# Aesthetic Brief v2 — Homepage Star Map Read this before designing. This is the parent's creative direction. Updated 2026-03-26 — BOLDER direction per JL feedback. --- ## The feeling Vaporwave and Mad Max had a baby in the middle of a rainforest full of fairies. You're at a campfire in the ruins. The city behind you is half-collapsed but alive — vines crawl through CRT monitors still flickering with ghost signals, solar panels power neon signs in languages no one reads anymore, bioluminescent moss makes the rubble glow mint and orchid-purple at night. The sky overhead is not just clear — it's VIVID. Stars in gold, rose, violet, teal. Nebula clouds you can almost reach. The universe isn't distant; it's pressing in. This is post-apocalypse post-recovery. Nature ate the dystopia and something magical grew in its place. It's warm, strange, lush, and slightly unreal. The star map should feel like ALL of these had a conversation. Not a collage — a fusion. The CRT is subtle (a ghost, not a feature). The pastels are deepened for the dark palette. The prismatic fairy colors appear in star nodes and nebulae. The rainforest lives in the skyline's bioluminescence. --- ## Color philosophy The existing `:root` palette is your skeleton. Extend it boldly. Core (keep): - `--bg-void: #04060b` / `--bg-deep: #060a14` — deep space, hinted purple - `--fire-amber: #e8943a` — the campfire. Warmth follows attention. - `--fire-coral: #d4654a` — warm accent - `--neon-teal: #2ac4b3` — city heartbeat - `--neon-green: #32dc8c` — nature reclaiming (visited state) - `--deep-red: #8b2020` — rare danger accent - `--blue-magenta: #6b3fa0` — cosmic distance New colors to bring in: - `--orchid: #c558d9` — tropical purple, fairy fire, nebula highlights - `--paradise: #ff7f3f` — bird of paradise orange, fiery accent - `--toucan: #ffcf40` — golden warmth, star color - `--mint-glow: #86efac` — bioluminescent moss, fairy-green - `--fairy-pink: #f472b6` — prismatic accent, star color - `--waterfall: #3fbfaf` — deeper teal variation - `--phosphor: #00ff41` — CRT green (use sparingly, low opacity) The overall impression when you look at this page should be: "that is a LOT of color but it all belongs in the same world." Dark backdrop, rich jewel-toned elements scattered across it like a night market. --- ## CRT vibe (subtle, NOT dominant) From soviet-cyberpunk and nothing-new-about-normal. NOT a full CRT overlay. A ghost of one: - Static scanlines: `repeating-linear-gradient` at opacity 0.03-0.05. Not animated. Not moving. Just texture. - Faint phosphor glow on the star zone — a very subtle `radial-gradient(ellipse, transparent 60%, rgba(0,0,0,0.3))` vignette that makes edges slightly darker, center slightly brighter. - That's it. No screen curvature, no heavy scanlines, no flicker animation. Just enough that if someone knows CRT they'd notice. Ghost of a signal. --- ## Star field guidance BOLDER than v1. More color, more variety. The sky should feel alive. - **Size classes**: same distribution but the BRIGHT class gets slightly larger (1.5-3px). More visible individual characters. - **Color classes expanded**: - 35% cool white (rgba 200,210,230) - 15% warm white (rgba 240,220,190) - 12% pale blue (rgba 140,180,230) - 10% pale gold / toucan yellow (rgba 255,207,64) - 8% fairy pink (rgba 244,114,182) - 8% orchid purple (rgba 197,88,217) - 7% mint green (rgba 134,239,172) - 5% faint red / coral (rgba 212,101,74) - **Twinkle**: same as before but bright colorful stars twinkle more noticeably - **Nebula washes**: BOLDER. Opacity 0.04-0.08. Add orchid and fairy-pink washes alongside the existing purple and teal. 4-5 washes total. They should be noticeable when you look — atmospheric pools of color in the sky. - **Depth**: 3 layers. Far stars are smaller/dimmer/cooler. Near stars are larger/brighter/warmer. Colored stars tend to be in the mid and near layers. --- ## Star nodes — MUCH BIGGER on hover JL's explicit request. The navigation mechanics are LOCKED — do not change the JS for keyboard nav, scroll descent, or mode switching. But the CSS hover/focus effect on star dots should be dramatically larger: - Default: 6-8px dot with per-star accent color (keep from v2) - Hover/focus/current: grow to 16-20px with a warm amber glow. Use CSS transition on width/height (150ms ease). The star should visibly bloom when you focus on it. - Visited: 6-8px green dot - Visited + hover: same 16-20px bloom, amber This is the "campfire follows your focus" made physical. Your attention literally makes the star grow. --- ## Text size — BIGGER for mobile JL's explicit request. Base font sizes need a bump: - Star labels: 16px desktop, 12px mobile - Billboard nav: 16px desktop, 11px mobile - Lightbox body text: 16px - Nav hint text: 14px - Back button: 16px - JL link: 16px Use `clamp()` where it makes sense for fluid scaling. --- ## Skyline guidance — LUSH The skyline is where the rainforest meets the ruins. Listed from background to foreground: - The gradient from stars to city should pass through a zone of deep purple (the blue-magenta/orchid range) before warming — like descending through atmosphere. - A pseudo-vaporwave landscape-perspective grid: cycle through the colours with each line. - Buildings are an abstract skyline dark neon-rimmed silhouettes - Window lights in MORE colors: amber (50%), teal (20%), orchid-purple (15%), fairy-pink (10%), phosphor-green (5%). A night market of light. Render over buildings. - Billboard nav colors: cycle through teal, amber, orchid, green, coral. Each billboard a different color. The city is polychromatic. render above buildings. give them different sizes and fonts. place above buildings. - Ambient glow at skyline base should be warmer and slightly more visible (opacity 0.06-0.08 for the amber gradient). --- New rule: restraint in structure, abundance in color. - The layout stays clean and spacious (dark space is still good) - But the COLORS within that space are richer, more varied, more vivid - Stars have visible personality. Nebulae are atmospheric but present. - The skyline glows with life. The city is a living ecosystem of light. - The CRT ghost adds texture without dominating. - When you look at this page you should feel: THIS IS A PLACE. Not a website. A strange, beautiful, slightly magical place where someone lit a fire and the whole universe showed up to warm its hands.