--- version: "alpha" name: "Gradient Mesh / Aurora Evolved" description: "Design with gradient mesh aurora effect. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template." colors: primary: "#00FFFF" secondary: "#FF00FF" tertiary: "#FFFF00" neutral: "#0066FF" surface: "#00FF66" typography: h1: fontFamily: System UI stack fontSize: 2.25rem fontWeight: 700 body-md: fontFamily: System UI stack fontSize: 1rem fontWeight: 400 label-caps: fontFamily: System UI stack fontSize: 0.75rem fontWeight: 500 components: button-primary: backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}" textColor: "{colors.neutral}" padding: 12px --- ## Overview Design with gradient mesh aurora effect. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template. Gradients have had three lives. The first was embarrassing — Photoshop-era linear sweeps slapped on everything from buttons to business cards. We collectively agreed to stop. Then flat design killed them entirely, which was its own kind of violence. The resurrection started around 2018. Stripe's landing pages introduced these impossibly smooth, multi-stop gradients that felt like light refracting through glass. Vercel followed with darker, more celestial takes — aurora-like washes that made developer tools feel like spacecraft dashboards. Suddenly gradients weren't decoration. They were atmosphere. Tools caught up slowly. CSS got conic-gradient and oklab interpolation. Figma shipped mesh gradients in 2024, finally letting designers plot color across a 2D field instead of forcing everything through linear axes. WebGL and canvas-based animations pushed things further — now gradients could breathe, shift, respond. The mesh gradient isn't a trend. It's the medium finally matching what we always wanted gradients to be: dimensional, organic, alive. - Density: 7/10 — Compact - Variance: 4/10 — Moderate - Motion: 8/10 — Cinematic - **Style:** Gradient, Mesh, Colorful, Fluid - **Keywords:** Complex gradients, mesh gradients, multi-color blend, aurora effect, flowing colors, iridescent, holographic, prismatic - **Era:** 2025+ Gradient Evolution - **Light/Dark:** ✓ Full / ✓ Full ## Colors - **Cyan** (#00FFFF) — Accent highlight, links and focus states - **Magenta** (#FF00FF) — Decorative accent, highlight elements - **Yellow** (#FFFF00) — Warning states, attention indicators - **Blue** (#0066FF) — Accent highlight, links and focus states - **Green** (#00FF66) — Supporting palette color ## Typography - **Display / Hero:** System UI stack (-apple-system, sans-serif) — Weight 700, tight tracking, used for headline impact - **Body:** System UI stack (-apple-system, sans-serif) — Weight 400, 16px/1.6 line-height, max 72ch per line - **UI Labels / Captions:** System UI stack (-apple-system, sans-serif) — 0.875rem, weight 500, slight letter-spacing - **Monospace:** JetBrains Mono — 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 CSS mesh-gradient (experimental), SVG gradients, canvas gradients, smooth color morphing, flowing animation - **Physics:** Spring — stiffness 120, damping 20. Confident, weighted transitions. - **Entry animations:** Fade + translate-Y (16px → 0) over 540ms ease-out. Staggered cascades for lists: 120ms between items. - **Hover states:** Scale(1.03) + shadow lift over 200ms. - **Page transitions:** Fade + slide (300ms). - **Performance:** Only transform and opacity animated. No layout-triggering properties. ## Shapes Base corner radius: 8px. See rounded tokens in front matter for the full scale. ## Components - **Primary Button:** Subtly rounded (0.5rem) 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:** Subtly rounded (0.5rem) 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 Mesh gradient visible - Do Colors flow smoothly - Do Aurora effect achieved - Do Performance acceptable - Do Text remains readable - Do Mobile renders ok ## Use Case Landing pages, SaaS