Brutalism
Brutalist landing page with raw, stark, intentionally unpolished aesthetics. Ideal for streetwear, marcas experimentais, layouts editoriais, portfólios de design. AI-ready template.
Use case: Streetwear, Experimental brands, Editorial layouts, Design portfolios
Historical Context
Brutalism in digital design borrows its name and attitude from Béton brut — raw concrete — the architectural movement that refused to apologize for its materials. In the 1950s and 60s, architects like Alison and Peter Smithson stripped buildings down to their structural truth. No cladding, no ornament, no comfort. The concrete was the point. When this sensibility migrated to the web around 2014, it arrived as a rejection of the homogenized, venture-backed aesthetic that had flattened every startup landing page into the same Helvetica-and-gradient soup. Digital brutalism says: here is the markup, here is the grid, here is the system font at 72px. Deal with it. Sites like Bloomberg Businessweek's experimental covers, the Yale School of Art website, and early Cargo Collective templates proved that rawness could communicate intellectual seriousness in ways that polish never could. The movement matters because it recenters authorship. When you strip away the safety net of established UI patterns, every decision becomes visible — and intentional. There is nowhere to hide behind a component library. Brutalism demands that designers actually design, rather than assemble.
When to Use
Deploy brutalism when your audience values intellectual honesty over comfort. Art galleries, architecture firms, experimental publications, and counter-culture brands benefit from the implicit message: we respect you enough not to hand-hold. It works when content is strong enough to stand without decorative support. Avoid it for products requiring high task-completion rates or accessibility-first contexts — brutalism trades usability conventions for expressive power, and that trade-off must be deliberate, not lazy.
Design Principles
- Expose structure — let the grid, the markup, and the system defaults remain visible as design elements rather than hiding them behind polish
- Reject decorative comfort — no gratuitous border-radius, no soft shadows, no gradient safety blankets; if an element exists, it earns its place through function
- Maximize typographic contrast — pair extreme scale differences, use system or monospace fonts at confrontational sizes, let whitespace do the heavy lifting
- Honor raw materials — default scrollbars, unstyled links, visible borders, and browser chrome are features not bugs; the medium is part of the message
- Prioritize intentional friction — every moment of discomfort should be a deliberate editorial choice that communicates something, never accidental neglect
DESIGN.md
---
version: "alpha"
name: "Brutalism"
description: "Brutalist landing page with raw, stark, intentionally unpolished aesthetics. Ideal for streetwear, marcas experimentais, layouts editoriais, portfólios de design. AI-ready template."
colors:
primary: "#000000"
secondary: "#FFFFFF"
tertiary: "#00FF00"
neutral: "#FF00FF"
surface: "#0000FF"
accent: "#FF0000"
typography:
h1:
fontFamily: Courier New
fontSize: 2.5rem
fontWeight: 700
body-md:
fontFamily: Courier New
fontSize: 1rem
fontWeight: 400
rounded:
sm: 2px
md: 4px
lg: 8px
spacing:
sm: 1.0rem
md: 2.0rem
lg: 4.0rem
components:
button-primary:
backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}"
textColor: "{colors.neutral}"
rounded: "{rounded.sm}"
padding: 12px
---
## Overview
Brutalist landing page with raw, stark, intentionally unpolished aesthetics. Ideal for streetwear, marcas experimentais, layouts editoriais, portfólios de design. AI-ready template. Brutalism in digital design borrows its name and attitude from Béton brut — raw concrete — the architectural movement that refused to apologize for its materials. In the 1950s and 60s, architects like Alison and Peter Smithson stripped buildings down to their structural truth. No cladding, no ornament, no comfort. The concrete was the point. When this sensibility migrated to the web around 2014, it arrived as a rejection of the homogenized, venture-backed aesthetic that had flattened every startup landing page into the same Helvetica-and-gradient soup.
Digital brutalism says: here is the markup, here is the grid, here is the system font at 72px. Deal with it. Sites like Bloomberg Businessweek's experimental covers, the Yale School of Art website, and early Cargo Collective templates proved that rawness could communicate intellectual seriousness in ways that polish never could.
The movement matters because it recenters authorship. When you strip away the safety net of established UI patterns, every decision becomes visible — and intentional. There is nowhere to hide behind a component library. Brutalism demands that designers actually design, rather than assemble.
- Density: 5/10 — Balanced
- Variance: 2/10 — Structured
- Motion: 4/10 — Subtle
- **Style:** Raw, Stark, Monochromatic, Anti-Design
- **Keywords:** Brutalism, raw, stark, monochromatic, bold, unrefined typography, anti-design, visible grid, large blocks, intentionally crude
- **Era:** 1950s Brutalist Architecture to 2010s Web Brutalism
- **Light/Dark:** ✓ Full / ✓ Full
## Colors
- **Pure Black** (#000000) — Dark surface, primary background
- **Pure White** (#FFFFFF) — Light surface, card backgrounds
- **Neon Green** (#00FF00) — Supporting palette color
- **Hot Pink** (#FF00FF) — Primary text color
- **Electric Blue** (#0000FF) — Secondary accent
- **Bright Red** (#FF0000) — Error states, destructive actions
- **Yellow** (#FFFF00) — Warning states, attention indicators
- **Grey** (#808080) — Secondary text, borders, muted elements
## Typography
- **Display / Hero:** Courier New — Weight 700, tight tracking, used for headline impact
- **Body:** Courier New — Weight 400, 16px/1.6 line-height, max 72ch per line
- **UI Labels / Captions:** Courier New — 0.875rem, weight 500, slight letter-spacing
- **Monospace:** Courier New — Used for code, metadata, and technical values
Scale:
- Hero: clamp(2.5rem, 5vw, 4rem)
- H1: 2.25rem
- H2: 1.5rem
- Body: 1rem / 1.6
- Small: 0.875rem
## Layout
- **Grid:** CSS Grid primary. Max-width containment: 1280px centered with 1.5rem side padding.
- **Spacing rhythm:** Balanced. Base unit: 0.5rem (8px).
- **Section vertical gaps:** clamp(4rem, 8vw, 8rem).
- **Hero layout:** Split-screen (text left, visual right).
- **Feature sections:** Zig-zag alternating text+image rows. No 3-equal-columns.
- **Mobile collapse:** All multi-column layouts collapse below 768px. No horizontal overflow.
- **z-index contract:** base (0) / sticky-nav (100) / overlay (200) / modal (300) / toast (500).
## Elevation & Depth
No smooth transitions (instant state changes), sharp corners (0px radius), bold oversized typography (900 weight), visible thick borders (3-5px), intentionally broken/overlapping layouts, monospace system fonts, raw unpolished aesthetic
- **Physics:** Ease-out curves, 200-300ms duration. Smooth and predictable.
- **Entry animations:** Fade + translate-Y (16px → 0) over 420ms ease-out. Staggered cascades for lists: 80ms between items.
- **Hover states:** Subtle color shift + shadow adjustment over 200ms.
- **Page transitions:** Fade only (200ms).
- **Performance:** Only transform and opacity animated. No layout-triggering properties.
## Shapes
Base corner radius: 0px. See rounded tokens in front matter for the full scale.
## Components
- **Primary Button:** Sharp edges (0px) shape. Accent color fill. Hover: 8% darken + subtle lift shadow. Active: -1px translate tactile press. Font weight 600. No outer glows.
- **Secondary / Ghost Button:** Outline variant. 1.5px border in muted color. Text in primary color. Hover: subtle background fill.
- **Cards:** Sharp edges (0px) corners. Surface background. Subtle shadow (0 2px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.06)). 1px border stroke.
- **Inputs:** Label above input. 1px border stroke. Focus ring: 2px accent color offset 2px. Error text below in semantic red. No floating labels.
- **Navigation:** Primary surface background. Active item: accent color indicator. Font weight 500 when active.
- **Skeletons:** Shimmer animation matching component dimensions. No circular spinners.
- **Empty States:** Icon-based composition with descriptive text and action button.
## Do's and Don'ts
- No emojis in UI — use icon system only (Lucide, Heroicons)
- No pure black (#000000) — use off-black or charcoal variants
- No oversaturated accent colors (saturation cap: 80%)
- No 3-column equal-width feature layouts — use zig-zag or asymmetric grid
- No `h-screen` — use `min-h-[100dvh]`
- No AI copywriting clichés: "Elevate", "Seamless", "Unleash", "Next-Gen"
- No broken external image links — use picsum.photos or inline SVG
- No generic lorem ipsum in demos
- Do No border-radius (0px everywhere)
- Do No smooth transitions
- Do Bold oversized typography (900)
- Do Visible thick borders
- Do Monospace or system fonts
- Do Intentionally raw/broken layout
- Do High contrast B&W + neon accents
- Do Responsive with maintained rawness
## Use Case
Streetwear, Experimental brands, Editorial layouts, Design portfolios
Technical Specs
CSS
font-family: 'Courier New', monospace or system-ui, font-weight: 900, font-size: clamp(2rem, 8vw, 10rem), background: #FFFFFF or #000000, color: #000000 or #FFFFFF, border: 4px solid #000000, border-radius: 0px, transition: none, text-transform: uppercase, mix-blend-mode: difference on overlapping elements
Variables
--color-black: #000000, --color-white: #FFFFFF, --color-accent1: #00FF00, --color-accent2: #FF00FF, --font-primary: monospace, --font-weight: 900, --border: 4px solid #000000, --border-radius: 0px, --transition: none, --spacing: 1rem
Checklist
☐ No border-radius (0px everywhere), ☐ No smooth transitions, ☐ Bold oversized typography (900), ☐ Visible thick borders, ☐ Monospace or system fonts, ☐ Intentionally raw/broken layout, ☐ High contrast B&W + neon accents, ☐ Responsive with maintained rawness
Colors
Primary
Secondary
Effects
No smooth transitions (instant state changes), sharp corners (0px radius), bold oversized typography (900 weight), visible thick borders (3-5px), intentionally broken/overlapping layouts, monospace system fonts, raw unpolished aesthetic
Light/Dark
✓ Full / ✓ Full
AI Prompt
Act as a Senior Frontend Engineer and Expert UI Designer. Your task is to code a complete Landing Page on the first attempt. - Landing Page Theme: <INSERT THEME> - Sections to add: <INSERT SECTIONS> Generate the final code immediately following these definitions: ## Style - **Name:** Brutalism - **Type:** Raw, Stark, Monochromatic, Anti-Design - **Keywords:** Brutalism, raw, stark, monochromatic, bold, unrefined typography, anti-design, visible grid, large blocks, intentionally crude - **Era:** 1950s Brutalist Architecture to 2010s Web Brutalism - **Light/Dark:** ✓ Full / ✓ Full ## Color Palette - **Primary:** Pure Black #000000, Pure White #FFFFFF, Neon Green #00FF00, Hot Pink #FF00FF - **Secondary:** Electric Blue #0000FF, Bright Red #FF0000, Yellow #FFFF00, Grey #808080 ## Visual Effects No smooth transitions (instant state changes), sharp corners (0px radius), bold oversized typography (900 weight), visible thick borders (3-5px), intentionally broken/overlapping layouts, monospace system fonts, raw unpolished aesthetic ## AI Visual Direction Design a brutalist landing page with raw, stark, intentionally unpolished aesthetics. Use pure black, white with neon accent colors. No smooth transitions (instant), sharp corners (0px), bold oversized typography (weight 900), visible thick borders, monospace or system fonts. Intentionally 'broken' overlapping layouts. Anti-design that challenges conventional polish. Raw, loud and unapologetic. ## CSS Technical ```css font-family: 'Courier New', monospace or system-ui, font-weight: 900, font-size: clamp(2rem, 8vw, 10rem), background: #FFFFFF or #000000, color: #000000 or #FFFFFF, border: 4px solid #000000, border-radius: 0px, transition: none, text-transform: uppercase, mix-blend-mode: difference on overlapping elements ``` ## Design System Variables ```css --color-black: #000000, --color-white: #FFFFFF, --color-accent1: #00FF00, --color-accent2: #FF00FF, --font-primary: monospace, --font-weight: 900, --border: 4px solid #000000, --border-radius: 0px, --transition: none, --spacing: 1rem ``` ## Implementation Checklist - ☐ No border-radius (0px everywhere) - ☐ No smooth transitions - ☐ Bold oversized typography (900) - ☐ Visible thick borders - ☐ Monospace or system fonts - ☐ Intentionally raw/broken layout - ☐ High contrast B&W + neon accents - ☐ Responsive with maintained rawness ## Execution Rules 1. Strictly follow the defined visual style. 2. Use high-quality inline SVG icons (Heroicons or Lucide style) — NEVER use emojis as icons. 3. Add `cursor-pointer` and smooth `hover` states (transition-all) on all interactive elements. 4. Required Page Structure: - Navbar (Logo + Links + CTA) - Hero Section (Impactful Headline + Subtitle + 2 buttons + 3D/Abstract visual element via CSS) - Features (3 cards with icons) - Testimonials (3 cards) - Pricing (3 tiers, highlight the middle one) - Final CTA - Full Footer with social links, privacy policy, terms of use, contact and SEO links. 5. All text content must be in English. 6. The visual must be CLEARLY distinct — do not create a "default Bootstrap" design. Force the use of the provided design system variables. 7. Use `<style>` tags in the head for custom classes (especially for complex backdrop-filter effects and animations) that Tailwind CDN doesn't cover. 8. Full Responsiveness: Layout must adapt perfectly to Mobile, Tablet and Desktop (vertical stack on mobile). 9. Include basic SEO, Viewport and Open Graph meta tags in `<head>`. 10. Footer must contain: Copyright 2026, Secondary navigation links and Social media icons. 11. Make the creative decisions needed to deliver the complete, functional result now.
Related
Last synced: 4/1/2026