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Brand & design system

One system. Every surface. v3.4. Light-primary, teal-tinted, flat. There is no warm/deck variant — earlier docs that describe "two visual systems" are superseded; the v3.4 brief locks a single system across app, web, marketing, and decks.

Canon source

relay-creative/briefs/BRIEF.design-v34.md is the authoritative spec. brand/BRAND-BRIEF.md is the condensed brief. When a token file (e.g. relay-tokens.css) disagrees with the brief, the brief wins — some token files still carry stale v3.2 neutral greys.

Colour — light (primary)

Token Value Use
bg #ffffff Page background
surface #f5faf9 Cards, sidebars — teal-tinted
panel #edf7f5 Nested panels, inputs
deep #e2f0ec Hover / pressed
border #daeee9 Dividers, card edges
border-hi #b8dbd5 Focus / active emphasis
text #0f1f1e Body — teal-tinted near-black
text-2 #446160 Labels, metadata
text-muted #8caaaa Placeholders, disabled
text-bright #060f0f Headings, emphasis
teal #0d9488 PRIMARY — CTAs, Codes, active states
indigo #6366f1 SECONDARY — org/team/pro tier only
success / warning / error #16a34a / #d97706 / #dc2626 Received / pending / failed

Colour — dark (terminal contrast, opt-in)

Pure neutral ground, no warm undertone: bg #0d0d0d, surface #181818, text #e0e0e0, teal #2dd4bf, indigo #818cf8. Applied via [data-theme="dark"] — never the default.

Typography

Role Font Use
Display / headlines Cormorant Garamond 300 italic Hero moments, editorial headings
Body / UI Outfit 300–600 All product text, nav, labels, subheads
Wordmark Outfit 600 RelayCTX mark only
Codes / metadata JetBrains Mono 400–600 Codes, IDs, timestamps, eyebrows

Retired: Syne, DM Mono. IBM Plex Sans is the marketing site (relayctx.com) font only — never in app or decks.

Key patterns

  • Wordmark: always RelayCTX, Outfit 600, letter-spacing −0.02em. Never split, reorder, or recolour.
  • Code: uppercase, JetBrains Mono 600, 0.15em tracking, teal #0d9488. Call it a Code (see Vocabulary).
  • Logo mark: broadcast symbol — dark rounded square, teal centre + 8 radiating strokes. Source brand/relay-mark.svg. The mark uses legacy teal #00D9C8 intentionally — mark-only, not product teal. Always inline SVG, never <img>.
  • Cards: surface bg, 0.5px border, 8px radius, 16px padding, no shadow.
  • Primary button: teal bg, white text, Outfit 600, 6px radius.

Rules

  • Light mode is primary; dark is terminal contrast, not default.
  • Flat surfaces — no drop shadows, gradients, or glow in product UI.
  • Teal/indigo on touch points only — not prose or decoration (surface tint excepted).
  • Indigo is strictly secondary — never a primary action.
  • No orange (conflicts with teal). No warm tones in dark mode.
  • Transitions ≤ 0.18s, always respect prefers-reduced-motion.
  • Focus ring: 3px teal box-shadow — never outline: none without a visible replacement.

Where the assets are

relay-creative/brand/BRAND-BRIEF.md, relay-design-system.md, relay-tokens.css, relay-design-tokens.json (Token Studio → Figma), relay-mark.svg, favicon.svg. This KB's theme (docs-src/assets/stylesheets/relay-v34.css) is itself a v3.4 reference build.