For the agent-readable index of this site, see /llms.txt.

IBM

IBM's design heritage runs deeper than most companies have existed. From Selectric-era institutional rigor through the Paul Rand identity work and into the contemporary open-source Carbon design system, the brand has held an unusually consistent line — typography as load-bearing identity, color used sparingly, surface discipline favored over decorative chrome.

Selectric Edition

Selectric era: typewriter-derived monospaced type, amber-on-near-black, the institutional rigor of a brand that designed both the typeface and the machine that printed it. Retro physics carry the period — zeroed radii, steps motion — and the chassis sits in the typographic discipline IBM has held longer than most companies have existed. A study in heritage as a continuous practice, not a nostalgic gesture.

Install at runtime

Run this snippet in any browser console where Void Energy is loaded (or paste it into your app's bootstrap). The atmosphere registers with the engine and renders immediately as a temporary preview — it persists in the visitor's preferences only if they Apply it site-wide.

Physics: retro

Mode: dark

Density: x0.97

Live preview

A believable product moment rendered against the active atmosphere. Hover, focus, and toggle the controls — typography weight, button tracking, corner radii, and motion timing all carry the brand's identity.

Workspace settings

Welcome back

Configure how you collaborate, then jump back into the channels you were active in.

Search by name or email — Combobox with descriptions.

Notifications

Recent channels

Typography

Headings, body, and signal text rendered against the active atmosphere.

Typefaces

The active heading and body families — brand override first, atmosphere default second.

Heading · --font-heading

IBM Plex Mono

Body · --font-body

IBM Plex Mono

Heading scale

Six levels, each picking up the brand's weight, tracking, and transform tokens.

h1 — IBM

h2 — Selectric Edition

h3 — Subsection

h4 — Section header

h5 — Subheading
h6 — Minor subheading
Body & secondary text

Standard reading copy and supporting metadata.

Paragraph — body typography, dim color. Standard readable text for descriptions and content.

Small — small typography, mute color. Used for captions and metadata.

Caption — caption level utility class.

Brand overrides

Beyond the typeface, brand profiles can tune weight, tracking, and text-transform per role. Display covers h1/h2, Heading covers h3/h4, Body covers paragraphs and small text, Button covers all .btn-* labels. Anything not declared inherits from the atmosphere's defaults.

Supported overrides & this brand's values

A brand profile can override 4 weights, 4 trackings, and 3 transforms (Body has no transform — prose never gets uppercased).

  • Display weight (h1, h2) · --weight-display 600
  • Display tracking (h1, h2) · --tracking-display …
  • Display transform (h1, h2) · --text-transform-display …
  • Heading weight (h3, h4) · --weight-heading 600
  • Heading tracking (h3, h4) · --tracking-heading …
  • Heading transform (h3, h4) · --text-transform-heading …
  • Body weight (p, small) · --weight-body …
  • Body tracking (p, small) · --tracking-body 0
  • Button weight (.btn-*) · --weight-button …
  • Button tracking (.btn-*) · --tracking-button …
  • Button transform (.btn-*) · --text-transform-button …

Palette & shape

The color palette, corner geometry, and motion curves under the active atmosphere. Atmospheres change the values; the architecture never moves.

Energy — Brand axis

The two colors that change most per atmosphere. Primary drives CTAs, focus rings, and headings. Secondary tints hovers, press feedback, toggle thumbs, and the selected channel in the live preview above.

energy-primary
energy-secondary
Surfaces

Background layers from the depth model. Canvas is the floor — sunk and spotlight are its recess and ambient variants. Surface is where floating elements live. Every tile carries --border-color at var(--physics-border-width), so the border tier is visible on each outline.

bg-canvas
bg-sunk
bg-spotlight
bg-surface
Signal — Text hierarchy

Three emphasis levels for information hierarchy.

Main Dim Mute
Color extensions

Two additional palettes layered on top of the five-layer system. Neither is a brand-axis variable, so they don't change much per atmosphere.

Semantic — success, error, premium, and system carry the same meaning on every brand. Most brands inherit the defaults; the rare override applies when a brand's primary hue would clash (e.g. a green primary forces a different success green).

Success

Positive outcome

Error

Destructive, failure

Premium

Attention, cost

System

Informational

Data palette — 8 categorical slots derived from primary

Hue-rotated 45° per step from --energy-primary in OKLCH. Cool atmospheres yield cool-leaning palettes; warm yield warm-leaning. Use for chart series, chips, tags, kanban columns, avatar fallbacks, and calendar categories — anywhere unrelated-by-severity data needs distinct identity. Not for severity (data-3 means "third slot," not "success"). Auto-contrast handles text color on any bg-data-* tile.

data-1
data-2
data-3
data-4
data-5
data-6
data-7
data-8
Radii — corner geometry

All five radius levels, rendered with the active atmosphere's tokens. Brand-overridden values are emphasized.

--radius-sm 0
--radius-md 0
--radius-lg 0
--radius-xl 0
--radius-full 0

Retro physics floor — every radius is forced to 0 regardless of brand intent. CRT phosphor doesn't render anti-aliased curves, so the retro aesthetic locks geometry to hard square corners. Brand radii in the profile are preserved but suppressed here; they re-activate the moment you switch to glass or flat physics.

Motion

Brand profiles can also override the system's speeds and easing curves. The square below uses --speed-slow and --ease-spring-snappy — both carried by the brand axis when set, otherwise inherited from the active physics preset. Hover the demo to play.

Supported overrides & this brand's values

A brand profile can override 3 speed levels and 4 easing curves. Anything not declared inherits from the active physics preset (glass / flat / retro). Cascade delays (--delay-cascade, --delay-sequence) are physics-only and not part of the brand axis.

  • Fast · --speed-fast …
  • Base · --speed-base …
  • Slow · --speed-slow …
  • Flow · --ease-flow …
  • Spring (gentle) · --ease-spring-gentle …
  • Spring (snappy) · --ease-spring-snappy …
  • Spring (bounce) · --ease-spring-bounce …