Design
A system that adapts
5 min read
Bring one visual language to the public site and the workspace.
One language on both sides
Use the same type, rules and geometric accent language across surfaces. Keep decorative density lower in the workspace.
The public site sets its headlines large, on a grid of ink rules, with circles, squares and quarters beside the copy. The workspace keeps the rules and the type and leaves out most of the shapes.
Tokens, not values
Every colour is a token defined twice, once for the light theme and once for the dark, so a component never carries a colour of its own. Ink turns ivory in the dark theme, and the shapes keep their red, cobalt and sunflower.
Status is never colour alone
A status pairs a coloured dot with its word: sunflower for in progress, cobalt for review, red for blocked. Nothing on screen depends on telling colours apart.
More from the journal
Northstack 1.3: an assistant that asks first
Task proposals you apply or dismiss, scoped API keys, and the platform's organizations.
Right to left, from the first line
Why every screen is written once and read in both directions.