design system
analysis of teenage engineering

a laboratory-white canvas, ultra-thin lowercase type, crisp 1px dark hairlines, and a single signal blue — flat, rectilinear, and almost completely shadowless.

01 — foundations

colour palette

02 — foundations

typography

set in te-20 (teenage engineering's proprietary grotesque), shown here in work sans — the nearest free substitute with true thin/light weights. hierarchy is built from weight and size, never tracking; everything stays lowercase.

03 — components

button variants

button-primary
the workhorse action — a solid near-black block with hard corners and a thin label. used for add-to-cart and checkout.
button-grey
the oversized soft-grey block reserved for a single standout marketing call, e.g. newsletter sign-up.
button-secondary
a 1px dark outline on the bare canvas, no fill — for secondary and tertiary actions.
button-pill
fully-rounded utility control — the only place rounding appears, on small icon buttons.
04 — components

cards & surfaces

product tiles are flat: a white media block, a 1px hairline, and a lowercase name and price beneath. no shadow, no rounding, no hover lift — just the line.

05 — components

form elements

text-input
textarea
06 — foundations

spacing scale

spacing rides an 8px base scaled into large, breathing steps. whitespace is the primary layout material.

07 — foundations

border radius

shape is binary — everything is square (0) except a few circular icon buttons (full). there is no soft mid-radius in the system.

08 — foundations

elevation & depth

teenage engineering casts no shadows at all. depth is expressed by line and by colour field, not by blur.

level 0 — flat. separation by a single 1px light hairline.
level 1 — a "raised" element simply gets a darker 1px hairline.
level 2 — overlays sit on a solid dark block, still shadowless.
09 — responsive

responsive behavior

namewidthkey changes
mobile< 768pxsingle column; the thin nav collapses to a menu control; type scales down fluidly.
tablet768–1023pxtwo-column product grids; nav still condensed.
laptop1024–1279pxup to four-column grids; the full lowercase nav row is visible.
desktop≥ 1280pxwide margins; type and grid scale with viewport width rather than snapping.

fluid, not breakpoint-snapped. sizes are tied to viewport width (vw), which is why the live site's computed font sizes come back fractional (e.g. 23.25px). the hairline-and-whitespace structure holds at every width because it depends on rules and spacing, not on chrome that needs re-tuning per breakpoint.

pricing tiers

teenage engineering's live site has no pricing page; this demonstrates the tier pattern in their flat, hairline-ruled style.

standard
$0/mo
register your devices and read the field journal.
  • device registration
  • field journal access
  • community forum
field● most popular
$9/mo
extended warranty, early drops, and the full patch library.
  • everything in standard
  • +1 year warranty
  • early access to drops
  • full patch & sample library
studio
$29/mo
for teams — multi-seat, priority repair, and beta firmware.
  • everything in field
  • multi-seat accounts
  • priority repair
  • beta firmware

data table

order history, ruled by hairlines on the off-white canvas.

idproductpricestatuswhen
#op1f-2291op–1 field$1,999shippedjun 24
#ep133-8841ep–133 k.o. ii$299processingjun 26
#tx6-1182tx–6$1,199shippedjun 20
#tp7-5520tp–7$1,499deliveredjun 14
#po33-9907po–33 k.o!$89processingjun 27
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auth forms

flat cards, hard corners, 1px dark inputs, lowercase labels.

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