--- version: "alpha" name: "Kawaii / Sweet Pastel" description: "Kawaii sweet pastel interface. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template." colors: primary: "#FFD1DC" secondary: "#E0BBE4" tertiary: "#C3E5F9" neutral: "#FFFACD" surface: "#B5EAD7" accent: "#FF9AA2" typography: h1: fontFamily: rounded playful fontSize: 2.25rem fontWeight: 700 body-md: fontFamily: rounded playful fontSize: 1rem fontWeight: 400 label-caps: fontFamily: rounded playful fontSize: 0.75rem fontWeight: 500 rounded: sm: 24px md: 48px lg: 72px components: button-primary: backgroundColor: "{colors.primary}" textColor: "{colors.neutral}" rounded: "{rounded.sm}" padding: 12px --- ## Overview Kawaii sweet pastel interface. Ideal for landing pages, saas. AI-ready template. Kawaii didn't start as a design trend. It started as rebellion. In 1970s Japan, teenagers began writing in a childish, rounded script — rejecting the rigid formality of adult communication. Brands noticed. Sanrio launched Hello Kitty in 1974, and suddenly cuteness had commercial power. No mouth, no expression, just a blank canvas for projection. Genius, honestly. What followed was a cultural export that rewired global aesthetics. The rounded corners, the pastel palettes, the deliberate softness — these weren't arbitrary choices. Research in neoteny (baby-like features) shows our brains are literally wired to respond to round shapes with warmth and trust. Sharp angles signal danger. Curves signal safety. Kawaii designers understood this intuitively decades before UX researchers published papers about it. By the 2000s, kawaii had infiltrated everything from banking apps in Seoul to stationery shops in Stockholm. It proved something important: cute isn't trivial. It's a sophisticated emotional technology. The best kawaii design walks a razor's edge — too much and it's cloying, too little and you lose the magic entirely. - Density: 5/10 — Balanced - Variance: 7/10 — Dynamic - Motion: 6/10 — Expressive - **Style:** Cute, Pastel, Rounded, Sweet - **Keywords:** Cute, playful, whimsical, rainbow gradients, fluffy clouds, sparkle embellishments, mascots, soft airbrushed, decorative, girly - **Era:** Japanese Kawaii Culture - **Light/Dark:** ✓ Full / ◐ Partial ## Colors - **Soft Pink** (#FFD1DC) — Primary text color - **Lavender** (#E0BBE4) — Secondary surface or text color - **Baby Blue** (#C3E5F9) — Accent highlight, links and focus states - **Lemon** (#FFFACD) — Supporting palette color - **Mint** (#B5EAD7) — Extended palette, decorative use - **Salmon** (#FF9AA2) — Extended palette, decorative use - **Lilac** (#9D84B6) — Extended palette, decorative use ## Typography - **Display / Hero:** rounded playful — Weight 700, tight tracking, used for headline impact - **Body:** rounded playful — Weight 400, 16px/1.6 line-height, max 72ch per line - **UI Labels / Captions:** rounded playful — 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:** Asymmetric composition. - **Feature sections:** Asymmetric grid with varied card sizes. 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 High-key brightness, soft diffuse lighting, sparkle animations, bounce effects (cubic-bezier 0.34 1.56), rainbow gradient transitions, cute hover wobble - **Physics:** Spring — stiffness 120, damping 20. Confident, weighted transitions. - **Entry animations:** Fade + translate-Y (16px → 0) over 480ms ease-out. Staggered cascades for lists: 100ms 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: 24px. See rounded tokens in front matter for the full scale. ## Components - **Primary Button:** Generously rounded (1.5rem) 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:** Generously rounded (1.5rem) 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 Pastel colors dominant - Do Rounded corners 20px+ - Do Sparkle decorations - Do Cute mascot present - Do Rainbow gradients - Do Glossy highlights ## Use Case Landing pages, SaaS