# Snowflake — DESIGN.md

## Overview
Snowflake is the data-cloud-platform-of-record brand — institutional, slightly editorial, anchored by a glacier-blue gradient (#29B5E8 light → #11567f deep) that runs through the brand mark, the hero bands, and the pre-footer CTA. Display headlines lift the surface out of the all-sans data-platform default with Tiempos Headline serif at 56–80px. The hexagon snowflake-lattice motif is the recurring background pattern and the brand mark.

## Color
- **Primary:** `#29b5e8` — Glacier Blue Light (the brighter gradient end)
- **Accent (deep):** `#11567f` — Glacier Blue Deep (the deeper gradient end, also used for ink)
- **Canvas:** `#ffffff` — Pure White
- **Surface card:** `#ffffff` — White card with hairline border
- **Surface alt:** `#f0f8fc` — Glacier Tint (very pale blue-white for selected bands)
- **Surface dark:** `#001f3f` — Glacier Deep Ink (pre-footer CTA bands, footer)
- **Ink:** `#11567f` — Deep glacier blue for headlines and primary text
- **Body:** `#3e4a5a` — Default running text
- **Muted:** `#7a8494` — Captions, metadata
- **Hairlines:** `#dde6ed` — 1px borders with blue tint
- **Inline-link:** `#29b5e8`

## Typography
- **Display:** Tiempos Headline, weight 500, tracking -0.02em, sizes 48–80px hero
- **Sub-display:** Inter weight 600, 28–36px section heads
- **Body:** Inter, weight 400, 16–17px, 1.55 line-height
- **Caption:** Inter weight 500, 13–14px
- **Mono:** JetBrains Mono, 14px for code and SQL examples

## Spacing & rhythm
8-base (8/16/24/32/48/64/96/128). Section padding 96–128px. Hero band consumes upper third with serif headline + sub-line + buttons, frequently with a glacier-gradient background or full-bleed photograph. Customer logo row directly below hero with 6–8 enterprise logos.

## Motion signature
300ms ease-out on hover. Signature is the glacier-gradient slow-drift on hero bands — a ~12s cycle that shifts the gradient angle by 10°. Customer logos auto-carousel at 60s loop. Hexagon snowflake-pattern backgrounds fade in at 600ms on scroll.

## Components observed
- `hero-glacier-gradient-band` — full-bleed gradient hero with serif headline overlaid in white
- `snowflake-hex-pattern-bg` — hexagon lattice background pattern, very subtle
- `feature-card-bordered` — white card with hairline border, glacier accent on hover
- `customer-logo-row` — enterprise customer logos (Capital One, Adobe, AT&T, etc.)
- `pricing-tier-card-enterprise` — tier card with "Contact us" on the highest tier
- `data-cloud-diagram-card` — abstract diagram of the data cloud architecture
- `footer-deep-glacier` — deep-glacier multi-column footer with white type

## Trademark signals
- Glacier-blue gradient (#29B5E8 → #11567f) as the brand chrome
- Tiempos Headline serif at hero scale — editorial differentiator
- Hexagon snowflake-lattice motif as background and brand mark
- Deep glacier (#11567f) for body text — brand-tinted dark
- Pre-footer CTA in saturated glacier-blue full-bleed band

## What they DON'T do
- No accent color outside the glacier blues
- No all-sans display tier — Tiempos serif at hero scale is non-negotiable
- No gradient endpoints outside the documented #29B5E8 → #11567f pair
- No emoji
- No bold Tiempos beyond weight 500
- No drop shadows — hairlines and gradient bands carry elevation

## Exemplar pages
- https://snowflake.com/
- https://snowflake.com/en/data-cloud/platform
- https://snowflake.com/en/customers
- https://snowflake.com/en/pricing

## When to reference
Reach for Snowflake when the user wants an enterprise data-cloud-platform brand — institutional, slightly editorial via serif, gradient-band hero, hexagon motif. Especially appropriate for data warehouses, lakehouses, big-data platforms, and any enterprise B2B brand selling to Chief Data Officers. The Tiempos-on-glacier-gradient pattern is the brand's most distinctive move; the hexagon lattice background is the most copyable secondary motif.
