JL Kruger
5422131782
Homepage (site/index.html): integration-v14 promoted, Writings section integrated with 33 pieces clustered by type (stories/essays/miscellany), Writings welcome lightbox, content frame at 98% opacity. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
157 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
157 lines
6.4 KiB
Markdown
# Aesthetic Brief v2 — Homepage Star Map
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Read this before designing. This is the parent's creative direction.
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Updated 2026-03-26 — BOLDER direction per JL feedback.
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---
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## The feeling
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Vaporwave and Mad Max had a baby in the middle of a rainforest full of fairies.
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You're at a campfire in the ruins. The city behind you is half-collapsed but
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alive — vines crawl through CRT monitors still flickering with ghost signals,
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solar panels power neon signs in languages no one reads anymore, bioluminescent
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moss makes the rubble glow mint and orchid-purple at night. The sky overhead is
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not just clear — it's VIVID. Stars in gold, rose, violet, teal. Nebula clouds
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you can almost reach. The universe isn't distant; it's pressing in.
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This is post-apocalypse post-recovery. Nature ate the dystopia and something
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magical grew in its place. It's warm, strange, lush, and slightly unreal.
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The star map should feel like ALL of these had a conversation. Not a collage —
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a fusion. The CRT is subtle (a ghost, not a feature). The pastels are deepened
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for the dark palette. The prismatic fairy colors appear in star nodes and nebulae.
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The rainforest lives in the skyline's bioluminescence.
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---
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## Color philosophy
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The existing `:root` palette is your skeleton. Extend it boldly.
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Core (keep):
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- `--bg-void: #04060b` / `--bg-deep: #060a14` — deep space, hinted purple
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- `--fire-amber: #e8943a` — the campfire. Warmth follows attention.
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- `--fire-coral: #d4654a` — warm accent
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- `--neon-teal: #2ac4b3` — city heartbeat
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- `--neon-green: #32dc8c` — nature reclaiming (visited state)
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- `--deep-red: #8b2020` — rare danger accent
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- `--blue-magenta: #6b3fa0` — cosmic distance
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New colors to bring in:
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- `--orchid: #c558d9` — tropical purple, fairy fire, nebula highlights
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- `--paradise: #ff7f3f` — bird of paradise orange, fiery accent
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- `--toucan: #ffcf40` — golden warmth, star color
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- `--mint-glow: #86efac` — bioluminescent moss, fairy-green
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- `--fairy-pink: #f472b6` — prismatic accent, star color
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- `--waterfall: #3fbfaf` — deeper teal variation
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- `--phosphor: #00ff41` — CRT green (use sparingly, low opacity)
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The overall impression when you look at this page should be: "that is
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a LOT of color but it all belongs in the same world." Dark backdrop,
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rich jewel-toned elements scattered across it like a night market.
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---
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## CRT vibe (subtle, NOT dominant)
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From soviet-cyberpunk and nothing-new-about-normal. NOT a full CRT overlay.
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A ghost of one:
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- Static scanlines: `repeating-linear-gradient` at opacity 0.03-0.05.
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Not animated. Not moving. Just texture.
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- Faint phosphor glow on the star zone — a very subtle
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`radial-gradient(ellipse, transparent 60%, rgba(0,0,0,0.3))` vignette
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that makes edges slightly darker, center slightly brighter.
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- That's it. No screen curvature, no heavy scanlines, no flicker animation.
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Just enough that if someone knows CRT they'd notice. Ghost of a signal.
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---
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## Star field guidance
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BOLDER than v1. More color, more variety. The sky should feel alive.
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- **Size classes**: same distribution but the BRIGHT class gets slightly larger
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(1.5-3px). More visible individual characters.
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- **Color classes expanded**:
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- 35% cool white (rgba 200,210,230)
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- 15% warm white (rgba 240,220,190)
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- 12% pale blue (rgba 140,180,230)
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- 10% pale gold / toucan yellow (rgba 255,207,64)
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- 8% fairy pink (rgba 244,114,182)
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- 8% orchid purple (rgba 197,88,217)
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- 7% mint green (rgba 134,239,172)
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- 5% faint red / coral (rgba 212,101,74)
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- **Twinkle**: same as before but bright colorful stars twinkle more noticeably
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- **Nebula washes**: BOLDER. Opacity 0.04-0.08. Add orchid and fairy-pink
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washes alongside the existing purple and teal. 4-5 washes total. They should
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be noticeable when you look — atmospheric pools of color in the sky.
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- **Depth**: 3 layers. Far stars are smaller/dimmer/cooler. Near stars are
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larger/brighter/warmer. Colored stars tend to be in the mid and near layers.
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---
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## Star nodes — MUCH BIGGER on hover
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JL's explicit request. The navigation mechanics are LOCKED — do not change
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the JS for keyboard nav, scroll descent, or mode switching.
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But the CSS hover/focus effect on star dots should be dramatically larger:
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- Default: 6-8px dot with per-star accent color (keep from v2)
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- Hover/focus/current: grow to 16-20px with a warm amber glow.
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Use CSS transition on width/height (150ms ease). The star should
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visibly bloom when you focus on it.
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- Visited: 6-8px green dot
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- Visited + hover: same 16-20px bloom, amber
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This is the "campfire follows your focus" made physical. Your attention
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literally makes the star grow.
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---
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## Text size — BIGGER for mobile
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JL's explicit request. Base font sizes need a bump:
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- Star labels: 16px desktop, 12px mobile
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- Billboard nav: 16px desktop, 11px mobile
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- Lightbox body text: 16px
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- Nav hint text: 14px
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- Back button: 16px
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- JL link: 16px
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Use `clamp()` where it makes sense for fluid scaling.
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---
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## Skyline guidance — LUSH
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The skyline is where the rainforest meets the ruins. Listed from background to foreground:
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- The gradient from stars to city should pass through a zone of deep purple
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(the blue-magenta/orchid range) before warming — like descending through
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atmosphere.
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- A pseudo-vaporwave landscape-perspective grid: cycle through the colours with each line.
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- Buildings are an abstract skyline dark neon-rimmed silhouettes
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- Window lights in MORE colors: amber (50%), teal (20%), orchid-purple (15%),
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fairy-pink (10%), phosphor-green (5%). A night market of light. Render over buildings.
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- Billboard nav colors: cycle through teal, amber, orchid, green, coral.
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Each billboard a different color. The city is polychromatic. render above buildings. give them different sizes and fonts. place above buildings.
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- Ambient glow at skyline base should be warmer and slightly more visible
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(opacity 0.06-0.08 for the amber gradient).
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---
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New rule: restraint in structure, abundance in color.
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- The layout stays clean and spacious (dark space is still good)
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- But the COLORS within that space are richer, more varied, more vivid
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- Stars have visible personality. Nebulae are atmospheric but present.
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- The skyline glows with life. The city is a living ecosystem of light.
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- The CRT ghost adds texture without dominating.
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- When you look at this page you should feel: THIS IS A PLACE. Not a website.
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A strange, beautiful, slightly magical place where someone lit a fire
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and the whole universe showed up to warm its hands.
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