An inspired interpretation of Stripi's design language — a financial-infrastructure brand built on a deep navy ink, an electric indigo primary, and a recurring atmospheric gradient mesh that occupies the upper third of nearly every marketing page. The system pairs the proprietary Sohne family at thin (300) weights with negative letter-spacing for editorial-density display headlines, and uses tabul
Stripi's design language opens with the gradient mesh. A wide horizontal band of pastel cream, sherbet orange, lavender, electric indigo, and ruby pink occupies the upper third of nearly every marketing page — the brand's instantly-recognizable atmospheric backdrop. Type and product UI mockups float above it on `{colors.canvas}` (white), with the gradient acting as both decoration and visual anchor. The lower portion of the page returns to white, with feature explanations on `{colors.canvas-soft}` (a barely-tinted cool off-white) and dashboard product mockups composited as faux IDE/console panels in deep navy.
The color system has two primary roles. **Indigo** (`{colors.primary}` — `#533afd`) is the brand's signature CTA color, used sparingly: one filled pill per band. **Deep navy** (`{colors.ink}` — `#0d253d`) is the universal body text color and the fill of dashboard mockups, the featured pricing tier, and the dark-app surfaces on the dashboard track. Ruby (`{colors.ruby}`) and magenta (`{colors.magenta}`) appear inside the gradient mesh and as accent dots in product UI mockups; they are not used as button colors.
Typography is built around **Sohne** at weight 300 with negative letter-spacing — the brand's editorial-density display signature. Display sizes (32–56px) use -1.4px to -0.64px tracking; body sizes use 0; tabular caption sizes (where money and numerics matter) use the OpenType `tnum` feature plus a tightening -0.36 to -0.42px tracking. The `ss01` stylistic set is enabled across all roles.
**Key Characteristics:**
> **Source pages:** home (`/`), `/payments`, `/pricing`, `dashboard.stripe.com/register/payments`.
The brand does not use a separate semantic color palette in the marketing system — error / success states live in dashboard-product UI specifically.
The display and UI tier is **Sohne** (proprietary, licensed from Klim Type Foundry) at weights 300 (thin) and 400 (regular). The variable font (`sohne-var`) is loaded with `font-feature-settings: "ss01"` enabled globally — the stylistic set substitutes a single-story `a` and other character variants that are part of the brand's typographic signature.
When Sohne is unavailable, fall back to **SF Pro Display** at thin weights, then system-ui. For maximum brand fidelity, **Inter** (open-source) at weight 300 with `font-feature-settings: "ss01"` and `letter-spacing: -1.4px` on display sizes approximates the rhythm closely.
| Token | Size | Weight | Line Height | Letter Spacing | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| `{typography.display-xxl}` | 56px | 300 | 1.03 | -1.4px | Hero headline |
| `{typography.display-xl}` | 48px | 300 | 1.15 | -0.96px | Section opener |
| `{typography.display-lg}` | 32px | 300 | 1.1 | -0.64px | Card title / sub-section |
| `{typography.display-md}` | 26px | 300 | 1.12 | -0.26px | Compact card title |
| `{typography.heading-lg}` | 22px | 300 | 1.1 | -0.22px | Pricing tier name |
| `{typography.heading-md}` | 20px | 300 | 1.4 | -0.2px | Section sub-heading |
| `{typography.heading-sm}` | 18px | 300 | 1.4 | 0 | Mini-section label |
| `{typography.body-lg}` | 16px | 300 | 1.4 | 0 | Marketing body lead |
| `{typography.body-md}` | 15px | 300 | 1.4 | 0 | Default UI body |
| `{typography.body-tabular}` | 14px | 300 | 1.4 | -0.42px | Money / numeric tables (uses `tnum`) |
| `{typography.button-md}` | 16px | 400 | 1.0 | 0 | Pill button label |
| `{typography.button-sm}` | 14px | 400 | 1.0 | 0 | Compact pill label |
| `{typography.caption}` | 13px | 400 | 1.4 | -0.39px | Helper, table labels |
| `{typography.micro}` | 11px | 300 | 1.4 | 0 | Fine print |
| `{typography.micro-cap}` | 10px | 400 | 1.15 | 0.1px | All-caps eyebrow |
Sohne is proprietary. Use **Inter** (open-source via Google Fonts) at weight 300 with `letter-spacing: -1.4px` and `font-feature-settings: "ss01"` for display tiers — Inter is the closest open-source analogue. For body sizes, Inter at 300 weight with `font-feature-settings: "tnum"` (where applicable) is the canonical substitute. Avoid Helvetica or system-ui defaults — they're heavier than the brand needs.
The gradient mesh occupies the upper third of the page; the white canvas below is generously padded. Section gaps tend toward 96px, with content tightening to 32px on dashboard / pricing pages where users compare and act.
| Level | Treatment | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Flat | Default surface |
| 1 | `box-shadow: rgba(0,55,112,0.08) 0 1px 3px` | Card lift on white |
| 2 | `box-shadow: rgba(0,55,112,0.08) 0 8px 24px, rgba(0,55,112,0.04) 0 2px 6px` | Floating panels, dashboard mockup chrome |
| 3 | Gradient mesh backdrop | The brand's primary depth medium — atmospheric color rather than literal shadow |
The gradient mesh IS the depth system. Implemented as a layered SVG or large background image rather than CSS gradients (the actual mesh has organic blob shapes that aren't CSS-renderable). The mesh provides the brand's signature lift; literal shadows are reserved for product-UI mockups and stay subtle.
| Token | Value | Use |
|---|---|---|
| `{rounded.xs}` | 4px | Hairline tags, table chrome |
| `{rounded.sm}` | 6px | Form inputs |
| `{rounded.md}` | 8px | Compact cards, alerts |
| `{rounded.lg}` | 12px | Pricing cards, feature cards |
| `{rounded.xl}` | 16px | Dashboard product mockup chrome |
| `{rounded.pill}` | 9999px | All buttons, tag pills |
The brand uses **product UI mockups** more than photography. Dashboard composites render as faux IDE/terminal/dashboard chrome inside `{rounded.lg}` 12px containers with a subtle `box-shadow`. Real photography appears in customer logo strips and the rare case-study card; treated as inset 4:3 with no shadow.
**`button-primary-pill`** — the dominant CTA system-wide.
**`button-secondary`** — outline-style alternative.
**`button-on-dark`** — used on dashboard / dark surfaces.
**`card-feature-light`** — feature explanation card on white.
**`card-pricing`** — standard pricing tier.
**`card-pricing-featured`** — the inverted dark featured tier.
**`card-cream-band`** — warm interlude card.
**`card-dashboard-mockup`** — composited dashboard / product UI screenshot.
**`text-input`** — standard form field.
**`nav-bar-on-mesh`** — top nav floating over the gradient hero.
**`pill-tag-soft`** — subdued indigo tag.
**Gradient Mesh Backdrop** — pastel cream → sherbet orange → lavender → indigo → ruby pink stops blurred horizontally across the upper third of the page. Implemented as SVG or a large background image — not a flat CSS gradient (the real mesh has organic blob shapes).
**Composited Dashboard Mockup** — multi-layer faux-product-UI compositions: an IDE panel on the left, a dashboard table center, a chart card on the right, all rendered at small scale inside `{rounded.lg}` containers with subtle Level 2 shadows. The composite is the brand's most-photographed feature.
**Tabular-Figure Money Type** — every number rendering money, count, or transaction value uses `font-feature-settings: "tnum"`. The brand's quiet signal that it's a financial-infrastructure platform.
**`link-on-light`** — inline links on light surfaces.
**`footer-light`** — site-wide footer.
| Name | Width | Key Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Wide | ≥ 1440px | Full gradient mesh edge-to-edge; dashboard composite at full scale |
| Desktop | 1024–1440px | Default content max-width; pricing 4-up |
| Tablet | 768–1023px | Pricing 2-up; dashboard composite simplifies to 2 panels |
| Mobile | < 768px | Pricing 1-up; hamburger nav; display drops 56 → 36px |
Product UI composites use `srcset` with art-direction crops at major breakpoints. Mobile crops focus on the most actionable inner panel; desktop crops show the full multi-layer composition.
1. Focus on ONE component at a time.
2. Reference component names and tokens directly (`{colors.primary}`, `{button-primary-pill}-pressed`, `{rounded.pill}`).
3. Run `npx @google/design.md lint DESIGN.md` after edits.
4. Add new variants as separate entries.
5. Default body to `{typography.body-md}` (15px); use `{typography.body-tabular}` for any money / numeric cell.
6. Apply `ss01` globally on the body; apply `tnum` per-element on numeric content.
7. The gradient mesh is non-negotiable on marketing heroes — bare-canvas heroes break the brand.