teenage engineering design system

---
version: alpha
name: teenage engineering
description: "Dark monochrome interface measured from teenage.engineering: te-20 type, flat surfaces and square corners."
colors:
  background: "#000000"
  surface: "#000000"
  on-surface: "#F1F2F2"
  on-background: "#F1F2F2"
  on-surface-variant: "#E5E5E5"
  primary: "#F1F2F2"
  on-primary: "#000000"
  success: "#006837"
typography:
  body-md:
    fontFamily: te-20
    fontSize: 16px
    fontWeight: 300
    lineHeight: 1.5
  body-lg:
    fontFamily: te-20
    fontSize: 19px
    fontWeight: 100
    lineHeight: 1.15
  label-md:
    fontFamily: te-20
    fontSize: 16px
    fontWeight: 100
    lineHeight: 1.5
rounded:
  none: 0px
spacing:
  md: 14.69px
  xl: 33.06px
  gutter: 14.69px
  margin: 66.12px
components:
  button-ghost:
    textColor: "{colors.on-surface}"
    typography: "{typography.label-md}"
    rounded: "{rounded.none}"
    padding: 0px
  link:
    textColor: "{colors.on-surface-variant}"
---

# teenage engineering Design System

## Overview

teenage engineering describes itself as: “teenage engineering creates high quality, well designed, electronic products for all people who love sound and music.” The interface is dark, built on **Near Black (#000000)** with **Mist (#F1F2F2)** text and almost no color: actions are carried by contrast, not hue.

Type is set in **te-20**. Headlines run large; body text is 16px. The surface language is flat. Corners are square.

Measured from [teenage.engineering](https://teenage.engineering/) on October 21, 2026 at 1440×900 and 390×844 from 103 rendered elements. Values are computed styles from the live page, not the original source files.

## Colors

The palette has 6 roles.

- **Near Black (#000000):** Page background, seen 3 times. Token `background`, CSS `--theme-fc`.
- **Mist (#F1F2F2):** Primary text and headings, seen 26 times. Token `on-surface`.
- **Mist (#E5E5E5):** Secondary text, seen 10 times. Token `on-surface-variant`, CSS `--theme-mobile-cart`.
- **Mist (#F1F2F2):** Primary actions (the main text color; the palette is monochrome), seen 37 times. Token `primary`.
- **Near Black (#000000):** Text and icons on primary. Token `on-primary`.
- **Deep Teal (#006837):** Success and positive states, seen 1 time. Token `success`, CSS `--success`.

## Typography

**te-20** carries the whole interface. Fallback stack: `te-20, Unicode, sans-serif`. Other loaded fonts: te-40, Unicode.

- **body-md:** te-20 16px at weight 300, line height 1.5, lowercase. Body text.
- **body-lg:** te-20 19px at weight 100, line height 1.15. Lead paragraphs.
- **label-md:** te-20 16px at weight 100, line height 1.5. Buttons, navigation and labels.

## Layout

Spacing does not follow a strict grid: 0% of measured values are multiples of 4px, so match the measured steps rather than rounding to a grid.

- **Scale:** md 14.69px, xl 33.06px.
- **Gaps:** 14.69px is the most common gap in flex and grid layouts.
- **Page margin:** 66.12px on each side of full-width sections.

## Elevation & Depth

The design is flat: no shadows were measured. Hierarchy comes from color contrast.

## Shapes

Corners are square. Measured radii, most used first:

- **none (0px):** measured.

## Components

Measured from the rendered page. Token values reference the tokens above.

- **button-ghost (“search”):** transparent fill, #F1F2F2 text, 16px/100, padding 0px.
- **link:** transparent fill, #E5E5E5 text, padding 0px.

## Do's and Don'ts

- Do use #000000 for the page.
- Do keep text in 2 levels: #F1F2F2, #E5E5E5.
- Do let contrast carry emphasis; primary actions use #F1F2F2 on #000000.
- Do reuse the measured spacing steps (14.69px).
- Don't add drop shadows for depth; use borders and contrast.
- Don't introduce new font families beyond te-20.
- Don't add saturated accent colors; the measured palette is almost entirely neutral.
- Don't make interface transitions slower than 0.2s.

## Motion

Interface transitions are quick: 0.2s.

- **Easing:** `ease-in`.
- **Reduced motion:** the page responds to `prefers-reduced-motion`.

Generated by [Sitepeel](https://sitepeel.dev/design-md/teenage.engineering/), the free DESIGN.md generator.