source

---
name: Tesla
description:
  Radical subtraction digital showroom — full-viewport photography, single
  Electric Blue CTA, Universal Sans at weight 400/500, 4px radii, zero shadows.
originalFonts:
  primary: "Universal Sans Display"
  fallbacks:
    - "-apple-system"
    - "Arial"
    - "sans-serif"
colors:
  background: "#FFFFFF"
  surface: "#F4F4F4"
  ink: "#171A20"
  accent: "#3E6AE1"
  electric-blue: "#3E6AE1"
  pure-white: "#FFFFFF"
  white-canvas: "#FFFFFF"
  light-ash: "#F4F4F4"
  carbon-dark: "#171A20"
  graphite: "#393C41"
  pewter: "#5C5E62"
  silver-fog: "#8E8E8E"
  cloud-gray: "#EEEEEE"
  pale-silver: "#D0D1D2"
  border: "#EEEEEE"
typography:
  h1:
    family: "Inter"
    size: "2.5rem"
    weight: 500
    lineHeight: 1.2
  body:
    family: "Inter"
    size: "0.875rem"
    weight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.43
  code:
    family: "JetBrains Mono"
spacing:
  xs: "0.25rem"
  sm: "0.5rem"
  md: "1rem"
  lg: "1.34rem"
  xl: "2rem"
rounded:
  sm: "0px"
  md: "4px"
  lg: "12px"
  xl: "9999px"
shadows:
  sm: "none"
  md: "none"
components:
  button-primary:
    background: "{colors.accent}"
    color: "#FFFFFF"
    border: "3px solid transparent"
    radius: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "0.25rem 1rem"
  button-secondary:
    background: "#FFFFFF"
    color: "{colors.graphite}"
    border: "3px solid transparent"
    radius: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "0.25rem 1rem"
  card:
    background: "#FFFFFF"
    border: "none"
    radius: "{rounded.lg}"
    padding: "1rem"
  input:
    background: "transparent"
    color: "{colors.carbon-dark}"
    border: "1px solid {colors.border}"
    radius: "{rounded.md}"
    padding: "0.5rem 0.75rem"
---

<!-- source: VoltAgent/awesome-design-md @ 80bbbc2 (MIT) — see ATTRIBUTION.md -->

# Design System Inspiration of Tesla

## 1. Visual Theme & Atmosphere

Tesla's website is an exercise in radical subtraction — a digital showroom where
the product is everything and the interface is almost nothing. The page opens
with a full-viewport hero that fills the entire screen with cinematic car
photography: three vehicles arranged on polished concrete against a hazy
cityscape sky, with a single model name floating above in translucent white
type. There are no decorative borders, no gradients, no patterns, no shadows.
The UI exists only to provide just enough navigational structure to get out of
the way. Every pixel that isn't product imagery is white space, and that
restraint is the design system's most powerful statement.

The color philosophy is almost ascetic: a single blue (`#3E6AE1`) for primary
calls to action, three shades of dark gray for text hierarchy, and white for
everything else. The entire emotional weight is carried by photography —
sprawling landscape shots, studio-lit vehicle profiles, and atmospheric
environmental compositions that stretch edge-to-edge across each viewport-height
section. The UI chrome dissolves into the imagery. The navigation bar floats
above the hero with no visible background, border, or shadow — the TESLA
wordmark and five navigation labels simply exist in the space, trusting the
content beneath them to provide sufficient contrast.

Typography recently transitioned from Gotham to Universal Sans — a custom family
split into "Display" for headlines and "Text" for body/UI elements — unifying
the website, mobile app, and in-car software into a single typographic voice.
The Display variant renders hero titles at 40px weight 500, while the Text
variant handles everything from navigation (14px/500) to body copy (14px/400).
The font carries a geometric precision with slightly humanist terminals that
feels engineered rather than designed — exactly matching Tesla's brand identity
of technology that doesn't need to announce itself. There are no text shadows,
no text gradients, no decorative type treatments. Every letterform earns its
place through clarity alone.

**Key Characteristics:**

- Full-viewport hero sections (100vh) dominated by cinematic car photography
  with minimal overlay UI
- Near-zero UI decoration: no shadows, no gradients, no borders, no patterns
  anywhere on the page
- Single accent color — Electric Blue (`#3E6AE1`) — used exclusively for primary
  CTA buttons
- Universal Sans font family (Display + Text) unifying web, app, and in-car
  interfaces
- Photography-first presentation where product imagery carries all emotional
  weight
- Frosted-glass navigation concept with transparent/white nav that floats over
  hero content
- 0.33s cubic-bezier transitions as the universal timing for all interactive
  state changes
- Carousel-driven hero with dot indicators and edge arrow navigation for
  multiple vehicle showcases
- "Ask a Question" persistent chatbot bar anchored to the viewport bottom

## 2. Color Palette & Roles

### Primary

- **Electric Blue** (`#3E6AE1`): Primary CTA button background — a confident,
  mid-saturation blue (rgb 62, 106, 225) that stands alone as the only chromatic
  color in the entire interface. Used exclusively for "Order Now" and other
  primary action buttons
- **Pure White** (`#FFFFFF`): Dominant background color for all surfaces,
  panels, navigation, and secondary button fills — the canvas that lets
  photography breathe

### Secondary & Accent

- **Promo Blue** (`#3E6AE1`): Blue also serves for promotional text ("0% APR
  Available") displayed over hero imagery in the same hue as the CTA — creating
  a visual link between incentive messaging and action
- No secondary accent colors exist. Tesla deliberately avoids color variety to
  maintain extreme visual discipline

### Surface & Background

- **White Canvas** (`#FFFFFF`): Page background, navigation panel, dropdown
  menus, and all surface containers
- **Light Ash** (`#F4F4F4`): Subtle alternate surface for section
  differentiation — barely perceptible shift from pure white (rgb 244, 244, 244)
- **Carbon Dark** (`#171A20`): Dark surface color for hero text overlays and
  potential dark-mode contexts (rgb 23, 26, 32) — a warm near-black with a blue
  undertone
- **Frosted Glass** (`rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.75)`): Semi-transparent white for
  navigation backdrop-filter effects on scroll

### Neutrals & Text

- **Carbon Dark** (`#171A20`): Primary heading and navigation text — the darkest
  text value (rgb 23, 26, 32), used for model names, nav labels, and hero titles
  on light backgrounds
- **Graphite** (`#393C41`): Body text and secondary content (rgb 57, 60, 65) —
  the default paragraph color, slightly warmer than pure gray
- **Pewter** (`#5C5E62`): Tertiary text for sub-links, secondary navigation
  links like "Learn" and "Order" (rgb 92, 94, 98)
- **Silver Fog** (`#8E8E8E`): Placeholder text in input fields and disabled
  states (rgb 142, 142, 142)
- **Cloud Gray** (`#EEEEEE`): Light borders and divider lines (rgb 238,
  238, 238)
- **Pale Silver** (`#D0D1D2`): Subtle UI borders and delineation (rgb 208,
  209, 210)

### Semantic & Accent

- Tesla's marketing site avoids semantic color coding (no green/red/yellow
  status indicators). Error, success, and warning states follow standard browser
  defaults in form contexts
- The blue CTA (`#3E6AE1`) serves as the sole interactive color signal

### Gradient System

- No gradients are used anywhere in the interface
- Depth is achieved entirely through photography, whitespace, and the binary
  contrast between full-bleed imagery and clean white surfaces
- The navigation achieves layering through opacity (frosted glass effect) rather
  than gradient or shadow

## 3. Typography Rules

### Font Family

- **Display**: `Universal Sans Display`, -apple-system, Arial, sans-serif — used
  for hero titles and large model names. A geometric sans-serif with precisely
  engineered proportions, recently replacing Gotham to unify Tesla's digital
  ecosystem (website, mobile app, vehicle interface)
- **Text/UI**: `Universal Sans Text`, -apple-system, Arial, sans-serif — used
  for navigation, body copy, buttons, and all UI text. Optimized for legibility
  at smaller sizes with slightly wider proportions than the Display variant
- **No OpenType features** detected — typography is completely unembellished
- **No italic variants** observed on the marketing site

### Hierarchy

| Role           | Size           | Weight | Line Height   | Letter Spacing | Notes                                                   |
| -------------- | -------------- | ------ | ------------- | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Hero Title     | 40px (2.50rem) | 500    | 48px (1.20)   | normal         | Universal Sans Display, white on dark hero imagery      |
| Product Name   | 17px (1.06rem) | 500    | 20px (1.18)   | normal         | Universal Sans Text, model names in nav panel and cards |
| Nav Item       | 14px (0.88rem) | 500    | 16.8px (1.20) | normal         | Universal Sans Text, primary navigation labels          |
| Body Text      | 14px (0.88rem) | 400    | 20px (1.43)   | normal         | Universal Sans Text, paragraph and descriptive content  |
| Button Label   | 14px (0.88rem) | 500    | 16.8px (1.20) | normal         | Universal Sans Text, CTA button text                    |
| Sub-link       | 14px (0.88rem) | 400    | 20px (1.43)   | normal         | Tertiary links (Learn, Order, Experience)               |
| Promo Text     | 22px (1.38rem) | 400    | 20px (0.91)   | normal         | White promotional text on hero ("0% APR Available")     |
| Category Label | 16px (est.)    | 500    | —             | normal         | White text labels on category cards ("Sport Sedan")     |

### Principles

- **"Normal" letter-spacing everywhere**: Unlike most modern tech brands that
  use negative tracking for headlines, Tesla uses default letter-spacing at
  every level. This reflects a philosophy that the typeface should speak for
  itself without manipulation
- **Weight restraint**: Only two weights appear — 500 (medium) for headings/UI
  and 400 (regular) for body. No bold (700), no light (300). The system avoids
  typographic drama
- **Unified font sizing**: Most UI text clusters at 14px with only hero titles
  (40px) and promo text (22px) breaking away. This extreme uniformity creates a
  sense of engineered consistency
- **Display vs Text split**: The two-variant system (Display for hero, Text for
  UI) creates subtle optical correction without visible stylistic difference —
  they appear as the same typeface at different sizes
- **No text transforms**: No uppercase text appears in the main navigation or
  CTAs — the lowercase approach reinforces Tesla's understated confidence

## 4. Component Stylings

### Buttons

All buttons use barely-rounded rectangles (4px border-radius) — creating a
sharp, technical aesthetic that mirrors the precision of the vehicles.

**Primary CTA** — The main action button:

- Default: bg `#3E6AE1` (Electric Blue), text `#FFFFFF`, fontSize 14px,
  fontWeight 500, padding 4px with inner content centering, borderRadius 4px,
  minHeight 40px, width 200px
- Border: 3px solid transparent (reserves space for focus/active border
  animation)
- Box Shadow: `rgba(0,0,0,0) 0px 0px 0px 2px inset` (invisible at rest, animates
  to visible on focus)
- Transition:
  `border-color 0.33s, background-color 0.33s, color 0.33s, box-shadow 0.25s`
- Hover: subtle darkening of blue background
- Used for: "Order Now" calls to action

**Secondary CTA** — The alternative action button:

- Default: bg `#FFFFFF`, text `#393C41` (Graphite), same dimensions and border
  pattern as primary
- Transition: identical timing to primary (0.33s)
- Used for: "View Inventory" alongside primary CTA

**Nav Button** — Top navigation items:

- Default: bg transparent, text `#171A20` (Carbon Dark), fontSize 14px,
  fontWeight 500, borderRadius 4px, padding 4px 16px, minHeight 32px
- Transition: `color 0.33s, background-color 0.33s`
- Active/expanded: subtle background highlight
- Used for: "Vehicles", "Energy", "Charging", "Discover", "Shop"

**Text Link** — In-content actions:

- Default: text `#5C5E62` (Pewter), fontSize 14px, fontWeight 400, no
  background, no border
- Hover: underline decoration with box-shadow transition
- Transition: `box-shadow 0.33s cubic-bezier(0.5, 0, 0, 0.75), color 0.33s`
- Used for: "Learn", "Order", "Experience", "New", "Pre-Owned" links in dropdown
  panel

### Cards & Containers

**Vehicle Card** (Navigation panel):

- Background: transparent (inherits panel white)
- Border: none
- Shadow: none
- Content: vehicle image (transparent PNG) + model name centered below + two
  text links
- Layout: 3-column grid within the dropdown panel
- No hover animation on the card itself — interaction is via the text links
  beneath

**Category Card** (Homepage lower section):

- Background: full-bleed landscape photography
- Border radius: approximately 12px (subtly rounded)
- Overflow: hidden (clips image to rounded corners)
- Text: white label in top-left corner ("Sport Sedan", "Midsize SUV")
- Size: large format, approximately 2:1 aspect ratio
- No shadow, no border, no overlay gradient — text relies on image darkness for
  contrast

### Inputs & Forms

- Background: transparent
- Text color: `#171A20` (Carbon Dark)
- Placeholder color: `#8E8E8E` (Silver Fog)
- Border: minimal, inherits from browser defaults
- Font: Universal Sans Text, 14px
- The "Ask a Question" chatbot input bar sits at the viewport bottom with a
  clean white background and subtle border

### Navigation

- **Desktop**: Centered horizontal nav with TESLA wordmark (spaced uppercase
  letters) on the left, five category buttons center-aligned, and three icon
  buttons (help, globe/language, account) on the right
- **Background**: White (transitions from transparent over dark hero to opaque
  white on scroll via class toggle `tds-site-header--white-background`)
- **Dropdown panel**: Full-width white panel with 3-column vehicle grid + right
  sidebar text links, no shadow, no border — appears seamlessly below the nav
- **Sticky behavior**: `sticky-without-slide` class — stays at top without
  slide-in animation
- **Mobile**: Hamburger collapse pattern
- **No visible separator** between nav and content — the nav blends with the
  hero

### Image Treatment

- **Hero**: Full-viewport (100vh) sections with cinematic photography —
  edge-to-edge, no padding, no margin
- **Vehicle images**: Transparent PNG renders on white background in dropdown
  panel, studio-quality 3/4 angle shots
- **Category cards**: Landscape photography with approximately 2:1 ratio,
  rounded corners (12px)
- **Carousel**: Auto-advancing with dot indicators (3 dots) and left/right arrow
  navigation on edges
- **Lazy loading**: Below-fold sections use lazy loading, rendering as blank
  white until scrolled into view

### Persistent Chat Bar

- Anchored to viewport bottom, visible across all sections
- White background with subtle border
- Contains: chat icon + "Ask a Question" label + placeholder text ("What's Dog
  Mode?") + send icon + "Schedule a Drive Today" secondary CTA
- Schedule CTA has a teal/blue icon accent

## 5. Layout Principles

### Spacing System

- **Base unit**: 8px
- **Common values**: 8px (0.5rem), 16px (1rem), 21.44px (1.34rem)
- **Button padding**: 4px (minimal outer) with content centering via flexbox,
  4px 16px for nav items
- **Section padding**: Full-viewport sections with content centered vertically
- **Card gap**: approximately 16px between category cards

### Grid & Container

- **Max width**: approximately 1383px (full viewport width used for most
  content)
- **Hero**: Full-bleed, edge-to-edge, 100vh sections
- **Navigation panel**: 3-column grid for vehicle cards with right-aligned text
  sidebar (~70/30 split)
- **Category cards**: 2-up horizontal layout (large left card + smaller right
  card)

### Whitespace Philosophy

Tesla uses whitespace as a luxury signal. The generous vertical spacing between
sections (each section is a full viewport height) means you can only see one
"message" at a time — one car, one model name, one CTA pair. This creates a
gallery-like browsing experience where each scroll is a deliberate transition,
not a continuous feed. White space is not empty — it's the frame that elevates
each vehicle to the status of art piece.

### Border Radius Scale

| Value | Context                                                                |
| ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 0px   | Most elements — sharp edges are the default                            |
| 4px   | Buttons (primary, secondary, nav items) — barely perceptible rounding  |
| ~12px | Category cards — noticeable but restrained rounding on larger surfaces |
| 50%   | Carousel dot indicators — perfect circles                              |

## 6. Depth & Elevation

| Level             | Treatment                         | Use                                                             |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Level 0 (Flat)    | No shadow, no border              | Default state for all elements — cards, panels, buttons at rest |
| Level 1 (Frost)   | `rgba(255,255,255,0.75)` backdrop | Navigation bar on scroll — frosted glass transparency           |
| Level 2 (Overlay) | `rgba(128,128,128,0.65)`          | Modal overlays and region/cookie popups                         |
| Level 3 (Subtle)  | `rgba(0,0,0,0.05)`                | Minimal shadow hints on rare hover states                       |

### Shadow Philosophy

Tesla's approach to elevation is essentially "none." The site avoids box-shadows
entirely in its primary interface. Depth is communicated through three
alternative strategies:

1. **Z-index layering**: The sticky navigation sits above hero content through
   positioning, not shadow
2. **Opacity-based transparency**: The frosted glass nav and overlay modals use
   background-color opacity rather than shadow to indicate layering
3. **Photography-as-depth**: The full-bleed images create their own visual depth
   through perspective, lighting, and composition — making UI shadows redundant

### Decorative Depth

- No gradients, glows, or atmospheric effects on UI elements
- The hero imagery itself provides all visual richness — sunset skies, reflected
  light on car surfaces, ground shadows from studio lighting
- The carousel arrow buttons use a semi-transparent white background to float
  above the hero imagery without disrupting it

## 7. Do's and Don'ts

### Do

- Let photography dominate every screen — the product IS the design
- Use Electric Blue (`#3E6AE1`) exclusively for primary CTAs — never for
  decorative purposes
- Maintain viewport-height sections for major content blocks — one message per
  screen
- Keep typography at weight 400-500 only — no bold, no light, no extremes
- Use 4px border-radius for all interactive elements — precision over
  playfulness
- Trust whitespace as a luxury signal — never fill available space just because
  it's empty
- Keep all transitions at 0.33s — consistency in motion is as important as
  consistency in color
- Use transparent PNG vehicle imagery on white backgrounds for product showcases
- Center CTAs horizontally below model names — the vertical rhythm is model →
  subtitle → buttons
- Maintain the Display/Text font split — Display for hero-scale text only, Text
  for everything else

### Don't

- Add shadows to any element — elevation through shadow contradicts the flat,
  gallery aesthetic
- Use more than one chromatic color besides the blue CTA — the palette is
  intentionally monochrome-plus-one
- Apply gradients, patterns, or decorative backgrounds to surfaces — white and
  photography are the only backgrounds
- Use text larger than 40px on the web — the typography is deliberately
  restrained even at hero scale
- Add borders to cards or containers — separation is achieved through spacing,
  not lines
- Use uppercase text transforms — Tesla's confidence is expressed through
  lowercase calm
- Introduce rounded-pill buttons or large border-radii — the 4px radius is
  deliberate and precise
- Override the Universal Sans family with other typefaces — cross-platform
  consistency is a core brand value
- Add hover animations with scale/translate transforms — Tesla's interactions
  are color-only (background and border transitions)
- Clutter the viewport with multiple CTAs — every screen should have at most two
  action buttons

## 8. Responsive Behavior

### Breakpoints

| Name          | Width       | Key Changes                                                                                                                                               |
| ------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mobile        | <768px      | Single-column layout, hamburger nav replaces horizontal labels, hero text scales to ~28px, CTA buttons stack vertically, category cards become full-width |
| Tablet        | 768-1024px  | 2-column nav panel, hero maintains full-viewport height, CTAs remain side-by-side, reduced horizontal padding                                             |
| Desktop       | 1024-1440px | Full horizontal nav, 3-column vehicle grid in dropdown, hero at 40px, side-by-side CTAs at 200px/160px width                                              |
| Large Desktop | >1440px     | Content remains centered, hero photography scales to fill wider viewports, max-width container for nav panel content                                      |

### Touch Targets

- Primary CTA buttons: 200px × 40px minimum (well above 44×44px WCAG
  requirement)
- Nav buttons: minimum 32px height with 4px 16px padding — adequate touch
  targets
- Carousel arrows: ~44px square white semi-transparent buttons at viewport edges
- Text links ("Learn", "Order"): 14px text with adequate line-height spacing for
  touch

### Collapsing Strategy

- **Navigation**: Horizontal category buttons (Vehicles, Energy, Charging,
  Discover, Shop) collapse to a hamburger/drawer menu on mobile
- **Hero CTA pair**: Side-by-side buttons on desktop stack vertically on mobile
- **Category cards**: 2-up horizontal layout collapses to single-column
  full-width on mobile
- **Vehicle grid**: 3-column grid in desktop nav panel becomes 2-column on
  tablet, single-column on mobile
- **Spacing**: Section vertical padding remains generous (viewport-height
  sections) but horizontal padding reduces

### Image Behavior

- Hero images are fully responsive and fill the entire viewport at every
  breakpoint
- Vehicle carousel images use `object-fit: cover` to maintain cinematic
  composition across widths
- Transparent PNG vehicle images in the nav panel scale proportionally within
  their grid cells
- Category card images maintain their landscape ratio and clip via
  `overflow: hidden` with border-radius

## 9. Agent Prompt Guide

### Quick Color Reference

- Primary CTA: "Electric Blue (#3E6AE1)"
- Background: "Pure White (#FFFFFF)"
- Heading text: "Carbon Dark (#171A20)"
- Body text: "Graphite (#393C41)"
- Tertiary text: "Pewter (#5C5E62)"
- Placeholder: "Silver Fog (#8E8E8E)"
- Alternate surface: "Light Ash (#F4F4F4)"
- Dark surface: "Carbon Dark (#171A20)"

### Example Component Prompts

- "Create a hero section with a full-viewport background image, centered 'Model
  Y' title in Universal Sans Display at 40px weight 500 in white, a subtitle
  line below, and two buttons side by side: a primary Electric Blue (#3E6AE1)
  'Order Now' button and a secondary white 'View Inventory' button, both with
  4px border-radius and 40px height"
- "Design a navigation bar with a spaced-letter wordmark on the left, five text
  buttons (14px, weight 500, Carbon Dark #171A20) centered, and three icon
  buttons on the right, all on a white background with no shadow or border"
- "Build a vehicle card grid with 3 columns, each card showing a
  transparent-background car image above a model name (17px, weight 500, Carbon
  Dark) and two text links (14px, weight 400, Pewter #5C5E62) labeled 'Learn'
  and 'Order', on a pure white surface with no borders or shadows"
- "Create a category card with full-bleed landscape photography, 12px
  border-radius, overflow hidden, and a white text label ('Sport Sedan')
  positioned in the top-left corner with no overlay gradient"
- "Design a persistent bottom bar with a chat input ('Ask a Question'
  placeholder), a send icon, and a secondary CTA ('Schedule a Drive Today') with
  a teal icon, anchored to the viewport bottom on a white background"

### Iteration Guide

When refining existing screens generated with this design system:

1. Focus on ONE component at a time — Tesla's system is so minimal that each
   element must be pixel-perfect
2. Reference specific color names and hex codes from this document — there are
   only 6-7 colors in the entire system
3. Use natural language descriptions, not CSS values — "barely rounded corners"
   not "border-radius: 4px"
4. Describe the desired "feel" alongside specific measurements — "gallery-like
   silence between sections" communicates the whitespace philosophy better than
   "margin-bottom: 100vh"
5. Always verify that photography is doing the emotional heavy-lifting — if the
   UI itself feels "designed," it's too much