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piflow-web-design

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The design system for the PiFlow marketing site (`site-piflow/`): a white/grey editorial field with a HARD-rationed orange accent, Geist type, an ink (not orange) action system, the engineering grid, the white passe-partout hero frame + imitated top pills, and the light iso-block illustration vocabulary. TRIGGER before editing or adding anything visual under `site-piflow/` — a section, a color, a button, type, spacing, a card, the hero, or an illustration; or when someone asks to "match the brand", "pick a color", "style a CTA", or "keep it premium/simple". Source of truth for the tokens is `site-piflow/app/globals.css`; this skill is the rules ON TOP of those tokens.

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PiFlow site design system — white/grey, orange-rationed, ink-action

The site reads as calm editorial engineering: a grey field, white containers, black ink type, faint graph-paper, and a single orange spark. Reference temperature = amp / Replicate / Vercel — high contrast, generous whitespace, monochrome foundation, ONE accent doing all the brand work. Tokens live in site-piflow/app/globals.css (:root + @theme inline); always reuse a token, never hardcode a hex. This file is the discipline the tokens can't enforce.

0. The one law (read first): orange is the scarcest thing on the page

Almost everything is grey & white. Orange is a spark, never a surface. Orange (--accent #ff5a1f) appears only as: the brand mark, ONE status/charge/active indicator, the focus ring, and the rare inline link (--accent-strong #c2410c, AA-safe). That's the whole budget.

  • ✅ GOOD: a 3px orange charge bar; one orange node-ring; an orange focus ring; a 1.5px orange dot in an eyebrow.
  • ❌ FAIL: an orange button fill · an orange headline · an orange section background or wash · two+ orange elements competing in one viewport · orange body text.
  • The primary action is INK, not orange (--ink #171717, white text, pill). This is the premium move; breaking it is the most common way this system goes cheap. The black "Start a flow" CTA is the only filled button.

A useful test: screenshot any new view, count the orange pixels. If orange reads as a fill or there's more than ~one orange mark per screen, it's wrong.

1. Color tokens (the real values — use the names, not the hexes)

Field & ink — the whole page is built from these:

  • --canvas #f1f1f3 grey field (page floor) · --canvas-soft #e9e9ec sunken/wells
  • --fg #171717 ink · --fg-muted #525252 secondary · --fg-faint #8a8a8a labels
  • Surfaces (white containers float on the grey field): --surface-1 #ffffff (cards/panels) · -2 #fafafa (hover) · -3 #f5f5f5 (inner hero panel / wells) · -4 #ebebeb (slim tracks, dots)
  • Hairlines: --hairline rgba(0,0,0,.08) (default line) · --hairline-2 rgba(0,0,0,.14)
  • Action ink: --ink #171717 · --ink-hover #000000

Accent (rationed per §0):

  • --accent #ff5a1f marks/status/focus · --accent-strong #c2410c inline links/text (AA on white) · --accent-ink #ffffff text on the rare orange fill · --accent-subtle #fff1ea peach wash for a selected row (rare) · --accent-30/-60/-glow

Tailwind utilities already wired via @theme inline: bg-canvas, bg-canvas-soft, text-fg, text-fg-muted, text-fg-faint, text-accent, text-accent-strong, bg-accent, bg-accent-subtle, bg-surface-1..4. For hairlines/shadows use the var directly: border-[var(--hairline)], shadow-[var(--shadow-md)].

The accent hex is the brand/logo orange and lives in ONE place (--accent). To retune the logo orange, change that token + --accent-30/60/glow — nothing else.

2. Typography — one family does the work

Geist Sans (UI/display) + Geist Mono (data/labels), already loaded in layout.tsx.

  • Display / headline: Geist Sans, weight 600 max (never heavier — Geist discipline), negative tracking that tightens with size: -0.03em → -0.04em at hero scale, leading 0.96–1.04, color --fg. Hero title = two short lines, text-6xl sm:text-7xl.
  • Body: 400/500, --fg-muted, leading-relaxed, ~17px; keep it short.
  • Eyebrow / label / telemetry: Geist Mono, UPPERCASE, tracking 0.14–0.18em, --fg-faint, ~11px. Mono = "this is data/system" (paths, NODE tags, TIME/CTX).
  • Keep copy minimal — this system is type-forward and quiet; let whitespace carry it ("take the spacing that feels enough, then double it").

3. Buttons & pills

  • .btn-primary — ink fill, white text, rounded-full, soft shadow; hover → --ink-hover
    • lift. The ONLY filled button.
  • .btn-ghost — --surface-1 fill, --hairline-2 border, ink text, pill; hover → border darkens to --fg.
  • Nav pills (the hero pattern): two white --shadow-sm pills, angular & mirrored (NOT rounded-full — see §4): left pill hud-frame, right pill hud-frame-anti. Left = dark logo chip (bg-[var(--ink)], a single-corner notch via hud-cut-tl) + 1–2 mono-quiet links; right = 1 link + the black CTA nested flush at the right end (a notched key via hud-cut-tr). Vary the cuts per §4 — don't restamp one bevel across all four.
  • Every interactive element needs visible hover + :focus-visible (orange ring, global)
    • active (translateY(0)); never ship a flat state-less control.

4. Surfaces, shadows, radius, grid — and the angular HUD geometry

  • Containers are white on the grey field, separated by Geist shadow-as-border (--shadow-sm/md/lg carry a 0 0 0 1px ring + soft drop). Don't use heavy drop shadows or borders alone.
  • Radius ladder (curves, for soft chrome): cards rounded-2xl (1rem) · small chrome rounded-md. Most of the hero is now cut ANGULAR instead (below) — keep curves and cuts deliberate, not mixed at random.

Angular / game-UI geometry — we obey the GUI flowmap (packages/gui). Calm editorial field, but the surfaces and chrome are cut like a sci-fi HUD, not soft SaaS cards. This is BORDER/SHAPE only — the white/grey/orange color system is untouched.

  • Sci-fi rectangle. A surface is hard right angles with a beveled diagonal. Utility .hud-frame (+ Tailwind [--hud-bevel:Npx]) bevels top-right + bottom-left; .hud-frame-anti bevels the other diagonal (TL + BR); .hud-cut-tr|tl|br|bl bevel a single corner. All are border-radius:0 with a corner-shape:bevel enhancement that degrades to a hard rectangle. Never clip-path a chamfer — it eats the shadow-ring + border.

  • Vary the cut — don't stamp one mold. This is the rule the system cares about most: give neighbouring elements different silhouettes so the chrome reads versatile. The reference set in Hero.tsx: outer frame hud-frame 28px · inner stage hud-frame 20px + brackets · left nav pill hud-frame 14px ↔ right nav pill hud-frame-anti 14px (mirrored) · logo chip hud-cut-tl 7px · ink CTA hud-cut-tr 10px · eyebrow tag hud-frame 8px · code-window 12px. Pills/chips are NOT all rounded-full and NOT all the same bevel — mirror the diagonals, mix in single-corner notches, scale the bevel to the element. One deliberately-round element as a change-up is fine; a row of identical cuts is the FAIL.

  • Targeting brackets (.hud-corner--tl / --br) ride the two SQUARE corners only — the beveled diagonal carries the cut, so a bracket there reads as clipped. Brackets are INK (--fg-muted, ~0.5 opacity), never orange; an accent bracket is reserved for a single focal/active element (mirrors the GUI: accent bracket = selected/running).

  • Bevel scale tracks the surface (big frame → small chip), and nested frames stay roughly concentric. The ink button is still the only filled action (§3) even when it's a notched key.

  • ✅ GOOD: a beveled frame, ink corner brackets, and a nav whose two pills mirror each other with a notched logo chip and a notched CTA between them. ❌ FAIL: every corner identical · a clip-path chamfer that clips the shadow · orange brackets competing with the one spark.

  • The engineered field: .gridpaper (72px graph-paper cells, masked vignette) is the signature texture — put it behind hero/section content, never as a loud overlay. .grain is a near-invisible paper tooth; .aurora is a whisper of warmth, not an orange wash. If in doubt, less.

5. The hero layout pattern (reference-matched) + iso illustration

Hero = grey page → white passe-partout frame (max-w-[1200px] hud-frame [--hud-bevel:28px] bg-white p-3/4 shadow-lg) → inner light-grey panel (hud-frame [--hud-bevel:20px] bg-[var(--surface-3)] + the two corner brackets) holding: top pills (§3, angular & varied per §4), the iso illustration upper-right, the coding panel lower-right, and a two-line title lower-left. See app/_sections/Hero.tsx.

Illustrations reuse the iso kit (components/iso/*, RSC-safe, author as DATA not paths). Light recolor convention (see HeroBlocksLight.tsx): white tops, grey shaded sides (#d7d7dc), thin near-black edges (#202022, vectorEffect="non-scaling-stroke"), white speed-marks on the grey faces, neutral dark joint dots — and exactly one orange node (the ring), per §0. Motion via the gated CSS classes (iso-float, draw, flow, blur-in), never inline keyframes; everything must survive prefers-reduced-motion.

6. Definition of done — run this before shipping any UI change

Audit the change; every line must PASS (revise any FAIL):

  1. Orange budget: ≤ ~1 orange mark per viewport; orange is never a fill/wash/headline; the primary action is ink. (§0)
  2. Tokens only: no raw hex / no off-ladder grey — every color is a --token. (§1)
  3. Type: display ≤ weight 600 with negative tracking; labels are Geist Mono uppercase; copy is concise. (§2)
  4. Containers: white surface on the grey field, separated by the shadow ladder + hairline; surfaces are cut angular and the cuts VARY (no restamped bevel); brackets are ink on the square corners. (§4)
  5. States: interactive elements have hover + focus-visible + active. (§3)
  6. Motion: reduced-motion-safe; ambient effects stay faint. (§4–5)
  7. Contrast: body/links meet AA (use --accent-strong, not --accent, for orange text).

GOOD vs MINIMAL: a MINIMAL change recolors to grey/white and stops — that's only half. A GOOD change also rations the one orange spark deliberately, keeps the action ink, and earns its whitespace. If the result could be any generic light SaaS theme, it failed the brand; the editorial restraint + the single orange spark is the whole identity.