19 KiB
version: alpha name: Creative Mode — Frame (video / frame layer) description: > Video-first companion to Creative Mode's design.md. The unit is the frame (1920×1080), not the slide-in-a-deck. Atoms are identical and sacred — warm cream canvas, 4px ink borders, hard offset shadows (no blur), Archivo Black uppercase at 0.92 line-height, JetBrains Mono taxonomy, Space Grotesk body, the four-accent palette. Composition, frame scale, and aspect-ratio behavior are rewritten for the frame. Motion is out of scope. unit: the frame — 1920×1080 primary; 9:16 and 1:1 documented principle: atoms are sacred · composition is free · numbers come from the script
colors: cream: "#EFE9D9" cream-2: "#E4DCC4" ink: "#0F0F0F" ink-2: "#2A2A2A" green: "#1F8A4C" green-dark: "#136636" pink: "#F06CA8" pink-dark: "#D14E8B" orange: "#E85A1F" yellow: "#F5C518"
typography:
— reading ramp (px @ 1920, with cqw) —
body-lg: { fontFamily: "Space Grotesk", px: 28, cqw: 1.46, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.4 } body-md: { fontFamily: "Space Grotesk", px: 24, cqw: 1.25, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.3 } mono-label: { fontFamily: "JetBrains Mono", px: 24, cqw: 1.25, weight: 400, tracking: "0.06em", upper: true } mono-kicker:{ fontFamily: "JetBrains Mono", px: 24, cqw: 1.25, weight: 400, tracking: "0.14em", upper: true } table-head: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", px: 28, cqw: 1.46, weight: 400, upper: true }
— display / hero ramp (frame-native, cqw-first) —
step-title: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", px: 34, cqw: 1.77, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.0, upper: true } badge-label:{ fontFamily: "Archivo Black", px: 28, cqw: 1.46, weight: 400, upper: true } marker: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 2.4, weight: 400, lineHeight: 1.0, upper: true } stamp-num: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 2.2, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.9 } stat-num: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 6.4, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.88 } step-num: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 7.0, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.85 } display-head: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 4.2, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.92, tracking: "-0.01em", upper: true } display-lg: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 8.0, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.9, tracking: "-0.01em", upper: true } display-xl: { fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 11.0, weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.9, tracking: "-0.01em", upper: true } display-hero:{ fontFamily: "Archivo Black", cqw: 15.5,weight: 400, lineHeight: 0.84, tracking: "-0.02em", upper: true }
spacing: frame-pad: "3.3cqw" # 64px chrome gutter @1920 content-gutter: "5cqw" # 96px content gutter @1920 grid-gap: "1.5cqw" # 28px cell-pad: "1.7cqw" # 32px
components: frame-chrome: typography: "{typography.mono-label}" placement: "topbar 2.5cqw from top, meta 2.5cqw from bottom, both inset {spacing.frame-pad}" rounded: "0" shadow: "none" description: "Mono topbar (section label left + 999px ink-stroked pill right) + meta footer (descriptor left + NN • NN counter right, 0.5cqw ink dot divider). Present on most frames." stat-cell: backgroundColor: "{colors.green} · {colors.pink} · {colors.orange} · {colors.cream}" textColor: "{colors.cream} on accent · {colors.ink} on cream" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "0" padding: "{spacing.cell-pad}" typography: "{typography.stat-num} + {typography.mono-label}" shadow: "none" description: "Flat accent/cream stat tile, square corners, no shadow." step-card: backgroundColor: "{colors.cream} · {colors.pink} · {colors.yellow} · {colors.green}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "0" padding: "{spacing.cell-pad}" typography: "{typography.step-num} + {typography.step-title} + {typography.body-md}" shadow: "none" description: "Ink-bordered card; giant step-num top. Sequence alternates cream with accents and ENDS on green." marker-block: backgroundColor: "{colors.pink}" textColor: "{colors.ink}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "0" typography: "{typography.marker}" shadow: "1.25cqw 1.25cqw 0 {colors.orange}, 1.25cqw 1.25cqw 0 0.2cqw {colors.ink}" description: "The one hard-offset featured callout per frame." kicker-block: backgroundColor: "{colors.ink}" textColor: "{colors.cream}" typography: "{typography.mono-kicker}" padding: "0.5cqw 1cqw" rounded: "0" description: "Inverted eyebrow chip." badge-rotated: backgroundColor: "{colors.yellow}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" typography: "{typography.badge-label}" rounded: "0" transform: "rotate(-4deg)" description: "Deliberate-imperfection annotation." pill-badge: backgroundColor: "{colors.cream}" border: "0.2cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "999px" typography: "{typography.mono-label}" description: "The ONLY rounded element; reads as a chip, not a card." stamp: backgroundColor: "{colors.pink}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.cream}" size: "~18cqw square" rounded: "0" transform: "rotate(-6deg)" typography: "{typography.stamp-num}" description: "Closing seal with a cream circular inner ring." comparison-table: backgroundColor: "{colors.cream-2}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" rule: "0.3cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "0" typography: "{typography.table-head} + {typography.body-md}" shadow: "none" description: "Ink head row with cream Archivo labels; pink/green column-fill variants." decorative-circle: backgroundColor: "{colors.yellow}" border: "0.4cqw solid {colors.ink}" rounded: "50%" description: "Decorative figure; pairs with a green panel for shape contrast."
Creative Mode — Frame (video / frame layer)
Overview
Creative Mode at frame scale is a neo-brutalist editorial poster in motion's clothing — warm cream paper, near-black ink, and four accents that collide at full saturation. Every frame is one flat color-blocked composition: no gradients, no blurred shadows, no rounded cards (save the one pill chip). Depth is hard offset shadow (a solid same-direction duplicate) or color-block contrast, never light.
The display voice is Archivo Black in strict uppercase at 0.92 line-height — letters overlap their own cap height; that tightness is the brand. JetBrains Mono carries every label, kicker, counter, and axis as a "technical artifact" register. Space Grotesk carries the few body lines. The frame is loud by construction and calm by restraint: two or three accents per frame, the green ground reserved for a single closing plate, the hard shadow spent on one featured element only.
Key characteristics at frame scale:
- Cream ground (
{colors.cream}) on nearly every frame;{colors.green}reserved for the closing plate. - 0.4cqw (4px @1920) ink borders on every structural element; 0.3cqw internal rules.
- Hard offset shadow (≈1.25cqw, orange+ink) on one featured block per frame — never blurred.
- Archivo Black uppercase, 0.92 line-height, always; sentence-case Archivo Black does not exist.
- Two or three accents per frame, never all four; collisions are the design.
- One pill chip (999px) per frame as the sole rounded element.
Frame Craft Bar
Three eyeball tests gate every frame before any structural check:
- Squint — exactly one element dominates, at 3–6× its nearest neighbor (a chasm, not a ramp): the
display-hero/display-xlclaim or thestat-numfigure, never two rival headlines. - Silence — sparse frames (cover, claim, closer) read 45–60% empty; the stat grid and comparison ledger are the one dense exception. Never fill a sparse frame to look complete.
- Restraint — the scarce gestures fire once per frame: at most one hard-offset shadow, two-to-three accents (never all four), the green ground reserved for the single closing plate.
- Reference — aim at a Risograph editorial poster / punk-zine spread (flat ink-bordered blocks, one big claim, vast cream); failure looks like a rounded, soft-shadowed SaaS feature grid.
The Frame
- Primary: 1920×1080 (16:9). All display sizes authored in
cqw(px ÷ 1920 × 100 = cqw). - Vertical: 1080×1920 (9:16). Square: 1080×1080 (1:1).
- Safe area: chrome at
3.3cqw(64px) inset; content at5cqw(96px) gutter. No load-bearing element crosses the3.3cqwline.
The container law (load-bearing). Every frame ground sets container-type: size. ALL
frame-relative units are cqw/cqh (1cqw = 1% of the frame's width), resolved against that
ground — never vw. vw measures the page viewport, so a frame inflates whenever it isn't
rendered full-screen; cqw resolves against the frame at any render size. This is why every size
in the display ramp is cqw.
Colors
Tokens identical to the source. At frame scale: {colors.cream} is the ground, {colors.ink}
is borders + type, and the four accents (green / pink / orange / yellow) are flat fills
rationed two-to-three per frame. {colors.orange} is also the hard-shadow color. {colors.green}
doubles as the single closing-plate ground — its rarity is the impact. Never introduce a fifth
accent; never use pure white; never gradient.
Typography
Two ramps. The reading ramp (body, mono labels, table heads) holds px+cqw for chrome and copy.
The display/hero ramp is frame-native and authored in cqw — from display-head (4.2cqw) up
to display-hero (15.5cqw) for a wordmark cover.
- Legibility floor: any load-bearing line ≥ 1.4cqw (≈27px@1920). Mono chrome at 1.15cqw is colophon only.
- Fit-to-measure: a headline's size tracks its line length. Cap the headline block at ≤ 78cqw and never touch the safe margin. ≤3 words →
display-hero/display-xl; 4–6 words →display-lg; 7+ words →display-head. Short lines go big; long lines step down. - Uppercase + 0.92 line-height on all Archivo Black, always. Mono carries 0.06–0.14em tracking. Never letter-space Archivo Black beyond the encoded −0.01em; never set body centered.
Depth & Surface
Zero blur. Two depth devices only:
- Hard offset shadow — a solid duplicate offset ≈1.25cqw in X and Y (
box-shadow: 1.25cqw 1.25cqw 0 {colors.orange}, 1.25cqw 1.25cqw 0 0.2cqw {colors.ink}). One featured block per frame (marker, stamp). Diagram stacks may use a 0.95cqw ink-only offset. - Color-block contrast — cream on cream-2, ink on cream, accent on cream. No shadow needed when contrast carries.
Ceiling: no blurred shadow, no gradient, no glow, anywhere.
Shapes
- 0 radius on every structural element — stat cells, step cards, table cells, markers, panels.
- 50% on decorative circles, stamp inner ring, the meta dot.
- 999px on the topbar pill chip only — the single rounded exception.
- Rotation only at the fixed brand angles: badge −4deg, stamp −6deg.
Components
- frame-chrome — the mono topbar + meta footer. Present on most frames; dropped only on a pure full-bleed wordmark beat if it competes.
- stat-cell / step-card — ink-bordered flat-fill blocks; step sequences end on green.
- marker-block — the one hard-shadow featured callout per frame.
- kicker-block — inverted ink eyebrow chip; badge-rotated — −4deg yellow annotation; pill-badge — the lone rounded chip.
- stamp — the −6deg closing seal. comparison-table — cream-2 ledger with ink head row.
- decorative-circle — yellow disc for shape contrast against a green panel.
Frame Treatments
Recipe per plate: ground · container · composes · focal · chrome · accent · silence · Fixed/Free · density. Authored at 1920×1080. Lean centered; vary the anchor; one idea per frame.
1 · Wordmark Cover (identity · move: full-frame lockup · centered)
Ground {colors.cream}, frame-pad. Container grid, chrome top/bottom, focal centered.
Composes frame-chrome, the wordmark. Focal the two-line wordmark at display-hero
(15.5cqw), centered, second line in an accent ({colors.pink}/orange). Chrome mono topbar
(section label + pill) and meta footer (descriptor + 01•NN). Accent the second-line color only;
optionally one corner decorative-circle bleeding off an edge. Silence ~55% empty cream.
Fixed Archivo Black uppercase 0.84 lh, one accent on the wordmark, square corners. Free which
accent, line break, whether a circle bleeds a corner. Density sparse.
2 · Big Claim (oversized statement · move: scale · left)
Ground one full-bleed accent ({colors.pink}/green/orange), content-gutter. Container
flex, claim left-anchored and vertically centered. Composes kicker-block, the claim. Focal
a 2–3 line claim at display-xl/display-lg, ink on the accent (ink-on-fire — never white).
Chrome small ink kicker-block above the claim; mono meta footer. Accent the ground IS the
accent; no second accent competes. Silence ~45% of the colored field empty. Fixed ink type
on accent, fit-to-measure sizing, no shadow on type. Free the claim, which accent ground, which
word breaks. Density sparse — one idea.
3 · Stat Grid (catalog · move: density — the one dense frame · centered)
Ground {colors.cream}, content-gutter. Container grid: a centered display-head over a
3-up row of stat-cells. Composes frame-chrome, 3× stat-cell. Focal the row of three
ink-bordered cells (green / pink / orange), each a stat-num + mono label. Chrome mono topbar +
meta. Accent the three cell fills (the named density exception — three accents allowed here).
Silence ~25% — tight by design. Fixed 0.4cqw borders, square corners, no per-cell shadow,
mono labels. Free the three figures+labels, head copy, which three accents. Density dense-exception.
4 · Closing Plate (closer · move: ground-swap · centered)
Ground {colors.green} (the single green frame of the run), frame-pad. Focal a 2-line
sign-off at display-lg in {colors.cream}, centered. Composes frame-chrome (cream variant),
stamp. Chrome cream mono topbar + meta. Accent one {colors.pink} stamp rotated −6deg in
a corner, cream ring + stamp-num. Silence ~55% empty green. Fixed green ground reserved to
this beat, cream-on-green type, one stamp. Free sign-off copy, stamp text, stamp corner. Density sparse.
5 · Featured Marker (callout · move: hard-shadow focal · left/asymmetric)
Ground {colors.cream}. Composes frame-chrome, marker-block, optional body-md support line.
Focal the pink marker-block with the signature orange+ink hard offset shadow, set asymmetrically.
Accent pink block + orange shadow (two accents). Silence ~50%. Fixed exactly one hard
shadow on the frame, 0.4cqw borders. Free marker copy, block position, optional support line.
Density sparse.
6 · Comparison Ledger (data · move: matrix · left)
Ground {colors.cream}, content-gutter. Composes frame-chrome, comparison-table.
Focal the cream-2 table with ink head row; one column fill (pink or green) marks the winner.
Accent the single column fill. Silence tight — the second density exception. Fixed
cream-2 fill, 0.3cqw internal rules, ink head row with cream Archivo labels. Free rows, which
column fills, copy. Density dense-exception.
Composition Rules
Do
- Compose around one idea per frame, focal element 3–5× its neighbors (squint test).
- Lean centered — cover, claim, stat grid, and closer all center their focal element; reserve left/asymmetric for the marker and ledger.
- Keep sparse frames 45–60% empty; only the stat grid and ledger run dense.
- Use two or three accents per frame; reserve
{colors.green}ground for the closing plate. - Spend the hard offset shadow on one featured block per frame.
- Size headlines fit-to-measure; render Archivo Black uppercase at 0.92 lh.
Don't
- Don't round corners (except the pill chip); don't gradient, blur, or glow.
- Don't set Archivo Black in sentence case or letter-space it beyond −0.01em.
- Don't use all four accents on one frame, a fifth accent, or pure white.
- Don't center body copy or set labels in anything but JetBrains Mono.
- Don't blow a headline edge-to-edge — step the ramp down for long lines.
- Don't put two hard shadows on one frame.
Aspect-Ratio Behavior
| Treatment | 16:9 | 9:16 | 1:1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wordmark Cover | two lines centered | stacked taller, circle top | centered, tighter |
| Big Claim | claim left, full accent | claim top, accent full | claim centered |
| Stat Grid | head over 3-up row | head top, 3 stacked | head top, 2×2 (4th cell) |
| Closing Plate | sign-off centered, stamp corner | stacked, stamp below | centered, stamp corner |
| Featured Marker | marker asymmetric | marker centered, shadow down | marker centered |
| Comparison Ledger | full-width table | table scrolls to fewer cols | 2-col table |
Safe area holds the 3.3cqw chrome inset on the short edge for every ratio; re-step display per
ratio so no load-bearing line drops below the 1.4cqw floor.
Approved Entities
No real customers, logos, or vendors are defined in the source — render any such mark as a placeholder. Products/sections are content-agnostic; the system supplies geometry, not brands.
Numerals & Claims (hard rule)
Never invent figures, percentages, counts, or dates at frame scale. Render data slots as
— figure —, {metric}, N×. Real numerals appear only when the script supplies them — the stat
grid and ledger especially carry placeholders, not fabricated values.
Pre-Render Self-Audit
- Squint — one element dominates at 3–5× its neighbor, else rescale.
- Silence — sparse frames 45–60% empty; only stat grid / ledger run dense.
- Accents — two or three per frame, never all four; green ground only on the closer.
- Depth — 0 blur; at most one hard offset shadow; color-block contrast otherwise.
- Geometry — square corners except the pill; rotation only at −4/−6deg.
- Type — Archivo Black uppercase 0.92 lh, fit-to-measure, ≥1.4cqw on load-bearing lines.
- Anchor — centered default; left/asymmetric only on marker + ledger; no 3 consecutive frames share an anchor.
- Fabrication — every numeral traces to the script, else placeholder.
Known Gaps
- Motion intentionally out of scope. frame.md specifies composition only; timing and transitions are a later stage. The closing green is described as a plate, not a transition.
- Archivo Black requires Google Fonts; fallback is
sans-serif. CJK pairing (Noto Serif SC 900 / NSC 400) carries over from the source's CJK section. - 9:16 / 1:1 are guidance, not pixel-locked; verify the legibility floor per ratio.
- Decorative geometry (circle, stamp, stacked blocks) is CSS-only; no external imagery is required.