-tinted black
success: '#3a7b3a' # confirmation green, muted not neon
success-soft: '#eaf3ea' # success surface tint
warning: '#a35e0a' # advisory amber, ink-leaning
warning-soft: '#fbf1de'
danger: '#a8362f' # form-error red, distinct from lavender
danger-soft: '#f7e6e4'
info: '#345897' # informational accent, slate-blue
info-soft: '#e6ecf5'
typography:
display:
family: '"Super Sans VF", system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif'
weights: [400, 460, 540, 620]
opentype-features: ['ss01', 'ss02', 'kern', 'liga']
body:
family: '"Super Sans VF", system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif'
weights: [400, 460, 540]
mono:
family: 'ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, "Liberation Mono", "Courier New", monospace'
weights: [400, 500]
scale:
display-hero: { size: 64, weight: 540, lineHeight: 0.96, tracking: '-0.01em', family: display, opentype: ['ss01', 'kern'] }
display-xl: { size: 48, weight: 460, lineHeight: 0.96, tracking: '-0.005em', family: display }
display-lg: { size: 40, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.05, tracking: '-0.01em', family: display }
display-md: { size: 32, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.10, tracking: '-0.005em', family: display }
display-sm: { size: 26, weight: 460, lineHeight: 1.30, tracking: '0', family: display }
title-lg: { size: 22, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.30, tracking: '0', family: display }
title-md: { size: 18, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.35, tracking: '0', family: display }
title-sm: { size: 16, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.40, tracking: '0', family: display }
body-lg: { size: 18, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body }
body-md: { size: 16, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: body }
body-sm: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.50, tracking: '0', family: body }
caption: { size: 13, weight: 460, lineHeight: 1.45, tracking: '0', family: body }
label: { size: 11, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.30, tracking: '0.04em', family: body, transform: uppercase }
overline: { size: 12, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.30, tracking: '0.06em', family: body, transform: uppercase }
button-lg: { size: 16, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.20, tracking: '0', family: body }
button-md: { size: 14, weight: 540, lineHeight: 1.20, tracking: '0', family: body }
code: { size: 14, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.55, tracking: '0', family: mono }
code-micro: { size: 12, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.50, tracking: '0', family: mono }
radius:
micro: 2
sm: 6 # input fields
md: 8 # primary button radius — the signature CTA shape
lg: 12 # large CTA / feature card
xl: 20 # hero shell, dark band shells
pill: 9999 # nav "Sign up" lavender chip
spacing:
base: 4
scale: [2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128]
layout:
page-width: 1240
prose-width: 680
header-height: 72
hero-band-height: 720
feature-card-min-width: 320
components:
button-primary:
bg: '#714cb6'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 8
padding: '12px 22px'
height: 44
font: button-lg
use: 'Get Superhuman, Try free, Continue — every primary action.'
button-primary-hover:
bg: '#5b3da0'
color: '#ffffff'
shadow: 'rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px'
use: 'Pointer hover state — subtle lavender glow lifts beneath.'
button-soft-lavender:
bg: '#d4c7ff'
color: '#15140f'
radius: 9999
padding: '8px 16px'
height: 36
font: button-md
use: 'Nav "Sign up" chip — fully-pill secondary action over white.'
button-ghost:
bg: 'transparent'
color: '#292827'
border: '1px solid #0000001a'
radius: 8
padding: '12px 22px'
use: 'Tertiary "Watch demo" button on white surface.'
button-on-dark:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#15140f'
radius: 8
padding: '12px 22px'
use: 'Primary CTA over dark hero gradient bands.'
feature-card:
bg: '#f4f1ec'
color: '#292827'
radius: 12
border: '1px solid #0000001a'
padding: '32px'
use: 'Cream feature panel — flat, hairline-bordered, no shadow.'
feature-card-paper:
bg: '#fafaf8'
color: '#292827'
radius: 12
border: '1px solid #00000010'
padding: '32px'
use: 'Lighter cream nested panel for in-flow feature content.'
hero-band-dark:
bg: 'linear-gradient(180deg, #3d2467 0%, #1a0f33 100%)'
color: '#ffffff'
radius: 20
use: 'Inverted hero band carrying 64px Super Sans white display.'
testimonial-quote:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#292827'
radius: 12
border: '1px solid #0000001a'
padding: '32px 28px'
use: 'Pull-quote card with avatar, name, role beneath. No shadow.'
text-input:
bg: '#ffffff'
color: '#15140f'
radius: 6
height: 44
padding: '10px 14px'
border: '1px solid #0000001a'
focus: 'border thickens to 1.5px #714cb6 + subtle lavender glow'
use: 'Email signup field on hero — single-line.'
badge-pill:
bg: '#ece6ff'
color: '#3d2467'
radius: 9999
padding: '4px 10px'
font: caption
use: 'New / Beta announcement chip — soft-lavender on white.'
link-inline:
color: '#714cb6'
underline: '1px solid currentColor'
use: 'Inline body links — lavender + hairline underline.'
nav-link:
color: '#292827'
use: 'Top-nav item — ink with no underline; underline appears on hover.'
motion:
ease-standard: 'cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)'
ease-emphasized: 'cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)'
ease-out-soft: 'cubic-bezier(0.0, 0, 0.2, 1)'
duration-fast: 120
duration-standard: 220
duration-slow: 360
button-hover: 'background 220ms standard + shadow 220ms standard — no transform'
card-hover: 'no lift; border tone deepens 10% → 18% black over 220ms'
hero-band-parallax: 'dark gradient band shifts 20px parallax over scroll, 40ms throttled'
reduced-motion: 'respects prefers-reduced-motion: reduce — all transitions become opacity-only fades.'
breakpoints:
mobile: 640
tablet: 1024
desktop: 1280
wide: 1536
shadows:
ambient: 'rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 1px 2px 0'
card: 'rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 12px -2px'
elevated: 'rgba(23,22,15,0.08) 0 12px 24px -8px, rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 8px -2px'
brand-glow: 'rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px'
ring: '0 0 0 2px #714cb6'
ring-on-dark: '0 0 0 2px #ffffff'
accessibility:
contrast-text-on-bg: 13.4 # #292827 on #ffffff — AAA
contrast-text-strong-on-bg: 17.8 # #15140f on #ffffff — AAA
contrast-text-on-brand: 5.6 # #ffffff on #714cb6 — AA body, AAA large
contrast-muted-on-bg: 4.6 # #8a857d on #ffffff — AA body
contrast-text-on-soft: 12.6 # #15140f on #d4c7ff — AAA
focus-ring: '2px solid #714cb6 + 2px outline-offset on white; 2px solid #ffffff on dark hero bands'
reduced-motion-honored: true
touch-target-min: 44
dark-mode: null # Light-only marketing surface. The product (the email client) is offered in light + dark themes; the public site is paper-white only.
---
## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Superhuman's marketing site reads as a stationery brand for software. The body bg stays paper-white at `#ffffff`, copy sits in a warm near-black `#292827` (with a faint coffee-bean undertone, never the sterile `#000`), and a single custom variable face — **Super Sans VF** — carries every type role from the 11px uppercase label to the 64px hero "Superpowers, everywhere you work." The custom variable axis pinned at **540** — heavier than Inter Medium, lighter than Inter Semibold — is the design fingerprint: it reads as engraved business card rather than marketing-bold.
The action layer is a single confident lavender, `#714cb6`, with `#d4c7ff` as the soft secondary chip used in the navigation. Hero modules occasionally flip to a deep aubergine-to-black gradient wash that holds white type, but the page resolves back to white between each band. The result is closer to a Cartier ad or a Loro Piana product page than a productivity SaaS — restrained, warm, premium.
Where most productivity sites stack hero illustrations against gradient washes, Superhuman keeps the page bg flat at `#ffffff` and lets a custom display weight do the visual work. Body copy at the warm `#292827` rather than pure `#000` is the signal: Superhuman wants to feel softer, more handwritten, more *editorial*, than the stark Apple-style mail apps it is replacing.
The atmosphere is **paper-thin elevation, deep typographic confidence**. Cards lift via warm tonal layering and 10% black hairlines rather than shadow stacks. Drop shadows are reserved for hardware mockups (an iPhone, a MacBook with the product on screen); the marketing chrome itself is flat. Even the dark hero bands gain depth from gradient washes rather than elevation — the page is a sequence of "spreads" rather than a layered scroll.
**Key Characteristics:**
- Paper-white canvas (`#ffffff`) — never warm cream, never cool grey
- Single custom variable face: Super Sans VF at 540 axis (sub-bold) for display, 400 for body
- One brand voltage: lavender (`#714cb6`) for primary CTAs, soft `#d4c7ff` for secondary chips only
- Warm near-black ink (`#292827` body, `#15140f` display) — not pure black
- Cream feature surfaces (`#f4f1ec`, `#fafaf8`) layered by warm tonal lift, never shadow
- Dark hero bands use a deep aubergine-to-black gradient (`#3d2467` → `#1a0f33`)
- 10% black hairlines (`#0000001a`) instead of solid grey borders
- Buttons land at 8px radius — never fully-pill except the lavender nav chip
- Hero composed as a sequence of "magazine spreads" rather than a single scroll
- Modest typographic muscle — 64px max display; the variable axis carries the weight
## 2. Color Palette & Roles
### Primary
- **Canvas** (`#ffffff`): paper-white floor for every public page. There is no dark variant on the marketing surface.
- **Ink** (`#292827`): the dominant text colour — near-black with a hint of warmth. Display headlines, body paragraphs, primary nav links.
- **Ink Strong** (`#15140f`): coffee-bean dark used for the heaviest display moments (the 64px hero) and for inset card titles.
- **Brand Lavender** (`#714cb6`): the singular voltage. Primary CTA backgrounds, hero accent text, inline body links.
### Brand & Dark
- **Brand Hover** (`#5b3da0`): pressed/hover state on the primary lavender — slightly darker, slightly more saturated.
- **Brand Deep** (`#3d2467`): deep aubergine anchoring the hero gradient top, also used for caption text on soft-lavender chips.
- **Brand Glow** (`#9a7ce0`): lighter lavender accent that surfaces only on dark hero bands as accent text.
- **Hero Gradient Top** (`#3d2467`) → **Hero Gradient Bottom** (`#1a0f33`): the dark band wash. A vertical linear-gradient with no mid-stops.
### Accent
- **Brand Soft** (`#d4c7ff`): the soft-lavender secondary chip — only appears on the nav "Sign up" pill and as a hover-tint over light surfaces. Never on a primary CTA.
- **Brand Softer** (`#ece6ff`): even paler lavender used as the badge-pill fill (e.g., "Beta" or "New" announcement).
- **Cream** (`#f4ebd9`): feature illustration backdrop — warm parchment, not white.
- **Paper** (`#f7f4ed`): inset stationery panel for grouped product testimonials.
### Interactive
- **Link** (`#714cb6`): inline body links — lavender with a 1px underline. Underline always present (not hover-only).
- **Link Hover** (`#5b3da0`): hover state — slightly darker lavender, underline thickens 1 → 1.5px.
- **Selected** (`#714cb6` fill, `#ffffff` text): selected state on toggle pills, segmented controls.
- **Disabled** (`#a8a39a` text, `#ebe7df` fill): disabled CTA — drained warm grey.
### Neutral Scale
- **Ink Strong** (`#15140f`) — display copy on white, peak ink
- **Ink** (`#292827`) — body, primary nav, the dominant text colour
- **Body** (`#3a3935`) — secondary running-text inside long testimonial blocks
- **Muted** (`#8a857d`) — captions, byline metadata, timestamp text
- **Soft** (`#a8a39a`) — disabled link text, sparingly used
### Surface & Borders
- **Canvas** (`#ffffff`) — page floor
- **Surface Soft** (`#fafaf8`) — warm-white nested panel
- **Surface** (`#f4f1ec`) — cream feature card, the most common card surface
- **Surface Elev** (`#ebe7df`) — slightly deeper cream for nested cards inside features
- **Hairline** (`#0000001a`) — default 10% black border tone — never solid grey
- **Hairline Soft** (`#00000010`) — 6% black for very subtle dividers
- **Hairline Strong** (`#0000002e`) — 18% black for focused inputs
### Shadow Colors
Superhuman keeps shadow tones **warm-tinted** — never pure black, never blue-tinted. Shadow values use `rgba(23, 22, 15, …)` rather than `rgba(0, 0, 0, …)` so the cast picks up the page's warm ink temperature. The brand-glow shadow on primary CTA hover uses a **lavender** tint (`rgba(113, 76, 182, 0.18)`) rather than neutral.
- `rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 1px 2px 0` — ambient
- `rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 12px -2px` — card hover
- `rgba(23,22,15,0.08) 0 12px 24px -8px` + `rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 8px -2px` — elevated
- `rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px` — primary CTA hover glow
### Semantic
- **Success** (`#3a7b3a` on `#eaf3ea`) — confirmation banner; muted forest-green, never neon
- **Warning** (`#a35e0a` on `#fbf1de`) — advisory; ink-leaning amber rather than yellow
- **Danger** (`#a8362f` on `#f7e6e4`) — form-error red; distinct from any lavender
- **Info** (`#345897` on `#e6ecf5`) — slate-blue informational; never competes with brand lavender
## 3. Typography Rules
### Font Family
**Primary**: `Super Sans VF`, Superhuman's in-house variable typeface. Fallback chain: `system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif`. The fallback stack is intentionally long — the layout never reflows when the variable font is still loading because cap heights across system-ui faces are close to Super Sans's metrics.
**Mono companion**: `ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, "Liberation Mono", "Courier New", monospace` — used only for the rare keyboard-shortcut bubble in feature copy.
**OpenType features**: `ss01` and `ss02` are enabled on display copy for the alternate single-storey `a` and the slightly-shorter terminal on `t` that give Super Sans its softer, more humanist feel. `kern` and `liga` are always on. There are no swash or oldstyle figure features — the type stays modern.
The variable font carries the entire scale through a single axis (weight) rather than separate display/body files. Weight values used: 400 (body), 460 (sub-medium captions and section heads), 540 (display), 620 (rare emphasis on inset card titles).
### Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|------|------|------|--------|-------------|----------------|-------------|-------|
| display-hero | Super Sans VF | 64 | 540 | 0.96 | -0.01em | ss01, kern | Hero "Superpowers, everywhere you work" — peak typographic moment |
| display-xl | Super Sans VF | 48 | 460 | 0.96 | -0.005em | — | Section opener on dark hero bands |
| display-lg | Super Sans VF | 40 | 540 | 1.05 | -0.01em | — | Feature spread h2 |
| display-md | Super Sans VF | 32 | 540 | 1.10 | -0.005em | — | Sub-feature opener |
| display-sm | Super Sans VF | 26 | 460 | 1.30 | 0 | — | Mid-page section head |
| title-lg | Super Sans VF | 22 | 540 | 1.30 | 0 | — | Card title on cream feature card |
| title-md | Super Sans VF | 18 | 540 | 1.35 | 0 | — | Sub-card title, footer column heads |
| title-sm | Super Sans VF | 16 | 540 | 1.40 | 0 | — | Inline emphasis title in body flow |
| body-lg | Super Sans VF | 18 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Hero deck — the line beneath the hero h1 |
| body-md | Super Sans VF | 16 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Default running-text |
| body-sm | Super Sans VF | 14 | 400 | 1.50 | 0 | — | Card meta lines, testimonial bylines |
| caption | Super Sans VF | 13 | 460 | 1.45 | 0 | — | Form helper text, timestamp |
| label | Super Sans VF | 11 | 540 | 1.30 | 0.04em | uppercase | Section eyebrow ("Made for the chosen ones"), nav micro-label |
| overline | Super Sans VF | 12 | 540 | 1.30 | 0.06em | uppercase | Page-section label above display-md |
| button-lg | Super Sans VF | 16 | 540 | 1.20 | 0 | — | Primary CTA label |
| button-md | Super Sans VF | 14 | 540 | 1.20 | 0 | — | Secondary chip / nav button label |
| code | mono | 14 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Keyboard-shortcut callout |
| code-micro | mono | 12 | 400 | 1.50 | 0 | — | Inline ⌘K-style shortcut bubble |
### Principles
- **The 540 axis is the brand fingerprint.** Pinning the variable axis between standard medium (500) and semibold (600) gives display copy the engraved-business-card feel that defines Superhuman's premium positioning. Substituting Inter Semibold or Inter Medium will collapse the page into generic SaaS.
- **Two-mode weight discipline.** Body sits at 400; display sits at 540 (occasionally 460 for the lighter, more editorial feel). Weight 620 is reserved for two or three peak moments per page — it is not a workhorse.
- **Negative tracking only on display.** The hero h1 uses `-0.01em`, sub-displays use `-0.005em`, body and caption sit at zero. Positive tracking (`0.04em`–`0.06em`) is used only on uppercase labels for legibility.
- **Tight leading at large sizes.** The 64px hero rides at 0.96 line-height — display copy compresses vertically at large sizes, the way a magazine masthead does.
- **Generous body leading.** Body sits at 1.55 line-height, which is lush by SaaS standards (typical is 1.4–1.5). The extra leading is what gives long-form copy its editorial calm.
- **Single typeface across the entire page.** No serif companion, no mono in body. The discipline is editorial — one voice, weight-modulated rather than family-modulated.
- **Inter Medium is the closest open-source substitute** if Super Sans is unavailable. Pin the weight at exactly 510–520 (custom axis if available) — Inter Medium at 500 reads too light; Inter Semibold at 600 reads too heavy.
## 4. Component Stylings
### Buttons
**`button-primary`** — The signature lavender CTA. `#714cb6` fill, white text at 16px / 540, **8px radius**, 12×22px padding, 44px height. Used for "Get Superhuman", "Try free", and account-flow primaries. There is exactly one primary CTA per band.
**`button-primary-hover`** — Pointer hover state. Background flips to `#5b3da0` and a subtle lavender-tinted glow (`rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px`) appears beneath. No transform, no scale.
**`button-soft-lavender`** — The signature secondary chip in the top nav: "Sign up" pill at 9999px radius, `#d4c7ff` fill, ink-strong (`#15140f`) text at 14px / 540, 8×16px padding, 36px height. The fully-pill radius is what differentiates it from a generic secondary button — it telegraphs *invitation* over *action*.
**`button-ghost`** — Tertiary button on white surface. Transparent fill, ink text, 1px hairline border (`#0000001a`), 8px radius. Used for "Watch demo" or "Learn more" links beside the primary CTA.
**`button-on-dark`** — Primary CTA over the dark hero gradient band. White fill, ink-strong text, 8px radius. The colour inverts because lavender on aubergine has insufficient contrast.
### Cards
**`feature-card`** — Cream feature panel. `#f4f1ec` fill, ink text, **12px radius**, 1px hairline border (`#0000001a`), 32px padding. **Flat — no shadow.** The cream surface plus hairline border is the elevation language. Used for product feature blocks, testimonial groupings, pricing tiers.
**`feature-card-paper`** — Lighter nested cream panel. `#fafaf8` fill, 6% black hairline. Used inside feature stacks where the cream-on-cream stacking would lose contrast.
**`testimonial-quote`** — Pull-quote card. White surface, 12px radius, hairline border, 32×28px padding. Quote in 22px / 540 ink-strong, byline beneath in caption muted with avatar circle (40px) flush left.
**`hero-band-dark`** — Inverted hero shell. Vertical linear-gradient `#3d2467` → `#1a0f33`, 20px radius, white display copy at 64px / 540 inside, primary CTA inverted to `button-on-dark`. Occupies a single full-viewport band; the page resolves back to white above and below.
### Badges, Tags, Pills
**`badge-pill`** — Soft-lavender announcement chip. `#ece6ff` fill, `#3d2467` text at 13px / 460, 9999px radius, 4×10px padding. Used for "New" or "Beta" announcements at the very top of the hero. There is at most one badge-pill per page.
**`category-tag`** — Cream rectangular tag with 8px radius, used inside feature cards to mark "Email", "Calendar", "AI" categories. 11px / 540 uppercase label with 0.04em tracking.
### Inputs / Forms
**`text-input`** — White surface, 1px hairline (`#0000001a`), **6px radius** (note: smaller than buttons — inputs feel finer), 44px height, 10×14px padding. Body placeholder in 16px / 400 muted. On focus the border thickens to 1.5px lavender (`#714cb6`) and a faint lavender glow appears (`rgba(113,76,182,0.12) 0 0 0 4px`) — a soft ring rather than a hard outline.
**`email-input-hero`** — Inline email signup on the hero. White fill, hairline, 6px radius, 44px height. The "Try free" CTA sits flush right of the input as a single combined affordance (no gap).
### Navigation
**`top-nav`** — White surface, 72px height, 1px bottom hairline (`#0000001a`). Wordmark flush left in display-sm / 540, three nav links centred (Product, Pricing, About) in body-md ink, "Sign in" text + soft-lavender "Sign up" chip flush right.
**`nav-link`** — Ink (`#292827`), no underline at rest. Hairline underline appears on hover (1px lavender). Active page gets a 1.5px lavender underline.
### Tooltips & Toasts
**`tooltip`** — Ink-strong fill (`#15140f`), white text in 13px / 460, 6px radius, 8×12px padding. Arrow caret as a 6px triangle. Used sparingly — mostly on keyboard-shortcut callouts inside product screenshots.
**`toast`** — White fill, 12px radius, hairline border, ink text. 16×24px padding. No coloured semantic accent strip — toasts rely on icon + text only.
### Decorative
**`handwritten-emphasis`** — A custom hand-drawn underline rendered as a lavender SVG path beneath emphasis words inside hero copy. Optional ornament; appears at most once per page.
## 5. Layout Principles
### Spacing System
- Base unit: **4px** with a 2px micro-step
- Scale: `2 · 4 · 8 · 12 · 16 · 24 · 32 · 48 · 64 · 96 · 128`
- Section padding (vertical): 96–128px for major bands — generous, magazine-spread cadence
- Card internal padding: 32px on `feature-card` and `testimonial-quote`; 24px on smaller nested panels
- Inter-card gutters: 24px between feature cards in a 3-up grid; 16px in dense 4-up grids
### Grid & Container
- Max content width: ~1240px on the inner grid with 24px gutters
- Prose width: ~680px for long-form testimonial body — narrower than the page gutter so reading flow stays magazine-tight
- Hero treatment: full-bleed canvas with content centred at 1240px max; the hero band itself can extend edge-to-edge but content respects the inner grid
- Feature grid pattern: 3-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — never 4+ columns
### Whitespace Philosophy
The page is structured as a sequence of "spreads" — each section gets 96–128px of vertical breathing room top and bottom. The cadence is closer to a magazine than a scroll-tracked SaaS. Between dark hero bands and white feature stacks, the white returns immediately — there are no gradient transitions, no parallax bleeds. The page resolves back to paper-white on every band boundary.
### Section Cadence
Light/dark alternation is the page's primary rhythm device. A typical page runs:
1. White hero (64px display, lavender CTA, soft-lavender chip in nav)
2. White feature stack (3-up cream cards on white)
3. Dark hero band (aubergine gradient, white display, inverted CTA)
4. White testimonial spread (centred 22px quote, avatar byline)
5. White pricing band (3-up cream cards, primary lavender CTA inside the recommended tier)
6. Dark CTA close ("Try free for 30 days" — gradient band, white display, inverted CTA)
The dark bands are deployed at most twice per page — they're emotional punctuation, not workhorse surfaces.
## 6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|------|-------|-----|
| Micro | 2px | Inline tags, fine-grained badges (rare) |
| Small | 6px | Text inputs, fine controls |
| Standard | 8px | Buttons, ghost CTAs, on-dark primary — the signature button shape |
| Comfortable | 12px | Feature cards, testimonial cards, toast |
| Featured | 20px | Hero band shell, full-bleed dark gradient containers |
| Pill | 9999px | Nav "Sign up" lavender chip, soft announcement badge |
The system avoids compound radii entirely — every shape rounds uniformly on all four corners. The single design rule: **buttons land at 8px, cards at 12px, hero shells at 20px, and the lavender nav chip is the only fully-pill element.** The contrast between rectangular buttons and the singular pill chip is intentional — it reserves the fully-round shape for the conversion moment.
## 7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|-------|-----------|-----|
| 0 — Flat | no shadow | Canvas, hero band content, feature cards on cream surface (~85% of surfaces) |
| 1 — Ambient | `rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 1px 2px 0` | Top-nav at scroll, very subtle inputs |
| 2 — Card hover | `rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 12px -2px` | Optional hover on testimonial cards (most stay flat) |
| 3 — Elevated | `rgba(23,22,15,0.08) 0 12px 24px -8px, rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 8px -2px` | Dropdowns, popovers |
| 4 — Brand glow | `rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px` | Primary lavender CTA on hover only |
| 5 — Modal | scrim `rgba(20,18,15,0.55)` + dialog with elevated shadow | Sign-in modal |
### Shadow Philosophy
Superhuman is a **tonal-elevation** system, not a shadow-elevation system. Depth comes from warm tonal layering (`#ffffff` → `#fafaf8` → `#f4f1ec` → `#ebe7df`) and 10% black hairlines, not from layered drop shadows. Shadows are reserved for two cases: (1) hardware mockups (an iPhone, MacBook, iPad rendering the product on its screen — these get realistic Apple-style shadows), and (2) primary CTA hover, where a lavender-tinted glow appears beneath the button. The marketing chrome itself is flat. The dark hero bands derive their depth from gradient washes rather than elevation.
## 8. Interaction & Motion
### Easing
- **Standard**: `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)` — default for hover state colour swaps, hairline transitions
- **Emphasized**: `cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)` — modal entry, hero-band parallax
- **Out-soft**: `cubic-bezier(0.0, 0, 0.2, 1)` — section reveals on scroll
### Durations
| Bucket | Value | Use |
|--------|-------|-----|
| Fast | 120ms | Hairline tone swaps, focus-ring fades |
| Standard | 220ms | Button hover, link colour shifts, card hover border deepening |
| Slow | 360ms | Modal entry, page-band cross-fade |
### Per-Component Recipes
- **Primary button hover**: background `#714cb6` → `#5b3da0` over 220ms standard. Lavender glow shadow (`rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px`) fades in over 220ms. **No transform, no scale, no lift.** The hover is colour + glow only.
- **Soft-lavender chip hover**: background `#d4c7ff` → `#ece6ff` over 220ms. Text colour darkens fractionally.
- **Card hover (testimonial)**: hairline tone deepens 10% → 18% black over 220ms standard. No translate, no shadow lift.
- **Link hover**: lavender colour darkens to `#5b3da0` over 120ms. Underline thickens 1 → 1.5px over 220ms.
- **Hero band parallax**: dark gradient band shifts 20px on scroll, throttled at 40ms. Subtle — visible only on full-viewport scroll.
- **Modal enter**: scrim fades in over 220ms standard, then dialog scales `0.96 → 1.0` and fades from `opacity 0 → 1` over 360ms emphasized.
- **Page-band cross-fade**: dark-to-light section transitions cross-fade over 360ms — there are no slide or curtain transitions.
### Page Transitions
Between page navigations (homepage → pricing → about), a subtle 360ms cross-fade carries the body. The fixed top-nav stays static; only the body band cross-fades. Smooth-scroll anchored links use 600ms emphasized easing.
### Reduced Motion
Respects `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce`. All `translate`, `scale`, and parallax transforms suppress. The lavender CTA hover loses its glow shadow — the hover becomes background-colour-only. Modal entry becomes an instant fade rather than scale + fade. Hero band parallax disables entirely.
## 9. Accessibility & A11y
### Contrast Pairs
| Pair | Ratio | Level |
|------|-------|-------|
| #292827 ink on #ffffff canvas | 13.4 | AAA |
| #15140f ink-strong on #ffffff | 17.8 | AAA |
| #ffffff on #714cb6 lavender | 5.6 | AA body / AAA large |
| #15140f on #d4c7ff soft-lavender | 12.6 | AAA |
| #8a857d muted on #ffffff | 4.6 | AA body |
| #292827 on #f4f1ec cream | 11.8 | AAA |
| #ffffff on #3d2467 brand-deep (hero gradient top) | 12.4 | AAA |
### Focus Indicators
Focus ring is `2px solid #714cb6` (the brand lavender) with 2px outline-offset on white surfaces. On dark hero bands the ring inverts to `2px solid #ffffff`. The 4px stand-off (2px ring + 2px offset) is calibrated so the ring never visually merges with the button border at 8px radius. Focus-visible (`:focus-visible`) is used to suppress focus rings on mouse interactions while preserving them on keyboard navigation.
### ARIA Patterns
- **Top nav**: standard `<nav>` landmark with `aria-label="Primary"`. The "Sign up" chip is a `<button>` (not an `<a>`) because it triggers a modal flow.
- **Hero band sign-up**: `<form>` with `aria-label="Sign up for Superhuman"`. The inline email input + CTA combine as a single visual affordance but render as a paired `<input>` + `<button>` for screen readers.
- **Pricing toggle** (monthly/annual): `role="radiogroup"` with two `role="radio"` buttons. `aria-checked` reflects the selected billing cadence.
- **Modal** (sign-in): focus trap inside, Esc closes, click outside closes, focus returns to the trigger on close. `role="dialog"` with `aria-labelledby` pointing at the modal title.
### Keyboard Navigation
- Top nav: Tab moves logo → Product → Pricing → About → Sign in → Sign up
- Hero email signup: Tab focuses the input, then the CTA. Enter from the input submits the form.
- Pricing tier cards: Tab moves card → card; arrow keys do not navigate (single-column on mobile, three-up on desktop)
- Modal: Tab cycles through interactive elements inside the dialog only
### Screen Reader Hints
The lavender CTA on dark hero bands inverts to white because the lavender-on-aubergine contrast (3.4) fails AA. This is structural, not stylistic — the colour swap is required for accessibility. The soft-lavender nav chip on white passes AAA at 12.6 contrast, so the secondary action stays at large-target friendliness without sacrificing readability.
### Reduced Motion
All transitions degrade to opacity-only when `prefers-reduced-motion: reduce` is set. Brand-glow shadow on CTA hover suppresses (the colour change persists). Hero band parallax disables. Modal scale-in becomes a flat fade.
## 10. Responsive Behavior
### Breakpoints
| Name | Width | Key Changes |
|------|-------|-------------|
| Mobile | <640px | Top nav collapses to logo + hamburger; hero h1 drops 64 → 40px; feature stacks 1-up; cream cards span full width with 16px page padding |
| Tablet | 640–1024px | Top nav keeps inline links; hero h1 settles at 48px; feature stacks 2-up; pricing tiers 1-up stacked |
| Desktop | 1024–1280px | Full top nav with all links inline; hero h1 at 64px; feature stacks 3-up; pricing 3-up centred |
| Wide | >1280px | Content width caps at 1240px; gutters absorb the rest |
### Touch Targets
- Primary CTAs: minimum 44×44px
- Soft-lavender nav chip: 36px height with 16px horizontal padding — passes WCAG AAA when combined with the visible label area
- Email input field: 44px height
- Inline link tap-target: 44px row height even when text height is 24px (line-height 1.55 × 16px adds spacing)
### Collapsing Strategy
- Top product-nav links collapse into a hamburger sheet below 640px
- Hero CTA + email input stack vertically on mobile — the inline-paired affordance becomes a stacked pair at full width
- 3-up feature grids drop to 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — never reflow rows; always reduce columns
- Dark hero bands keep their gradient at all widths but the inner content padding tightens (96px → 48px vertical)
### Image Behavior
Hardware mockups (iPhone, MacBook) carry their own intrinsic aspect ratios and downscale proportionally. Background gradient on dark hero bands uses CSS gradients (no image asset), so it renders crisply at any resolution.
### Container Queries
Used sparingly. The pricing card uses container queries to compact the feature-list bullets when the card narrows below 280px — the bullets switch from a 2-column to 1-column layout.
## 11. Content & Voice
### Tone
Confident, direct, premium-without-shouting. Superhuman positions itself as a craft tool for the chosen ones — the voice avoids both Silicon Valley over-explanation and luxury-brand evasion. Headlines lead with capability ("Superpowers, everywhere you work") rather than process ("Email, faster"). Body copy trusts the reader to know the product category — there is no "Tired of slow email?" framing.
### Microcopy Patterns
- **Button verbs**: "Get Superhuman", "Try free", "Sign in", "Continue" — direct, outcome-named, never "Submit" or "Click here"
- **Error message recipe**: `[What went wrong] + [What to try]` — e.g., "We couldn't verify that email. Try a different address or contact support."
- **Success confirmations**: short and personal — "You're in. Welcome to Superhuman." rather than "Sign up successful"
- **Field labels**: minimal — usually a single word ("Email", "Password") because the layout's whitespace makes function obvious
### Empty States
The trial-expired state: "Your 30 days are up. Reactivate to keep your superpowers." Always action-oriented — the empty state names the next move.
The unsupported-browser state: "Superhuman runs on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Install one to continue." — names the cause and lists three concrete remedies.
### CTA Verb Conventions
- Primary action: **"Get Superhuman"** (top nav, hero), **"Try free"** (secondary hero), **"Continue"** (multi-step onboarding)
- Secondary action: **"Sign up"** (nav chip — invitation-coded), **"Watch demo"** (tertiary)
- Tertiary text: **"Learn more"**, **"See pricing"**
- Avoided: "Submit", "Click here", "Buy now", "Subscribe" — Superhuman frames the relationship as joining, not buying
## 12. Dark Mode & Theming
**Light-only marketing surface.** The product itself — the email client — ships with both light and dark themes, but the public marketing site is paper-white only. The dark hero bands (deep aubergine `#3d2467` → `#1a0f33`) are punctuation within a light page, not a full theme swap.
The brand position: paper-white reads as stationery; warm cream reads as Loro Piana / Aesop / Cartier. A dark canvas would push the page toward Linear / Raycast territory, which is the wrong category. Superhuman is a *premium consumer* product dressed as software, not a *developer tool* dressed as luxury.
The dark hero bands invert the token palette as needed (text becomes `#ffffff`, primary CTA becomes `button-on-dark` with white fill, hairlines become `#ffffff20`) — but these are scoped to the band, never page-wide.
## 13. Lineage & Influences
Superhuman's visual lineage runs through three traditions: **Stripe's in-house typography as brand signature** (Sohne for Stripe, Super Sans for Superhuman); **Linear's single-confident-accent discipline** (indigo for Linear, lavender for Superhuman); and **Apple Mail / Apple system marketing** (paper-white canvas, generous breathing room, modest display weights). The product Superhuman is dethroning is Apple Mail, and the marketing site borrows Apple's spacing rhythm but warms the neutrals to differentiate.
The 540 axis on a variable font is the design fingerprint — a custom weight that reads heavier than Inter Medium but lighter than Inter Semibold. This kind of axis-pinning is unusual outside of luxury brand work (Off-White's Helvetica cuts, Bottega Veneta's Bottega Sans) and signals craft. Superhuman is one of the few SaaS brands willing to license a custom variable face purely for the *weight* it can sit at.
The lavender choice is itself a borrowing — `#714cb6` is closer to Loro Piana cashmere or Cartier purple than to the indigo most productivity tools default to. Where Linear picks indigo (cool, technical) and Stripe picks blue (universal, payments-coded), Superhuman picks a warmer purple-violet that signals premium without tipping into kitschy luxury.
What Superhuman rejects: gradient washes (except on dark bands), illustrated chrome, multi-colour brand systems, exclamation-mark microcopy, "Click here" CTAs. The brand is editorial-minimalist — the page is a spread, the type is a single voice, the colour is one voltage.
**Influences:**
- Linear — single-confident-accent discipline over near-monochrome neutral, [linear.app](https://linear.app)
- Stripe — in-house typography as brand signature; Sohne for Stripe, Super Sans for Superhuman, [stripe.com](https://stripe.com)
- Apple Mail — the product being dethroned; spacing rhythm borrowed but neutrals warmed, [apple.com/macos/mail](https://www.apple.com/macos/mail)
- Loro Piana / Cartier — premium-luxury restraint as positioning, paper-white-and-one-accent
- Bottega Veneta / Off-White — custom-axis variable typography as craft signal
## 14. Do's and Don'ts
**Do**
- Pin display copy to the 540 variable axis — that custom weight is the brand fingerprint
- Keep the action palette to a single confident lavender (`#714cb6`); secondary uses the soft `#d4c7ff`, never a third hue
- Warm the neutrals — body at `#292827` not `#000`, surfaces at `#f4f1ec` not `#f5f5f7`
- Reserve the fully-pill radius (9999px) for the nav "Sign up" chip — it's the only pill on the page
- Use 8px radius for buttons, 12px for cards, 20px for hero shells — never mix radii inside a single primitive
- Layer surfaces tonally (white → warm-white → cream) instead of with shadow stacks
- Reserve drop shadows for hardware mockups and the primary CTA hover glow
- Set body line-height at 1.55 — the generous leading is the editorial calm
- Use lavender hairlines on dark hero bands (`#ffffff20`); 10% black hairlines on white
- Compose the page as magazine spreads — 96–128px section padding, full-bleed band boundaries
- Render star ratings, ratings, or numerical proof points in tabular numerals (`tnum`)
**Don't**
- Don't use Inter or system-ui as a substitute display face — Super Sans has no acceptable fallback for hero copy
- Don't mix lavender shades within a single CTA group — primary is `#714cb6`, secondary is `#d4c7ff`, never a third tone
- Don't apply heavy drop shadows to feature cards — the cream surface plus hairline border is the elevation language
- Don't introduce a second brand colour — lavender carries every primary action, full stop
- Don't pin display weight at 460 for hero copy — the 540 axis is the signature; 460 is the secondary axis only
- Don't use pure black (`#000`) anywhere — the warmth of `#292827` and `#15140f` is the brand temperature
- Don't extend dark hero bands beyond two per page — they're emotional punctuation, not workhorse surfaces
- Don't use exclamation marks in microcopy — the voice is confident, never giddy
- Don't break the radius hierarchy — 8px buttons, 12px cards, never the reverse
- Don't add gradient washes outside dark hero bands — the white canvas is non-negotiable
- Don't let the focus ring be ink — it stays lavender on white, white on dark, so action and access stay tied to brand colour
## 15. Agent Prompt Guide
### Quick Color Reference
```
Canvas: #ffffff
Ink: #292827
Ink-strong: #15140f
Brand: #714cb6
Brand-soft: #d4c7ff
Brand-hover: #5b3da0
Brand-deep: #3d2467
Surface-soft: #fafaf8
Surface: #f4f1ec
Hairline: rgba(0,0,0,0.10)
Muted: #8a857d
Hero-grad-top: #3d2467
Hero-grad-end: #1a0f33
```
### Example Component Prompts
- "Create a Superhuman-style hero: paper-white canvas (#ffffff), 64px / 540 weight Super Sans VF headline 'Superpowers, everywhere you work' in #15140f with -0.01em tracking and 0.96 line-height, 18px / 400 deck beneath in #292827 at 1.55 line-height. Below: a primary lavender CTA (#714cb6 fill, white text, 8px radius, 12×22px padding, 44px height) labelled 'Get Superhuman'. The whole layout sits at max-width 1240px centred."
- "Design a Superhuman feature card: cream fill (#f4f1ec), 12px radius, 1px hairline border at rgba(0,0,0,0.1), 32px padding, no shadow. Inside: a 22px / 540 ink-strong title, then 16px / 400 ink body at 1.55 line-height, then a single inline lavender link (#714cb6 with 1px underline) at the bottom."
- "Build a Superhuman dark hero band: vertical linear-gradient from #3d2467 to #1a0f33, 20px radius shell, full-bleed at any width. Inside, centred: 48px / 460 white display copy, 18px / 400 white-90% deck beneath, then a white-fill primary CTA (white background, #15140f text, 8px radius, 'Try free for 30 days' label)."
- "Create the Superhuman nav: 72px tall white surface, 1px bottom hairline at rgba(0,0,0,0.1). Wordmark left in 22px / 540 ink. Three centred links (Product, Pricing, About) in 16px / 400 ink, no underline at rest. Right side: 'Sign in' text link in ink, then a fully-pill (9999px radius) lavender chip — soft fill #d4c7ff, ink-strong text #15140f, 'Sign up' label at 14px / 540, 8×16px padding, 36px height."
- "Build a Superhuman email signup: white-fill input with 1px hairline border, 6px radius, 44px height, body placeholder 'Enter your work email' at 16px / 400 muted #8a857d. On focus, border thickens to 1.5px lavender (#714cb6) with a faint lavender glow ring (rgba(113,76,182,0.12) 0 0 0 4px). The 'Try free' lavender CTA sits flush right of the input with no gap, forming a single combined affordance."
- "Design a Superhuman testimonial card: white fill, 12px radius, 1px hairline border, 32×28px padding, no shadow. Inside: 22px / 540 ink-strong quote in upper portion, then 40px circular avatar flush left with name (16px / 540 ink) and role (14px / 400 muted #8a857d) stacked beside it."
### Iteration Guide
1. **Canvas stays paper-white.** Anything other than `#ffffff` reads as a different brand. The cream surface (`#f4f1ec`) is for cards, not the page.
2. **One lavender voltage per fold.** If your composition has two or more lavender CTAs visible at once, demote one — the brand colour draws the eye, not papers the page.
3. **Pin Super Sans to 540 for display.** Inter Medium (500) will read too light; Inter Semibold (600) too heavy. The 540 axis is the entire design signal.
4. **Body copy at `#292827`, never `#000`.** Pure black collapses the page back into Apple-mail territory. The warmth is the differentiator.
5. **Layer surfaces tonally.** White → warm-white (`#fafaf8`) → cream (`#f4f1ec`) — never resort to shadow stacks for hierarchy.
6. **8 / 12 / 20 — buttons / cards / hero.** The radius hierarchy is invariant. Don't round buttons to 12px or cards to 8px.
7. **Reserve the pill chip for the nav.** Fully-round (9999px) is the conversion shape — using it elsewhere dilutes the moment.
8. **Hero bands are punctuation, not workhorses.** Two dark bands per page maximum. White always returns between them.
1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere
Superhuman’s marketing site reads as a stationery brand for software. The body bg stays paper-white at #ffffff, copy sits in a warm near-black #292827 (with a faint coffee-bean undertone, never the sterile #000), and a single custom variable face — Super Sans VF — carries every type role from the 11px uppercase label to the 64px hero “Superpowers, everywhere you work.” The custom variable axis pinned at 540 — heavier than Inter Medium, lighter than Inter Semibold — is the design fingerprint: it reads as engraved business card rather than marketing-bold.
The action layer is a single confident lavender, #714cb6, with #d4c7ff as the soft secondary chip used in the navigation. Hero modules occasionally flip to a deep aubergine-to-black gradient wash that holds white type, but the page resolves back to white between each band. The result is closer to a Cartier ad or a Loro Piana product page than a productivity SaaS — restrained, warm, premium.
Where most productivity sites stack hero illustrations against gradient washes, Superhuman keeps the page bg flat at #ffffff and lets a custom display weight do the visual work. Body copy at the warm #292827 rather than pure #000 is the signal: Superhuman wants to feel softer, more handwritten, more editorial, than the stark Apple-style mail apps it is replacing.
The atmosphere is paper-thin elevation, deep typographic confidence. Cards lift via warm tonal layering and 10% black hairlines rather than shadow stacks. Drop shadows are reserved for hardware mockups (an iPhone, a MacBook with the product on screen); the marketing chrome itself is flat. Even the dark hero bands gain depth from gradient washes rather than elevation — the page is a sequence of “spreads” rather than a layered scroll.
Key Characteristics:
- Paper-white canvas (
#ffffff) — never warm cream, never cool grey - Single custom variable face: Super Sans VF at 540 axis (sub-bold) for display, 400 for body
- One brand voltage: lavender (
#714cb6) for primary CTAs, soft#d4c7fffor secondary chips only - Warm near-black ink (
#292827body,#15140fdisplay) — not pure black - Cream feature surfaces (
#f4f1ec,#fafaf8) layered by warm tonal lift, never shadow - Dark hero bands use a deep aubergine-to-black gradient (
#3d2467→#1a0f33) - 10% black hairlines (
#0000001a) instead of solid grey borders - Buttons land at 8px radius — never fully-pill except the lavender nav chip
- Hero composed as a sequence of “magazine spreads” rather than a single scroll
- Modest typographic muscle — 64px max display; the variable axis carries the weight
2. Color Palette & Roles
Primary
- Canvas (
#ffffff): paper-white floor for every public page. There is no dark variant on the marketing surface. - Ink (
#292827): the dominant text colour — near-black with a hint of warmth. Display headlines, body paragraphs, primary nav links. - Ink Strong (
#15140f): coffee-bean dark used for the heaviest display moments (the 64px hero) and for inset card titles. - Brand Lavender (
#714cb6): the singular voltage. Primary CTA backgrounds, hero accent text, inline body links.
Brand & Dark
- Brand Hover (
#5b3da0): pressed/hover state on the primary lavender — slightly darker, slightly more saturated. - Brand Deep (
#3d2467): deep aubergine anchoring the hero gradient top, also used for caption text on soft-lavender chips. - Brand Glow (
#9a7ce0): lighter lavender accent that surfaces only on dark hero bands as accent text. - Hero Gradient Top (
#3d2467) → Hero Gradient Bottom (#1a0f33): the dark band wash. A vertical linear-gradient with no mid-stops.
Accent
- Brand Soft (
#d4c7ff): the soft-lavender secondary chip — only appears on the nav “Sign up” pill and as a hover-tint over light surfaces. Never on a primary CTA. - Brand Softer (
#ece6ff): even paler lavender used as the badge-pill fill (e.g., “Beta” or “New” announcement). - Cream (
#f4ebd9): feature illustration backdrop — warm parchment, not white. - Paper (
#f7f4ed): inset stationery panel for grouped product testimonials.
Interactive
- Link (
#714cb6): inline body links — lavender with a 1px underline. Underline always present (not hover-only). - Link Hover (
#5b3da0): hover state — slightly darker lavender, underline thickens 1 → 1.5px. - Selected (
#714cb6fill,#fffffftext): selected state on toggle pills, segmented controls. - Disabled (
#a8a39atext,#ebe7dffill): disabled CTA — drained warm grey.
Neutral Scale
- Ink Strong (
#15140f) — display copy on white, peak ink - Ink (
#292827) — body, primary nav, the dominant text colour - Body (
#3a3935) — secondary running-text inside long testimonial blocks - Muted (
#8a857d) — captions, byline metadata, timestamp text - Soft (
#a8a39a) — disabled link text, sparingly used
Surface & Borders
- Canvas (
#ffffff) — page floor - Surface Soft (
#fafaf8) — warm-white nested panel - Surface (
#f4f1ec) — cream feature card, the most common card surface - Surface Elev (
#ebe7df) — slightly deeper cream for nested cards inside features - Hairline (
#0000001a) — default 10% black border tone — never solid grey - Hairline Soft (
#00000010) — 6% black for very subtle dividers - Hairline Strong (
#0000002e) — 18% black for focused inputs
Shadow Colors
Superhuman keeps shadow tones warm-tinted — never pure black, never blue-tinted. Shadow values use rgba(23, 22, 15, …) rather than rgba(0, 0, 0, …) so the cast picks up the page’s warm ink temperature. The brand-glow shadow on primary CTA hover uses a lavender tint (rgba(113, 76, 182, 0.18)) rather than neutral.
rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 1px 2px 0— ambientrgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 12px -2px— card hoverrgba(23,22,15,0.08) 0 12px 24px -8px+rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 8px -2px— elevatedrgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px— primary CTA hover glow
Semantic
- Success (
#3a7b3aon#eaf3ea) — confirmation banner; muted forest-green, never neon - Warning (
#a35e0aon#fbf1de) — advisory; ink-leaning amber rather than yellow - Danger (
#a8362fon#f7e6e4) — form-error red; distinct from any lavender - Info (
#345897on#e6ecf5) — slate-blue informational; never competes with brand lavender
3. Typography Rules
Font Family
Primary: Super Sans VF, Superhuman’s in-house variable typeface. Fallback chain: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif. The fallback stack is intentionally long — the layout never reflows when the variable font is still loading because cap heights across system-ui faces are close to Super Sans’s metrics.
Mono companion: ui-monospace, SFMono-Regular, Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, "Liberation Mono", "Courier New", monospace — used only for the rare keyboard-shortcut bubble in feature copy.
OpenType features: ss01 and ss02 are enabled on display copy for the alternate single-storey a and the slightly-shorter terminal on t that give Super Sans its softer, more humanist feel. kern and liga are always on. There are no swash or oldstyle figure features — the type stays modern.
The variable font carries the entire scale through a single axis (weight) rather than separate display/body files. Weight values used: 400 (body), 460 (sub-medium captions and section heads), 540 (display), 620 (rare emphasis on inset card titles).
Hierarchy
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | OT Features | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| display-hero | Super Sans VF | 64 | 540 | 0.96 | -0.01em | ss01, kern | Hero “Superpowers, everywhere you work” — peak typographic moment |
| display-xl | Super Sans VF | 48 | 460 | 0.96 | -0.005em | — | Section opener on dark hero bands |
| display-lg | Super Sans VF | 40 | 540 | 1.05 | -0.01em | — | Feature spread h2 |
| display-md | Super Sans VF | 32 | 540 | 1.10 | -0.005em | — | Sub-feature opener |
| display-sm | Super Sans VF | 26 | 460 | 1.30 | 0 | — | Mid-page section head |
| title-lg | Super Sans VF | 22 | 540 | 1.30 | 0 | — | Card title on cream feature card |
| title-md | Super Sans VF | 18 | 540 | 1.35 | 0 | — | Sub-card title, footer column heads |
| title-sm | Super Sans VF | 16 | 540 | 1.40 | 0 | — | Inline emphasis title in body flow |
| body-lg | Super Sans VF | 18 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Hero deck — the line beneath the hero h1 |
| body-md | Super Sans VF | 16 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Default running-text |
| body-sm | Super Sans VF | 14 | 400 | 1.50 | 0 | — | Card meta lines, testimonial bylines |
| caption | Super Sans VF | 13 | 460 | 1.45 | 0 | — | Form helper text, timestamp |
| label | Super Sans VF | 11 | 540 | 1.30 | 0.04em | uppercase | Section eyebrow (“Made for the chosen ones”), nav micro-label |
| overline | Super Sans VF | 12 | 540 | 1.30 | 0.06em | uppercase | Page-section label above display-md |
| button-lg | Super Sans VF | 16 | 540 | 1.20 | 0 | — | Primary CTA label |
| button-md | Super Sans VF | 14 | 540 | 1.20 | 0 | — | Secondary chip / nav button label |
| code | mono | 14 | 400 | 1.55 | 0 | — | Keyboard-shortcut callout |
| code-micro | mono | 12 | 400 | 1.50 | 0 | — | Inline ⌘K-style shortcut bubble |
Principles
- The 540 axis is the brand fingerprint. Pinning the variable axis between standard medium (500) and semibold (600) gives display copy the engraved-business-card feel that defines Superhuman’s premium positioning. Substituting Inter Semibold or Inter Medium will collapse the page into generic SaaS.
- Two-mode weight discipline. Body sits at 400; display sits at 540 (occasionally 460 for the lighter, more editorial feel). Weight 620 is reserved for two or three peak moments per page — it is not a workhorse.
- Negative tracking only on display. The hero h1 uses
-0.01em, sub-displays use-0.005em, body and caption sit at zero. Positive tracking (0.04em–0.06em) is used only on uppercase labels for legibility. - Tight leading at large sizes. The 64px hero rides at 0.96 line-height — display copy compresses vertically at large sizes, the way a magazine masthead does.
- Generous body leading. Body sits at 1.55 line-height, which is lush by SaaS standards (typical is 1.4–1.5). The extra leading is what gives long-form copy its editorial calm.
- Single typeface across the entire page. No serif companion, no mono in body. The discipline is editorial — one voice, weight-modulated rather than family-modulated.
- Inter Medium is the closest open-source substitute if Super Sans is unavailable. Pin the weight at exactly 510–520 (custom axis if available) — Inter Medium at 500 reads too light; Inter Semibold at 600 reads too heavy.
4. Component Stylings
Buttons
button-primary — The signature lavender CTA. #714cb6 fill, white text at 16px / 540, 8px radius, 12×22px padding, 44px height. Used for “Get Superhuman”, “Try free”, and account-flow primaries. There is exactly one primary CTA per band.
button-primary-hover — Pointer hover state. Background flips to #5b3da0 and a subtle lavender-tinted glow (rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px) appears beneath. No transform, no scale.
button-soft-lavender — The signature secondary chip in the top nav: “Sign up” pill at 9999px radius, #d4c7ff fill, ink-strong (#15140f) text at 14px / 540, 8×16px padding, 36px height. The fully-pill radius is what differentiates it from a generic secondary button — it telegraphs invitation over action.
button-ghost — Tertiary button on white surface. Transparent fill, ink text, 1px hairline border (#0000001a), 8px radius. Used for “Watch demo” or “Learn more” links beside the primary CTA.
button-on-dark — Primary CTA over the dark hero gradient band. White fill, ink-strong text, 8px radius. The colour inverts because lavender on aubergine has insufficient contrast.
Cards
feature-card — Cream feature panel. #f4f1ec fill, ink text, 12px radius, 1px hairline border (#0000001a), 32px padding. Flat — no shadow. The cream surface plus hairline border is the elevation language. Used for product feature blocks, testimonial groupings, pricing tiers.
feature-card-paper — Lighter nested cream panel. #fafaf8 fill, 6% black hairline. Used inside feature stacks where the cream-on-cream stacking would lose contrast.
testimonial-quote — Pull-quote card. White surface, 12px radius, hairline border, 32×28px padding. Quote in 22px / 540 ink-strong, byline beneath in caption muted with avatar circle (40px) flush left.
hero-band-dark — Inverted hero shell. Vertical linear-gradient #3d2467 → #1a0f33, 20px radius, white display copy at 64px / 540 inside, primary CTA inverted to button-on-dark. Occupies a single full-viewport band; the page resolves back to white above and below.
Badges, Tags, Pills
badge-pill — Soft-lavender announcement chip. #ece6ff fill, #3d2467 text at 13px / 460, 9999px radius, 4×10px padding. Used for “New” or “Beta” announcements at the very top of the hero. There is at most one badge-pill per page.
category-tag — Cream rectangular tag with 8px radius, used inside feature cards to mark “Email”, “Calendar”, “AI” categories. 11px / 540 uppercase label with 0.04em tracking.
Inputs / Forms
text-input — White surface, 1px hairline (#0000001a), 6px radius (note: smaller than buttons — inputs feel finer), 44px height, 10×14px padding. Body placeholder in 16px / 400 muted. On focus the border thickens to 1.5px lavender (#714cb6) and a faint lavender glow appears (rgba(113,76,182,0.12) 0 0 0 4px) — a soft ring rather than a hard outline.
email-input-hero — Inline email signup on the hero. White fill, hairline, 6px radius, 44px height. The “Try free” CTA sits flush right of the input as a single combined affordance (no gap).
Navigation
top-nav — White surface, 72px height, 1px bottom hairline (#0000001a). Wordmark flush left in display-sm / 540, three nav links centred (Product, Pricing, About) in body-md ink, “Sign in” text + soft-lavender “Sign up” chip flush right.
nav-link — Ink (#292827), no underline at rest. Hairline underline appears on hover (1px lavender). Active page gets a 1.5px lavender underline.
Tooltips & Toasts
tooltip — Ink-strong fill (#15140f), white text in 13px / 460, 6px radius, 8×12px padding. Arrow caret as a 6px triangle. Used sparingly — mostly on keyboard-shortcut callouts inside product screenshots.
toast — White fill, 12px radius, hairline border, ink text. 16×24px padding. No coloured semantic accent strip — toasts rely on icon + text only.
Decorative
handwritten-emphasis — A custom hand-drawn underline rendered as a lavender SVG path beneath emphasis words inside hero copy. Optional ornament; appears at most once per page.
5. Layout Principles
Spacing System
- Base unit: 4px with a 2px micro-step
- Scale:
2 · 4 · 8 · 12 · 16 · 24 · 32 · 48 · 64 · 96 · 128 - Section padding (vertical): 96–128px for major bands — generous, magazine-spread cadence
- Card internal padding: 32px on
feature-cardandtestimonial-quote; 24px on smaller nested panels - Inter-card gutters: 24px between feature cards in a 3-up grid; 16px in dense 4-up grids
Grid & Container
- Max content width: ~1240px on the inner grid with 24px gutters
- Prose width: ~680px for long-form testimonial body — narrower than the page gutter so reading flow stays magazine-tight
- Hero treatment: full-bleed canvas with content centred at 1240px max; the hero band itself can extend edge-to-edge but content respects the inner grid
- Feature grid pattern: 3-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — never 4+ columns
Whitespace Philosophy
The page is structured as a sequence of “spreads” — each section gets 96–128px of vertical breathing room top and bottom. The cadence is closer to a magazine than a scroll-tracked SaaS. Between dark hero bands and white feature stacks, the white returns immediately — there are no gradient transitions, no parallax bleeds. The page resolves back to paper-white on every band boundary.
Section Cadence
Light/dark alternation is the page’s primary rhythm device. A typical page runs:
- White hero (64px display, lavender CTA, soft-lavender chip in nav)
- White feature stack (3-up cream cards on white)
- Dark hero band (aubergine gradient, white display, inverted CTA)
- White testimonial spread (centred 22px quote, avatar byline)
- White pricing band (3-up cream cards, primary lavender CTA inside the recommended tier)
- Dark CTA close (“Try free for 30 days” — gradient band, white display, inverted CTA)
The dark bands are deployed at most twice per page — they’re emotional punctuation, not workhorse surfaces.
6. Shapes & Radius Scale
| Tier | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 2px | Inline tags, fine-grained badges (rare) |
| Small | 6px | Text inputs, fine controls |
| Standard | 8px | Buttons, ghost CTAs, on-dark primary — the signature button shape |
| Comfortable | 12px | Feature cards, testimonial cards, toast |
| Featured | 20px | Hero band shell, full-bleed dark gradient containers |
| Pill | 9999px | Nav “Sign up” lavender chip, soft announcement badge |
The system avoids compound radii entirely — every shape rounds uniformly on all four corners. The single design rule: buttons land at 8px, cards at 12px, hero shells at 20px, and the lavender nav chip is the only fully-pill element. The contrast between rectangular buttons and the singular pill chip is intentional — it reserves the fully-round shape for the conversion moment.
7. Depth & Elevation
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 — Flat | no shadow | Canvas, hero band content, feature cards on cream surface (~85% of surfaces) |
| 1 — Ambient | rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 1px 2px 0 | Top-nav at scroll, very subtle inputs |
| 2 — Card hover | rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 12px -2px | Optional hover on testimonial cards (most stay flat) |
| 3 — Elevated | rgba(23,22,15,0.08) 0 12px 24px -8px, rgba(23,22,15,0.04) 0 4px 8px -2px | Dropdowns, popovers |
| 4 — Brand glow | rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px | Primary lavender CTA on hover only |
| 5 — Modal | scrim rgba(20,18,15,0.55) + dialog with elevated shadow | Sign-in modal |
Shadow Philosophy
Superhuman is a tonal-elevation system, not a shadow-elevation system. Depth comes from warm tonal layering (#ffffff → #fafaf8 → #f4f1ec → #ebe7df) and 10% black hairlines, not from layered drop shadows. Shadows are reserved for two cases: (1) hardware mockups (an iPhone, MacBook, iPad rendering the product on its screen — these get realistic Apple-style shadows), and (2) primary CTA hover, where a lavender-tinted glow appears beneath the button. The marketing chrome itself is flat. The dark hero bands derive their depth from gradient washes rather than elevation.
8. Interaction & Motion
Easing
- Standard:
cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)— default for hover state colour swaps, hairline transitions - Emphasized:
cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0, 1)— modal entry, hero-band parallax - Out-soft:
cubic-bezier(0.0, 0, 0.2, 1)— section reveals on scroll
Durations
| Bucket | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Fast | 120ms | Hairline tone swaps, focus-ring fades |
| Standard | 220ms | Button hover, link colour shifts, card hover border deepening |
| Slow | 360ms | Modal entry, page-band cross-fade |
Per-Component Recipes
- Primary button hover: background
#714cb6→#5b3da0over 220ms standard. Lavender glow shadow (rgba(113,76,182,0.18) 0 8px 22px -6px) fades in over 220ms. No transform, no scale, no lift. The hover is colour + glow only. - Soft-lavender chip hover: background
#d4c7ff→#ece6ffover 220ms. Text colour darkens fractionally. - Card hover (testimonial): hairline tone deepens 10% → 18% black over 220ms standard. No translate, no shadow lift.
- Link hover: lavender colour darkens to
#5b3da0over 120ms. Underline thickens 1 → 1.5px over 220ms. - Hero band parallax: dark gradient band shifts 20px on scroll, throttled at 40ms. Subtle — visible only on full-viewport scroll.
- Modal enter: scrim fades in over 220ms standard, then dialog scales
0.96 → 1.0and fades fromopacity 0 → 1over 360ms emphasized. - Page-band cross-fade: dark-to-light section transitions cross-fade over 360ms — there are no slide or curtain transitions.
Page Transitions
Between page navigations (homepage → pricing → about), a subtle 360ms cross-fade carries the body. The fixed top-nav stays static; only the body band cross-fades. Smooth-scroll anchored links use 600ms emphasized easing.
Reduced Motion
Respects prefers-reduced-motion: reduce. All translate, scale, and parallax transforms suppress. The lavender CTA hover loses its glow shadow — the hover becomes background-colour-only. Modal entry becomes an instant fade rather than scale + fade. Hero band parallax disables entirely.
9. Accessibility & A11y
Contrast Pairs
| Pair | Ratio | Level |
|---|---|---|
| #292827 ink on #ffffff canvas | 13.4 | AAA |
| #15140f ink-strong on #ffffff | 17.8 | AAA |
| #ffffff on #714cb6 lavender | 5.6 | AA body / AAA large |
| #15140f on #d4c7ff soft-lavender | 12.6 | AAA |
| #8a857d muted on #ffffff | 4.6 | AA body |
| #292827 on #f4f1ec cream | 11.8 | AAA |
| #ffffff on #3d2467 brand-deep (hero gradient top) | 12.4 | AAA |
Focus Indicators
Focus ring is 2px solid #714cb6 (the brand lavender) with 2px outline-offset on white surfaces. On dark hero bands the ring inverts to 2px solid #ffffff. The 4px stand-off (2px ring + 2px offset) is calibrated so the ring never visually merges with the button border at 8px radius. Focus-visible (:focus-visible) is used to suppress focus rings on mouse interactions while preserving them on keyboard navigation.
ARIA Patterns
- Top nav: standard
<nav>landmark witharia-label="Primary". The “Sign up” chip is a<button>(not an<a>) because it triggers a modal flow. - Hero band sign-up:
<form>witharia-label="Sign up for Superhuman". The inline email input + CTA combine as a single visual affordance but render as a paired<input>+<button>for screen readers. - Pricing toggle (monthly/annual):
role="radiogroup"with tworole="radio"buttons.aria-checkedreflects the selected billing cadence. - Modal (sign-in): focus trap inside, Esc closes, click outside closes, focus returns to the trigger on close.
role="dialog"witharia-labelledbypointing at the modal title.
Keyboard Navigation
- Top nav: Tab moves logo → Product → Pricing → About → Sign in → Sign up
- Hero email signup: Tab focuses the input, then the CTA. Enter from the input submits the form.
- Pricing tier cards: Tab moves card → card; arrow keys do not navigate (single-column on mobile, three-up on desktop)
- Modal: Tab cycles through interactive elements inside the dialog only
Screen Reader Hints
The lavender CTA on dark hero bands inverts to white because the lavender-on-aubergine contrast (3.4) fails AA. This is structural, not stylistic — the colour swap is required for accessibility. The soft-lavender nav chip on white passes AAA at 12.6 contrast, so the secondary action stays at large-target friendliness without sacrificing readability.
Reduced Motion
All transitions degrade to opacity-only when prefers-reduced-motion: reduce is set. Brand-glow shadow on CTA hover suppresses (the colour change persists). Hero band parallax disables. Modal scale-in becomes a flat fade.
10. Responsive Behavior
Breakpoints
| Name | Width | Key Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile | <640px | Top nav collapses to logo + hamburger; hero h1 drops 64 → 40px; feature stacks 1-up; cream cards span full width with 16px page padding |
| Tablet | 640–1024px | Top nav keeps inline links; hero h1 settles at 48px; feature stacks 2-up; pricing tiers 1-up stacked |
| Desktop | 1024–1280px | Full top nav with all links inline; hero h1 at 64px; feature stacks 3-up; pricing 3-up centred |
| Wide | >1280px | Content width caps at 1240px; gutters absorb the rest |
Touch Targets
- Primary CTAs: minimum 44×44px
- Soft-lavender nav chip: 36px height with 16px horizontal padding — passes WCAG AAA when combined with the visible label area
- Email input field: 44px height
- Inline link tap-target: 44px row height even when text height is 24px (line-height 1.55 × 16px adds spacing)
Collapsing Strategy
- Top product-nav links collapse into a hamburger sheet below 640px
- Hero CTA + email input stack vertically on mobile — the inline-paired affordance becomes a stacked pair at full width
- 3-up feature grids drop to 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile — never reflow rows; always reduce columns
- Dark hero bands keep their gradient at all widths but the inner content padding tightens (96px → 48px vertical)
Image Behavior
Hardware mockups (iPhone, MacBook) carry their own intrinsic aspect ratios and downscale proportionally. Background gradient on dark hero bands uses CSS gradients (no image asset), so it renders crisply at any resolution.
Container Queries
Used sparingly. The pricing card uses container queries to compact the feature-list bullets when the card narrows below 280px — the bullets switch from a 2-column to 1-column layout.
11. Content & Voice
Tone
Confident, direct, premium-without-shouting. Superhuman positions itself as a craft tool for the chosen ones — the voice avoids both Silicon Valley over-explanation and luxury-brand evasion. Headlines lead with capability (“Superpowers, everywhere you work”) rather than process (“Email, faster”). Body copy trusts the reader to know the product category — there is no “Tired of slow email?” framing.
Microcopy Patterns
- Button verbs: “Get Superhuman”, “Try free”, “Sign in”, “Continue” — direct, outcome-named, never “Submit” or “Click here”
- Error message recipe:
[What went wrong] + [What to try]— e.g., “We couldn’t verify that email. Try a different address or contact support.” - Success confirmations: short and personal — “You’re in. Welcome to Superhuman.” rather than “Sign up successful”
- Field labels: minimal — usually a single word (“Email”, “Password”) because the layout’s whitespace makes function obvious
Empty States
The trial-expired state: “Your 30 days are up. Reactivate to keep your superpowers.” Always action-oriented — the empty state names the next move.
The unsupported-browser state: “Superhuman runs on Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. Install one to continue.” — names the cause and lists three concrete remedies.
CTA Verb Conventions
- Primary action: “Get Superhuman” (top nav, hero), “Try free” (secondary hero), “Continue” (multi-step onboarding)
- Secondary action: “Sign up” (nav chip — invitation-coded), “Watch demo” (tertiary)
- Tertiary text: “Learn more”, “See pricing”
- Avoided: “Submit”, “Click here”, “Buy now”, “Subscribe” — Superhuman frames the relationship as joining, not buying
12. Dark Mode & Theming
Light-only marketing surface. The product itself — the email client — ships with both light and dark themes, but the public marketing site is paper-white only. The dark hero bands (deep aubergine #3d2467 → #1a0f33) are punctuation within a light page, not a full theme swap.
The brand position: paper-white reads as stationery; warm cream reads as Loro Piana / Aesop / Cartier. A dark canvas would push the page toward Linear / Raycast territory, which is the wrong category. Superhuman is a premium consumer product dressed as software, not a developer tool dressed as luxury.
The dark hero bands invert the token palette as needed (text becomes #ffffff, primary CTA becomes button-on-dark with white fill, hairlines become #ffffff20) — but these are scoped to the band, never page-wide.
13. Lineage & Influences
Superhuman’s visual lineage runs through three traditions: Stripe’s in-house typography as brand signature (Sohne for Stripe, Super Sans for Superhuman); Linear’s single-confident-accent discipline (indigo for Linear, lavender for Superhuman); and Apple Mail / Apple system marketing (paper-white canvas, generous breathing room, modest display weights). The product Superhuman is dethroning is Apple Mail, and the marketing site borrows Apple’s spacing rhythm but warms the neutrals to differentiate.
The 540 axis on a variable font is the design fingerprint — a custom weight that reads heavier than Inter Medium but lighter than Inter Semibold. This kind of axis-pinning is unusual outside of luxury brand work (Off-White’s Helvetica cuts, Bottega Veneta’s Bottega Sans) and signals craft. Superhuman is one of the few SaaS brands willing to license a custom variable face purely for the weight it can sit at.
The lavender choice is itself a borrowing — #714cb6 is closer to Loro Piana cashmere or Cartier purple than to the indigo most productivity tools default to. Where Linear picks indigo (cool, technical) and Stripe picks blue (universal, payments-coded), Superhuman picks a warmer purple-violet that signals premium without tipping into kitschy luxury.
What Superhuman rejects: gradient washes (except on dark bands), illustrated chrome, multi-colour brand systems, exclamation-mark microcopy, “Click here” CTAs. The brand is editorial-minimalist — the page is a spread, the type is a single voice, the colour is one voltage.
Influences:
- Linear — single-confident-accent discipline over near-monochrome neutral, linear.app
- Stripe — in-house typography as brand signature; Sohne for Stripe, Super Sans for Superhuman, stripe.com
- Apple Mail — the product being dethroned; spacing rhythm borrowed but neutrals warmed, apple.com/macos/mail
- Loro Piana / Cartier — premium-luxury restraint as positioning, paper-white-and-one-accent
- Bottega Veneta / Off-White — custom-axis variable typography as craft signal
14. Do’s and Don’ts
Do
- Pin display copy to the 540 variable axis — that custom weight is the brand fingerprint
- Keep the action palette to a single confident lavender (
#714cb6); secondary uses the soft#d4c7ff, never a third hue - Warm the neutrals — body at
#292827not#000, surfaces at#f4f1ecnot#f5f5f7 - Reserve the fully-pill radius (9999px) for the nav “Sign up” chip — it’s the only pill on the page
- Use 8px radius for buttons, 12px for cards, 20px for hero shells — never mix radii inside a single primitive
- Layer surfaces tonally (white → warm-white → cream) instead of with shadow stacks
- Reserve drop shadows for hardware mockups and the primary CTA hover glow
- Set body line-height at 1.55 — the generous leading is the editorial calm
- Use lavender hairlines on dark hero bands (
#ffffff20); 10% black hairlines on white - Compose the page as magazine spreads — 96–128px section padding, full-bleed band boundaries
- Render star ratings, ratings, or numerical proof points in tabular numerals (
tnum)
Don’t
- Don’t use Inter or system-ui as a substitute display face — Super Sans has no acceptable fallback for hero copy
- Don’t mix lavender shades within a single CTA group — primary is
#714cb6, secondary is#d4c7ff, never a third tone - Don’t apply heavy drop shadows to feature cards — the cream surface plus hairline border is the elevation language
- Don’t introduce a second brand colour — lavender carries every primary action, full stop
- Don’t pin display weight at 460 for hero copy — the 540 axis is the signature; 460 is the secondary axis only
- Don’t use pure black (
#000) anywhere — the warmth of#292827and#15140fis the brand temperature - Don’t extend dark hero bands beyond two per page — they’re emotional punctuation, not workhorse surfaces
- Don’t use exclamation marks in microcopy — the voice is confident, never giddy
- Don’t break the radius hierarchy — 8px buttons, 12px cards, never the reverse
- Don’t add gradient washes outside dark hero bands — the white canvas is non-negotiable
- Don’t let the focus ring be ink — it stays lavender on white, white on dark, so action and access stay tied to brand colour
15. Agent Prompt Guide
Quick Color Reference
Canvas: #ffffff
Ink: #292827
Ink-strong: #15140f
Brand: #714cb6
Brand-soft: #d4c7ff
Brand-hover: #5b3da0
Brand-deep: #3d2467
Surface-soft: #fafaf8
Surface: #f4f1ec
Hairline: rgba(0,0,0,0.10)
Muted: #8a857d
Hero-grad-top: #3d2467
Hero-grad-end: #1a0f33Example Component Prompts
- “Create a Superhuman-style hero: paper-white canvas (#ffffff), 64px / 540 weight Super Sans VF headline ‘Superpowers, everywhere you work’ in #15140f with -0.01em tracking and 0.96 line-height, 18px / 400 deck beneath in #292827 at 1.55 line-height. Below: a primary lavender CTA (#714cb6 fill, white text, 8px radius, 12×22px padding, 44px height) labelled ‘Get Superhuman’. The whole layout sits at max-width 1240px centred.”
- “Design a Superhuman feature card: cream fill (#f4f1ec), 12px radius, 1px hairline border at rgba(0,0,0,0.1), 32px padding, no shadow. Inside: a 22px / 540 ink-strong title, then 16px / 400 ink body at 1.55 line-height, then a single inline lavender link (#714cb6 with 1px underline) at the bottom.”
- “Build a Superhuman dark hero band: vertical linear-gradient from #3d2467 to #1a0f33, 20px radius shell, full-bleed at any width. Inside, centred: 48px / 460 white display copy, 18px / 400 white-90% deck beneath, then a white-fill primary CTA (white background, #15140f text, 8px radius, ‘Try free for 30 days’ label).”
- “Create the Superhuman nav: 72px tall white surface, 1px bottom hairline at rgba(0,0,0,0.1). Wordmark left in 22px / 540 ink. Three centred links (Product, Pricing, About) in 16px / 400 ink, no underline at rest. Right side: ‘Sign in’ text link in ink, then a fully-pill (9999px radius) lavender chip — soft fill #d4c7ff, ink-strong text #15140f, ‘Sign up’ label at 14px / 540, 8×16px padding, 36px height.”
- “Build a Superhuman email signup: white-fill input with 1px hairline border, 6px radius, 44px height, body placeholder ‘Enter your work email’ at 16px / 400 muted #8a857d. On focus, border thickens to 1.5px lavender (#714cb6) with a faint lavender glow ring (rgba(113,76,182,0.12) 0 0 0 4px). The ‘Try free’ lavender CTA sits flush right of the input with no gap, forming a single combined affordance.”
- “Design a Superhuman testimonial card: white fill, 12px radius, 1px hairline border, 32×28px padding, no shadow. Inside: 22px / 540 ink-strong quote in upper portion, then 40px circular avatar flush left with name (16px / 540 ink) and role (14px / 400 muted #8a857d) stacked beside it.”
Iteration Guide
- Canvas stays paper-white. Anything other than
#ffffffreads as a different brand. The cream surface (#f4f1ec) is for cards, not the page. - One lavender voltage per fold. If your composition has two or more lavender CTAs visible at once, demote one — the brand colour draws the eye, not papers the page.
- Pin Super Sans to 540 for display. Inter Medium (500) will read too light; Inter Semibold (600) too heavy. The 540 axis is the entire design signal.
- Body copy at
#292827, never#000. Pure black collapses the page back into Apple-mail territory. The warmth is the differentiator. - Layer surfaces tonally. White → warm-white (
#fafaf8) → cream (#f4f1ec) — never resort to shadow stacks for hierarchy. - 8 / 12 / 20 — buttons / cards / hero. The radius hierarchy is invariant. Don’t round buttons to 12px or cards to 8px.
- Reserve the pill chip for the nav. Fully-round (9999px) is the conversion shape — using it elsewhere dilutes the moment.
- Hero bands are punctuation, not workhorses. Two dark bands per page maximum. White always returns between them.
Drop superhuman into your project, then ship the actual sections in an afternoon.
1 · install design
npx design-md add superhuman 2 · ship landing page
npx agentkit init --design superhuman dark minimal
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