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Sienna

Warm cream editorial UI — serif headlines, coral actions, calm and literary.

FrauncesHanken Grotesk27 colors7 specs◐ Light & dark

Overview

Sienna is a warm editorial workspace identity. A tinted cream canvas (#faf9f5) supports slab-serif display headlines at weight 400 with negative letter-spacing, paired with a humanist sans for body copy.

Visual emphasis comes from the cream + coral pairing. Coral (#B15F45) marks primary actions and full-bleed callout cards. It is warm and slightly muted, deliberately avoiding the cool blue-and-slate defaults common to technical interfaces.

Sienna has three surface modes that alternate page-by-page:

1. Cream canvas — default body floor

2. Light cream cards — feature card backgrounds

3. Dark navy product surfaces — code panel mockups, showcase cards, pre-footer CTAs, footer itself

The dark surfaces are where Sienna shows its product chrome — code blocks, terminal output, comparison tables, flow diagrams. The cream-to-dark contrast is the page's pacing rhythm.

Key Characteristics:

  • Warm cream canvas (#faf9f5) with dark warm-ink text (#141413). Sienna's defining color choice.
  • Coral primary CTA (#B15F45). Used scarcely on individual buttons, generously on full-bleed coral callout cards.
  • Serif display headlines use Fraunces at weight 400 with negative letter-spacing, paired with a humanist sans body for a literary editorial voice.
  • Dark navy product mockup cards (#181715) carrying code blocks, terminal panels, comparison data — Sienna shows the product chrome at scale rather than abstract decorative illustrations.
  • Light cream feature cards (#efe9de) — slightly darker than canvas, used for content-driven feature explanations.
  • Sienna grid-marker — a small black asterisk-like glyph (4-spoke radial) — appears as the wordmark prefix and as a content marker.
  • Border radius is hierarchical: (8px) for buttons + inputs, (12px) for content + product cards, (16px) for the hero illustration container, for badges.
  • Section rhythm (96px) — a generous, modern page standard. Internal card padding stays generous at (32px).

Colors

Light theme
Brand
Text
Surfaces & Borders
States
Groups
Dark theme
Surfaces
Text
Neutrals
Brand
Groups
Status

Typography

Type Scale

typography.display-xl
64px· 400

Design & Code

typography.display-lg
48px· 400

Power of AI

typography.display-md
36px· 400

Course Library

typography.display-sm
28px· 400

What's included

typography.title-lg
22px· 500

Component anatomy

typography.title-md
18px· 500

Build faster

typography.title-sm
16px· 500

Typography scale

typography.body-md
16px· 400

The quick brown fox

typography.body-sm
14px· 400

Design & Code

typography.caption
13px· 500

Power of AI

typography.caption-uppercase
12px· 500

Course Library

typography.code
14px· 400

What's included

typography.button
14px· 500

Component anatomy

typography.nav-link
14px· 500

Build faster

Sienna runs Fraunces as the serif display face and Hanken Grotesk as the humanist sans for body, navigation, and UI labels. JetBrains Mono handles code blocks. Fallbacks use Georgia for display and system-ui for body.

The display/body split is editorial:

Display sizes use weight 400 (regular), never bold. Negative letter-spacing (-0.3 to -1.5px) is essential — Fraunces without it reads as off-brand. The serif character is what gives Sienna its literary, considered voice; switching to a sans-serif display would make Sienna feel like every other product template.

Body type stays at weight 400 for paragraphs, weight 500 for labels and emphasized phrases. The sans body is humanist (Hanken Grotesk) — never geometric. Inter is an acceptable substitute because of its similar humanist proportions; Helvetica or Arial would be too neutral and break the warm-editorial feel.

If Fraunces is unavailable, Cormorant Garamond at weight 500 with -0.02em letter-spacing is the closest approximation. For Hanken Grotesk, Inter preserves similar screen-reading proportions.

Spacing

Base

unit: 4px.

Section

padding: (96px) — generous modern rhythm.

Card

internal padding: (32px) for feature cards, tier cards, comparison cards; (24px) for code-window cards and integration tiles.

Callout

/ CTA bands: (48px) inside coral callout cards; 64px inside the larger dark CTA band.

Max

content width: ~1200px centered.

Editorial

body: Single 12-column grid; hero often uses 6/6 split (h1 left, illustration right).

Feature

card grids: 3-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile.

Integration

tile grids: 4-up or 6-up at desktop, 2-up at tablet, 1-up at mobile.

Pricing

grid: 3-up at desktop (Free / Pro / Team / Enterprise often), 1-up at mobile.

Border Radius

none0px
xs4px

Checkboxes, badge accents, tiny dropdowns

sm6px

Tooltips, small inline buttons, dropdown items

md8px

CTA buttons, text inputs, UI cards, tabs, dropdown menus, table frames

lg12px

Modals, search bars, content cards (feature, pricing, code-window, comparison)

xl16px

Hero illustration container, the larger marquee components

pill9999px

Chips, badge pills, "NEW" tags

full9999px

Avatars, toggle tracks, progress tracks, icon buttons

Components

Top Navigation

The top bar — brand, links and the primary call to action.

top-navCream nav bar, 64px tall on
Buttons

Clickable actions: primary, secondary and ghost, with their states.

button-primaryThe signature coral CTA
button-secondaryCream button with hairline outline
button-secondary-on-darkUsed over cards
button-text-linkInline text button, no background
Cards & Containers

Surfaces that frame grouped content — padding, border and shadow.

hero-bandCream-canvas hero with a 6-6 grid: h1 + sub-headline + button row on the left, hero illustration card or product mockup card on the right
hero-illustration-cardA larger card holding the hero's right-side artifact — sometimes a coral-stroke line illustration on cream background, sometimes a dark code panel mockup
feature-cardUsed in 3-up feature grids
product-mockup-card-darkDark navy card showing actual Sienna product chrome (conversation panels, code panels, control rails)
Inputs & Forms

Form controls — borders, labels, placeholders and focus rings.

text-inputStandard text input
text-input-focusedFocus state
cookie-consent-cardBottom-right floating dark cookie banner
Tags / Badges

Small markers that carry status or category at a glance.

badge-pillSmall pill label used for category tags
badge-coralCoral-fill badge for "NEW", "BETA", featured highlights
Tab / Filter

Finding things — the query field and how results narrow.

category-tab+
category-tab-activeUsed in sub-nav filter rows on category-driven pages
CTA / Footer

Clickable actions: primary, secondary and ghost, with their states.

cta-band-coralA pre-footer "Try Sienna" CTA card
cta-band-darkAlternative pre-footer band on technical pages
footerDark navy footer that closes every page

Elevation & Depth

LevelTreatmentUse
FlatNo shadow, no borderBody sections, top nav, hero bands
Soft hairline1px borderInputs, sub-nav, occasionally on cards
Cream cardbackground — no shadowFeature cards, content cards
Dark surface cardbackground — no shadowCode panel mockups, showcase cards
Subtle drop shadowFaint shadow at low alphaHover-elevated states (Sienna uses 0 1px 3px rgba(20,20,19,0.08) rarely)

The elevation philosophy is color-block first, shadow rare. Most depth comes from the cream-vs-dark surface contrast. Shadows are minimal. The dark surface mockups have their own internal product chrome (code-panel scrollbars, line numbers, syntax highlighting) which adds detail without needing external shadows.

Decorative Depth

  • The Sienna grid mark appears as a small four-cell offset square beside the text label and inline as a content marker.
  • Code panel mockups carry their own internal depth: syntax-highlighted text in muted blues / oranges / grays, line numbers in , status bars at the bottom in .
  • Some hero illustrations use simple line-art with coral and dark-navy strokes on cream — minimal, hand-drawn-feeling, never photorealistic.

Guidelines

Do

  • Anchor every page on the cream `canvas` — never pure white or cool gray
  • Set display headlines in Fraunces 400 with negative tracking; body stays Hanken Grotesk 400/500
  • Reserve coral `primary` for CTAs and full-bleed coral callout/CTA bands
  • Alternate bands `canvas` → `surface-card` → `surface-dark`; never repeat a surface twice

Don't

  • Don't reach for a bolder weight to add emphasis — go up a display size instead
  • Don't add a cool blue or cyan accent for emphasis; coral is the only emphasis hue — `info` and `category-1`…`category-6` are state and data marks, never decoration
  • Don't stack two cream tints; `surface-card` sits on `canvas`, one step only
  • Don't introduce a fourth surface tone — cream, coral, and dark navy are the whole set

Spacing roles

One value per role — no ranges, no alternatives.

RoleStepValue
Button padding/ +12px 20px
Input padding10px 14px
Chip padding/4px 12px
Card padding24px
Card content gap16px
Stacked row gap12px
Menu item padding/8px 12px
Menu item gap4px
Modal padding32px
Modal section gap24px
Section gap96px
Page gutter32px
Icon-to-label gap8px

Iconography

  • Pack: Heroicons — editorial and calm, with the outline/solid pair an article layout needs.
  • Style: outline variant, 1.5px stroke.
  • Weight rule: outline for chrome, solid for the one action a page is about.
  • Size: 24px in controls and nav; 16px inline with body text; 24px for empty states and feature moments.
  • Colour: icons inherit currentColor — never a hardcoded hex, so they follow the text token they sit beside.
  • Import: pull in icons individually, never the whole set.

Responsive Behavior

Breakpoints

NameWidthKey Changes
Mobile< 768pxHamburger nav; hero h1 64→32px; hero-illustration-card stacks below content; feature grids 1-up; integration tiles 2-up; pricing 1-up; footer 4 cols → 1
Tablet768–1024pxTop nav stays horizontal but tightens; feature cards 2-up; integration tiles 3-up; pricing 2-up
Desktop1024–1440pxFull top-nav with all menu items; 3-up feature cards; 4-up or 6-up integration tiles; 3-up pricing tiers
Wide> 1440pxSame as desktop with more outer breathing room; max content width caps at 1200px

Touch Targets

  • at minimum 40 × 40px.
  • at exactly 36 × 36 — slightly under WCAG 44 but visually centered.
  • height is 40px.
  • The integration tile's entire card area is tappable; effective tap area >> 44px.

Collapsing Strategy

  • Top nav collapses to hamburger at < 768px; menu opens as a full-screen cream sheet.
  • Hero band's 6-6 grid collapses to single-column on mobile — h1 + sub-head + buttons first, then the illustration / mockup card below.
  • Feature grids reduce columns rather than scaling cards down.
  • Pricing tier cards collapse 4 → 2 → 1; featured-tier dark surface stays visually distinct at every breakpoint.
  • Code-window cards retain code legibility at every breakpoint by allowing horizontal scroll within the card rather than wrapping code lines.

Image Behavior

  • Code blocks inside dark mockups stay at fixed font-size; horizontal scroll on mobile rather than wrapping.
  • Hero illustrations scale proportionally; line-art strokes thin slightly on mobile.
  • Avatar photos in testimonials crop to circles at every breakpoint.

Iteration Guide

1. Focus on ONE component at a time. Reference its YAML key (, ).

2. Variants of an existing component (-active, -disabled, -focused) live as separate entries in components:.

3. Use everywhere — never inline hex.

4. Never document hover. Default and Active/Pressed states only.

5. Display headlines stay Fraunces serif 400 with negative tracking. Body stays Hanken Grotesk / Inter 400. The split is unbreakable.

6. Cream + coral + dark navy is the trinity. Don't introduce a fourth surface tone (no purple cards, no green sections).

7. When in doubt about emphasis: bigger Fraunces serif before bolder weight.

Known Gaps

  • Fraunces, Hanken Grotesk, and JetBrains Mono must be loaded by the host; system fallbacks preserve the hierarchy when they are unavailable.
  • The Sienna grid marker is a small inline SVG asset; its geometry is intentionally outside the token contract.
  • Animation and transition timings for content reveals, code typing, and flow diagrams are not in scope.
  • Form validation states beyond are not extracted — error / success states would need a sign-up or feedback flow to confirm.
  • Dense conversation surfaces add product-specific components—inline tools, upload chips, and history navigation—that need separate contracts.
  • The animated demo cards on certain pages show product chrome moving on its own — the static screenshot doesn't fully capture the animation chrome.

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