--- version: "alpha" name: "Brutalist Web Design" description: "Brutalist web landing page. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template." colors: primary: "#000000" secondary: "#FFFFFF" tertiary: "#FF0000" neutral: "#0000FF" surface: "#808080" accent: "#FFFF00" typography: h1: fontFamily: Courier New fontSize: 2.5rem fontWeight: 700 body-md: fontFamily: Courier New fontSize: 1rem fontWeight: 400 components: button-primary: backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}" textColor: "{colors.neutral}" padding: 12px --- ## Overview Brutalist web landing page. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template. Web brutalism borrowed the name but not the playbook. Architectural brutalism was about honest materials — raw concrete, exposed utilities, structural legibility. Web brutalism took that last part and ran with it. The movement crystallized around 2014–2016, when Pascal Deville's brutalistwebsites.com began archiving sites that rejected the polished sameness of Bootstrap-era design. Suddenly there was a canon: Craigslist, the Drudge Report, early Bloomberg, academic homepages that hadn't been touched since 1997. But here's the distinction that matters: web brutalism isn't just "ugly on purpose." It's a specific set of conventions. System fonts — Georgia, Times, Arial, or whatever the OS hands you. Default blue underlined links. Visible document structure where the HTML hierarchy *is* the design. No hero images. No smooth transitions. The page loads and it's done. You see the grid because there's nothing hiding it. The web-specific version also carries an implicit argument: that the browser's defaults were already a design system. A good one. Every layer of CSS you add is a choice to obscure that, and maybe you should justify each one. - Density: 7/10 — Compact - Variance: 4/10 — Moderate - Motion: 4/10 — Subtle - **Style:** Raw, Unpolished, Confrontational - **Keywords:** brutalist, raw, unpolished, confrontational, monospaced, stark contrast, anti-design, utilitarian, bold typography, exposed structure - **Era:** Contemporary Anti-Design Movement - **Light/Dark:** ✓ Full / ✗ No ## Colors - **Pure Black** (#000000) — Dark surface, primary background - **Pure White** (#FFFFFF) — Light surface, card backgrounds - **Warning Red** (#FF0000) — Error states, destructive actions - **System Blue** (#0000FF) — Accent highlight, links and focus states - **Grey** (#808080) — Secondary text, borders, muted elements - **Yellow Highlight** (#FFFF00) — Warning states, attention indicators ## 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 Visible grid structure, oversized typography, raw HTML aesthetic, thick harsh borders, no rounded corners, system fonts, deliberate misalignment, underlined links, monospace blocks, stark color blocks - **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 rounded corners — sharp edges only - No subtle shadows — use hard borders instead - 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 Visible grid structure - Do Oversized typography - Do Raw HTML aesthetic - Do Thick harsh borders - Do No rounded corners - Do Deliberate misalignment ## Use Case Landing pages, SaaS