Ch · III  /  Design in the dark Principles of light within darkness 07 / 12
Four principles  ·  drafted at moonrise

Interfaces That glow, not shout

Start from true black, not "dark mode"
Backgrounds sit at #0E0A1A — the color of a forest floor after moonset. Nothing lighter is allowed to enter the base layer; every surface earns its lift by glowing, not by being painted grey.
Colour is a bioluminescence, not a paint
Teal #2FE0C0 and glow-green #8FF0A8 appear only where an interface needs to be alive — a state change, an active field, a message from a friend. They earn attention because they are rare.
Privacy is the shape of the room
End-to-end encryption is not a badge in a settings screen; it is why the whole page is dark. Metadata leaks are treated the way daylight is treated — as something to keep outside.
Ornament navigates, doesn't decorate
Engraved serif capitals, crescent bullets and constellation rules act as landmarks in the dark — the same way a hiker reads a ridgeline. Nothing is drawn only to look pretty.
This is the Lunarpunk design system, applied by Curio Design — a design-style library for AI agents. Full Lunarpunk guide → designbycurio.com/learn/lunarpunk-dark-forest