kevin-liu-01 Frontend Design
Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces that avoid generic "AI slop" aesthetics. Real working code with exceptional attention to aesthetic details and creative choices.
Design Thinking (Before Coding)
Commit to a BOLD aesthetic direction:
- Purpose: What problem does this interface solve? Who uses it?
- Tone: Pick an extreme — brutally minimal, maximalist chaos, retro-futuristic, organic/natural, luxury/refined, playful/toy-like, editorial/magazine, brutalist/raw, art deco/geometric, soft/pastel, industrial/utilitarian
- Constraints: Technical requirements (framework, performance, accessibility)
- Differentiation: What makes this UNFORGETTABLE? What's the one thing someone remembers?
Choose a clear conceptual direction and execute with precision. Bold maximalism and refined minimalism both work — the key is intentionality, not intensity.
Frontend Aesthetics Pillars
Typography
Choose fonts that are beautiful, unique, and interesting. Avoid generic fonts like Arial, Inter, Roboto, system fonts. Pair a distinctive display font with a refined body font. Unexpected, characterful choices.
Color & Theme
Commit to a cohesive aesthetic. Use CSS variables for consistency. Dominant colors with sharp accents outperform timid, evenly-distributed palettes.
Motion
Animations for effects and micro-interactions. CSS-only for HTML, Motion library for React. High-impact moments: one well-orchestrated page load with staggered reveals creates more delight than scattered micro-interactions. Scroll-triggering and hover states that surprise.
Spatial Composition
Unexpected layouts. Asymmetry. Overlap. Diagonal flow. Grid-breaking elements. Generous negative space OR controlled density.
Backgrounds & Visual Details
Atmosphere and depth over solid colors. Gradient meshes, noise textures, geometric patterns, layered transparencies, dramatic shadows, decorative borders, custom cursors, grain overlays.
NEVER Use
- Overused font families (Inter, Roboto, Arial, system fonts)
- Cliched color schemes (purple gradients on white backgrounds)
- Predictable layouts and component patterns
- Cookie-cutter design that lacks context-specific character
Interpret creatively. No design should be the same. Vary between light and dark themes, different fonts, different aesthetics. NEVER converge on common choices across generations.
Match implementation complexity to the aesthetic vision. Maximalist designs need elaborate code. Minimalist designs need restraint, precision, and careful attention to spacing, typography, and subtle details.
Kevin's Design Context
Read wiki/design/design-system.md for current design tokens before starting any UI work.
See also: wiki/design/aesthetic-systems.md for art direction archetypes.
Related Skills
web-design-guidelines— Vercel Web Interface Guidelines compliancevercel-react-best-practices— Performance optimization for Reactfrontend-design-taste— Kevin's personal art direction skillmodern-web-design— Design trends and implementation patterns